“Jag tror det är viktigt att man inte sminkar grisen” : En kvalitativ studie om kommunikatörers syn påoch hantering av CSR-kommunikation

Sammanfattning: Introduction: Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, is seen as an important part of an organization, where communication functions as creating relationships between the organization and social actors. CSR is about the company's social responsibility for how they affect society from an economic, environmental, and social perspective. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to account for communicators' views on CSR communication and how they deal with the possible opportunities, challenges and risks they experience in communicating CSR. The purpose is also to discern the similarities and differences that the communicators have regarding the view of CSR communication, in order to gain a greater understanding of the prerequisites of CSR communication. Method/material: The data for our study have been collected by semi-structured interviews with four communicators with knowledge in CSR communication. These have then been analyzed through a thematic analysis. Theory: The study contains theories related to the subject, such as theoretical concepts about CSR and CSR communication, the stakeholder theory and greenwashing. These have set the knowledge and structure of the interviews and helped us understand the results. Result: The results of the study show us that communicators have different prerequisites for communicating CSR. Based on, for example, industry standards and different stakeholders which therefore have different expectations. Common to them are demands for transparency and authenticity in the communicators' work. This is supposed to reduce the risk of being met with suspicion and skepticism. Possibilities such as appearing as legitimate and credible as a company can be discerned.