Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Today, companies increasingly have to address and communicate the impact that their activities and decisions have on the environment and society. This is reflected in particular in the concept of CSR, which is based on the fundamental idea of sustainable and future-oriented business. CSR encompasses cross-cutting tasks that require employees to work together across departments to develop strategic approaches and find common solutions. In order to meet the increasing demands for transparency and accountability, companies are introducing collaborative management tools such as software with which data on social, ecological or economic aspects can be collected, evaluated and processed for CSR reporting. The aim of this study is to provide insights into this under-researched area as well as to develop an understanding of what CSR means in a corporate context and what influence it has on internal communication between employees when working with software. Through a case study approach, this was addressed by examining the use of WeSustain's Enterprise Sustainability Management (ESM) software, which is implemented by multinational companies of different sizes for their CSR management. The results reveal that CSR is understood as a dynamic construct that continuously emerges, develops and changes in the interactions between the employees involved. Taking in a communicative-constructivist perspective, two functions of CSR become central, which result from an instrumental and constitutive approach to these issues when working with the ESM software. Furthermore, from the perspective of social representation theory, CSR management through software demonstrates that it creates an accessible framework in which interactions are facilitated and guided. It also provides functions through which meaning can be organised and shared. Accordingly, the study argues that constitutive communication processes play an important role in enabling employees to relate to CSR issues situationally and contextually and to perceive them as meaningful.