Marianne Grove Ditlevsen

Telling the Story of Danisco’s Annual Reports (1935 Through 2007-2008) From a Communicative Perspective

This article documents the evolution of the annual reports of the Danish company Danisco A/S from 1935 through 2007-2008. Compared to previous diachronic studies of annual reports, this study offers a finer grained description from a communicative perspective over a long period of time. Using genre theory as a framework, it analyzes the macrostructure and visual elements of these reports from a communicative standpoint paying equal attention to both of the genre’s subordinate communicative purposes: to give a true and fair view of the state of the company and to provide a positive image of the company. The findings indicate that the annual reports have four distinctive phases (1935 through 1958, 1959 through 1988, 1989-1990 through 2005-2006, and 2006-2007 through 2007-2008) that serve different communicative purposes. The study clearly shows that the annual report is primarily a statutory document and reveals that changes within organizations have a much greater and more immediate impact on changes in the annual reports than do other contextual factors.

On the Discursive Construction of Knowledge Deficits in the ‘Alter’

Our underlying understanding when discussing and analysing the discursive construction of knowledge deficits is that language, knowledge and power are inextricably linked (Foucault 1972). In a workplace setting these intrinsic features become even more pronounced. And even though we concur with Sarangi and Roberts when they state that ‘[w]orkplaces are held together by communicative practices (1999: 1), we should not allow ourselves to overlook the importance of Engestrom et al.’s addition that ‘[o]rganizations may emerge through conversation, but they do not emerge for the sake of conversation. They emerge and continue to exist in order to produce goods, services, or less-clearly-definable outcomes for customers or users. If you take away patients and illnesses, you do not have hospitals’ (1999: 170). When isolating a specific instantiation of workplace-related discourse, namely that of management communication (see section 2) — be it within late capitalist society or new capitalism (Gee et al. 1996) — we are dealing with a field of study where asymmetrical power relationships (Sarangi & Roberts 1999: 6) not only permeate discursive action but indeed structure it — and very openly so.

Sustainability in Business Communication: An Overview

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the field of sustainability in business communication by looking at it from five very different angles, which nevertheless form a comprehensive view of the field. The first part investigates how the use of lexical items which express the sustainability idea have developed in business communication. The second part looks at the development of sustainability communication within employer branding. Part three focuses on current trends of sustainability in marketing and advertising and finds that sustainability is not quite as frequently used here as it is in reporting, employer branding or investor relations communication. In the fourth part, sustainability communication is scrutinized as reflections of the development within investor relations communication. Those historic developments show a very clear increase in the use and the significance of sustainability in business communication. Part five then adds a cultural and a political dimension to sustainability communication and thus broadens the perspective. By investigating those different angles of sustainability in business communication by empirical analyses, exploratory studies, literature reviews and discussions, the article aims at drawing a picture of sustainability in business communication that captures discursive manifestations of sustainability, historic developments and current trends, sustainability communications towards internal and external audiences, and intercultural and political implications.

Nachhaltigkeit in der Wirtschaftskommunikation: eine Einführung

Nachhaltigkeit ist in aller Munde. Das Prinzip ist dabei denkbar einfach – und auch denkbar einleuchtend: Der Verbrauch von Ressourcen darf niemals den Bestand an Ressourcen dermasen gefahrden, dass eine Nutzung der Ressourcen nicht mehr moglich ist.