Impression management tactics in sustainability reporting

Abstract

Purpose – The study aims to analyzes how companies present their actions to give the impression that they are sustainable actors. It identifies the organizational impression management tactics that companies use in sustainability reporting. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative template analysis of two sustainability reports was conducted to inductively identify the organizational impression management tactics that companies use in sustainability reporting. Findings – The study identified eight organizational impression management tactics used in sustainability reporting, four of which relate to how companies present their actions while the remaining four are characteristic of the writing styles that companies use. Research limitations/implications – The study is exploratory in nature and does not claim to identify all existing impression management tactics. Therefore, future research is needed to confirm the results and identify possible additional tactics. Practical implications – Companies can use impression management tactics that more strongly aim to shape the impressions that stakeholders hold or tactics that more neutrally inform stakeholders of their actions. Companies need to make a choice between the two, considering that stakeholders’ expectations of sustainability reporting would be useful. Originality/value – The study shows the different ways that companies use impression management in sustainability reporting, thus lending insight into a perspective on sustainability reporting that has rarely been explored in previous research.

Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting: Evidence of Reputation Risk Management in Large Australian Companies

“…This rhetorical strategy of shifting the blame may lessen the potential negative impact of an incident on corporate reputation, particularly if the incident has been broadcast widely by the media. However, this strategy is not without risk (see Lorenzoni and Pidgeon ; Sandberg and Holmlund ). The business relationship between the company and the contractor may suffer.…”

Impression Management in Graphical Representation of Economic, Social, and Environmental Issues: An Empirical Study

“…The research on organizational impression management tactics has been scarce and scattered [21]. In other words, organizational impression management field is wide-open for further investigations [22].…”

“…There have been different impression management classifications used in previous research. For example, Hooghiemstra [29] identified the impression management tactics as acclaiming and accounting, Bansal and Kistruck [30] classified them as demonstrative and illustrative, Higgins and Walker [31] used credibility, reason, emotion, Sandberg and Holmlund [21] categorized them as description, praise, defense, and admission, Jones and Pittman [32], Cooper and Slack [33], and Mohamed et al [34] used assertive and defensive tactics. Impression management can enable companies to present a self-serving view in corporate and sustainability reporting.…”

“…Credibility, reason, and emotions are used as persuasive appeals in discourse analysis. Sandberg and Holmlund [21] focused on different organizational impression management tactics in sustainability reports. They found that description (giving information about actions) and admission (admit its failure in environmental responsibility) strategies are more frequently used than praise (portraying itself to environmentally friendly) and defense (give response to reputation damage) strategies.…”

Writing Styles of Ceo Statements in Sustainability Reports

“…In sustainability reports, organizations want to give impressions as sustainable actors by balancing between favorable and unfavorable information to their stakeholders (Sandberg and Holmlund, 2015). Impression management can examine management' efforts to execute the interpretation of reports.…”