1,720,970 research outputs found
Between “challengers and powerholders”: Framing of issues through dynamic discursive processes in a digital arena
No full textThis study explores how the selection of discursive and interactive processes generates specific framings of
an issue to advocate opposite positions and to represent a struggle of power between parties with their own
agendas. This paper draws from literature on public relations framing, issue arenas and multimodal discourse
and reports detailed explorations of qualitative data retrieved from two websites, Protect Mauna Kea and
Maunakea and TMT, which frame the Thirty Meter Telescope’s construction on Mauna Kea Mountain in
Hawaii from alternative perspectives. The empirical evidence suggests that by connecting the respective
issue and related issues to specific concerns, values and beliefs in novel ways, the challengers and
powerholders (Steinberg, 1998) attempt to monitor the way in which the issue is understood by existing and
potentially supporting groups. The findings also illustrate how the qualitative methodological approach
characteristic of discourse analysis can be employed in order to reveal dynamic framing strategies
Bridging diversity management and CSR in online external communication
No full textPurpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the need to reconsider online external communication that integrates diversity management (DM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by examining the multimodal discursive strategies purposefully employed by organizations to reflect the symbiotic relationship between these two areas of management practice and to communicatively emphasize their corporate commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on the recently emerged stream of literature linking DM and CSR, and adopting a critical perspective on discourse analysis, this study delves into the multimodal discursive strategies that help bridge DM and CSR in online external communication. The analytical approach proposed is used for the qualitative analysis of 43 web pages selected from Microsoft company’s “Global Diversity and Inclusion” website.
Findings
Findings highlight the discursive efforts made by the organization to strategically integrate DM and CSR communication into one single framework. The analysis reveals how the coordinates of social practices (social actors and social actions) are purposefully and multimodally recontextualized in the corporate discourse when communicating this integration.
Originality/value
This study extends the focus of critical discourse analysis from exclusively language to the interplay of different semiotic modes, offering a fine-grained exploration of the multimodal meaning construction performed by organizations in the context of online external communication
Aspects of organizational diversity commitment articulated in the Googlers’ digital communication strategy
No full textBased on a constructive-critical perspective, the paper intends to determine how diversity commitment is discursively articulated and legitimized by Google through a variety of digital media and semiotic modes
Citizens’ crisis sensemaking processes: A multimodal discourse perspective on non-profit environmental communication
No full textTo Be Responsible, or Not to Be Responsible: Managing Guilt After Organization-Level Failures
Full text linkOrganizational responses to failures are traditionally classified into accommodative strategies,
through which the organization accepts responsibility for the failure by apologizing and
implementing corrective action, and defensive strategies, through which the organization does not
accept responsibility by denying or by providing justifications. However, the complexity of large
organizations entails that it can take years to establish whether an alleged failure has occurred at
all and to what extent a specific organization is responsible for it. Given the high level of media
interest after an organization-level failure, organizations need to communicate with the public
about their potential guilt, but are ill-advised to deny or admit any guilt, before they are
eventually either convicted or exonerated. We refer to this discursive practice of addressing guilt
without admitting or denying it as guilt management. The contribution of this paper is twofold.
Based on a review of guilt in the fields of psychology, philosophy, and law, we first contribute a
theoretical understanding of organizational guilt, which is not an established concept yet. Second,
we conduct a fine-grained discourse analysis of organizational guilt management to arrive at an
empirically grounded understanding of guilt-management strategies used by organizations under
suspicion of a large-scale failure
Multimodal sensemaking and sensegiving processes of discursive threat appraisal in environmental crisis communication
No full textThis study investigates how multimodal sensemaking and sensegiving processes of discursive threat appraisal are employed by global
movements in their environmental crisis communication when disclosing how corporate commitments are failing to reduce the global
plastic pollution. The theoretical framework includes perspectives on global sticky crises, threat appraisal, framing, crisis sensemaking
and sensegiving, and multimodal discourse. Empirically, a series of brand audits reports of #breakfreefromplastic global movement are
systematically examined. The analytical focus transcends the usual monomodal approach and is directed towards the multimodal
interplay that builds strategic discourses through images and texts. Findings details, on the one hand, the multimodal discursive
sensemaking processes of content enrichment and appeal bolstering as well as their outcomes related to the building of common sense,
new sense, and non‐sense; on the other hand, they clarify how prognostic, diagnostic, and motivational framing tasks are accomplished
in environmental crisis sensegiving by the global movement. This study provides insights useful to corporations when reevaluating their
own crisis sensemaking and sensegiving in corporate communications and, ultimately, contribute to changing risky corporate behaviour
toward more effective and ethical environmental crisis prevention and communication
How have banks performed institutional maintenance work in their CSR/annual reports to address their responsibility for the financial crisis?
No full textCSR reporting after the financial crisis: Reconciling pro-sociality with profitability
No full textPurpose: Our point of departure is the discretion companies have in their CSR reports to
emphasize positive aspects of their CSR performance and downtone or omit negative events.
We study this discretion in the specific context of CSR reporting by companies that are under
a high-profile legal investigation for alleged mismanagement. These companies are in a
situation where the very idea of transparency and accountability inherent in CSR reporting is
at odds with the business logic of profitability. They face the dilemma of inflating a potential
fine when acknowledging any responsibility for the alleged misdeeds in their CSR reports,
but at the same time cannot not address this issue in their CSR reports, if these reports are to
be of any value to their stakeholders.
Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a discursive approach, we selected the case of
large U.S. banks after the financial crisis to study how they handled this communicative
challenge of needing to rebuild their legitimacy in their CSR reports while being under a
high-profile criminal investigation. We combine the fields of organizational discourse with
CSR communication in a cross-disciplinary study of CSR reports. This is a rare combination,
as CSR communication has traditionally been based on quantitative, content-analytic analyses
of CSR reports.
Findings: The study shows how CSR reports do not just disseminate information about a
company's social and environmental performance, but contribute to the definition of these
very responsibilities towards stakeholders through positive identity claims, the discursive
construction of relationships, and the discursive connection of the company with favorable
events and the disconnection from unfavorable events.
Originality/value: Our study is qualitative in nature and contributes to the relatively small,
but growing stream of research that has adopted a discursive, constructivist approach to CSR
communication. Specifically, our study contributes an understanding of how discourse
strategies are used to define and redefine responsibilities in CSR reports, especially in times
of legal uncertainties
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