Authors: Kirsti Iivonen Johanna Moisander
Publish Date: 2014/07/31
Volume: 131, Issue: 3, Pages: 649-664
Abstract
This paper takes a critical perspective on corporate social responsibility CSR and examines the ways in which an industry organization discursively manages the relationship between the industry and its stakeholders in a situation where the legitimacy of the industry is called into question Drawing on the literature on organizational narcissism and sensemaking the paper develops the construct of narcissistic CSR orientation and empirically elaborates on three defensive rhetorical strategies through which the organization makes sense of the accountability and responsibility of the industry for the negative societal effects of their business The paper advances knowledge in the field of critical CSR by proposing a new framework for critically examining organizationstakeholder relationships and organizational responses to stakeholder demands in contexts where the interests of organizations are in conflict with the public goodWe need to open up new spaces and provide new frameworks for organizationstakeholder dialogs as well as critically examine the dynamics of the relationships between corporations NGOs governments community groups and funding agencies Banerjee 2008
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