Corporate Historical Responsibility (CHR): Addressing a Corporate Past of Forced Labor at Volkswagen

Abstract

This article introduces corporate historical responsibility (CHR), a concept that can guide organizations when addressing dark corporate histories. CHR holds that organizations have responsibilities toward victims of past corporate practices and toward present reconciliatory discourse. Volkswagen's discourse about its history of forced labor during WW II serves as an example of CHR. The rhetorical analysis illustrates that CHR hinges on the recognition of the past as a moral issue and on the organization's ability to create historical accountability, take responsibility, make public acknowledgements, and remember its past. It further illustrates that CHR creates sustainable policies that can strengthen corporate citizenship and serve as a means of (re-)legitimation. In order to repair broken relationships, the article concludes, organizational leaders need to overcome primary concerns with liability and invest in a shared and long-term CHR process that creates spaces for ongoing discourse about the past.

Keywords:

• Crisis Communication
• Corporate Citizenship
• Corporate Historical Responsibility
• Forced Labor
• Reconciliation

Acknowledgments

This article is part of my dissertation research, and I would especially like to thank my advisor Joshua Boyd for his advice and support throughout this process. Additionally, I would like to thank Robin Jensen, Stacey Connaughton, Laurel Weldon, Paul Danyi and the two anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback and suggestions.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Claudia I. Janssen

Claudia I. Janssen (Ph.D, Purdue University, 2011) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the Deutsche Universität für Weiterbildung. Her research focuses on organizational rhetoric, remembrance, and crisis communication