Colorful diverse teamwork doodle, hand

Online corporate communication of diversity and inclusion: washing as aspirational talk

Ahmed, S. (2007a), “‘You end up doing the document rather than doing the doing’: diversity, race equality and the politics of documentation”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 590609, doi: 10.1080/01419870701356015.

Ahmed, S. (2007b), “The language of diversity”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 235256, doi: 10.1080/01419870601143927.

Amis, J.M., Mair, J. and Munir, K.A. (2020), “Organizational reproduction of inequality”, Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 136, doi: 10.5465/annals.2017.0033.

Arciniega, L.C. (2021), “Selling diversity to white men: how disentangling economics from morality is a racial and gendered performance”, Organization, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 228246, doi: 10.1177/1350508420930341.

Balluchi, F., Lazzini, A. and Torelli, R. (2020), “CSR and greenwashing: a matter of perception in the search of legitimacy”, in Del Baldo, M., Dillard, J., Baldarelli, M.G. and Ciambotti, M. (Eds), In: Accounting, Accountability and Society. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, Springer, Cham, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-41142-8_8.

Barbosa, I. and Cabral-Cardoso, C. (2010), “Equality and diversity rhetoric: one size fits all? Globalization and the Portuguese context”, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 97112, doi: 10.1108/02610151011019237.

Blombäck, A. and Scandelius, C. (2013), “Corporate heritage in CSR communication: a means to responsible brand image?”, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 362382, doi: 10.1108/CCIJ-07-2012-0048.

Boiral, O., Heras-Saizarbitoria, I. and Testa, F. (2017), “SA8000 as CSR-washing? The role of stakeholder pressures”, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 5770, doi: 10.1002/csr.1391.

Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006), “Using thematic analysis in psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 77101, doi: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Bromley, P. and Powell, W.W. (2012), “From smoke and mirrors to walking the talk: decoupling in the contemporary world”, The Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 1 No. 6, pp. 483530, doi: 10.1080/19416520.2012.684462.

Brunsson, N. (2002), The Organization of Hypocrite. Talk, Decisions and Actions in Organizations, 2nd ed., Malmö, Liber.

Christensen, L.T., Morsing, M. and Thyssen, O. (2013), “CSR as aspirational talk”, Organization, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 372393, doi: 10.1177/1350508413478310.

Christensen, L.T., Morsing, M. and Thyssen, O. (2015), “Discursive closure and discursive openings of sustainability”, Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 135144, doi: 10.1177/0893318914563574.

Christensen, L.T., Morsing, M. and Thyssen, O. (2020), “Timely hypocrite? Hypocrite temporalities in CSR communication”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 114, pp. 327335, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.020.

Christensen, L.T., Morsing, M. and Thyssen, O. (2021), “Talk–action dynamics: modalities of aspirational talk”, Organization Studies, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 407427, doi: 10.1177/0170840619896267.

Cooren, F. (1999), The Organizing Property of Communication, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam.

Coupland, C. (2005), “Corporate social responsibility as argument on the web”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 62 No. 4, pp. 355366, doi: 10.1007/s10551-005-1953-y.

Dade, A. and Hassenzahl, D.M. (2013), “Communicating sustainability: a content analysis of website communications in the United States”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 254263, doi: 10.1108/ijshe-08-2011-0053.

de Freitas Netto, S.V., Sobral, M.F.F., Ribeiro, A.R.B. and da Luz Soares, G.R. (2020), “Concepts and forms of greenwashing: a systematic review”, Environmental Sciences Europe, Vol. 32 No. 19, 19, doi: 10.1186/s12302-020-0300-3.

Dubois, A. and Gadde, L.-E. (2002), “Systematic combining: an abductive approach to case research”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 55 No. 7, pp. 553560, doi: 10.1016/S0148-2963(00)00195-8.

Eisenberg, E.M. (1984), “Ambiguity as strategy in organizational communication”, Communications Monographs, Vol. 51 No. 3, pp. 227242, doi: 10.1080/03637758409390197.

Fairhurst, G.T. and Putnam, L. (2004), “Organizations as discursive constructions”, Communication Theory, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 526, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2004.tb00301.x.

Forestier, O. and Kim, R.E. (2020), “Cherry-picking the sustainable development goals: goal prioritization by national governments and implications for global governance”, Sustainable Development, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 12691278, doi: 10.1002/sd.2082.

Gatti, L., Seele, P. and Rademacher, L. (2019), “Grey zone in–greenwash out. A review of greenwashing research and implications for the voluntary-mandatory transition of CSR”, International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 115, doi: 10.1186/s40991-019-0044-9.

Glavas, D., Grolleau, G. and Mzoughi, N. (2023), “Greening the greenwashers – how to push greenwashers to more sustainable trajectories”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 382, doi: 10.1016/j.clepro.2022.135301.

Greenbaum, R.L., Mawritz, M.B. and Piccolo, R.F. (2015), “When leaders fail to ‘walk the talk’. Supervisor undermining and perceptions of leader hypocrite”, Journal of Management, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 929956, doi: 10.1177/0149206312442386.

Grimes, D.S. (2002), “Challenging the status quo? Whiteness in the diversity management literature”, Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 381409, doi: 10.1177/0893318902153003.

Guo, R., Tao, L., Yan, L. and Gao, P. (2014), “The effect path of greenwashing brand trust in Chinese microbiological industry from decoupling view”, Bio Technology: An Indian Journal, Vol. 10 No. 7, pp. 18271831.

Hamza, S. and Jarboui, A. (2022), “CSR: a moral obligation or a strategic behavior”, in Orlando, B. (Ed.), Corporate Social Responsibility, IntechOpen, doi: 10.5772/intechopen.94471.

Heras-Saizarbitoria, I., Urbieta, L. and Boiral, O. (2021), “Organizations’ engagement with sustainable development goals: from cherry-picking to SDG-washing?”, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Vol. 29 No. 2, pp. 316328, doi: 10.1002/csr.2202.

Høvring, C.M., Andersen, S.E. and Nielsen, A.E. (2018), “Discursive tensions in CSR multi-stakeholder dialogue: a foucauldian perspective”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 152 No. 3, pp. 627645, doi: 10.1007/s10551-016-3330-4.

Jarzabkowski, P., , J.K. and Van de Ven, A.H. (2013), “Responding to competing strategic demands: how organizing, belonging, and performing paradoxes coevolve”, Strategic Organization, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 245280, doi: 10.1177/1476127013481016.

Jonsen, K., Point, S., Kelan, E.K. and Grieble, A. (2019), “Diversity and inclusion branding: a five-country comparison of corporate websites”, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 30 No. 0, pp. 134, doi: 10.1080/09585192.2018.1496125.

Kalev, A., Dobbin, F. and Kelly, K. (2006), “Best practices or best guesses? Diversity management and the remediation of inequality”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 71, pp. 589917, doi: 10.1177/000312240607100404.

Kelly, E. and Dobbin, F. (1998), “How affirmative action became diversity management: employer response to antidiscrimination law, 1961 to 1996”, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 41 No. 7, pp. 960984, doi: 10.1177/0002764298041007008.

Kirton, G. and Greene, A.-M. (2009), “The costs and opportunities of doing diversity work in mainstream organisations”, Human Resource Management Journal, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 159175, doi: 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2009.00091.x.

Koep, L. (2017), “Tensions in aspirational CSR communication – a Longitudinal investigation of CSR reporting”, Sustainability, Vol. 9 No. 12, p. 2202, doi: 10.3390/su9122202.

Lee Ashcraft, K. and Allen, B.J. (2003), “The racial foundation of organizational communication”, Communication Theory, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 538, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2003.tb00280.x.

Liu, H. (2017), “Undoing whiteness: the Dao of anti-racist diversity practice”, Gender, Work and Organization, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 457471, doi: 10.1111/gwao.12142.

Marquis, C., Toffel, M.W. and Zhou, Y. (2016), “Scrutiny, norms, and selective disclosure: a global study of greenwashing”, Organization Science, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 233504, doi: 10.1287/orsc.2015.1039.

Mease, J.J. (2016), “Embracing discursive paradox: consultants navigating the constitutive tensions of diversity work”, Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 5983, doi: 10.1177/0893318915604239.

Meyer, R.E. and Höllerer, M.A. (2016), “Laying a smoke screen: ambiguity and neutralization as strategic responses to intra-institutional complexity”, Strategic Organization, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 373406, doi: 10.1177/1476127016633335.

Mhlanga, R., Gneiting, U. and Agarwal, N. (2018), “Walking the talk: assessing companies’ progress from SDG rhetoric to action”, Oxfam Discussion Papers. doi: 10.21201/2018.3378.

Molander, S., Östberg, J. and Kleppe, I.A. (2019), “Swedish dads as a national treasure: consumer culture at the nexus of the state, commerce, and consumers”, in Askegaard, S. and Östberg, J. (Eds), In Nordic Consumer Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp. 119146, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-04933-1_6.

Ng, E.S.W., Schweitzer, L. and Lyons, S.T. (2010), “New generation, great expectations: a field study of the millennial generation”, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 281292, doi: 10.1007/s10869-010-9159-4.

Oswick, C. and Noon, M. (2014), “Discourses of diversity, equality and inclusion: trenchant formulations or transient fashions?”, British Journal of Management, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 2339, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00830.x.

Pasztor, S.K. (2016), “Exploring the framing of diversity rhetoric in ‘top-rated in diversity’ organizations”, International Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 56 No. 4, pp. 455475, doi: 10.1177/2329488416664175.

Pittman, M. and Sheehan, K. (2021), “Brand authenticity and strategic response to crises: symbolic effects of donation type on purchase intent and digital engagement”, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 215235, doi: 10.1080/10641734.2020.1734503.

Pope, S. and Wæraas, A. (2016), “CSR-washing is rare: a conceptual framework, literature review, and critique”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 137 No. 1, pp. 173193, doi: 10.1007/s10551-015-2546-z.

Putnam, L.L., Fairhurst, G.T. and Banghart, S. (2016), “Contradictions, dialectics, and paradoxes in organizations: a constitutive approach”, The Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 65171, doi: 10.1080/19416520.2016.1162421.

Reid, S. (2014), “Lost in translation: ethnocentric tendency in website communication”, International Journal of Cultural and Digital Tourism, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 5572.

Romani, L., Holck, L., Holgersson, C. and Muhr, S.L. (2017), “Diversity management and the Scandinavian model: illustrations from Denmark and Sweden”, Management and Diversity (International Perspectives on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), Emerald Publishing, Bingley, Vol. 3, pp. 261280. doi: 10.1108/S2051-233320160000003011.

Scandelius, C. and Cohen, G. (2016), “Achieving collaboration with diverse stakeholders – the role of strategic ambiguity in CSR communication”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 69 No. 9, pp. 34873499, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.01.037.

Schoeneborn, D., Morsing, M. and Crane, A. (2020), “Formative perspectives on the relation between CSR communication and CSR practices: pathways for walking, talking, and T(w)alking”, Business and Society, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 533, doi: 10.1177/0007650319845091.

Siano, A., Vollero, A., Conte, F. and Amabile, S. (2017), “‘More than words’: expanding the taxonomy of greenwashing after the Volkswagen scandal”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 71, pp. 2737, doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.11.002.

Siegel, K.M. and Bastos Lima, M.G. (2020), “When international sustainability frameworks encounter domestic politics: the sustainable development goals and agri-food governance in South America”, World Development, Vol. 135, 105053, doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105053.

Smith, W.K. and Lewis, M. (2011), “Toward A theory of paradox: a dynamic equilibrium model of organizing”, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 36 No. 2, pp. 381403, doi: 10.5465/amr.2009.0223.

Sobande, F. (2020), “Woke-washing: ‘intersectional’ femvertising and branding ‘woke’ braveryig”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 54 No. 11, pp. 27232745, doi: 10.1108/EJM-02-2019-0134.

Stemler, S.E. (2015), “Content analysis”, in Scott, R.A., Buchmann, M. and Stephen Kosslyn (Eds), Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: an Interdisciplinary, Searchable and Linkable Resource, John Wiley & Sons, pp. 114, doi: 10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0053.

Van der Waal, J.W. and Thijssens, T. (2020), “Corporate involvement in sustainable development goals: exploring the territory”, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 252, 119625, doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119625.

Wagner, T., Lutz, R.J. and Weitz, B.A. (2009), “Corporate hypocrite: overcoming the threat of inconsistent corporate social responsibility perceptions”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 73 No. 6, pp. 7791, doi: 10.1509/jmkg.73.6.

Walker, K. and Wan, F. (2011), “The harm of symbolic actions and green-washing: corporate actions and communications on environmental performance and their financial implications”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 109 No. 2, pp. 227242, doi: 10.1007/s10551-011-1122-4.

source

Leave a Comment

Skip to content