Proceedings: Conference on Corporate Communication 2012 Page 1

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility within the Organisation
Perceptions of Internal Stakeholders
Margaret Brunton & Gabriel Eweje
School of Communication, Journalism and Marketing
College of Business,
Massey, Albany, New Zealand
M.A.Brunton@massey.ac.nz
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify whether the CSR messages that managers
believe they are communicating to internal stakeholders enhance levels of identification with
concomitant corporate values.
Methodology: Interviews were held with CSR/sustainability managers in 20 NZ organisations in
the NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development. An online questionnaire was developed
from interview data and distributed to all staff to explore identification with their organization’s
espoused CSR strategies. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed from 100 respondents
in one large corporate.
Findings: The findings from this ongoing research demonstrate that perceptions of internal
stakeholders are often ignored in the communication process. As a result, some CSR messages
are identified as neither valid nor accurate. Information is necessary but not sufficient to assure
identification with CSR activities.
Research and practical implications: The role of internal corporate communication as integral
to ultimately communicating the external legitimacy that organisations seek, appears to be
overlooked.
Keywords: CSR, Communication management, New Zealand.
Stream: Corporate responsibility
Paper type: Research
Abstracts of <strong>Conference</strong> <strong>Proceedings</strong>: <strong>Conference</strong> on Corporate Communication 2012
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