Aspects of communication that relate to sustainability
Communication has the most crucial role to play in ensuring success of an organization. In the absence of an effective communication strategy, organizations could not function smoothly. Companies perform communication related to sustainability to guarantee success in business through marketing and promoting social causes. The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) adopted by the organizations depends on the kind of communication that organizations do.
The report will discuss the aspects of communication that concern sustainability by drawing references from the works of scholars in this field and from other articles. Further, the report will talk about the communication done for conveying sustainability activities and achievements by the organizations. In doing so, the report will analyze the communication patterns followed in some renowned organizations. In addition, the report will highlight the sustainability of the communication activities of an organization that focus on sustainability and the need for managers to prioritize effective communication.
Communication has two fundamental aspects – verbal and non-verbal. Now, prior to delving upon the communication aspects relating to sustainability, it is important to understand first the concept of sustainability. Sustainability is most commonly associated with environment and the activities that ensure no damage is done to the environment while implementing plans for development. Sustainable development has been and is still the focus of international organizations and that has made them to urge the businesses to focus their activities on sustainability. In the Brundtland Commission Report of 1987, sustainable development “aims to meet the needs of both current and future generations” (Sustainabledevelopment2015.org 2018).
Rego, Cunha and Polónia (2017) highlight the role of communication in the process of corporate sustainability. According to the authors, “companies engage in communications about sustainability issues for marketing, business and societal reasons”. They argue that professionalization is important to save the emerging field of accomplishment for public relations (PR) practitioners. Public relations practitioners are the ones who mostly look after the communication activities of a corporation related to sustainability and other social issues.
Coming to the aspects of communication that associate with sustainability, as mentioned above, the public relations is vital in the process. Public relation practitioners working in different organizations are responsible for communicating the sustainability related strategies to the public and the government amongst other stakeholders. Siano et al. (2016) however, state that in the contemporary world, digital communication has become an important aspect of communication related to sustainability. The authors argue that the increasing interest in corporate sustainability “has encouraged organizations to adopt appropriate digital communication strategies, in which the corporate website plays a key role” (Siano et al. 2016). However, they further argue, sustainability communication through online mode has received least attention from academicians and business communities. Either communicating through PR officials or through digital platforms, corporate sustainability communication is vital for success.
Amini and Bienstock (2014) are of the view that sustainability and communication professionals must work in tandem to bridge the knowledge gap between knowing sustainability and communicating it. Secondly, the diverse sustainability definitions must be understood clearly and one fundamental definition should be followed in order to communicate sustainability effectively. The largest coffee manufacturing and serving company in the world, Starbucks, has already implemented this aspect of sustainability communication by making it an ethical choice at every supply chain phase.
Communication of sustainability activities and achievements
The above discussion thus reveals that public relations, digital communication, collaboration between sustainability and communication professionals and setting a fixed definition of sustainability are the important aspects of communication related to sustainability. These aspects of communication thus reveal a lot about the sustainability strategies of a company. The next section shall focus on CSR as a communication tool of companies with which they communicate sustainability activities and achievements.
Companies have started to follow the recurring trends of communication in order to relay their sustainability activities and achievements to the public. It is important here to mention that sustainability activities and achievements are referred to as the CSR activities and achievements. These have become vital to a company’s success apart from the financial success. Nonetheless, many companies have struggled to communicate their CSR activities although they had a strong CSR policy. As Blome, Foerstl and Schleper (2017) observe, companies that fail to communicate their CSR activities wisely, are accused by people of ‘greenwashing’. The term ‘greenwashing’ means the use of green credentials or environmentalism to propose that a company’s products, services and policies are environmental friendly. In broader terms, ‘greenwashing’ refers to the attempt by PR officials to provide false information about a company’s sustainability activities and achievements. This leads to the negative publicity of firms who are genuinely involved in CSR activities.
It is thus important that firms use proper communication tools and channels to communicate their achievements and activities regarding sustainability. Crane and Glozer (2016) note that one of the prime challenges for companies to effectively communicate their CSR activities is to make these sound relevant to the organization’s goals. To overcome such challenges, a company must have an effective communicator who possesses these five attributes (Crane and Glozer 2016):
- Comprehends the chief environmental and social issues that worry the stakeholders and shares those worries
- Realizes the significance of communicating without bragging or exaggerating
- Understands the way CSR activities add value to and fits with the organization’s overall strategy
- Establishes good connection with the teams responsible for collecting and analyzing data on sustainability issues
- Has great knowledge of the time and manner to use the social media
With these attributes, a communicator could be an asset to the company when it comes to communicating the company’s CSR activities ad achievements. The communicator possessing these qualities also knows the things to do and not to do while communicating the CSR activities of a company. The communicator knows that he or she must provide accurate and factual data regarding the company’s involvement in CSR activities and its achievements. Further, the communicator knows that he or she must demonstrate alignment of the CSR activities and policies with the company’s vision and strategy. In addition to that, the communicator must use accurate data of the CSR achievements.
It is therefore clear that communication is an important element that ensures the effective circulation f activities and achievements related to CSR.
In the light of the above discussion, it has become clear that effective communication holds the key to the sustainable success of an organization. It brings forth the point regarding the sustainability of an organization’s communication activities. One-time communication of CSR related activities becomes futile, as the public would soon forget the activities. Apart from that, it also creates distrust amongst public regarding the credibility of the company in terms of sustainability. In such situations, companies need to focus on sustainable communication along with communicating sustainability. The example of Volkswagen mentioned in the above section provides a solid foundation from where sustainable communication could be explained. Prior to the emissions scandal, the company and its CEO had made strong claims about its sustainability policies. The 2014 annual report of Volkswagen read, “Thanks to its corporate culture, Volkswagen is better suited than almost any other company to combine a modern understanding of responsibility and sustainability with traditional values of running a business” (Annualreport2014.volkswagenag.com 2018). The then CEO Martin Winkerton further claimed, “Our pursuit of innovation and perfection and our responsible approach will help to make us the world’s leading automaker by 2018 – both economically and ecologically” (Annualreport2014.volkswagenag.com 2018). Both these claims fell flat after it was discovered that the company had rigged emissions test taken by the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S (Bbc.com 2018). This incident fueled widespread mistrust of the public on big companies, which led to the damaged reputation of not only Volkswagen but also many other German-based companies. Piecyk and Björklund (2015) state that most companies still do not prioritize CSR communication as part of their business.
As evident, effectively communicating CSR activities and achievements is equally important as drafting CSR policies and acting upon those. In the views of Eberle, Berens and Li (2013) companies are under pressure “to communicate information related to CSR owing to the increasing number of corporate scandals that has put social and ethical commitment to society at stake. The authors have found from their study on the views of management teams on corporate communication of CSR that the focus on this aspect of business has increased. The increase has resulted from the controversies and scandals surrounding the communication of CSR activities, like that of the Volkswagen emissions scandal.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be stated that communication is an important tool to ensure success and managers must include in the business strategy for organizations. Prioritizing communication especially in terms of corporate sustainability allows managers to convey clearly to the stakeholders. As evident from the above analysis, effective communication of CSR activities and achievements require able and effective communicator. The manager could be that communicator who possesses qualities as mentioned in the above discussion. further, it is also important that the communication is sustainable that is, it is followed by the company with conviction and dedication.
References:
Amini, M. and Bienstock, C.C., 2014. Corporate sustainability: an integrative definition and framework to evaluate corporate practice and guide academic research. Journal of Cleaner Production, 76, pp.12-19.
Annualreport2014.volkswagenag.com (2018). Volkswagen Konzern – AR 2014 – Moving progress. [online] Annualreport2014.volkswagenag.com. Available at: https://annualreport2014.volkswagenag.com/ [Accessed 21 Sep. 2018].
Bbc.com (2018). Volkswagen: The scandal explained. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772 [Accessed 21 Sep. 2018].
Blome, C., Foerstl, K. and Schleper, M.C., 2017. Antecedents of green supplier championing and greenwashing: An empirical study on leadership and ethical incentives. Journal of cleaner production, 152, pp.339-350.
Crane, A. and Glozer, S., 2016. Researching corporate social responsibility communication: Themes, opportunities and challenges. Journal of Management Studies, 53(7), pp.1223-1252.
Eberle, D., Berens, G. and Li, T., 2013. The impact of interactive corporate social responsibility communication on corporate reputation. Journal of business ethics, 118(4), pp.731-746.
Piecyk, M.I. and Björklund, M., 2015. Logistics service providers and corporate social responsibility: sustainability reporting in the logistics industry. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 45(5), pp.459-485.
Rego, A., e Cunha, M.P. and Polónia, D., 2017. Corporate sustainability: A view from the top. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(1), pp.133-157.
Siano, A., Conte, F., Amabile, S., Vollero, A. and Piciocchi, P., 2016. Communicating sustainability: an operational model for evaluating corporate websites. Sustainability, 8(9), p.950.
Sustainabledevelopment2015.org (2018). The Brundtland Report ’Our Common Future’. [online] Sustainabledevelopment2015.org. Available at: https://www.sustainabledevelopment2015.org/AdvocacyToolkit/index.php/earth-summit-history/historical-documents/92-our-common-future [Accessed 21 Sep. 2018].
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