Social Issues Management Research Articles

Corporate social advocacy or social issues management? Examining state flagship universities’ responses to the killing of George Floyd

Colleges and universities are social institutions often called on to speak about socio-political issues (e.g., racism). Critics have suggested that when responding to instances of racism on their campuses, institutional leaders often ignore the racist acts and harm caused and focus their discourse on diversity and inclusion. Considering this critique, this study examined how state flagship universities in the United States (U.S.) responded to the killing of George Floyd through the lenses of social issues management and corporate social advocacy (CSA). Through my critical thematic analysis of all 50 U.S. state flagship universities’ initial public statements, I forward three key findings: (1) institutions constructed Floyd’s killing as an example of racism; (2) through their statements institutions localized the issue by focusing on their values or centering marginalized community members’ experiences; and (3) the majority of institutional responses functioned to reinforce the individualistic logics of whiteness. Based on these findings, I argue that to advance research on organizational communication about social issues, CSA should be considered beyond overt statements for or against issues and suggest that as organizations discuss socio-political issues their communication may reinforce hegemonic ideologies and create paradoxes for their marginalized publics. I conclude by proposing an approach to social issues management that could be used by organizations seeking to promote social justice.

Ventriloquizing Institutional Ethos: Social Issues Management, Internal Public Relations, and the Institutionalization of Neoliberalism and Whiteness in U.S. Universities’ Diversity Discourse

ABSTRACT The way organizations communicate about socio-political issues, such as racism and diversity, has become increasingly visible following the racial reckoning of 2020. This study examines the diversity discourse presented in the strategic plans from 37 of universities that comprise three major academic conferences (BIG10, Southeastern Conference (SEC), and PAC-12) in order to understand how they crafted an ethos that serves as the foundation these institutions use when later communicating about socio-political issues. To do so, we draw on social issues management, neoliberalism, whiteness, and ventriloquism to underscore the complexity of crafting an organizational ethos that features a stated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We argue that these organizations’ ethos were simultaneously ventriloquized by larger socio-political discourses while also ventriloquizing diversity in ways that made their discourse about diversity speak in ways that forwarded neoliberal and whiteness ideologies that operated to maintain the status quo.

Key issue operatives in an issue-driven network: Public relations as a “pocket of strength” in campus sexual assault awareness and prevention

Within public relations, little research has been conducted on the relationship between networks and social issues management, particularly issues that are gendered and emotional. Through a social network analysis and in-depth interviews with individuals involved in a public university’s sexual assault prevention and awareness work, this study demonstrates a missed opportunity for public relations experts to serve as key issue operatives in an issue-driven network. Specifically, public relations issue operatives can bridge network structural holes in the development and dissemination of comprehensive sexual assault awareness and prevention communication at universities.

Defining the Contours of Contention: Facets of Intractability in Social Issues Management

ABSTRACT The contentious issues endemic to many cases within social issues management practice share a common feature: intractability, or the perception of being unsolvable. This study takes steps toward clarifying and defining the concept of intractability as part of strategic communication engagement with contentious challenges, asking how practitioners make meaning of ostensibly intractable issues. Data from in-depth interviews with 41 practitioners provide a detailed examination of the engagement challenges with such issues. This research extends social issues management theory by defining four facets of intractability through which contentious issues can be understood and categorized: degree of intractability, issue type (natural or situationally driven), issue locus (internal or external), and practitioner identity involvement.

Spinning at the Border: Employee Activism in ‘Big PR’

This article extends Coombs and Holladay’s (2018) social issues management model to provide new perspectives on activism and public relations. It also fills a gap in the literature on internal activism by analyzing the case of The Ogilvy Group and their employees, many of whom pushed for the agency to resign its work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Through a textual analysis of a leaked transcript documenting a meeting between Ogilvy management and internal activist employees, the communicative tasks of definition, legitimation, and awareness (Coombs & Holladay, 2018) are explored in a way that complicates identity and power. As public relations practitioners are increasingly called upon to either advocate for or against social issues, this study provides an interesting contrast, showing one interpretation of what happens when there is dissension in the ranks.

The right side of history, inc.: Social issues management, social license to operate, and the Obergefell v. Hodges decision

Rather than standing on the sidelines, corporations are increasingly engaging with publics and taking stands on contentious social issues. This study analyzes corporate public statements about same-sex marriage before and after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Utilizing the framework of an organization’s social license to operate (SLO) and community engagement (CE), this research builds on the work of Coombs and Holladay in developing social issues management (SIM) theory and explicating the shift toward corporate engagement in public discourse on social change issues. The findings demonstrate that corporations utilize both episodic and relational SLO when managing contentious social issues, connecting these legitimacy-building actions with the processes of SIM.

Unraveling the Role of Corporate Responsibility Coalitions in Sustainability Issues Management

Business collective action is often necessary to address sustainability issues. However, issues management is commonly considered to be an internal function of firms that uses their own resources. In this conceptual paper, we argue that Business-to-Business Corporate Responsibility Coalitions (B2B CRCs) help member firms to manage sustainability issues by carrying out the exploratory aspects of issues management—i.e., scanning, identifying and evaluating issues, and proposing responses to issues. We rely on the literature on sensemaking and social issues management to explore how participation in B2B CRCs improves firms’ capabilities for sustainability issues management by improving their sensemaking competencies, their abilities to choose and adapt issue responses, and their efficiency in implementing issue responses through better issue response mechanisms. We contribute to the business collective action and issues management literatures by bringing forth the importance of collective management of sustainability issues and the ways in which this process may improve firms’ capabilities for sustainability issues management.

ソーシャルビジネスと企業のソーシャルイシュー・マネジメント:共通点と相違点

ソーシャルビジネスと企業のソーシャルイシュー・マネジメント:共通点と相違点

Social issue qua wicked problems

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the need to theorize firms’ involvement in social issues and propose the social issues management model as a framework for analyzing the communication processes underlying social issues management. An application of the new approach is illustrated through a brief case analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual and emphasizes theory building for firm’s involvement in social issues management.FindingsThe paper describes modifications to the general issues management model that can be adopted to reflect the social issues management process and contemporary digital media environments.Practical implicationsThe paper can benefit theory and practice of social issues management by describing how specific communication strategies and digital media use may affect social issues management.Social implicationsBecause firms increasingly are motivated or urged by stakeholders to take stands on social issues, understanding how they can perform the role of social issue manager can enhance their potential for contributing to positive social change.Originality/valueThe paper provides a much needed update to the models of issues management used in strategic communication. The new model accounts for the increasing pressure on firms to address social issues and the role of digital communication channels in that process.

Research on the Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Organizational Performance based on Structural Equation Model

With the economic and social transformation, corporate social responsibility has become an important factor affecting the enterprises performance. In this paper, we make an empirical analysis of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and organizational performance by using structural equation model. The result shows that CRS has an impact on the human resource management practice and organizational performance, at the same time, the HRM system has played an intermediary role. Enterprises to fulfill corporate social responsibility will significantly enhance the efficiency of human resource management, and obtain recognition of employees. So that it is necessary for enterprises to undertake the social responsibility in the long-term, and CRS will provide potential value for enterprises' competitive advantage. With the transformation of China's economic and social, enterprises take the initiative to take social responsibility in practice is very important. In particular to take the subject of corporate social responsibility of a company, enterprise or organization, from the perspective of system, resources and competitive advantage, the enterprise bear the social responsibility is not only necessary and to the survival and development of enterprises and competitive advantage are potential value. The relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance of long debate and research still continues, with the stakeholder theory is put forward, and were more likely to enterprise stakeholders (1). The construct, and enterprise staff is enterprise key stakeholders, is the important resources of enterprises, business objectives or performance is obviously affect employee goals and can be influenced by the employee, the enterprise must on today's human resource issues active response, and to obtain the legitimacy of enterprise operation, coordination of the enterprise and employee relations, taking the way of harmonious relationship between employees and organizations to realize the sustainable development of enterprises. Enterprises to the human resources and social issues management, into the enterprise human resources management policy and practice operation, affect employee behavior and attitude to meet the demand of human resources and obtain competitive advantage and organizational performance. Carol put forward the Pyramid model of corporate social responsibility; corporate social responsibility is divided into economic responsibility, legal responsibility, and ethical responsibility. Many disputes about corporate social responsibility mainly focus on enterprise, such as principal -agent theory, property rights theory, from the perspective of the nature of these enterprises to find the main body of social responsibility (2). Corporate social responsibility from the

Merging Public Relations With Health Communication in the Context of University Alcohol Prevention

The scope of this study is to determine whether social norms marketing should be further evaluated according to its ability to serve as a public relations tactic for universities. Based on a framework of social norms theory and strategic issues management, this study uses a web-based survey with university parents (N = 173) to identify relationships among exaggerated parental misperceptions of student binge drinking, parental awareness of alcohol prevention programs, and parental perceptions of organizational legitimacy. Findings from this study are used to make the argument that health communication and public relations should be viewed as interrelated concepts in the context of university alcohol prevention.

Teaching Economics to Business Students through the Lens of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Corporate “social-issues management” courses are often taught without in-depth reference to economics, but they afford an opportunity both to review ground-level microeconomics issues including pricing and profit maximization under different market structures and to introduce more advanced topics such as externalities, introductory game theory, information asymmetry, antitrust law, and network and innovation economics. In a corporate social-issues management course grounded in economics, these concepts can be taught hand-in-glove with their relevance to the practice of corporate citizenship and sustainability.

Three Models of Corporate Social Responsibility: Interrelationships between Theory, Research, and Practice

Three Models of Corporate Social Responsibility: Interrelationships between Theory, Research, and Practice

SME social performance: a four‐cell typology of key drivers and barriers on social issues and their implications for stakeholder theory

PurposeSmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) are often neglected in the context of business and society theory building. The purpose of this article is to build a model of why SMEs address social issues by integrating internal and external drivers and barriers to social performance (SP).Design/methodology/approachUsing thematic analysis, barriers and drivers to SME social performance are clustered along key stakeholders and presented in a theoretical model. The analysis dates from 1973 until 2006 and is grounded in an extensive literature review that represents a total of 83 countries. It includes academic and practitioner accounts stemming from theoretical and empirical work, as well as conference proceedings. A total of 80 drivers and 96 barriers to SME high social performance are identified.FindingsThis paper develops an SME four‐cell ideal type of social issues management (SIM) response typology based on drivers and barriers of social performance.Practical implicationsThe importance of understanding barriers and drivers to social responsibility (SR) of SIM for stakeholder theory, policy makers, and practitioners is discussed, concluding with implications for further SME‐SR research.Originality/valueThe four‐cell typology considers the theoretical claims of stakeholder theory within the context of SMEs and proposes a heteronomy of stakeholder salience.

A Conceptual Framework of the Corporate Management of Social Impacts: The Case of Problem Gambling

This paper integrates concepts from the corporate social issues management and corporate social performance literature to develop a framework that might inform future investigations into how organisations manage their social impacts. Drawing on a study examining how registered clubs in New South Wales Australia manage one of their social impacts, problem gambling, the paper first documents historical contributors to the emergence of problem gambling as a corporate social issue for the clubs, before assessing their corporate social performance in addressing problem gambling to the satisfaction of key stakeholders. Some insights into the future direction of the clubs in responsible management of gambling are then given. A theoretical analysis reveals the inadequacy of existing conceptual frameworks of corporate social issues management and corporate social performance in fully explaining the research findings to justify the utility of an integrated framework. Seven factors instrumental in explaining how NSW clubs have managed problem gambling are incorporated into an explanatory model that may have application in similar studies. These factors are environmental influences, corporate social orientation, corporate social responsiveness, corporate social responses, corporate social impacts, corporate social performance, and the development of a corporate social issue.

Public affairs, issues management, and political strategy: opportunities, obstacles, and caveats

AbstractThis paper evaluates research in corporate public affairs, social issues management and political strategy, and theoretical integration of the three areas and also cross‐disciplinary and cross‐institutional collaboration, especially with business or government officials. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications

The construct validity of the Kinder, Lydenberg & Domini social performance ratings data

Carroll (1991) encouraged researchers in Social Issues Management (SIM) to continue to measure Corporate Social Performance (CSP) from a variety of different perspectives utilizing a variety of different measures. In addition, Wolfe and Aupperle (1991) (and others) have asserted that there is no, single best way to measure CSP and that multiple measures and perspectives help develop the field. However, Pfeffer (1993) suggest that a lack of consistent measurement has constrained organization studies (and by implication, the field of social issues management,) in its development as a field. It may be in the best interest of social issues management researchers to try to development a common body of measures and data. Recently, Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini & Co. (KLD — a social choice investment advisory firm) has made available their social performance database. The KLD data have potential to become a widely accepted set of CSP measures. The purpose of this paper is to present a construct validity study comparing the KLD data to other measures of CSP.

The Chief Executive Officer and corporate social performance: An interdisciplinary examination

This paper attempts to cross the disciplinary boundaries of strategic management and social issues management to demonstrate the relationship between managerial characteristics and corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing on studies in strategic leadership research we develop and test hypotheses about linkages between top management attributes and different levels of CSP. Our results add credence to the argument that organizations are a reflection of their top managers, and encourage further systematic research of the influence of key executives in developing and implementing socially responsible policies and programs.

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AND CORPORATE SOCIAL PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION.

This paper attempts to cross the disciplinary boundaries of strategic management and social issues management to demonstrate the relationship between managerial characteristics and corporate social performance (CSP). Drawing on studies in strategic leadership research we develop and test hypotheses about linkages between top management attributes and different levels of CSP.

Institutional ownership of stock and dimensions of corporate social performance: An empirical examination

Collectively, institutions own an increasing proportion of outstanding corporate equities. As an emergent force in shaping corporate America, the linkages between institutional ownership and corporate social performance (CSP) require empirical examination. Not only do corporate policy makers need to know those areas where social performance may lure or inhibit capital infusions, lawmakers also need a better understanding of the social forces guiding corporate policy. As anticipated, this study found a positive relationship between the amount of institutional ownership of corporate stock and a company's social responsiveness as measured by the representation of women on its board of directors; however, no statistically significant relationship with social responsibility as measured by charitable giving was found. The exemplar of social issues management — compliance with the Sullivan principles — showed an unexpected, negative relationship with the level of institutional ownership.