The Language of Corporate Social Responsibility: Responsible Communication

Nov 11, 2022

All good things come in threes. Or more. Add a Chief Sustainability Officer, a body positive Barbie doll,  a purple inclusive M&M and an actual expert in applied ethics and you get a lively discussion on true colours, washings and genuine CSR efforts in the first episode of our new mini-series (it comes in threes) on corporate social responsibility. Have a listen and find out more, including how energy companies account for their profits and your bills via legitimisation strategies.

 

More information about the podcast and  a full transcript can be found on wordsandactions.blog. In this episode early in the introduction, Erika cites two definitions. She first cites the definition of sustainability in a 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development (a sub-organisation of the United Nations) called “Our Common Future”. It can be found here. The second definition is on corporate social responsibility and taken from the website Investopedia. 

The examples we give of CSR in action, including attempts that backfired, are body-positive Barbie dolls, the “inclusive” and desexualised M&M candy figures and a now (in)famous Benetton advert. The latter is  reproduced in Erika’s and Veronika’s textbook Language in Business, Language at Work (Macmillan Higher Education, 2018; the second edition will have Bernard as the third author. Still in the introduction, we also mention this article on the social responsibility of business, the reference to which can be found on our website. 

Every summer, the Pride season in Western countries now comes with many examples of “pinkwashing”, where companies claim to be queer-friendly, but either don’t have relevant policies or even have practices that go against LGBT equality. Some examples from 2022 can be found here. 

Towards the end of the introduction, Veronika talks about legitimation as a discourse strategy, based on these works by van Leeuwen and Reyes.

We then proceed to the interview with Garrath Williams. On the links between ‘responsible’ and ‘response’, the Oxford English Dictionary has the following to say (shortened – the OED has lots of detail):

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman responssable, ressponsable, Anglo-Norman and Middle French responsable answerable, entitled to an answer …, answerable, required to answer …, that responds, that constitutes a reply (15th cent.), apparently < classical Latin respōns- , past participial stem of respondēre respond v. … probably < classical Latin respōnsāre to reply 

While we mention but do not elaborate on the Drink Responsibly campaign in the UK, someone else has, in a 2014 report on alcohol and the night-time economy. 

During our analysis of the ExxonMobil press release, we wonder if the company has a Chief Sustainability Officer. The answer is no but it has had an external sustainability advisory panel since 2009. 

 

In episode 26, we’ll talk about language and the environment – see you then!