Building Successful Strategic CSR Communication. The Employee Perspective.

Abstract

Today, internal CSR communication is an important part of a successful CSR strategy implementation. With effective internal CSR communication, companies can gain several benefits among employees such as organizational identification and commitment. In the communication, message content and channels have a central role. Also, the perceptions of employees towards CSR, such as attitudes, affect the effectiveness of communication. This study aims to identify the key success factors for strategic internal CSR communication.

This study brings additional research from different perspectives of internal CSR communication. For example, not many studies have focused on how employees’ identification to the company affects internal CSR communication. The study also brings more research on employee level of analysis of CSR implementation with a focus on the individual actors. The study gives insight into the theoretical areas for implementing CSR communication, including message content, channels and the perceptions of employees. Previous literature is compared to empirical findings based on an internal CSR communication survey by the global company. With the survey, both qualitative data and quantitative data were collected from over 150 respondents.

The findings of the study suggest several success factors for internal CSR communication. Companies should have simplified message content, offer enough sustainability learning opportunities and focus on region-specific content, among other recommendations. The findings were consistent with the previous literature and supported, for example, the importance of organizational identification for executing CSR communication.