Abstract
Societies are increasingly characterized by polarization and fragmentation on a variety of socio-political issues. With the heightened social visibility of corporations, as a result of processes of mediatization, firms are pressured to engage with such social issues that are part of broader political discourses. Against the backdrop of these broad socio-political shifts, this study conceptually addresses the contribution of public relations to understanding the politicization of corporations and their environment. We argue that corporations have become inherently intertwined with their mediatized and polarized socio-political surroundings. As a result, corporations are increasingly pressured to speak out and take a stance on social issues to engage with their environment and renew their social license to operate (SLO) in a context characterized by political divides. By relying on concepts like issue arenas and corporate political advocacy, we argue that corporations can use public relations to publicly promote one ideal over another, by being guided by the corporation’s own intrinsic values and moral standpoints rather than efforts to balance competing interests of multiple stakeholders.
Highlights
Society is increasingly characterized by political divides among publics
We argue that corporations are increasingly affected by and contextually involved with this social environment characterized by political divides among publics
The examples illustrate how this politicization of corporations and their environment makes them enter issue arenas that are not directly related to their core businesses. In communicating their explicit support for one group or ideal over another, the corporations engage in a public relations approach that can be conceptualized as corporate political advocacy with the aim to maintain their social license to operate (SLO) in a society that is characterized by political divides
Summary
Society is increasingly characterized by political divides among publics. A growing level of political polarization is driving citizens across the world apart (e.g., Prior, 2013; Van Aelst et al, 2017). We argue the need to understand engagement beyond corporations’ socio-political actions based on pure self-interest – e.g., corporate political activity (e.g., Hillman, Keim, & Schuler, 2004) – and philanthropical or holistic motives – e.g., political CSR (e.g., Scherer & Palazzo, 2011) – and rely more on the concept of corporate political advocacy (Wettstein & Baur, 2016) This conceptual understanding of promoting one ideal over another, can help corporations maintain and repeatedly renew their SLO within complex communicative processes characterized by divides among publics, where they are guided by their own values and ideals. In light of the current state of public relations literature, we start by dis cussing corporations’ SLO in the context of societal processes of polar ization and mediatization in an effort to introduce the politicization of corporations and their environment, and, in a step, public relations concepts are consulted to explore how corporations can best engage with their politicized environment
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