On the discursive construction of a socially responsible organization

SummaryDrawing upon critical discourse analysis, this article investigates how a newspaper organization is discursively legitimized as a socially responsible organization. The empirical data are based on 16 interviews conducted among the employees of a newspaper organization. The study has two main implications. First, I suggest that corporate social responsibility in a newspaper organization is constructed around a discursive struggle concerning the role and goals of the newspaper business. More importantly, such debate includes a discursive struggle between professional, social and economic claims. This study further contributes to the literature concerning discursive legitimation strategies in organizational literature by empirically examining their emergence in a CSR framework. I also demonstrate how metaphors can play an important role in constructing legitimacy and illegitimacy for certain organizational practices.