PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how firms build and develop corporate discourse in the field of corporate social responsibility (CRS). The paper has two main objectives: to clarify notions that are used when analyzing discourse; and to provide a qualitative methodology to analyze how the discourse is used to construct a CRS strategy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a qualitative methodology, deconstructing four CRS reports using a story‐telling approach.FindingsThe analysis shows that firms construct their environment while marketing the report on social responsibility, in order to make of it an asset in an institutional communication system.Research limitations/implicationsFurther attention should be devoted to the specificity of qualitative approach and to discourse analysis (selection of the corpus, validity and triangulation, etc.).Originality/valueThe paper shows how discourse can be used to provide competitive advantage. It also provides a clear framework while using discourse analysis and identifies the major pitfalls that should be avoided when using such a methodology.
PurposeThe notion of professionalism is polysemic in nature. This paper aims at analysing the development of this notion and identifying its components. The paper examines the process that leads to the development of professionalism based on the interaction between the actors and the organization. These social interactions, grounded in an organizational environment, reveal the tensions that such interactions expose.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on qualitative methodology using semi‐directive interviews and provides an example of application.FindingsThis paper focuses on how professionalism can be developed, generating acts, implementing actions, and using resources.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents one example in a specific field and should be put in perspective with other examples and fields.Originality/valueThis paper clarifies the notion of professionalism and identifies specific elements that have to be taken into account when developing it.
The topics of the social and environmental responsibility for the companies, deontological rules, codes of control and ethical charters, exercise of the voting rights to the service of the durable development, choices of investment of the funds, ethical placements are more and more often discussed. The companies and their stakeholders, the investors and the managers financial feel increasingly concerned by these questions. As a result more and more literature can be found on those subjects and more specifically on the strategy developed by firms to implement social responsibility. The perception that companies have of their social responsibility as well as the action plans that they initiate in this field can be analyzed using panoply of semantic tools. Based on four institutional communications produced by the companies themselves, we will determine beyond what is said, what the corporate world really says about social responsibility. The alternative use of two types of tools will enable us to reveal, beyond simple expression, the way in which these organizations conceive their social role: ‐ the interactional view and the relational analysis, as developed by the Palo Alto Group ‐ metaphorical analysis, according to the principal metaphorical families characterized by Morgan (1983)
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