Corporate Social Responsibility: Missed Opportunity for Institutionalizing Communication Practice?

Abstract

Institutionalizing can mean becoming part of a larger structure or being placed in the care of an institution. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has communicative demands that present an opportunity for strategic communication to become part of the organizational management structure. However, communication practice also must resist the force of being institutionalized by serving other departments rather than contributing to organizational decision-making. Strategic communication practice risks becoming irrelevant, or worse, serving as the technician responsible for communicating the CSR policies and actions developed by other departments. The strategic communication function would not be part of managing CSR but rather become the way to communicate CSR to specific constituents while other departments lead the CSR revolution. In essence, when this happens strategic communication is being institutionalized as some of its management potential is being placed in the care of departments (institutions). The relationship between CSR and strategic communication becoming or being institutionalized is examined in the paper.