Online corporate communication of diversity and inclusion: washing as aspirational talk

• Date: 12 March 2024
• Pages: 39-54
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-08-2023-0250
• Published date: 12 March 2024
• Author: Nanna Gillberg

Online corporate communication of

diversity and inclusion: washing as

aspirational talk

Nanna Gillberg

Department of Business Administration, School of Business Economics and Law,

University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

Abstract

Purpose –The article aims to investigate how washing practices focused on appeasing sceptics of diversity

work in for-profit organizations play out in corporate online communication of diversity and inclusion efforts,

and how these enable communication to a wide audience that includes social equity advocates.

Design/methodology/approach –Online corporate communication data of diversity and inclusion themes

were compiled from the websitesof eight Swedish-based multinational corporations. The data included content

from the companies’official websites and annual reports and sustainability reports as well as diversity and

inclusion-themed blog posts. A thematic analysis was conducted on the website content.

Findings –The study showcases how tensions between conflicting external demands are navigated by

keeping the communication open to several interpretations and thereby achieving multivocality. In the studied

corporate texts on diversity and inclusion, this is achieved by alternating between elements catering to a

business case audience and those that appeal to a social justice audience, with some procedures managing to

appease both audiences at the same time.

Originality/value –The article complements previously described forms of washing by introducing an

additional type of washing –business case washing –an articulation of the business case rhetoric that

characterizes the diversity management discourse. While much has been written about washing to satisfy

advocates of social change and equity, washing to appease shareholders and boardroom members, who are

focused on profit and economic growth, has received less attention. The article suggests that online corporate

communication on diversity and inclusion, by appeasing diverse audiences, can be seen as aspirational talk.

Keywords Qualitative, Aspirational talk, Diversity and inclusion, Business case washing,

Online corporate communication

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Today’s organizations face numerous competing and incompatible demands applying to, e.g.

safety, integrity, social justice and environmental issues. Organizations are urged to act in

various roles and relate to many constituents –consumers, employees, shareholders, interest

groups and the media (Jarzabkowski et al., 2013). The growing emphasis on transparency and

accountability, make conflicting demands ever more prevalent (Bromley and Powell, 2012).

Contemporary organizations are expected to communicate corporate social responsibility

efforts (Balluchi et al., 2020). In this communication, issues of diversity and inclusion are

among those that organizations are compelled to address. Actively addressing diversity and

inclusion is both a legal obligation and a consequence of consumers’and potential employees’

Online

corporate

communication

39

© Nanna Gillberg. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and

create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full

attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://

creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The study has received financial support from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 3 August 2023

Revised 22 January 2024

Accepted 8 February 2024

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 9, 2024

pp. 39-54

Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-08-2023-0250

expectations that companies act in accordance with social justice and sustainability

standards (Jonsen et al., 2019;Ng et al., 2010).

Communicating diversity and inclusion efforts means adapting to the expectations and

preferences of different stakeholders. While appealing to all stakeholders might not be

feasible, communication must try to cater to all parts of a heterogeneous audience.

As organizations face numerous, potentially conflicting and i ncompatible, demands,

a common practice has been to differentiate between audiences, using different modes and

channels for communicating with different stakeholders. In online settings such as on

corporate websites, differentiation between audiences is not possible, making the websites a

site where contradictions may be displayed and exposed. To avoid conflict, organizations

may achieve multivocality by keeping the communication open to several interpretations

(Meyer and H€

ollerer, 2016). The diversity of a corporate website’s audience hence has

implications for how statements can be made (Coupland, 2005).

Organizations increasingly allocate space and resources to conveying their corporate social

responsibility (CSR) work, including diversity and inclusion efforts, in online settings (Dade and

Hassenzahl, 2013). Corporate online presence plays an important part as a symbolic representation

of impression management in the eyes of stakeholders and shareholders (Pasztor, 2016).

Corporate communic ation aiming to addres s society’s demand for equality and

sustainability has sometimes been criticiz ed for constituting a symbolic instead of

substantive commitment to causes sorting under a CSR umbrella (Van der Waal and

Thijssens, 2020). In the case of multinational corporations (MNCs), criticism has concerned

communication being used mainly as a PR tool (Mhlanga et al., 2018) and aimed at impressing

stakeholders in the host country while ignoring the conditions produced by the companies’

activities in other parts of the world (Barbosa and Cabral-Cardoso, 2010;Reid, 2014). Other

critique has concerned “cherry-picking”of “easy”and unproblematic diversity causes and

goals (Forestier and Kim, 2020;Siegel and Lima, 2020). Researchers have labeled their critique

CSR-washing (Pope and Wæraas, 2016), SDG-washing (Heras-Saizarbitoria et al., 2021) and

woke-washing (Sobande, 2020). Washing as concept has generally referred to the occurrence

of gaps between symbolic and substantive action (Siano et al., 2017).

Building on previous works of, e.g. Scandelius an d Cohen (2016) and Christensen et al. (2013,

2021), this article sets out to illustrate how communication with a diverse audience can promote

change and facilitate smooth co-existence among a range of stakeholders with different

perceptions and preferences. The aim is to investigate how washing practices, focusing on

appeasing sceptics of diversity work in for-profit organizations, play out in corporate online

communication of diversity and inclusion efforts, and how these enable communication to a wide

audience that includes social equity advocates. The aim is channeled into the following

questions: How i s online corpora te communication on diversity and inclusion catering to

competing preferences and interests of a diverse audience? By appeasing diverse audiences, how

can online corporate communication on diversity and inclusion be seen as aspirational talk?

Drawing on literature that focuses on the doing of language in settings of contending

demands, the articleadds to previous critical literatureanalyzing CSR communication from a

performativeand constitutive perspectiveand with a particular focus on tensionmanagement

(Høvring et al., 2018;Koep, 2017;Mease, 2016). Furthermore, the article contributes to the

writings on divergences perceived as everyday expected parts of organizations rather than

problems in need of solutions (Putnam et al.,2016;Smith and Lewis, 2011).

Following the introduction, an overview of the emergence of CSR communication is

provided, from diversity management in physical settings to performative communication in

digital contexts. The performative view of communication is introduced, along with the

concept of aspirational talk situated within it. The methodology section covers the study’s

sample and approach to collecting and analyzing data. In the subsequent results section, the

collected online corporate online communication data from multinational corporations are

EDI

43,9

40