Communicating Corporate Ethics on the World Wide Web

Abstract

This dissertation explores how companies communicate their ethical stance on their Web sites. The author analyzed the Web sites of six companies: BellSouth, Lockheed Martin, Ben & Jerry's, McDonald's, Nike, and Levi Strauss. This sample offers both typicality and systematic variety as the six companies belong to three different ethics paradigms. The linguistic analysis of the Web pages draws on a functional approach to discourse analysis, focusing on the ideational, the interpersonal, and the textual function of discourse. Despite the fact that the companies selected for the dissertation project have adopted different approaches to corporate ethics, their communicative strategies turned out to be quite similar regarding content, persuasive appeals, self-reference, audience address, and message organization.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Altham, J. (2001, Spring). Business ethics versus corporate social responsibility: Competing or complementary approaches? International Business Ethics Review, pp. 10-12.

Baker, L. W. (1993). The credibility factor. Putting ethics to work in public relations. Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin.

Bowie, N. E. (1979). Business codes of ethics: Window dressing or legitimate alternative to government regulation? In T. L. Beauchamp & N. E. Bowie (Eds.), Ethical theory and business (pp. 234-239). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Brigley, S. (1995). Business ethics in context: Researching with case studies. Journal of Business Ethics, 14, 219-226.

Cragan, J. F., & Shields, D. C. (1998). Understanding communication theory. The communicative forces for human action. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman.

Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge, MA: Polity.

Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power (2nd ed.). London: Longman.

Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. A. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies (Vol. 2, pp. 258-283). London: Sage.

10.

Farrell, H., & Farrell, B. J. (1998). The language of business codes of ethics: Implications of knowledge and power. Journal of Business Ethics, 17, 587-601.

11.

Gaines, S. (1994, March/April). Handing out halos. Business Ethics, pp. 20-24.

12.

Georgakopoulou, A., & Dionysis, G. (1997). Discourse analysis. An Introduction. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

13.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. London: Arnold.

14.

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Arnold.

15.

Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

16.

Hodge, R., & Kress, G. (1993). Language as ideology (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

17.

Hubermann, A. M., & Miles, M. B. (1994). Data management and analysis methods. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 428-444). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

18.

Newsom, D., Turk, J. V., & Kruckeberg, D. (1999). This is PR. The realities of public relations (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

19.

Sanderson, G. R., & Varner, I. I. (1984, July). What's wrong with corporate codes of conduct? Management Accounting, pp. 28-35.

20.

Seeger, M. W. (1997). Ethics and organizational communication. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton.

21.

Stake, R. E. (1994). Case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 236-247). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

22.

Stevens, B. (1994). An analysis of corporate ethical code studies: `Where do we go from here?' Journal of Business Ethics, 13, 63-69.

23.

Stillar, G. F. (1998). Analyzing everyday texts. Discourse, rhetoric, and social perspectives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

24.

Van Berkel, A., & de Jong, M. (1999). Coherence phenomena in hypertextual environments. In E. M. Jakobs (Ed.), Textproduktion: HyperText, text, kontext (pp. 29-40). Frankfurt, Germany: Lang.

25.

Yin, R. K. (1984). Case study research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.