We have heard your voice. Exploring the use of rhetoric tactics while balancing with financial and natural capitals
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
Authors
Valtanen, Roosa
Date
2020
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Corporate Communication
Language
en
Pages
70
Series
Abstract
In the past, it has been the norm to assume that companies are economic entities with the purpose of generating profit due to the responsibilities they have for their shareholders and themselves. This mindset, however, has changed, as issues related to corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship have emerged. As a result, organizations are now increasingly considered to have responsibilities that extend to the entire society. Annual reports and other forms of corporate communication can be used to convince audiences about the acceptability of a company’s actions. However, companies have also been facing more pressures to disclose an increasing amount of information about their financial performance, corporate governance, management and sustainability issues. Integrated reporting has been introduced as a solution to the new demands of reporting. An integrated report communicates in a compact manner how an organization creates value in short, medium and long term, combining financial and non-financial information. The purpose of this study is to find out how five Finnish exchange-listed companies discuss the trade-offs between financial and natural capitals in their integrated annual reports. After all, companies are facing a constant paradoxical situation in which they are expected to act ethically and consider their impact on the environment, but at the same time, they are also expected to generate profit for their shareholders. This study looks into the rhetorical tactics that the companies use while dealing with this paradox. The aim is to reveal how the companies communicate about their actions, and what kind of reasoning they present for these actions. The study is carried out as qualitative research with the principles of content analysis and rhetoric analysis. The results of this study represent a total of six rhetoric tactics that the companies used in their integrated annual reports while dealing with the paradox of having to consider both financial and natural capitals in their operations. Three of the tactics represent actions of the companies, while the other three represent the reasonings that companies give for implementing their actions. It seems that the use of rhetoric tactics is all about balancing – finding a way to accommodate multiple expectations while still aspiring to come across as a strong operator with a voice of its own. With the acknowledgement of external pressures, the companies could express compliance and extend the responsibility of CSR to a larger group of operators. However, in a somewhat conflicting manner, the companies expressed their dominance and goodwill by pointing out their proactive efforts. This paints a picture of companies that both want to do good, but also can choose to do good because of the power they possess.Description
Thesis advisor
Moisander, JohannaKeywords
corporate social responsibility, environment, rhetoric, integrated reporting, CSR