Abstract
Corporate social responsibility is a complex discipline that not only demands responsible behavior in production processes but also includes the concepts of communicative transparency and dialogue. Stakeholder dialogue is therefore expected to be an integrated part of the CSR strategy (Morsing and Schultz in Bus Ethics: A Eur Rev 14(4):323–338, 2006). However, only few studies have addressed the practice of CSR stakeholder dialogue and the challenges related hereto. This article adopts a postmodern perspective on CSR stakeholder dialogue. Based on a comprehensive single case study on stakeholder dialogue in a global dairy company, we focus on the complexity of CSR dialogue with multiple stakeholders. Drawing on a critical reflexive methodology (Alvesson and Kärreman in Acad Manag Rev 32(4):1265–1281, 2007), we develop the research question: How is CSR multi-stakeholder dialogue practiced, experienced, and articulated in an empirical context? The purpose is to understand the underlying assumptions, expectations, and principles guiding CSR multi-stakeholder dialogue in an empirical setting, as we focus on how key stakeholders articulate and anticipate the values of stakeholder dialogue and how the actual stakeholder dialogues are enacted. The findings of the study differ significantly from the ideals of transparent and agenda-free stakeholder dialogue. Rather, the study shows an overall tension between ideal and practice, supporting the progressive importance of the dialogue process in itself as an essential part of the end goal. The implication of this is a growing pressure on creating transparency about the (re)positioning and negotiation of roles throughout the dialogue process.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
According to Hardy and Phillips (2004) self-positioning regards how the subject mobilizes certain discourses in order to put him- or herself into a specific position, where imposed positioning refers to when others appoint a certain position to the subject, which influences the subject’s rights and possibilities.
References
Alvesson, M., & Kärreman, D. (2007). Constructing mystery: Empirical matters in theory development. The Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1265–1281.
Alvesson, M., & Sköldberg, K. (2009). Reflexive methodology. New vistas for qualitative research. London: Sage.
Arla Foods. (2013). Corporate Responsibility Report 2013. Retrieved from https://www.arla.com/globalassets/global/responsibility/pdf/csr/2013/arlacsr_our-responsibility2013_eng.pdf.
Arla Foods. (2014). Corporate Responsibility Report 2014. Retrieved from https://www.arla.com/globalassets/global/responsibility/pdf/csr/2014/our-responsibility-2014_eng.pdf.
Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogical imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. (2006). It’s good to talk? Examining attitudes towards corporate social responsibility dialogue and engagement processes. Business Ethics: A European Review, 15(2), 154–170.
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. (2012). Sleeping with the enemy? Strategic transformations in business-NGO relationships through stakeholder dialogue. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(3), 505–518.
Burchell, J., & Cook, J. (2013). CSR, co-optation and resistance: The emergence of new agonistic relations between business and civil society. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(4), 741–754.
Carroll, A. B., & Shabana, K. M. (2010). The business case for corporate social responsibility: A review of concepts, research and practice. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12(1), 85–105.
Christensen, L. T., & Cheney, G. (2011). Interrogating the communicative dimensions of corporate social responsibility. In Ø. Ihlen, J. Bartlett, & S. May (Eds.), The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility (pp. 491–504). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Crane, A., & Livesy, S. M. (2003). Are you talking to me? Stakeholder communication and the risks and rewards of dialogue. In J. Andriof, S. Waddock, S. Rahman, & B. Husted (Eds.), Unfolding stakeholder thinking 2: Relationships, communication reporting and performance (pp. 39–52). Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
Deetz, S., & Simpson, J. (2004). Critical organizational dialogue: Open formation and the demand of ‘otherness’. In R. Anderson, L. A. Baxter, & K. Cissna (Eds.), Dialogue: Theorising difference in communication studies (pp. 141–158). London: Sage.
Eisenhardt, K. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge and the discourse on language. New York: Pantheon Books.
Foucault, M. (1980). Two lectures. In C. Gordon (Ed.), Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977 by Michel Foucault. New York: Pantheon Books.
Gadamer, H. G. (1975). Truth and method. New York: Seabury Press.
Gadamer, H. G. (1980). Dialogue and dialectic: Eight hermeneutical studies on Plato. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Garcia-Marza, D. (2005). Trust and dialogue: Theoretical approaches to ethics auditing. Journal of Business Ethics, 57(3), 209–219.
Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description: Towards an interpretive theory of culture. In C. Geertz (Ed.), The interpretation of cultures. Selected essays (pp. 3–30). New York: Basic Books.
Glozer, S., Hibbert, S., & Caruana, R. (2013). From monologue to dialogue: Mapping dialogical traditions within co-creation and corporate social responsibility (CSR). ICCSR Research Paper Series 65. Nottingham: Nottingham University Business School.
Goffman, E. (1959). Presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday.
Golob, U., & Podnar, K. (2011). Corporate Social Responsibility. Communication and Dialogue. In Ø. Ihlen, J. Bartlett, & S. May (Eds.), The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility (pp. 231–251). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Golob, U., & Podnar, K. (2014). Critical points of CSR related stakeholder dialogue in practice. Business Ethics: A European Review, 23(3), 248–257.
Golob, U., Podnar, K., Elving, E., Nielsen, A. E., Thomsen, C., & Schultz, F. (2013). CSR communication: Quo vadis? Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 18(2), 176–192.
Gond, J.-P., & Matten, D. (2007). Rethinking the business-society interface: Beyond the functionalist trap. ICCSR Research Paper Series 47. Nottingham: Nottingham University Business School.
Grant, D., & Nyberg, D. (2011). The view from organizational studies: A discourse-based understanding of corporate social responsibility and communication. In Ø. Ihlen, J. Bartlett, & S. May (Eds.), The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility (pp. 534–549). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.
Habermas, J. (1980). Discourse ethics: Notes on philosophical justification. Moral, consciousness and communicative action. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action. Reason and the rationality of society (Vol. 1). Boston: Beacon Press.
Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action. Lifeworld and system (Vol. 2). Boston: Beacon Press.
Hardy, C., & Phillips, N. (1999). No joking matter: Discursive struggle in the Canadian refugee system. Organization Studies, 20, 1–24.
Hardy, C., & Phillips, N. (2004). Discourse and power. In D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick, & L. Putnam (Eds.), Handbook of organizational discourse (pp. 219–318). London: Sage.
Heath, R. L., Pearce, W. B., Shotter, J., Taylor, J. R., Kersten, A., Zorn, T., et al. (2006). The processes of dialogue: Participation and legitimation. Management Communication Quarterly, 19(3), 341–375.
Heracleous, L., & Hendry, J. (2000). Discourse and the study of organization: Toward a structurational perspective. Human Relations, 53(10), 1251–1286.
Isaacs, W. (1993). Taking flight: Dialogue, collective thinking and organizational learning. Organizational Dynamics, 22(2), 24–39.
Johnson-Cramer, M. E., Berman, S. L., & Post, J. E. (2003). Re-examining the concept of ‘‘stakeholder management’’. In J. Andriof, S. Waddock, B. Husted, & S. S. Rahman (Eds.), Unfolding stakeholder thinking: Relationships, communication, reporting and performance (pp. 145–161). Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
Jonker, J., & Nijhof, A. (2006). Looking through the eyes of others: Assessing mutual expectations and experiences in order to shape dialogue and collaboration between business and NGOs with respect to CSR. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 14(5), 456–466.
Kaptein, M., & van Tulder, R. (2003). Towards effective stakeholder dialogue. Business and Society Review, 108(2), 203–224.
Lawrence, A. T. (2002). The drivers of stakeholder engagement: Reflections on the case of Royal Dutch/Shell. In J. Andriof, S. Waddock, B. Husted, & S. S. Rahman (Eds.), Unfolding stakeholder thinking: Theory, responsibility, engagement (pp. 185–200). Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Ljungqvist, O., van Gossum, A., Sanz, Miquel L., & de Man, F. (2010). The European fight against malnutrition. Clinical Nutrition, 29(2), 149–150.
Malterud, K. (2001). Qualitative research: Standards, challenges, and guidelines. The Lancet, 358, 483–488.
Maon, F., Lindgreen, A., & Swaen, V. (2009). Designing and implementing corporate social responsibility: An integrative framework grounded in theory and practice. Journal of Business Ethics, 87(1), 71–89.
Maslow, A. (1970). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row.
Maslow, A. (1973). The farther reaches of human nature. New York: Viking Press.
Meyrowitz, J. (1985). No sense of place: The impact of electronic media on social behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Morsing, M., & Schultz, M. (2006). Corporate social responsibility communication: Stakeholder information, response and involvement strategies. Business Ethics: A European Review, 14(4), 323–338.
Mouffe, C. (1999). Deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism? Social Research, 66(3), 745–758.
Mouffe, C. (2000). For an agonistic model of democracy. In N. O’Sullivan (Ed.), Political theory in transition. London: Routledge.
Nichol, L. (2003). The essential David Bohm. London: Routledge.
O’Riordan, L., & Fairbrass, J. (2008). Corporate social responsibility (CSR): Models and theories in stakeholder dialogue. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(4), 745–758.
Palazzo, G., & Scherer, A. (2006). Corporate legitimacy as deliberation: A communicative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 66(1), 71–88.
Payne, S. L., & Calton, J. M. (2002). Towards a managerial practice of stakeholder engagement. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 6, 37–52.
Pedersen, E. R. (2006). Making corporate social responsibility (CSR) operable: How companies translate stakeholder dialogue into practice. Business and Society Review, 111(2), 137–163.
Pettigrew, A. (1997). What is a processual analysis? Scandinavian Journal of Management Studies, 13(4), 331–503.
Phillips, N., & Hardy, C. (2002). Discourse analysis. Investigating processes of social construction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Phillips, N., & Oswick, C. (2012). Organizational discourse: Domains, debates and directions. The Academy of Management Annals, 102, 1–47.
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1/2), 62–77.
Pruzan, P. (2001). The question of organizational consciousness: Can organizations have values, virtues and visions? Journal of Business Ethics, 29, 271–284.
Roloff, J. (2008). Learning from multi-stakeholder networks: Issue-focused stakeholder management. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(1), 233–250.
Scherer, A., & Palazzo, G. (2007). Toward a political conception of corporate social responsibility: Business and society seen from a Habermasian perspective. Academy of Management Review, 32(4), 1096–1120.
Scherer, A., & Palazzo, G. (2011). The new political role of business in a globalized world—a review of a new perspective on CSR and its implications for the firm, governance, and democracy. Journal of Management Studies, 48(4), 889–931.
Schultz, F., Castelló, I., & Morsing, M. (2013). The construction of corporate social responsibility in network societies: A communication view. Journal of Business Ethics, 115(4), 681–692.
Schultz, F., & Wehmeier, S. (2010). Institutionalization of corporate social responsibility within corporate communications: Combing institutional, sense making and communication perspectives. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 15(1), 9–29.
Seitanidi, M. M., & Crane, A. (2009). Implementing CSR through partnerships. Understanding the selection, design and institutionalization of nonprofit-business partnerships. Journal of Business Ethics, 85(2), 413–429.
Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Strand, R., & Freeman, R. E. (2015). Scandinavian cooperative advantage: The theory and practice of stakeholder engagement in Scandinavia. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(1), 65–85.
Thomas, G. (2011). Case studies. London: Sage.
Van Huijstee, M., & Glasbergen, P. (2008). The practice of stakeholder dialogue between multinationals and NGOs. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 15(5), 298–310.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Høvring, C.M., Andersen, S.E. & Nielsen, A.E. Discursive Tensions in CSR Multi-stakeholder Dialogue: A Foucauldian Perspective. J Bus Ethics 152, 627–645 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3330-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3330-4