Chevron's Power of Human Energy: A Case for Corporate Social Responsibility as Identification Inducement
Abstract
With corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerging as an inescapable business
priority around the world, organizations are developing elaborate CSR campaigns to
highlight their good deeds and influence important stakeholders. Despite its potentially
powerful persuasive influence, however, we know surprisingly little about the actual
messaging used in contemporary CSR campaigns. Accordingly, this study investigates a
major multinational-and controversial-company's CSR campaign to examine CSR
messages' propensity for inducing positive organizational identification.
A case study applying Cheney's (1983b) organizational identification inducements
reveals that Chevron's Power of Human Energy CSR campaign extensively and
strategically uses CSR messaging to induce identification. This study thus suggests that
organizations are using complex, versatile, and wide-ranging identification inducements in
contemporary CSR campaigns-including eliciting identification via employee and
outsider voices. Results are discussed in terms of practical and ethical implications for
researchers, communication practitioners, and society.