Tuesday, February 25th - Corporate Social Responsibility
This week surrounded the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, there was not one purely explanation piece that gave us deep foundational understanding of CSR. This surprised me because there is usually one article per week that does this; I believe there was not one because CSR is more of an industry than an academic concept. Due to the fact that I have seen this concept mentioned a lot in industry-related articles and out in the world, I will be delving into what CSR is and an example of this that I came across.
CSR can be defined as the fact that organizations, "as members of a society, [...] have social responsibilities beyond economic and legal obligations; that they have the rights to act, but also moral obligations to contribute to the greater good of society, and to be accountable for their actions. (Janssen, 2013, p. 69). To expand, corporations cannot be solely concerned about their profits; they must also consider their publics, stakeholders, and the effects of their own actions on the environment and society. The accountability aspect of this definition is especially important in this day and age, when literally anyone can keep organizations accountable through information they find online, and via the medium of social media.
One form of communicating CSR is sustainability reports. In class, we also looked at sections of a few corporate websites regarding sustainability. One example is from the Spanish apparel giant Zara, which calls their sustainability program "Join Life" (Zara, 2020). Please note when looking at their Environmental Sustainability Commitments 2025, which details their various projected goals from 2019 until 2025, there is a heavy emphasis on trendy topics such as "sustainable" materials, reducing waste, and environmental conservation. These as well as the optimistic title "Join Life" utilize values advocacy, implying to stakeholders that they are on the same page.
However, when reading the subheading under each of these categories, it is evident that Zara does not cover all their bases; rather, they emphasize the positive aspects of what they will do and conveniently do not mention other things. For example, by 2023 they plan to be 100% zero waste, stating "WE ARE WORKING TO ENSURE THAT, BY 2023, ALL THE WASTE PRODUCED IN OUR CENTRAL OFFICES, LOGISTICS CENTERS, AND STORES WILL BE RE-USED OR RECYCLED." (Zara, 2020). Indeed, it is in all caps, as if stakeholders cannot challenge their claim. Upon inspecting the content, I realized they did not mention if their factories will follow the zero waste goal. Overall, it is clear that Zara used rhetorical concepts such as strategic ambiguity, organization as person, and values advocacy to appeal to their various stakeholders.
Janssen, C. I. (2013). Corporate historical responsibility (CHR): Addressing a corporate past of forced labor at Volkswagen. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 41(1), 64-83.
Zara (2020) Zara Sustainability. https://www.zara.com/us/en/sustainability-l1449.html
CSR can be defined as the fact that organizations, "as members of a society, [...] have social responsibilities beyond economic and legal obligations; that they have the rights to act, but also moral obligations to contribute to the greater good of society, and to be accountable for their actions. (Janssen, 2013, p. 69). To expand, corporations cannot be solely concerned about their profits; they must also consider their publics, stakeholders, and the effects of their own actions on the environment and society. The accountability aspect of this definition is especially important in this day and age, when literally anyone can keep organizations accountable through information they find online, and via the medium of social media.
One form of communicating CSR is sustainability reports. In class, we also looked at sections of a few corporate websites regarding sustainability. One example is from the Spanish apparel giant Zara, which calls their sustainability program "Join Life" (Zara, 2020). Please note when looking at their Environmental Sustainability Commitments 2025, which details their various projected goals from 2019 until 2025, there is a heavy emphasis on trendy topics such as "sustainable" materials, reducing waste, and environmental conservation. These as well as the optimistic title "Join Life" utilize values advocacy, implying to stakeholders that they are on the same page.
However, when reading the subheading under each of these categories, it is evident that Zara does not cover all their bases; rather, they emphasize the positive aspects of what they will do and conveniently do not mention other things. For example, by 2023 they plan to be 100% zero waste, stating "WE ARE WORKING TO ENSURE THAT, BY 2023, ALL THE WASTE PRODUCED IN OUR CENTRAL OFFICES, LOGISTICS CENTERS, AND STORES WILL BE RE-USED OR RECYCLED." (Zara, 2020). Indeed, it is in all caps, as if stakeholders cannot challenge their claim. Upon inspecting the content, I realized they did not mention if their factories will follow the zero waste goal. Overall, it is clear that Zara used rhetorical concepts such as strategic ambiguity, organization as person, and values advocacy to appeal to their various stakeholders.
Janssen, C. I. (2013). Corporate historical responsibility (CHR): Addressing a corporate past of forced labor at Volkswagen. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 41(1), 64-83.
Zara (2020) Zara Sustainability. https://www.zara.com/us/en/sustainability-l1449.html
Comments
Post a Comment