HR Professionals’ Perceptions of Corporate Citizenship in Morocco: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Corporate citizenship has become a key topic in human resource management. Research on micro-CSR shows that employees’ perceptions of their company’s citizenship commitments are linked to their organizational identification and to their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). This research, conducted mainly in North America and Europe, gives little attention to the relationship between the company and its territory, although this relationship matters greatly in emerging countries. This study asks the following question: how do human resources professionals perceive corporate citizenship and its links with employees’ identification and OCB in Morocco? It draws on social identity theory, social exchange theory and signaling theory. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with HR professionals in the Casablanca-Settat region and examined through thematic analysis.The results reveal three configurations of corporate citizenship and a territorial dimension (responsibility towards the territory, local recruitment, expectations that the company will act in place of the State) that existing scales cover poorly. Respondents place compliance with the law before philanthropy. They describe a sequence linking citizenship practices, attachment to the company and voluntary behaviors, which depends on the perceived authenticity of the initiatives and on the exemplary behavior of managers. They also describe cases in which citizenship actions have no effect. The study adapts micro-CSR research to the Moroccan context, clarifies the notion of territorial embeddedness and proposes indicators and research propositions to be tested with employees.

JEL Classification: M14, M12, M54

Paper type: Empirical Research