Managing CSR Communication

In this chapter we elaborate on how corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies and practices both produce and are produced by CSR communication. We outline three main characteristics of CSR communication as a particular form of management communication, that is, CSR communication’s institutionalized, contested, and moralized character. From this basis, we derive key theoretical and practical implications for CSR-related management communication. We structure our considerations along three different orientations: (1) communication from the top-down (e. g., a firm’s aspirational talk), (2) communication from the bottom-up (e. g., internal activism), and (3) communication around the organization (e. g., how to develop resonance capacities for the multiplicity of external/societal voices). The chapter closes with a brief conclusion and outlook in which we address the need for further research on the actionability, consequentiality, and bindingness of CSR communication.