PR capacity on corporate boards: claiming the CSR and ESG responsibility?

IF 3.1 Q1 COMMUNICATION Journal of Communication Management Pub Date : 2024-04-19 DOI:10.1108/jcom-11-2023-0120
Timothy Penning
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Abstract

Purpose

The modern corporation is evaluated by many measures that go beyond profit, which was the emphasis for years previously. Today’s corporation is weighed against expectations of many stakeholders, including not just customers but employees, investors, the government and even the public at large with no discernible financial or other tie to a company. As such, corporate boards necessarily must be concerned with more than financial performance, including corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the increasing emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics. Given that public relations scholars and practitioners have long been concerned with stakeholder relationships, social responsibility and other non-financial indicators, it would make sense that public relations has a more obvious presence on corporate boards.

Design/methodology/approach

This study examined the 25 companies in the Fortune Modern Board 25 to determine how many board members had a background or expertise in public relations that would contribute to the leadership necessary for the concerns of the modern corporation, and whether the boards had a committee designated to public relations or related functions.

Findings

Results show that there are few corporate boards that have public relations represented prominently in either their members or committees. The same is true for executive leadership teams. Public relations or communications executives do appear to play some role in ESG, CSR and DEI reporting, but often there are staff members with those specific titles and roles.

Research limitations/implications

The study was limited to 25 corporations on a Forbes list that ranked them as best in communicating ESG, CSR and DEI. The method examined publicly available literature which was revealing to the research questions, but more could be learned by interview or survey with CCOs.

Practical implications

The study shows the current presence of public relations capacity in terms of members of corporate boards, corporate committees and among the C-suite is not significant. Also, rather than PR as a function owning modern concerns of DEI, ESG and CSR, there are professionals with specific expertise in those areas who are responsible for those corporate issues.

Social implications

Corporate social responsibility (CSR), ESG (environmental, social, governance) and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) have recently been stressed as important for corporations to measure and report. The role of the public relations profession in managing and/or communicating in these areas is important to consider in terms of public expectations and satisfaction of communication on these subjects.

Originality/value

This paper is unique in integrating public relations theory and practice with board theory and the current management concerns with ESG, CSR and DEI. Little if any previous research has considered which professions are in charge of communicating on these concerns.

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公司董事会的公关能力:要求承担企业社会责任和环境、社会和治理责任?
目的对现代公司的评估有许多衡量标准,这些标准超越了多年前强调的利润。今天的公司要与许多利益相关者的期望进行权衡,这些利益相关者不仅包括客户,还包括员工、投资者、政府,甚至是与公司没有明显财务或其他联系的广大公众。因此,企业董事会必须关注的不仅仅是财务业绩,还包括企业社会责任(CSR)以及日益受到重视的环境、社会和治理(ESG)指标。鉴于公共关系学者和实践者长期关注利益相关者关系,社会责任和其他非财务指标,公共关系 在公司董事会中的存在也就更有意义了。这项研究考察了《财富》现代董事会 25 强中的 25 家公司,以确定有多少董事会成员具有公共关系的背景或专长,以帮助领导现代公司。高管领导团队也是如此。公共关系或传播高管似乎在 ESG、CSR 和 DEI 报告中扮演了一定的角色,但通常都是由具有这些特定头衔和角色的员工担任。实践意义研究表明,目前在公司董事会成员、公司委员会成员和 C-suite 中的公共关系能力并不重要。社会意义企业社会责任(CSR),ESG(环境,社会,治理)和 DEI(多样性,公平性和包容 性)最近被强调为企业衡量和报告的重要因素。公共关系职业在这些领域的管理和/或传播中的作用对于公众对这些主题的期望和满意度是很 重要的。本文的独特之处在于把公共关系理论和实践与董事会理论以及当前管理层对 ESG,CSR 和 DEI 的关注结合起来。以前的研究很少考虑哪些职业负责这些问题的沟通。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
5.40
自引率
6.50%
发文量
29
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