Sarah Bonewits Feldner

Adopting an Attitude of Wisdom in Organizational Rhetorical Theory and Practice: Contemplating the Ideal and the Real

Research and practice in external rhetoric often fall short of ideals both in terms of widespread use of a rhetorical perspective and in achieving dialogic conditions in the public sphere. In this response, the authors consider potential explanations for this shortfall, focusing on challenges that exist on a theoretical level within organizational rhetoric scholarship and on a practical level as individuals and organizations interact.

Rhetorically Constructing an Identity at Multiple Levels: A Case Study of Social Entrepreneurship Umbrella Organizations

ABSTRACT To gain support for their programs, mission, and aims, organizations engage in identity work to establish and communicate who and what an organization is. We argue that identity work is a core strategic communication effort, and furthermore that rhetoric is central to the process. To better understand such identity work, we engage in a case study of an emerging organizational form, social entrepreneurship (SE), by analyzing the identity rhetoric of three large SE umbrella organizations (Ashoka, The Skoll Foundation, Echoing Green). We find that SE identity work is constructed at both the organizational level and at the level of SE as a whole field or sector. Our contributions highlight the tensions brought about in communicatively constructing identity at multiple levels, and the need for further strategic communication scholarship that critiques identity work as arguments for a vision for social change agendas.

Transparency in Communication: An Examination of Communication Journals’ Conflicts-of-Interest Policies

Increased corporate-sponsored university research and professorial consulting has caused medical, psychological, and other scientific journals to adopt conflicts-of-interest disclosure policies. This study examines editorial policies concerning conflicts of interest at communication journals in the context of Habermass theory of communicative action. The results show that communication journals do not have the same mandatory disclosure requirements that journals of other disciplines have. In this regard, communication research journals are similar to the mass media. Consequently, the article suggests that disclosure policies are needed if communication research journals are to function as part of a larger dialogic process. Moreover, communication researchers are not in a position to criticize the mass media for failing to disclose conflicts of interest when their own journals do not require disclosure.

Analyzing the Intersection of Transparency, Issue Management and Ethics: The Case of Big Soda

ABSTRACT This article critically analyzes the ethics of Coca-Cola’s public relations strategies through the lens of corporate social responsibility, issue management, and moral legitimacy. Corporate legitimacy is essential for corporate survival and, in today’s complex environment, expectations for legitimacy have shifted. Corporations are called on to consider their roles in the context of the greater good. These changes call for an examination of what constitutes ethical communication for public relations practitioners. While theoretical advancements in the area of ethics sketch the landscape for providing for greater transparency in what the aims of organizations should be in providing for ethical communication, more needs to be done to examine the specific content of this communication. Toward this end, the authors seek to extend conversations and draw from Habermas’s theories of communicative action and Principle U to propose a new direction for evaluating public relations ethics.