In this article Christine Coupland discusses web-based forms of the reports and socially responsibility documents of five banking groups: Loyds/TSB, HSBC, The Royal Bank of Scotland, the Co-operative Bank and Barclays. Social and environmental reporting is a broad concern, and, therefore, separation of CSE issues will indicate the allocation of particular status. The study also focuses on the language as the site of action.
The central argument is that organizations are socially constructed and emergent. The author uses discourse/textual analytic approach. Moreover, the author draws on media analysis techniques, and analysis of argument and rhetoric. Corporate social reporting is to simplistic. This claim is supported by official statistics aimed at revealing the key benefits of social and corporate responsibility.
The author’s purpose of the paper is to challenge public views on benefits of social and environmental responsibility for organizations and web-based reporting. The research focuses on examination of how organization is presented and on five banking groups and the author argues that CSR considerations are becoming more and more important in business world as they serve to peripheralize the information.
The article is useful to my research topic as Coupland suggests that organization is the only voice of apart from legitimizing bodies. The main limitation of the article is that little attention is paid to social and environmental reporting – I think the author should provide more information on the issue. Thus, the author indicates that social and environmental responsibility should be paid more attention. The article will not form the basis of my research; however, it will be useful supplementary information.