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Chauvin, Matthieu (2009) Beyond Spin: Exploring The Role of Internal Communicationin Creating Meaning Around Corporate Social Responsibility. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This research identifies an important gap in the CSR literature: there are no theories to account for the way in which organisations use their internal communication to create meaning around CSR. Based on a review of the literature and a participant-observation in an engineering consultancy, this exploratory paper presents an attempt at theory development in this field, by drawing on the concepts of sensemaking (Weick, 1995), sensegiving (Gioia & Chittipeddi, 1991), and enactment (Weick, 1979).

A first model is developed to identify the factors which may shape the success of attempts by groups of individuals or powerful individuals to create meanings for the company’s employees. These are their capacity to manage meaning, their personality, occupation and department, their ability to translate a broad subject into identifiable actions, and their skill at drawing legitimacy from organisational values in their attempts to give sense. This same model identifies factors which shape the way in which meaning is interpreted: the presence of competing narratives within the organisation and the occupation of the people making sense.

A second model is developed to understand the process of organisational enactment; in other words, the process by which the organisation shapes the sensemaking of its employees by creating meaning through action, selecting among conflicting interpretations, and storing the interpretations in its organisational ‘memory’ thereby shaping the sensemaking of its employees. The factors constraining such a process are discussed.

Item Type:	Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	04 Feb 2010 09:47
Last Modified:	03 Feb 2018 01:51
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/23242

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