Public Relations and Corporate

Social Responsibility (CSR)

Dra. Mathilda AMW Birowo.,M.Si

By Eduard Depari
 Social concerns are the domain of CSR. CSR centers
on managing the relationship between business and
society. Organizations should operate in manner consistent
with the values and objectives of the society.
The Domain CSR can be narrowed further with a focus on how
the operations of an organization impact society. These
of CSR social impacts are broad, including such issues as poverty,
environmental damage, sustainability, human rights,
treatment of workers, disease control/eradication, and
treatment of indigenous peoples. Organizations seek to be a
net contributor to society (Werther&Chandler, 2006).

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 Reasons for Engaging in CSR
Activities
1. Rising community expectations that companies
will make a wider contribution to community
well-being.
2. Big companies-high profile-more vulnerable in
the era of mass mediated society.
3. Increase interdependence between business
and communities, requiring closest relationships
of mutual interests.
4. Corporations are perceived as citizens who are
expected to behave as “a good corporate
citizen”.
5. A more sophisticated approach by many
companies to bring social issues into core
business.
6. For a public company, good reputation as it
proven by CSR activities will mean less risk for
investors or prospective investors.

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 1. Sustainability
2. Beyond Compliance
3. Beyond Community
Main Features of CSR 4. Integral part of Business plan
5. Based on discretionary decision
6. Not necessarily related to business core

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 Triple
Bottom
Line
Concept of
CSR

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Levels of Corporate
Responsibility
Accountability
in CSR
• Stakeholder engagement – Does
the company engage in dialogue
with people who have an interest
in, may be affected by, or may affect
its business?
• Governance – Do senior executives
and the advisory board properly
consider stakeholder issues when
setting strategy and formulating
corporate policy?

(www.accountabilityrating.c
om)

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 Husted and Salazar (2006) argue the benefits of CSR are
tied to the timing of CSR. Organizations that were forced into
compliance, either through regulation or activist pressure, did
Corporate not see financial rewards from CSR. Organizations that viewed
CSR as integrated into their strategy (strategic social investment)
Values on did see financial returns. Strategic CSR could improve
productivity and profits. One reason social concerns provide
economic benefit is that they offer a means of differentiating an
CSR organization from its competitors. CSR can be used to create
distinctiveness in an organization’s identity and serve as an
appeal to stakeholders.

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The Benefits • Financial returns
of Having • Reputation returns
• Avoiding expectation gaps
CSR

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Public Relations and Corporate
Social Responsibility
L’Etang notes that CSR

is often managed by public relations

practitioners for public relations ends, and
therefore corporate social responsibility is
seen as part of the public relations
portfolio and as a technique to establish
relations with particular groups (for
example, in the local community) and to
enhance reputation with key
stakeholders.(2006a: 414)

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Guidelines for PR that
Should be Followed in
Implementing CSR
Concept:

• Make staff aware

• Make it relevant
• Be consistent
• Do not over-claim
• Be popular and topical
• Do more than the
minimum
• Be proactive and
professional

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 There are 4
Elements of
Communicating
about CSR

• The Vehicle (Communication

device used to communicate
legitimacy).
• Claim (What was actually
said).
• Justification (How the claim
was justified in order to
demonstrate legitimacy).
• Intent (What the
organization intended to say
through the claim).

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 3 Dilemmas of
CSR
• How to balance
businesses financial
duties with their social
and environmental
responsibilities
• Doing good vs. looking
good
• PR professionalism vs.
personal politics

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Be a Good Corporate Communication / PR

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