Editorial: Toward an EDI agenda in corporate communications

Editorial 28.3: Human social responsibility

“…As with some previous editorials (e.g. on listening; Topić, 2022), I read articles and found a common message or a question that derives from articles even though this is not a special issue. What came to my mind when reading this issue's articles is asking to what extent are we socially responsible.…”

“…Partner on doing good" (Blackbaud Engage Blog, 2016). This is true, and as I have argued in a digital transformation editorial, as well as in an editorial on listening (Topi c, 2022(Topi c, , 2023, organisations indeed consist of humans and are not self-contained organisms, thus it is true that humans in the organisations can make choices that will change the world and turn corporations into organisations that do better. This will ultimately benefit organisations in terms of employee retention and engagement as well as branding (as Hutchinson also argues), but this obviously has implications in a wider area of issues and could be extended to consumer affairs and arguing that each and every one of us has the power to change the world and influence how the world is run and organised with decisions we make as part of publics.…”

Editorial 28.6: Corporate social irresponsibility

“…As argued in the editorial on equality, diversity and inclusion (Topić, 2022), CSR has always featured prominently in articles published in Corporate Communications and we have indeed been at the forefront of that scholarship (see figures 1 and 2 for scholarship published in 2021 and 2022 alone, however, the overall number in the journal is much higher) and in recent years we have also expanded our scholarship significantly to equality topics, including environmental equality and concerns (Topić, 2022). We continue in this spirit, for this issue, by further extending the debate on CSR and thus in this issue we tackle CSI in more detail including within the context of the environmental debate.…”

Editorial 29.2: Inclusivity and innovation

“…Meng and Neill (2021) argued that everyone needs to be treated equally and with respect and have their voices heard because research shows that practitioners of diverse origins often feel unheard, unsupported and not appreciated, which calls for more inclusive leadership and diversity in the communication industry. In the first editorial I wrote, after the first two years of editorship (Topić, 2022), I argued that Corporate Communications: An International Journal ( CCIJ ) has always been at the forefront of CSR, crisis and general corporate communication scholarship but that we expanded our scholarship to include equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) scholarship (in the USA, the term used is DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion)) and that we will continue to publish works that innovate corporate communication field, as academic journals should be open to all authors and inclusive in their approaches to publishing. Therefore, authors from marketing communication, media and several other areas were invited to submit their articles and consider CCIJ as a venue for publishing their work so that all elements of corporate communication are covered by the journal.…”