Being responsible in a polarized world
from dialogical to partisan CSR
Additional information
Authors
Type
Journal Article
Year
2024
Language
English
Abstract
This paper investigates how companies approach corporate social responsibility in polarized landscapes. Polarization makes the dominant dialogical approach to CSR potentially inconclusive. Indeed, companies cannot orient societal CSR meanings through an all-stakeholder-inclusive dialogue because, in a polarized world, stakeholders form alternative meanings in separate and mutually delegitimizing conversations. To understand how companies try to appear responsible under these circumstances, we examine Italian telecom companies’ CSR reports issued throughout the launch of 5G technologies, a polarizing topic that sparked fake news and conspiracy theories. The findings show that, in such polarizing circumstances, companies may adopt a partisan approach to CSR, i.e., engaging with only one conversation to shape CSR views within it while ignoring the other. Through this approach, companies may further exacerbate polarization and shape CSR meanings to align with their core business, rather than the opposite. These implications, we argue, might jeopardize the very essence of CSR.
Keywords
Communicative constitution of organization, Corporate social responsibility, Fake news, Polarization
Journal
Management Communication Quarterly
Volume
38
Number ( Month )
4
Pages (or article number)
801–833
Diffusion
License
CC BY
Visibility
Public
Status open access
Hybrid
