Research question

More and more companies communicate through different channels on their sustainability work. Especially public sustainability reporting has increased. However, at the same time, more and more critic is arising towards companies the communication, especially the credibility and transparency of the sustainability reports. In this study we use multiple data sources to study the sustainability information flow from key actors to internal and external stakeholders. Our research question is: how sustainability communication is viewed among internal and external stakeholders and which hindrances they relate to information flow?

Theoretical framework

Our theoretical framework focuses on three key concepts: sustainability work, sustainability information and sustainability communication. In our study, we defined sustainability information as all the information that is collected and disseminated regarding company’s sustainability issues. The previous research has noticed that there are challenges in the utilisation of the sustainability information. For example, Deegan and Rankin (1999) perceived that there is expectation gab between the producers and the user of the sustainability information. We understand sustainability communication to include all the corporate communication that includes a message of the sustainability work, including both the internal and the external sustainability communication.

Prior research has shown how employee commitment is the key sustainability work (Collier and Esteban 2007) and based on that how corporate sustainability communication should be ‘the inside-out approach’ (Morsing et al. 2008). It implies that companies should base their sustainability communication on ensuring employee commitment before they start communicating about sustainability and companies should only communicate on that sustainability work that relates to employees (Morsing et al. 2008). In this study we approach sustainability communication as an inside-out phenomenon by studying both the internal and external views.

Methods

We conducted case studies in two Finnish companies. Company A is a private energy company which operations cover the generation, distribution and sales of electricity and heat. Company B is a cooperative and it operates in the financial sector with banking, financing and insurance services. We used multiple data sources to study the communication on sustainability work within these companies. First, we content analysed the sustainability reports of these two companies from 2007 to 2012 to see what type of sustainability information is publicly spread by these organisations. We then focused on interviews of different stakeholders. We interviewed the key persons responsible for sustainability work and communication both in the beginning and in the end of the project (A 2/B 3). We also interviewed employees in both the organisations:  in company A 25 employees and in company B 27 employees were interviewed. Third, external stakeholder representatives were interviewed: ten environmental NGOs; nine customers and partners of the company B; seven politicians and three members of labour unions.

Findings

The study shows that the companies produce and communicate sustainability information from multiple perspectives. Unfortunately this information is hardly used by the internal and external stakeholders. The main hindrances for the use of information are its detached nature from everyday work and unconvincing and too general public reporting. The employees valued the sustainability work of the employer and they wanted to be proud of their employer due to sustainability work. However, employees tended to evaluate sustainability work based on their own daily tasks and they raised contradictions concerning sustainability work. The employees felt that the corporate sustainability work did not connect to the daily duties and it was simply an add-on. The employees would have wanted to have their own hands-on sustainability projects instead of high public tricks. They especially judged sustainability information as detached from everyday work.

The bafflement of the definitions and the measurement of the sustainability work were the key findings of the external stakeholder interviews. External stakeholders’ representatives evaluated the companies’ sustainability work based on their own experiences and values instead of published sustainability information. They were especially critical towards the sustainability reports and hardly ever read them. They mainly build their view of the sustainability work through the personal relationships with the company representatives.