IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rru/oapubs/10197-5779.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Rhetoric and Argument in Social and Environmental Reporting: the Dirty Laundry case

Author

Listed:
  • Niamh Brennan
  • Doris M. Merkl-Davies

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the interactive element in social and environmental reporting during a controversy between business organisations and a stakeholder over environmental performance. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts Aristotle's triangular framework of the rhetorical situation to examine how the writer, the audience, and the purpose of communication interact in the choice of rhetorical strategies used to persuade others of the validity and legitimacy of a claim during a public controversy. The analysis focuses on the strategies (i.e. moves and their rhetorical realisations) in the form of logos (appealing to logic), ethos (appealing to authority), and pathos (appealing to emotion), with a particular emphasis on metaphor, used to achieve social and political goals. The authors base the analysis on a case study involving a conflict between Greenpeace and six organisations in the sportswear/fashion industry over wastewater discharge of hazardous chemicals. The conflict played out in a series of 20 press releases issued by the parties over a two-month period. Findings: All six firms interacting with Greenpeace in the form of press releases eventually conceded to Greenpeace's demand to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their supply chains. The paper attributes this to Greenpeace's ability to harness support from other key stakeholders and to use rhetoric effectively. Results show the extensive use of rhetoric by all parties. Originality/value: The authors regard legitimacy construction as reliant on communication and as being achieved by organisations participating in a dialogue with stakeholders. For this purpose, the paper develops an analytical framework which situates environmental reporting in a specific rhetorical situation and links rhetoric, argument, and metaphor.

Suggested Citation

  • Niamh Brennan & Doris M. Merkl-Davies, 2014. "Rhetoric and Argument in Social and Environmental Reporting: the Dirty Laundry case," Open Access publications 10197/5779, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    • Handle: RePEc:rru:oapubs:10197/5779
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10197/5779
    File Function: Open Access version, 2014
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brennan, Niamh M. & Daly, Caroline A. & Harrington, Claire S., 2010. "Rhetoric, argument and impression management in hostile takeover defence documents," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 253-268.
    2. Philip Linsley & Peter Kajuter, 2008. "Restoring reputation and repairing legitimacy: a case study of impression management in response to a major risk event at Allied Irish Banks plc," International Journal of Financial Services Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(1), pages 65-82.
    3. Niamh Brennan & Doris Merkl-Davies & Annika Beelitz, 2013. "Dialogism in Corporate Social Responsibility Communications: Conceptualising Verbal Interaction Between Organisations and Their Audiences," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(4), pages 665-679, July.
    4. Paul H Thibodeau & Lera Boroditsky, 2011. "Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(2), pages 1-11, February.
    5. Jeff Everett & Dean Neu, 2000. "Ecological Modernization And The Limits Of Environmental Accounting?," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 5-29, March.
    6. Suzanne M. Carter, 2006. "The Interaction of Top Management Group, Stakeholder, and Situational Factors on Certain Corporate Reputation Management Activities," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1145-1176, July.
    7. Niamh Brennan & S. J. Gray, 2000. "Rhetoric and argument in financial reporting : disclosures in profit forecasts and takeover documents," Open Access publications 10197/2965, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    8. Walters, Melissa, 2004. "Alternative accounting thought and the prison-house of metaphor," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-187, February.
    9. Russell Craig & Joel Amernic, 2008. "A privatization success story: accounting and narrative expression over time," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(8), pages 1085-1115, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niamh Brennan & Doris M. Merkl-Davies, 2013. "Accounting Narratives and Impression Management," Open Access publications 10197/4949, Research Repository, University College Dublin.
    2. Merkl-Davies, Doris M. & Koller, Veronika, 2012. "‘Metaphoring’ people out of this world: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a chairman's statement of a UK defence firm," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 178-193.
    3. Brennan, Niamh M. & Edgar, Victoria C. & Power, Sean Bradley, 2022. "COVID-19 profit warnings: Delivering bad news in a time of crisis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(2).
    4. Amernic, Joel & Craig, Russell, 2009. "Understanding accounting through conceptual metaphor: ACCOUNTING IS AN INSTRUMENT?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 875-883.
    5. Davison, Jane, 2011. "Paratextual framing of the annual report: Liminal literary conventions and visual devices," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 118-134.
    6. Lauwo, Sarah & Kyriacou, Orthodoxia & Julius Otusanya, Olatunde, 2020. "When sorry is not an option: CSR reporting and ‘face work’ in a stigmatised industry – A case study of Barrick (Acacia) gold mine in Tanzania," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Doris M. Merkl-Davies & Niamh M. Brennan, 2011. "A conceptual framework of impression management: new insights from psychology, sociology and critical perspectives," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 415-437, December.
    8. Beattie, Vivien, 2014. "Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 111-134.
    9. Lorenzo Gelmini & Valentina Minutiello & Patrizia Tettamanzi & Maurizio Comoli, 2021. "Rhetoric, Accounting and Accountability: COVID-19 and the Case of Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-21, April.
    10. Gustavo Alberto Ruiz Rojas, 2016. "Retórica y contabilidad: de la crítica retórica a la retórica crítica," Revista Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Militar Nueva Granada, vol. 25(1), pages 243-270, December.
    11. Yan Luo & Linying Zhou, 2020. "Textual tone in corporate financial disclosures: a survey of the literature," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(2), pages 101-110, September.
    12. Maria-Silvia Sandulescu, 2017. "Impression management – an international perspective," The Audit Financiar journal, Chamber of Financial Auditors of Romania, vol. 15(148), pages 605-605.
    13. Bingler, Julia Anna & Kraus, Mathias & Leippold, Markus & Webersinke, Nicolas, 2024. "How cheap talk in climate disclosures relates to climate initiatives, corporate emissions, and reputation risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    14. Stéphanie Chatelain-Ponroy & Olivier Vidal, 2013. "Comptabilité sans frontières: intérêt d'une cartographie," Post-Print halshs-00829410, HAL.
    15. Gaffikin, Michael, 2009. "Twenty-one years of critical resistance—almost: A reflection," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 268-273.
    16. Niamh Brennan & Doris Merkl-Davies & Annika Beelitz, 2013. "Dialogism in Corporate Social Responsibility Communications: Conceptualising Verbal Interaction Between Organisations and Their Audiences," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(4), pages 665-679, July.
    17. Sandrine Boulerne & Jean-Philippe Lafontaine & Bruno Pecchioli, 2016. "Fukushima, quel impact sur les entreprises françaises cotées de la filière de production d'électricité d'origine nucléaire ?," Post-Print hal-01902423, HAL.
    18. Taj, Saud A., 2016. "Application of signaling theory in management research: Addressing major gaps in theory," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 338-348.
    19. Charles H. Cho & Matias Laine & Robin W. Roberts & Michelle Rodrigue, 2018. "The Frontstage and Backstage of Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Bill," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 865-886, October.
    20. Verena Komander & Andreas König, 2024. "Organizations on stage: organizational research and the performing arts," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 303-352, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rru:oapubs:10197/5779. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joseph Greene (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://researchrepository.ucd.ie .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.