Abstract
The need for corporate sustainable activity has increasingly become an integral element of community acceptance, both locally and globally. With public relations functioning as a buffer between organisations and their publics, it appears logical that the PR discipline would be the one that is centrally engaged in sustainability communication. This paper argues that true sustainability communication ought to embrace systems thinking, partner-learning models, and servant- leader approaches, that in turn provide an opportunity for public relations to not only move toward a “knowledge manager“ function in an organization but also achieve the momentum that is necessary to effect sustained change. Keywords: Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility, Partner Learning, Community Orientation, Systems Thinking
Introduction
The concept of sustainable development has been a subject of debate ever since it became a public issue. Often solely connected to environmental challenges (e.g., climate change, waste, air pollution), it also encompasses social (poverty, public health, marginalization) and economic (unfair competition, labour conditions, responsible production) challenges. The high value sustainability places on learning and innovation as a response to problems, rather than critique and complaint required that communication had to move from a vehicle of information to an active intervention tool to trigger changes aimed at encouraging people's participation. As Kilbourne (2004) put it, “sustainable communication is characterized as (…) working towards a world where humankind can preserve rather than dominate nature.” In turn, the need for corporate sustainable activity has increasingly become an integral element of community acceptance, both locally and globally. For instance, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has moved toward “sustainable agriculture” and the World Bank supports the idea of “sustainable development” (Gilman, 1990).
With public relations functioning as a buffer between organisations and their publics, and organisations eager to not only participate in responsible behaviour but also communicate that they are actively involved in community initiatives and development, it appears logical that the PR discipline would be the one that is centrally engaged in sustainability communication. Grunig, for instance, argued in a recent interview (Oancea, 2011) that public relations should embrace the sustainability movement, “because the ultimate objective of public relations is to make organizations more sustainable.” The two key challenges for PR are how to clarify the relationship between sustainability and corporate social responsibility and figure out how to create effective and ‘sustainable’ communication.
Therefore, a discussion of sustainability communication has to be different from corporate social responsibility or social marketing strategies, which are typically manifested through unidirectional tactics aimed to influence positions of target stakeholder audiences. Sustainability communication has to be about shared global visions, a new kind of cooperation between organisations and their stakeholders as well as the various communication functions, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of capacity building and change. This paper proposes integrated sustainability communication as a holistic and collaborative approach between CSR strategies and that derived from participatory pedagogy, and ultimately prescribes an expanded role for public relations in society.
Expanding the paradigm of corporate social responsibility
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development defined corporate social responsibility as “(…) the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” (Holme & Watts, 2000). While there have been different interpretations of CSR (in the United States it is typically defined in terms of a philanthropic model, in Europe as conducting one’s core business in a socially responsible way), it remains nonetheless connected to the wealth creation process.
Consequently, current strategic communication practices indicative of this approach, such as social accounting, green marketing, environmental scanning and early warning risk planning, by and large, do not challenge classical economic principles (such as Smith’s “invisible hand of the market” theory or capitalist ideologies). Unlike them, sustainability communication requires radical changes from those dominant social paradigms, as corporations can no longer be content to pursue their own interests but are expected to seek out and contribute actively to the collective interest (Gendron et al., 2004). However, radical change is usually anathema to the dominant groups in whose interest the paradigm is maintained (Kilbourne, 2004).
While one can appreciate the focus PR puts on communication research, this narrow orientation leaves any model (such as the overall well-respected two-way symmetric model by Grunig) open to the critique that in reality a truly balanced communications process is rarely encouraged, impeded by vested interests, which dictate the nature of PR practice. What is needed then is a blurring of the boundaries between communication tasks and other organizational processes and decision-making, integrating the following perspectives.
Systems thinking
A whole-systems perspective as applied to public relations practice would increase research on how organisations interact with the external and internal environment and how those interactions are managed by an enhanced awareness of interconnections, relationships, consequences, and feedback loops. PR already serves a feedback function that helps organisations interpret their environments in order to achieve homeostasis (Botan & Hazleton, 2006). What distinguishes the new thinking is a willingness to consider all significant aspects of an issue, and not to jump to appealing (and often self-serving) simplifications.
Whereas most organisations today practice a two-way asymmetric approach by using information that is beyond reproach to retain reputation and credibility whilst persuading their audiences (Tench & Yeomans, 2006), a skilful use of the changed media and communication landscape would enable PR practitioners to leverage their boundary spanning function to create a truly two-way adaptive open system. Digital media, for instance, have opened a gateway enabling publics to commence dialogue and interact through channels such as tweets, blogs and forums. The relevance of a systems perspective to public relations in practice lies in managing these interactions with the external environment in a way that not only ensures positive feedback but also creates participatory or collaborative pursuits for solutions to social challenges.
Servant leadership
Robert Greenleaf first coined the term servant-leadership in a 1970 essay. It emphasizes increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, promoting a sense of community, and the sharing of power in decision- making. Servant-leadership is not a temporary fix but a long-term, transformational approach to life and work that has the potential for creating positive change throughout society (Spears, 2005). True excellence in management (communication) and leadership, then, cannot only be a willingness to engage in fair and balanced communication but needs to originate from an organizational culture of civility that routinely utilises the mode of community. Given that this approach touches upon both image/position and outreach/communication, it falls well within the description of PR. Servant-leadership has actually very old
roots in many indigenous cultures, who were holistic, cooperative, communal, intuitive and spiritual, and hence centered on both being guardians of the future and respecting the ancestors who walked before (J. Bordas in Greenleaf, 2003). Some businesses (e.g., Southwest Airlines, Starbucks) have recently begun to employ servant-leadership as an important framework that ensures the long-term effects of related management and leadership approaches such as systems thinking.