How corporate social responsibility moderates the relationship between distributive unfairness and organizational revenge: a deontic justice perspective

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the differential moderating effects of two types (internal/external) of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the relationship between distributive injustice and organization-directed revenge through the mediating role of negative emotions. Design/methodology/approach: This paper conducts two studies. Study 1 was a vignette study based on a sample of 501 part-time master of business administration students in China aimed at testing the moderating effects of different levels of internal (external) CSR. Study 2 involved a laboratory experiment in which 108 postgraduate students were recruited to scrutinize the contrasting moderating effects of different types of CSR (internal vs external) and test the underlying mechanisms of negative emotions. The latest facial expression analysis technology (FaceReader 5.0 software) was used to detect participants’ emotional state. Findings: Study 1 demonstrates that internal CSR buffers the relationship between distributive injustice and organizational revenge behavior through negative emotions. However, the moderating effect of external CSR is not significant. Study 2 reveals that compared with external CSR, distributive injustice induces fewer negative emotions in the presence of internal CSR and the mediating role of negative emotions detected by the facial expression analysis software is also verified. Practical implications: The authors hope that the findings of this paper can provide theoretical references for enterprise managers to enhance their employee governance, develop more effective intervention policies and formulate corresponding coping mechanisms to prevent and mitigate workplace revenge behaviors. Originality/value: First, this paper enriches the literature on the relationship between injustice and organization revenge by introducing CSR as an employee governance tool. Second, this paper reconciles prior inconsistent findings about employee response to CSR in the occurrence of negative events by distinguishing between external and internal CSR and examining the differential moderating effects of two types of CSR. Such distinction is derived from the heterogeneous justice perceptions arising from different CSR actions. In addition, the authors measure participants’ negative emotions through a multi-method approach integrating the latest technology for facial expression analysis and the PANAS scale, which represents a method advancement and provides implications for measuring emotions.