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[ecrea] Special Issue of Business and Society on CSR and Communication
Tue Sep 22 18:49:37 GMT 2015
Call for Papers: Special Issue of Business & Society
CSR and Communication: Examining how CSR Shapes, and is Shaped by, Talk
and Text
Guest editors:
Andrew Crane, Schulich School of Business
Mette Morsing, Copenhagen Business School
Dennis Schoeneborn, Copenhagen Business School
This Special Issue of Business & Society seeks to expand and enrich the
body of research on CSR and communication. Specifically, it aims to
examine the role of talk and text (including verbal, visual and written
communication) in shaping the nature and meaning of CSR – and how CSR
meanings in turn shape such communication. This may include scholarly
contributions that will extend our understanding of how rhetoric,
narrative, discourse, sensemaking, and other frameworks of meaning are
involved in CSR communication.
The existing literature on CSR tends to be – at least implicitly –
permeated with a normative or prescriptive stance on CSR communication:
either as optimism about how communication of CSR can be used by
corporations to foster their reputation and legitimacy (e.g., Sen,
Bhattacharaya & Korschun, 2006; Ferrell, Gonzalez-Padron, Hult &
Maignan, 2010) – or with a rather skeptical stance. These latter works
suspect that communication tends to be used by corporations as a
powerful means to ward off criticism and give false impressions of
‘green-washing’ or ‘window-dressing’ (e.g., Roberts, 2003; Banerjee,
2008). Across these perspectives, communication tends to be primarily
seen as an instrument that is employed by corporations to disseminate
information about CSR practices (that have already been implemented to a
greater or lesser degree).
However, the prospective, anticipatory, and formative role of
communication for CSR has, thus far, tended to remain implicit or
under-theorized. More specifically, communicative practices can play an
important and formative role, for instance, in constituting networked
relationships between business firms and larger society (Castello,
Morsing & Schultz, 2013; Schoeneborn & Trittin, 2013), in driving
organizational and social change (Christensen, Morsing & Thyssen, 2013;
Haack, Schoeneborn & Wickert, 2012), in constituting new subject
relations in the field of CSR (Caruana & Crane, 2008), and enabling
sensemaking about what CSR can and cannot be (Basu & Palazzo, 2008). In
other words, there is a need to understand better what communication
does to CSR and what CSR does to communication.
If CSR is a “moving target” (Christensen et al., 2013; Haack &
Schoeneborn, 2015), “in constant flux” (Carroll, 1979) and “in a
continuing state of emergence” (Lockett, Moon & Visser, 2006) as
scholars and practitioners tend to agree, then a static and tool-like
understanding of CSR communication seems to be insufficient. New
information and communication technologies (e.g., social media) appear
to further push and transform the communicative dynamics within and
between organizations and their environment (Castello et al., 2013;
Whelan, Moon & Grant, 2013). These new challenges suggest the need for
communication-centered works that can help understand how CSR is a
continuous activity through which individuals and organizations
“explore, construct, negotiate and modify what it means to be a socially
responsible organization” (Christensen & Cheney, 2011, p. 491).
We therefore suggest bringing a formative view of communication to the
forefront of CSR research in this Business & Society special issue. We
invite contributions that take stock of our existing knowledge and
advance CSR communication theory through new conceptual considerations,
empirical insights, and critical reflections. We particularly encourage
papers that approach CSR communication through talk and text by drawing
on concepts like rhetoric, narratives, discourse, sensemaking, as well
as other frameworks that help inform the formative role of communication
in CSR. This also may involve papers grounded in more general
constructionist per¬spectives, including works that follow emergent
ideas of “communicative institutionalism” (Cornelissen, Durand, Fiss,
Lammers & Vaara, 2015) or the “communicative constitution of
organizations” (CCO) perspective (Cooren, Kuhn, Cornelissen & Clarke,
2011). In this way, we hope to be able to compile a rich set of articles
that help enhance our understanding of what communication does to CSR
and what CSR does to communication.
We welcome a broad range of questions and topic areas within the broad
theme – some indicative questions include:
• How do different forms of communication shape stakeholder
interpretations of the meaning and scope of CSR? In what ways is CSR
communication performative with material impacts (see also the idea of
“aspirational talk” by Christensen et al., 2013)?
• How do different actors respond to, resist, and engage with
specific rhetorical strategies and figures (e.g., allusion, analogy,
hyperbole, metaphor, metonymy, or humor), employed by corporations in
their CSR communication?
• What narrative structures and components are used to give
meaning to the process of CSR design and implementation?
• How do actors in organizational settings differ in their
sensemaking of CSR, including productive forms of misunderstanding?
• In what ways does intensified “CSR talk” influence the formation
and change of individual, professional and organizational identities in
the workplace (e.g., in terms of improved self-enhancement and
identification as well as cynicism and “CSR fatigue”)?
• How is CSR knowledge embedded in micro and macro discourses of
organization and what role do governmentality and responsibilization
play in discursive formations of CSR?
• By whom, and for what purpose is the meaning of CSR (as an
“empty signifier”) constituted through signs and symbols? What new
semiotic language does CSR bring into economic life?
• To what extent does the formative role of communication for CSR
become intensified by new information and communication technologies
(ICTs), such as social media? For example, in what ways does it
influence and change image-identity relations for individuals and
organizations?
• To what extent do new ICTs enable the creation of new, fluid,
and networked forms of communication structures that, in turn, create
new issues of corporate social responsibility (e.g., transparency,
privacy, and surveillance) and different forms of accountability and
disclosure?
SUBMISSION PROCESS AND DEADLINES
The deadline for submission of full papers is December 12, 2016. Authors
should submit their manuscripts through ScholarOne Manuscripts at
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/bas.
Authors should be sure to specify in the submission system that the
manuscript is for the special issue on “CSR and Communication”.
Manuscripts should be prepared following the Business & Society author
guidelines:
http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal200878/manuscriptSubmission.
All articles will be subjected to double-blind peer review and editorial
process in accordance with the policies of Business & Society.
Special Issue Workshop
To help authors prepare their manuscripts for submission, a Special
Issue Workshop will be held on July 6, 2016, prior to the European Group
of Organizational Studies (EGOS) Colloquium 2016 in Naples, Italy. The
workshop will be facilitated by the Special Issue editors.
Authors are invited to present and discuss their papers during the
workshop and to receive feedback for further improvement of their
manuscripts. Acceptance for presentation at the workshop does not
guarantee acceptance of the paper for publication in Business & Society.
To be considered for the workshop, authors will need to submit a short
paper (max. 10 double-spaced pages, incl. references and exhibits) via
the EGOS website by March 31, 2016. More information about the
submission procedure will be made available in January, 2016 on the
Business & Society website (http://bas.sagepub.com – see updated call in
the “Call for Papers” section). Note that submission of a short paper to
the workshop is not a precondition for submission of a full paper to the
Special Issue.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Business & Society is one of the leading journals at the intersection of
business and society, covering issues of social responsibility, ethics
and governance. It is the official journal of the International
Association of Business and Society and is published by Sage. Its
current two-year Citation Impact Factor is 1.468 (2014) and its
five-year Citation Impact Factor is 2.103. It is a 3-rated journal in
the 2015 UK Association of Business Schools Journal Ranking Guide, a
B-journal in the German Academic Association for Business Research, and
an A-journal in the Australian Business School Dean’s list. For further
details see http://bas.sagepub.com.
ABOUT THE GUEST EDITORS
Andrew Crane is a Co-editor of Business & Society, and the George R.
Gardiner Professor of Business Ethics and Director of the Centre of
Excellence in Responsible Business at the Schulich School of Business,
York University. He is the author or editor of eleven books, including
an award-winning textbook on Business Ethics and the Oxford Handbook of
Corporate Social Responsibility. His latest book is Social Partnerships
and Responsible Business: A Research Handbook. He has published in a
range of top tier journals including Academy of Management Review,
Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, California
Management Review, Annals of Tourism Research, Business & Society,
Journal of Business Ethics, European Journal of Marketing, and Marketing
Theory. He serves on the editorial board of Academy of Management Review
and the Journal of Management Studies.
Mette Morsing is Professor of Communication and CSR at the Centre of
Corporate Social Responsibility (cbsCSR), Department of Intercultural
Communication and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, and
the Co-Director of CBS Sustainability Platform (2011-2016). Her research
focuses on organizational communication, identity-image theory and media
studies in the context of CSR. She is particularly interested in
studying the role of communication for governance of business-society
relations. Her research has been published in Journal of Management
Studies, Organization, Human Relations, Harvard-Deusto Business Review,
Journal of Business Ethics, Management Communication Quarterly and
Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society
among others, and at publishers such as Sage, Routledge, Palgrave
MacMillan and Oxford University Press. She is an Associate Editor of
Scandinavian Journal of Management (since 2015), serves as Editorial
Board Member of Business & Society (since 2015), Business Ethics – A
European Review (since 2010), Corporate Communication: an International
Journal (since 2009), Corporate Governance: an International Journal of
Business in Society, (since 2004) and is a Series Editor of the
Cambridge University Press series on "Business, Value Creation and
Society" with Edward Freeman and Jeremy Moon. She has edited eight books
and two journal special issues
Dennis Schoeneborn is Professor (MSO) of Communication, Organization,
and CSR at the Centre of Corporate Social Responsibility (cbsCSR),
Department of Intercultural Communication and Management, Copenhagen
Business School, Denmark. His research interests include organization
theory, organizational communication, CSR communication, and
computer-mediated communication. His current research places a
particular emphasis on studying the constitutive and formative role of
communication for organizations as responsible social actors. From
2015-2018, he serves as the head coordinator of the Standing Working
Group “Organization as Communication” at the European Group of
Organizational Studies (EGOS). His research has been published in the
Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, Journal of Business
Ethics, Journal of Management Inquiry, Journal of Management Studies,
Management Communication Quarterly, and Organization Studies, among
others. He serves on the editorial board member of Management
Communication Quarterly (since 2013), Organization Studies (since 2014),
and Business & Society (from 2016). He is also co-editor of the volume
“Organization as Communication: Perspectives in Dialogue” (with Steffen
Blaschke) that is forthcoming at Taylor & Francis.
REFERENCES
Banerjee S.B. (2008) Corporate social responsibility: The good, the bad
and the ugly. Critical Sociology, 34(1), 51-79.
Basu, K., & Palazzo, G. (2008). Corporate social responsibility: a
process model of sensemaking. Academy of Management Review, 33(1): 122-136.
Carroll, A.B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate
performance. Academy of Management Review, 4(4), 497-505.
Caruana, R., & Crane, A. (2008). Constructing consumer responsibility:
exploring the role of corporate communications. Organization Studies,
29: 1495-1519.
Castelló, I., Morsing, M., & Schultz, F. (2013). Communicative dynamics
and the polyphony of corporate social responsibility in the network
society. Journal of Business Ethics, 118(4), 683-694.
Christensen, L. T. & Cheney, G. (2011). Interrogating the communicative
dimensions of corporate social responsibility. In ¨., Ihlen, J. L.
Bartlett & S. May (Eds.), The Handbook of Communication and Corporate
Social Responsibility (pp. 491-504). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Christensen, L.T., Morsing M., & Thyssen, O. (2013). CSR as aspirational
talk. Organization 20(3), 372–393.
Cooren, F., Kuhn. T., Cornelissen, J.P. & Clarke, T. (2011).
Communication, organizing and organization: An overview and introduction
to the special issue. Organization Studies, 32(9), 1149-1170.
Cornelissen, J. P., Durand, R., Fiss, P. C., Lammers, J. C., & Vaara, E.
(2015). Putting Communication Front and Center in Institutional Theory
and Analysis. Academy of Management Review, 40(1), 10-27.
Ferrell, O.C., Gonzalez-Padron, T. L., Hult, T. M., Maignan, I. (2010).
From Market Orientation to Stakeholder Orientation. Journal of Public
Policy & Marketing, 29(1), 93-96.
Golob, U., Podnar, K., Elving, W. J., Ellerup Nielsen, A., Thomsen, C.,
& Schultz, F. (2013). CSR communication: quo vadis? Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, 18(2), 176-192.
Haack, P. & Schoeneborn, D. (2015). Is decoupling becoming decoupled
from institutional theory? A commentary on Wijen. Academy of Management
Review, 40(2), 307-310.
Haack, P., Schoeneborn, D., & Wickert, C. (2012). Talking the talk,
moral entrapment, creeping commitment? Exploring narrative dynamics in
corporate responsibility standardization. Organization Studies, 33(5-6),
815-845.
Lockett, A., Moon, J., & Visser, W. (2006). Corporate social
responsibility in management research: Focus, nature, salience and
sources of influence. Journal of Management Studies, 43(1), 115–136.
Roberts J. (2003). The manufacture of corporate social responsibility:
Constructing corporate sensibility. Organization 10(2), 249-265.
Schoeneborn, D., & Trittin, H. (2013). Transcending transmission:
Towards a constitutive perspective on CSR communication. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal, 18(2), 193-211.
Sen, S., Bhattacharaya, C. B. & Korschun, D. (2006). The role of
corporate social responsibility in strengthening multiple stakeholder
relationships: A field experiment. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 34(2), 158-166
Whelan, G., Moon, J. & Grant, B. (2013). Corporations and citizenship
arenas in the age of social media. Journal of Business Ethics, 118, 777-790.
-----Original Message-----
From: nico carpentier [mailto:(nico.carpentier /at/ vub.ac.be)]
Sent: 22. september 2015 12:02
To: Luisa Murphy
Cc: Mette Morsing
Subject: Re: Special Issue of Business and Society on CSR and Communication
Dear Luisa, Metta,
It can be posted on the ECREA mailing list (it's actually not a
website), if you follow the posting guidelines at commlist.org
best
nico
On 22/09/2015 11:38, Luisa Murphy wrote:
Dear Sir or Madam,
On behalf of the Guest Editors, Andrew Crane, Schulich School of
Business, Mette Morsing, Copenhagen Business School and Dennis
Schoeneborn, Copenhagen Business School, I would like to kindly
request that the following Call for the Special Issue of Business &
Society on *CSR and Communication: Examining how CSR Shapes, and is
Shaped by, Talk and Text *is posted on your website as we think it
might be of interest to your readers. Please find the call attached
for papers and the corresponding details.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns. I
will be happy to assist you further.
Best wishes,
Luisa Murphy (for Mette Morsing, Andrew Crane and Dennis Schoeneborn)
Venlig hilsen/ Kind regards,
Luisa Murphy
Project Manager, Sustainability Platform
**
__
*Dep. of Intercultural Communication and Management (ICM / IKL) *
*Copenhagen Business School*
Porcel¿nshaven 18A, Office 0.131 – DK 2000 Frederiksberg
Phone: +45 3815 2643
Email: (lmu.ikl /at/ cbs.dk) <mailto:(lmu.ikl /at/ cbs.dk)>__
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