Articles Tagged with: csr
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23 March 2023
Join our new network on Public Relations, Social Responsibility & Sustainability

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new thematic network reserved to EUPRERA members:
PUBLIC RELATIONS, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY

The network is created to develop a deeper exploration and understanding of the disciplinary, both academic and professional overlaps, intersections, and tensions between the two adjacent fields of PR and CSR under the guidance of Adalberto Arrigoni, Leeds Beckett University, and Wim Elving, Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen.

Scholars and practitioners of EUPRERA from different disciplinary, professional, and methodological backgrounds are invited to join the network by contacting Dr Adalberto Arrigoni.

Check out the network webpage for more information on how to join (and more!)

The network webpage

1 May 2022
Rising expectations towards corporate social responsibility in hypermodern times and how we can identify socially conscious publics

by Sarah Marschlich (Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich, Switzerland)
& Ganga Dhanesh (College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates)

Organizations have increasingly paid attention to their various ethical, social, environmental, or even political responsibilities. Examples of these can be seen aplenty, especially during the recent onslaught of the global health pandemic that started in 2019 and the war in Ukraine in 2022.

For instance, companies that have successfully managed organization-employee relationships during the pandemic have responded with responsible measures, including empathetic leadership communication and employee well-being programs. In addition, corporations increasingly participate in public discussions on socially relevant topics, such as gender equality, environmental issues, or education, advocate for political issues, including immigration and human rights, or take a public stance on controversial issues. When war erupted in Europe, companies across various sectors announced that they were pulling out of Russia or suspending operations in the country owing to pressure from governments, shareholders, employees, and the public. They were committed to doing the right thing and avoiding potential reputational damage. For instance, consulting and accounting firm KPMG International announced that Russia and Belarus firms will leave the KPMG network, citing that they are a “purpose-led and values-driven organization that believes in doing the right thing” (Walters, 2022).

One of the key drivers of responsible organizational behavior has been pressure from publics who want to buy products from, join, support, and invest in organizations that contribute positively to society. However, one of the enduring questions in research on corporate social responsibility and neighboring concepts such as social advocacy has been whether stakeholders truly care about companies meeting their environmental, social, and governance responsibilities and how we can identify socially conscious publics. Called the attitude-behavior gap, stakeholders are supposed to reward companies for meeting their myriad responsibilities, but their behavior does not reflect their talk of support, except for the demographic category of millennials, who have been shown to demand and reward responsible behavior from companies. However, considering how companies have been responding to the exigencies of the pandemic and the war, one can safely assume that stakeholder pressure is emanating from a far larger group than just the demographic category of millennials.

To address this issue, we suggested employing the theoretical lens of hypermodernity and identifying a psychographic category of socially and environmentally conscious individuals. The concept of hypermodernity, as discussed by the French philosopher Gilles Lipovetsky (2005), has been applied to advanced data-driven societies since the 1980s. Hypermodern individuals exhibit contradictory tendencies wherein extreme narcissism, materialism, and cynicism are offset with an inclination towards sociability, voluntary work, experientialism, and moral indignation towards the marginalized and the oppressed. Applying the concept of hypermodernity (Dhanesh, 2020; Lipovetsky, 2005), employing a systematic review of research within the fields of communication, psychology, and management, and conducting a survey, we created and tested an instrument to identify socially conscious publics on a continuum of hypermodernity. The instrument can be used to identify individuals who may exhibit a deep sense of social consciousness.

We argue that the theoretical framework of hypermodernity can explain the rising tide of consciousness among broad swathes of publics for social and environmental causes rampant in contemporary societies and companies’ subsequent response to these publics who demand responsible behavior from companies. The instrument we developed to identify people with hypermodern characteristics goes beyond demographic data and thus allows linking individuals’ characteristics and preferences and their demands towards corporate social responsibility. This, in turn, has implications for public relations and strategic communication strategies related to corporate responsibility, which could consider forms of storytelling, audiovisual communication, and events to engage stakeholders tailored to the proposed hypermodern characteristics. Perhaps it is time to reassess the notion of the attitude-behavior gap and understand socially conscious publics using the theoretical framework of hypermodernity to respond to their needs, wants, and demands effectively.

 

References

Dhanesh, G.S. (2020). Who cares about organizational purpose and corporate social responsibility, and how can organizations adapt? A hypermodern perspective. Business Horizons, 63(4), 585–594.

Lipovetsky, G. (2005). Hypermodern Times. Cambridge.

Walters, M. (2022). IMPORTANT UPDATE: Russia/Belarus. Retrieved from https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/media/press-releases/2022/03/important-update-russia-belarus.html

4 March 2022
CSRCOM Conference CfP

The 6th International CSR Communication Conference (CSRCOM) will take place on September 13-16 at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany, on the theme CSR Communication: New Challenges in an Age of Digitalization and Disinformation.

The Call for Papers encourages scholars to submit either a structured research summary or a proposal for a special session for review by March 15.

Call for Papers
16 December 2020
Call for Papers: CSR Communication in the Media Industry – abstracts by Dec. 30

CSR Communication in the Media Industry
Intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to understand
social impact and license to operate of media business around the globe

Eds. Franzisca Weder, Lars Rademacher, René Schmidpeter
Volume part of the Springer management series “Corporate Social Responsibility”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an established management focus of todays’ corporates and organizations of various kind, scope and size. This is supported by the book series on CSR by Springer Gabler, in which the planned volume is embedded in.

In the focus is the double nature of producing economic and cultural goods at the same time (Bracker et al., 2017; Karmasin & Bichler, 2017) which leads to the assumption that media companies have a double responsibility for the way they present reality (in their products) and with this controlling and criticizing economic and political developments and raising ethical concerns in the public debate on the one hand (SOCIAL IMPACT), and for their own activities as a corporation on the other hand (LICENSE TO OPERATE).

The guiding question for contributions to this volume is the following: How do media corporations deal with their twin responsibility of holding society responsible and being responsible themselves? A second set of questions guides the inputs from various theoretical as well as cultural perspectives, specified in the call for papers.

The editors are seeking for global perspectives on the issue that will stimulate a conversation about innovative approaches in an industry where a stronger focus on sustainability as normative framework to discuss the public value is increasingly converging with economic goals. The European perspective with a historically strong role of public broadcasting should be contrasted with an Oceanian as well as US-perspective. Furthermore, there is a specific outlook to the challenges of cross-border management.

“Easy to read” contributions written in German and English are welcomed by December 30, 2020, from academics (on all levels) and practitioners in the areas of:

  • CSR & CSR Communication
  • Management/Media Management
  • Communication Scholars
  • Business Scholars in related areas
Download the full
Call for Papers
2 March 2020
IPR Top 14 Public Relations Insights of 2019

Each year, the Institute for PR compiles the best research of the year that public relations professionals should know. Because of the number of excellent research studies published in 2019, IPR decided to add a few more studies relevant to the profession.

More info and booklet here

From the Institute for PR, we’re also happy to share recent studies on:

13 January 2020
From the Institute for PR: Mark Weiner about Big Data revolution; Bridge Conference early registration; research reports
In a Car with IPR

The Institute for PR has released the 7th episode of the series In a Car with IPR with Mark Weiner talking about the Big Data revolution, the IPR Measurement Commission, and more. Mark Weiner is Chief Insights Officer of Cision, CEO of PRIME Research, Director of the IPR Measurement Commission.

Watch the episode

IPR Bridge conference

Get ready also for the IPR Bridge Conference 2020, to be held in Washington DC at Georgetown University on March 26-27: the early bird registration is possible until January 31st only.

IPR Bridge—Public Relations and Communication Conference is the first two-day conference geared toward both public relations and corporate communications practitioners and academics. IPR Bridge allows academics to learn from senior-level executives, while having an opportunity to present their research at a peer-reviewed conference, and allows mid-to-senior-level executives to learn about the latest in public relations and communications research. A key feature of the conference is the opportunity to network and interact with top leaders in both the practice and the academy in a small setting (max of 125 attendees).

Go to Bridge conference website

Research reports

Last but not least, we’re happy to remind you of three recent reports from the Institute for PR:

2 December 2019
Sustainability Communication #NoTimeToWaste

Prof. Wim J.L. Elving,
Hanze University of Applied Sciences
Groningen, The Netherlands

It is a fact that the communication branch has been involved in a big variety of unethical practices. Greenwashing exists because we in communications and our colleagues (mainly our colleagues of course J) made text and communication materials to let the green intentions of a company shine, by not including all the facts. Fortunately for the world we have NGO’s that did starting to check companies CSR efforts and intentions and CSR communication became more serious and based on facts and not only on intentions.

Lobbyists and public affairs, of course adopted by us as being part of the communication profession, helped in enlarging the economic space for organizations without giving attention to the ecological limits. And our extensive knowledge and cooperation with the marketing profession made that we forced (persuaded) consumers to buy stuff that they actually didn’t need.

The climate crisis is real and leaves us little or no time to actually make a difference. As communication scholars and professionals, we can and should have a positive impact, and we, in my humble opinion, should cooperate more to make the world more sustainable. So, what are the good examples you experienced in your work, but also what are the worst cases and the lessons you as a professional learned that you want to share with your colleagues. For instance, we are working a lot with raising awareness, and designing testing and applying communicative interventions to raise awareness. If individuals receive feedback on how much energy their fridge and other devices are using, you are able to make decisions to buy more energy efficient devices. But there must be more and other ways of raising awareness and other examples.

There are several ways for us as profession in how to make a difference. We have been able to present the nicest communication materials, text, video and other products that really made a difference on a wide variety of subjects. Why don’t we use our joint force to create even better ones to tackle the climate crisis? Do we have any other option?

The European Union declared the climate crisis as a big emergency, action is needed. As communication professionals we are not only able to create and design fabulous communication products, but we also gained insights in how we can build bridges between various standpoints and proofed that we can make a difference. So, let’s join forces, let’s share good practices, ideas, cases etcetera, so we all can learn and we all can contribute in overcoming the current climate emergency.

We haven’t been able to create a platform already, please email me your examples, and I will persuade EUPRERA and other organizations to post these on their websites as soon as possible. We do not have to limit ourselves on English language examples, we will find ways to learn from other languages examples as well and maybe we can find ways in including national associations as well. Please email me your examples and email me if you want to be part of this very emergent and urgent call (w.j.l.elving@pl.hanze.nl). Let’s start the movement soon.

#NoTimeToWaste
1 November 2019
In a Car with IPR: the latest episode of the video series

Recently, the Institute for PR has released the latest episode of In A Car with IPR featuring Catherine Hernandez-Blades, SVP and Chief ESG and Communications Officer at Aflac. Catherine gives us a tour of “The Big Easy” (New Orleans) and shares her thoughts on diversity, equity, inclusion, CSR, the future of work and more.

In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness month, the IPR also meet up with a special guest who introduces us to the My Special Aflac Duck. Named one of Time’s best inventions of 2018, Catherine shares how Aflac developed this heartwarming technology for children with cancer in mind.

Have you missed the previous episodes (and the deleted scenes)? You can find the complete collection here:

In a Car with IPR
27 August 2018
New book on CSR in Europe

The Critical State of Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe, published by Emerald and edited by Ralph Tench, Brian Jones, William Sun.
European approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are supposed to be largely different from those in other continents like America, Asia, and Africa. Yet, European approaches to CSR are not a single and static one, but vary across and within national states and shift over time. This edited volume aims at exploring the uniqueness and complexity of European CSR approaches, perspectives, and practices through a critical lens. Contributors of this book provide rich experiences, fresh insights, and deep understanding of the critical state of CSR in Europe. More info

2 October 2017
The place of the other: the presence of external stakeholders inside CSR reports

by Prof. Andrea Catellani, PhD, Ecole de Communication, Louvain-la-Neuve
The discourse on stakeholder dialogue, conversation and mutually beneficial relationships (two-way symmetric communication, following Grunig 2008) is still present in Public Relations and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) communication. Concrete practices of dialogue and interaction with stakeholders can be analysed in many ways in PR and in CSR communication, for instance using a socio-constructivist point of view, or a CCO (Communicative Constitution of Organization) approach. Such approaches can help to understand that even the meaning of CSR (what people are talking about when interacting around CSR politics and decisions) is constructed and negotiated within communicative situations.
In my recent research I have been more interested in how the discourse about external stakeholders is organized: how the “rhetoric” of the interaction between “responsible” businesses and their publics is constructed, and which are the forms of the presence of “the others” inside CSR supports and texts (Amaia Errecart and Andrea Catellani 2017). This kind of research is linked to two different traditions: the discourse analysis school, and the tradition of semiotics. Concerning the second tradition, we argue that the tools of traditional structural analysis can still be useful to understand the possible meanings and the internal “machinery” of visual and verbal supports. But these tools must be integrated into a global hermeneutical vision (inspired among others by the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur). In this vision, people interact with each other through the exchange of “signs”, meaningful objects, which in their turn are able to act and influence meaning and behaviours. This kind of semio-hermeneutic approach can complete the analysis of verbal discourse, by integrating visual images as well. It is a deeply qualitative analysis, focused on the analysis of discourses and texts, but open to the observation of situations and practices of production and use of these texts.
The mentioned research was focused on the last editions of CSR reports of three important French businesses in different sectors (oil and gas, building materials, banks). We observed the presence of a sort of “dialogic norm”: “the others” (representatives of associations, local groups, experts) are present in each report, even if in different forms, and sometimes in a passive way. External stakeholders are presented very often as the beneficiaries of the good actions of the businesses; in some cases, they appear as partners of the business in its CSR activity, or even as external authorities (like GRI). In a few cases, the others’ voice is present inside the report. In the case of the Lafarge-Holcim’s report, a selected group of external stakeholders express their opinion on some aspects of the business’ CSR politics: the other becomes a legitimate “enunciator”, with the power to judge and evaluate (even if, of course, this “other” is selected by the business itself). In the BNP Paribas report, the presence of an external voice is limited to the testimony of satisfied partners and clients. Finally, in the case of Total Group, the presence of external stakeholders is really limited (just some reported positive comments). Of course, these three cases cannot allow any form of general statement, but it is interesting to observe and differentiate the roles of others in some examples of “CSR reports”. Images inside the reports support these different strategies, by showing “the other” while he/she expresses him/herself, or as the beneficiary of the actions of the businesses.
There are perhaps other cases in which businesses’ CSR reports include the voices of external stakeholder to a greater extent, and of course there are good examples around the world. But we think that a lot of work has to be done in this area. The representation of stakeholders inside CSR reports (or CSR parts of business reports) will always be based on strategic aims and rhetorical construction, but this does not mean that this presence should not be improved and developed. A greater integration of external voices inside one of the main “genres” of business literature would be a contribution to a more open and interactive business communication, a sign of a deeper engagement in CSR politics, and perhaps also a contribution to the reputation of businesses.
Personally, I don’t think CSR (the voluntary movement of businesses taking responsibility) will be enough to solve the big issues of our contemporary world: democratic, courageous political decisions are urgently needed. But the improvement of good CSR politics, and of strong CSR communication practices and textual forms, can contribute to facilitate our collective efforts.

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