Managing CSR Communication

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

Authors

In this chapter we elaborate on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies and practices both produce and are produced by CSR communication. We outline three main characteristics of CSR communication as a particular form of management communication, that is, CSR communication’s institutionalized, contested, and moralized character. From this basis, we derive key theoretical and practical implications for CSR-related management communication. We structure our considerations along three different orientations: (1) communication from the top-down (e. g., a firm’s aspirational talk), (2) communication from the bottom-up (e. g., internal activism), and (3) communication around the organization (e. g., how to develop resonance capacities for the multiplicity of external/societal voices). The chapter closes with a brief conclusion and outlook in which we address the need for further research on the actionability, consequentiality, and bindingness of CSR communication.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHandbook of Management Communication
EditorsFrançois Cooren, Peter Stücheli-Herlach
Number of pages16
PublisherDE GRUYTER Poland
Publication date09.08.2021
Pages443-458
ISBN (print)9781501516559
ISBN (electronic)9781501508059
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 09.08.2021

    Research areas

  • communicative constitution of organization (CCO), corporate social responsibility (CSR), CSR communication, institutional theory, management communication
  • Management studies