Article2019

Persuasive language of responsible organisation? A critical discourse analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of Nigerian oil companies

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Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Discourse Analysis in Language Studies Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how language (choice) in CSR reports of leading oil companies in Nigeria is used to portray an image of “responsible organisation”. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws insights from communication studies (persuasion theory) and critical discourse analysis (CDA) studies to discursively unpack all those subtle and visible, yet equally invisible, linguistic strategies (micro-level elements): wording (single words), phrases and chains of words (clauses/sentences). These linguistic strategies (micro-level elements) proxy organisational discourses (meso-level elements), which are reflective of wider social practices (macro-level elements). The authors base the investigation on CSR reports of six leading oil companies in Nigeria from 2009 to 2012. Findings The findings of this study reveal that (leading) Nigerian oil companies linguistically use CSR reports to persuasively construct and portray the image of “responsible organisation” in the eyes of wider stakeholders (the communities) despite serious criticism of their corporate (ir) responsibility. Originality/value As opposed to the previous content analysis based studies, this paper contributes to the emerging stream of CDA studies on CSR reporting by providing a finer-grained linguistic analytical schema couched in Fairclough’s (2003) approach to CDA (and persuasion theory). This helps to unravel how persuasive language/discourse of responsible organisation is enacted and reproduced. The authors thus respond to the calls for theoretical plurality in CSR reporting research by introducing persuasion theory from communication studies literature which has hitherto been rarely applied.

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References

1975How To Do Things With Words 1995Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches 2003Research Methods for Business Students 1967The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge.2022Business Research Methods 1997Interpreting Qualitative Data Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction 2003Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research 2002Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method

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