Doing Good: Building Organizational Commitment Through Philanthropy

In this paper, we investigate how corporate philanthropy serves as a mechanism for building organizational commitment. Although much research has reported on the potential benefits of philanthropy and highlighted its impact on organizational commitment, reports are lacking on how philanthropic activities can be implemented to actively influence organizational commitment. We address this gap through a longitudinal qualitative study in a Danish family-owned firm, where we model how initiation of and participation in philanthropic activities encourages organizational commitment through an organizational identification process. Theoretically, we contribute to the literature by providing an in-depth processual perspective on how engagement in philanthropic activities facilitates value alignment between employees and their organization, and therein fosters organizational commitment. Practically, the paper contributes by proposing a way that firms can actively influence organizational commitment through introducing philanthropy.