Reluctant to talk, reluctant to listen: Public relations professionals and their involvement in CSR programmes in Spain

•Public relations professionals in Spain are rarely included in the conceptualisation, design and implementation of CSR programmes.•The absence of professional communication know-how in CSR programmes creates important gaps and shortcomings.•The fundamental objective of CSR programmes and public relations efforts is to create spaces for dialogues.•Without these spaces for dialogue, CSR programmes are just temporary palliatives.

This article examines the type of contributions that public relations professionals make towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes, while discussing the issues and obstacles they face to enter into that professional area. To do so, the authors have looked at the top publicly owned companies in Spain, which are part of the so-called IBEX35®. The research included semi-structured interviews and interpretative analysis of official documents and reports. Our findings suggest that despite normative claims from CSR departments that downplay the importance of public relations in the design and implementation of CSR programmes, the empirical evidence suggests otherwise. In this context, our findings show important operational deficiencies and accountability deficits precisely because of the lack of public relations input in the design and implementation of these programmes.