Compassion organizing: Employees' satisfaction with corporate philanthropic disaster response and reduced job strain

The literature on corporate social responsibility and corporate philanthropy generally focuses on how employers come to the aid of those outside the organization who have been affected by disasters. Less is known about an organization's corporate philanthropic disaster response (CPDR) directed towards their employees. We argue, based on conservation of resources (Hobfoll, 1989, Am. Psychol., 44, 513) and compassion organizing (Dutton etal., 2006, Admin. Sci. Quart., 51, 59) literatures, that employees perceive employers who provide aid to them following a natural disaster as supportive. This aid from CPDR provides support to employees and helps to restore the loss of valued resources. Accordingly, we predict that satisfaction with CPDR reduces employee psychological and physiological strain via its positive effects on perceived organizational support. We find support for our predictions using a sample of 695 Hurricane Katrina survivors. Finally, we discussed theoretical contributions and implications of this research.