Corporate social responsibility and Chinese employees’ work engagement: Mediation through supervisor–subordinate guanxi

Despite growing evidence to suggest that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is positively related to employees’ work engagement, empirical support for this relationship has been limited, especially in the Chinese cultural context. In this study we examined the association between CSR and employees’ work engagement in China, and proposed guanxi (social interaction outside of work) of supervisor and subordinates as a mediator of this relationship. The sample consisted of 211 people employed in various industries who were concurrently studying for a Master of Business Administration at a Chinese university. The results of structural equation modeling revealed there was a positive and significant relationship between participants’ perceived CSR and their work engagement, and that supervisor–subordinate guanxi partially mediated this relationship. Our findings indicate the importance of Chinese employees’ perceived CSR and supervisor–subordinate guanxi for enhancing work engagement.