The Collaboration Communication Conundrum: NGOs as CSR Actors, Beneficiaries, and Adversaries

Abstract

Over the past several decades, nongovernmental organizations have increasingly formed partnerships with businesses and worked to promote corporate social responsibility (CSR). Yet, these cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) create myriad challenges for nongovernmental organizations, such as power imbalance and value incongruence, that they must manage in their communication with stakeholders and the public. This chapter focuses on these challenges as well as the roles nongovernmental organizations play in CSSPs. Using the institutional logics perspective, this chapter seeks to explain why dialectical tensions often arise in CSSPs involving nongovernmental organizations and corporations. It suggests that nongovernmental organizations primarily espouse a social welfare logic, whereas companies primarily embrace the market logic, and that this leads to distinct goals and stakeholder priorities, management principles, accountability and governance mechanisms, and expected benefits in partnerships. The chapter concludes with suggestions for strategic communication management of the challenges in CSSPs. It also points out several fruitful areas for future research in the intersection of CSR, CSSPs, and interorganizational networks.