When companies take a stance on sociopolitical issues, it is considered corporate social advocacy (CSA). This article examines to what extent perceived corporate motives of engaging in CSA affect consumer skepticism and brand equity. It is one of the few published studies of consumer attitudes toward companies' CSA involvement. An online survey…

Through the reflections of professionals occupying a variety of corporate communication roles, our aim was to understand what the corporate communication profession looks like in the current marketplace and the career pathways professionals take. We find that roles and functions are "broad and blurred" and "evolving and…

We analyze diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) reports from the top 20 "Fortune" 500 companies to particularly examine how these companies use visual design and representation to present an aspirational future that valorizes their current DEI efforts. We contend that if large corporations have the ability to affect outcomes among…

The discussion of sustainability reporting rarely addresses the inherent paradox within this concept--tremendous costs associated with sustainability efforts and lack of direct return on these investments. This study contributes to the discussion on sustainability by studying this paradox from the linguistic standpoint in order to answer a simple…

Communicating clearly about their socially responsible activities is becoming increasingly important for companies, as a growing number of stakeholders with different goals, knowledge, and language skills seek information on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Furthermore, the ability to communicate clearly is particularly appreciated in the…

This study aims to compare how leading companies in Spain and in Spanish-speaking Latin America communicate corporate social responsibility or sustainability on their web pages. For this purpose, the pages of 68 companies were examined to establish the accessibility of such topics and to trace how their prominence and wording had evolved over…

Leveraging a team's diverse perspectives can be a powerful way to foster team innovation. A common approach to leverage team differences involves tool-based approaches, including brainstorming, mind-mapping, and whiteboarding. However, the effective use of ideational tools as a means to innovation often assumes high levels of team cohesion and…

Business adopted a terminology of sustainability to defend, then justify, and finally explain practices that acknowledged resource limitations as inherent in the business environment. Tracing the rhetoric across a half century of business use demonstrates an expansion of the concept of sustainability to encompass managerial attention to finite…

This case study explores corporate social responsibility (CSR) through the perspective of communication professionals at a large financial services firm. These employees rely on both external communication through formal reporting as well as informal internal communication to understand CSR activities, and tend to describe CSR by what it means…

The ability to copy in relevant stakeholders has rendered the business email a useful tool for managing interpersonal relations and operational matters. However, CCing in business email has remained vastly under-researched in workplace discourse literature, a gap this article seeks to address. We explore the functions of CCing in workplace emails…

The purpose of this study was to explore what corporations with good reputations communicate on social media. Based on a content analysis of 46 corporate Facebook pages from "Fortune's" "World's Most Admired Companies," this study found that corporations communicate noncorporate social responsibility messages more frequently…

This study reviews the application of a new training model, Sprint's Social Media Ninja program, an innovative approach to using new media to initiate change. Sprint recognized change management must occur from employee ambassadors to relevant audiences including consumers and other employees. By teaching volunteer employees the strategic message…

This article presents findings from a rhetorical analysis of job advertisements posted by the fastest growing companies in the United States (Inc. 5000 rankings). The analysis suggests that companies rely on standard rhetorical figures and share similar rhetorical visions of novelty that likely effect their organizational culture, paradoxically…

As social issues increase, so does the scope of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Companies are expanding their CSR activities and making the terminology used to describe them more specific. This study compares website content of "Fortune" 500 companies in 2015 with content collected in 2011. Traditionally, two CSR issues have been…

This article examines the development and implementation of a strategic cultural change program from a case study perspective. Initially, the article describes how the program was developed, including an explanation as to how a communication component was integrated into the program from inception. This integration helped reduce the anxiety that…