Julie Uldam is Associate Professor at the Department of Management, Society and Communication. In this explainer, Julie talks about what she calls the paradox of CSR communication.
MARKETING & COMMUNICATION
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Companies often hesitate to communicate their social and environmental initiatives. In this video, Julie Uldam, Associate Professor at CBS, talks about how companies navigate what she calls the paradox of CSR communication.
Image rather than substance?
Increasing public expectations of companies taking responsibility beyond legal requirements create what CBS researcher Julie Uldam calls the paradox of CSR communication.
On the one hand, this paradox consists of growing public expectations of CSR and on the other, a corporate fear of CSR being labelled as greenwashing.
So how can companies successfully communicate CSR initiatives to the public? According to Julie Uldam, not having the courage to face criticism is taking an even bigger risk. People's disillusionment with CSR.
“If companies bury their heads in the sand and opt for CSR that works well as soundbites, people may lose hope just as they're losing confidence in parliamentarian politics”, Julie Uldam says.