Internal branding practices and organizational citizenship behavior in a large food-processing company: Implications for an employee-driven sustainability performance

• Main Authors: Paderna, Raymond D., Mendoza, Miguel Carlos, Orosa, Luis Antonio, Recto, Jose Gabriel
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Sustainability; Organizational behavior; Food industry and trade; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/10349
• Institution: De La Salle University

Extant literature argues that a bottom-up approach is essential in successfully pushing for a corporate sustainability agenda since employees who truly believe in a cause are better ambassadors of sustainability compared to those who are merely forced to comply. Similarly, employees who apparently demonstrate citizenship behaviors genuinely believe in the company's ethos and are thus better equipped to help the firm in its sustainability advocacies. To test this, the researchers enjoined 279 employees of a large food processing company as survey respondents in a study designed to assess the mediating effect of organizational citizenship behavior on the hypothesized internal branding -sustainability performance linkage. A company representative and a seasoned industry practitioner have also invited to cross-validate the survey results through in-depth interviews. After performing several linear regression analyses, it was revealed that internal branding practices significantly predicted organizational citizenship behavior and sustainability performance. Results of the mediation analysis also confirmed that internal branding practices can have either a direct or indirect effect on sustainability performance, an outcome which galvanized the mediating role of organizational citizenship behavior. Since the insights of both interviewees also corroborated survey results, further validation of a priori knowledge about the constructs was subsequently obtained. The company was thus recommended (a) to maintain the high quality of its internal branding practices, (b) to keep the momentum which has so far successfully propelled their corporate sustainability agenda, and (c) to further intensify employee volunteerism.