The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

CHAPTER SEVEN

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

Rob Briggs

There are many definitions of corporate social responsibility (CSR). For the business communicator, CSR covers a broad spectrum of issues: managing reputation, dealing with stakeholder activism, and sharing values-based messages with both employees and publics. The ways in which corporations behave, the ways in which they are expected to behave, and the ways they are perceived to behave are all areas in which business communicators can and do have a significant impact.

If we assume that society is a corporate constituency and that the rules, ethics, norms, and values expressed by society form part of the right of contract between that constituency and the corporation, ...