Communication about Sustainability
The primary purpose of the paper is to evaluate aspects of communication about sustainability. It is noticed that in the current trend organizations faces problem in maintaining sustainability due to the lack of communication approach. Therefore, the paper will discuss this communication problem about sustainability achievements and activities. Moreover, the paper will also provide information regarding the sustainability of the organizations in concerning communication activities.
Communication simply defines the thoughts, ideas, as well as feelings by a sender to a receiver in concerning verbal or non-verbal sources and sustainability, is related to communicate both internally and externally. To develop sustainability, the managers of the firm need to expresses themselves both externally and internally by using proper mode of communication. Also, some scholars demonstrate sustainability as a mode of communication that is capable of connecting people with the society (Reim, Parida, and Örtqvist, 2015). Besides this, it also helps the managers of an organization in lowering the operating costs which thereby enhances their competitive advantage in the market using communication. In other words, communication plays an important role in maintaining the sustainability of an organization. It is noticed that when there is a lack of communication in the management team, then it became hard for the manager to implement changes to make the firm more sustainable.
From here it is clear that internal communication between the managers and their employees is essential to maintain a sustainable work environment. In other words, external communication with the shareholders, community and consumers are considered to be a sustainability strategy because maintaining a good relation with the external environment help the managers to support a sustainable work environment (Maas, Schaltegger, and Crutzen, 2016). Thus for these reasons, it is clear that communication is important for developing sustainability in an organization. It is noted that sustainability is an issue that is characterized by high levels of uncertainty and complexity and for reducing its effects communication is considered as the main agent. Apart from this, it is seen that communication becomes an important procedure for creating a common understanding in concerning to the social values of sustainability which thereby helps the firm to maintain a sustainable environment in their working field (Reilly, and Hynan, 2014).
It is noted that the implementation of sustainable development is very difficult for a manager but with the help of proper communication with their juniors and superiors help them to maintain sustainability in the work environment. Besides, communication incorporates the perception of sustainability issues and it serves as an essential functions of structuring arguments, facts and framing concerns that help in diminishing the sustainability problem (Baumgartner, and Rauter, 2017). It is noted that communication not only helps in maintaining sustainability in the organization, but it also provides awareness for sustainability considerations. Hence it is clear that connection has a linkage to sustainable development and proper communication strategy by the managers with their employees help them to maintain sustainability in the working environment.
Communication of Sustainability Activities and Achievements (Corporate Social Responsibility)
Sustainability activities and performances are related to the corporate social responsibility which is considered as a vital part of staying in a competitive business process in the market environment. While in the current trend a key challenge has been noticed in communicating a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and for this issue, the managers are unable to fulfil the demands of their stakeholders (Brones, de Carvalho, and de Senzi Zancul, 2014). With the lack of proper communication the CSR activities of an organization possess a negative impact on the working environment. Hence for reducing these type of issues, the manager has to maintain good communication with the external environment so that they follow corporate social responsibility without any difficulties. Some scholars suggested that communication is a part of this corporate social responsibility (CSR) as proper communication with the corporate world help the managers to satisfy their stakeholders’ expectations (Büyüközkan, and Karabulut, 2018). It is so called because CSR defines the relationship between the organizations with the society.
The primary motive of this corporate social responsibility in concerning communication is to fulfil the demands of their stakeholders and to deal with the challenges of their current complex dynamic business environment. Hence, the skill of proper communication help the manager to fight with all of the environmental forces and thereby it enhance the organization performance in the market. In other words, discussion of sustainability activities or corporate social responsibility are the procedures through which stakeholders can easily perceive both firm’s reputation as well as image (Stacchezzini, Melloni, and Lai, 2016). So it is clear that if the manager maintains good communication with their stakeholders in concerning CSR, then it became easy for the managers to enhance their brand image and reputation in the market. Besides this, CSR is considered as the voluntary business activities that help the growth of business procedures in the market. So using proper communication, both sustainability achievements and activities can be performed by the manager of the organization. To meet and understand the public’s expectations, corporations of an organization should communicate their CSR activities through proper strategy (Piecyk, and Björklund, 2015).
Also, it is noticed that the firms in current days reduce their corporate social responsibility issues using proper communication and maintaining the commitment to stakeholders. This strategy of maintaining proper commination as well as commitment help the manager of the firm to develop their sustainability activities and achievements respectively. In other words, for maintaining the commitments towards their stakeholders, the managers develop online communication procedures that help them to maintain their corporate social responsibility (Strand, Freeman, and Hockerts, 2015). Hence it can be said that CSR holds a central place in the pragmatic and ethical outlook of sustainable development and for reducing the CSR problem proper communication with the society as well as the stakeholder should be maintained. It is noticed that an organization which participates in CSR activities must possess a good communication skill so that they can easily understand the needs of their stakeholder and thus it thereby help them to maintain a sustainable working environment. Hence from the view of managers, proper communication with the external environment help the organization not to enhances their business growth but also help them to maintain their sustainability activities and achievements in concerning to CSR.
Sustainability of an Organization’s Communication Activities
The sustainability of an organization or merely the organizational sustainability by good communication guides the decision-making process of the managers to enhance their competitive advantage in the market. Lack of communication created the issue in maintaining both the sustainability of the organization and affected the decisions making the process of the managers (Schaltegger, and Burritt, 2018). In other words, it is noted that maintaining the sustainability of an organization is a very complex procedure but it can be maintained if proper communication is held between both the external and internal environment. Besides this, in the current trend, a large number of organization mainly invests money in developing their sustainability by communication activities. The managers of the organization maintain proper communication with both of their external and internal environment so that they can easily maintain their competitive advantage in their market. Apart from this, the principle of organizational sustainability states that the currents needs of the firm must be fulfilled and it does not affect the working procedure of the firm (Lubberink, Blok, van Ophem, and Omta, 2017).
Therefore, for doing this, all the employees including the managers and workers both have to maintain proper communication with each other and with their stakeholders also. In other words, it is seen that sustainable practices generally vary and it depend on organizational structure and size, strategic planning and level of business maturity. Hence in concerning these procedures, the managers of the organization has to develop proper communication strategies with both of their members in external and internal working environment. The company that maintain proper communication strategies with both of their external and internal working environment can enable to maintain sustainability in their business procedure (Font, Elgammal, and Lamond, 2017). Furthermore, it can be said that for maintaining the sustainability of organizations, the managers have to make the working environment friendlier so that each does not hesitate to communicate with their superiors. In other words, the sustainability of an organization’s is sustained only when sometimes the managers itself communicate with their customers, and this helps them to know the demands and needs of their stakeholders. By knowing their demands, it became easier for the managers to maintain their internal working environment which thereby enhances the sustainability of the organization regarding communication activities.
Conclusion
The paper concluded that communication issue concerning sustainability could possess huge effects on the working environment of the firm. For maintaining the sustainability of an organization, the managers should have to make a proper communication strategy about both of their internal and external working environment. Furthermore, it is noticed that the corporate social responsibility issues can be decreased if the firm maintains proper commitment with their stakeholders. Moreover, it is noticed that maintain a friendlier environment in the working place also help the managers to develop a sustainable working environment.
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