Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India: A dialectical analysis of the communicative construction of the meanings and boundaries of CSR in India

Abstract

Academic research tends to examine the communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) using mostly functionalist or critical approaches and to a lesser extent, a dialogic perspective. This article extends the latter perspective by employing a dialectical approach to empirically analyze how organizational actors communicatively construct meanings and boundaries of CSR in India. Based on data generated through in-depth interviews with senior managers of companies recognized as socially responsible in India, the analysis reveals two key dialectics – the dialectic of selflessness and selfishness inherent in the discursive construction of the meaning of CSR in India as inclusive growth and the dialectic of togetherness and separateness in the articulation of boundaries of CSR in India as shared social responsibility. The article concludes with implications for research on CSR communication.