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Business and Human Rights: a Content Analysis of Corporate Responses to Civil Society Reports in the Extractive Sector

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Business and Human Rights: a Content Analysis of Corporate Responses to Civil Society Reports in the Extractive Sector Business and Human Rights: A Content Analysis of Corporate Responses to Civil Society Reports in the Extractive Sector Master Thesis MSc in Business, Language and Culture - Business and Development Studies Authors: Moritz Neumann - 107090 & Mette Slot Lykke - 68500 Supervisor: Rajiv Maher, External Lecturer STUs: 254,990 Submission Date: March 15th, 2019 Copenhagen Business School 0 Abstract Purpose – This paper investigates the rhetoric of nine extractive companies, as they address public allegations of human rights violations. Accordingly, the research applies Garrett et al.’s (1989) framework for analysing organisational communication responses to determine its applicability now, 30 years later. Methodology – The research utilises secondary data sources in the form of company responses, retrieved from the ‘Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’, in December 2018. A qualitative content analysis facilitates the systematic evaluation of 147 company responses1. The data is approached abductively which allowed new themes to emerge, and the coding is performed from a latent perspective. The findings show the relative account frequency and present these through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative depictions. Findings – The analysis indicates that Garrett et al.’s (1989) four main typologies; Denial, Excuse, Concession, and Justification along with its five subcategories, remain applicable. Still, this research expands on our understanding of corporate attitudes to charges of unethical behaviour in several ways. Firstly, our open engagement with the data helps us develop two new account types. These are categorised as Self-Promotion and Diversion. As these categories capture a significant share of the examined company responses, their inclusion in this research is justified. Secondly, this study identifies a compelling preference for justifying company actions by appealing to legal rights. Thirdly, this research observes a predominant application of Self-Promotion accounts and the arguable growth in their usage. Combined with suggestions in the literature that Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism is increasingly applied by corporations, this may imply extractive companies are increasingly aware of the need to perform self- regulatory measures in order to maintain their legitimacy in the marketplace. Keywords – Extractive industry, human rights, corporate communication, CSR, disclosure, content analysis, Global South, Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism, self-regulation, 1 The following files are located on a separate USB drive: ‘Coded Company Responses’, ‘Coding sheet’ and ‘Analysis sheet’. 1 Table of Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4 1.1 Research Objective ................................................................................................................. 6 1.2 Definition of Key Concepts .................................................................................................... 7 2 Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Corporate Social Legitimacy .................................................................................................. 8 2.2 Corporate Social Responsibility ............................................................................................. 9 2.2.1 Sustainability .................................................................................................................... 9 2.3 Disclosure ............................................................................................................................. 10 2.3.1 Greenwashing ................................................................................................................ 11 2.3.2 Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism ......................................................................... 15 2.4 Re-legitimisation through Corporate Response Strategies ................................................... 19 3 Methodological Chapter .............................................................................................................. 25 3.1 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................. 26 3.1.1 Subjectivism vs. Objectivism ......................................................................................... 27 3.1.2 Intermediate Stance: Pragmatism .................................................................................. 30 3.2 Research Method: Content Analysis .................................................................................... 31 3.3 Approach to Theory Development: Abduction .................................................................... 34 3.4 Quality within the Study ....................................................................................................... 35 3.4.1 Credibility ...................................................................................................................... 36 3.4.2 Dependability ................................................................................................................. 36 3.4.3 Transferability ................................................................................................................ 37 3.4.4 Confirmability ................................................................................................................ 38 3.5 Data Collection and Analysis ............................................................................................... 38 3.5.1 Business and Human Rights Resource Centre ............................................................... 38 3.5.2 Collecting Companies’ Accounts .................................................................................. 39 3.5.3 Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 40 4.1 Frequency and Quality of Corporate Responses .................................................................. 43 4.1.1 Anglo American ............................................................................................................. 43 4.1.2 BHP ................................................................................................................................ 45 4.1.3 Glencore ......................................................................................................................... 48 2 4.1.4 Rio Tinto ........................................................................................................................ 50 4.1.5 BP ................................................................................................................................... 53 4.1.6 Eni .................................................................................................................................. 55 4.1.7 ExxonMobil ................................................................................................................... 57 4.1.8 Shell ............................................................................................................................... 59 4.1.9 Total ............................................................................................................................... 62 4.2 Analysis of Corporate Accounts ........................................................................................... 64 4.2.1 Trends and Change in Account Usage ........................................................................... 65 4.2.2 Denial ............................................................................................................................. 67 4.2.3 Justification .................................................................................................................... 70 4.2.4 Excuse ............................................................................................................................ 81 4.2.5 Concession ..................................................................................................................... 85 4.2.6 Self-Promotion ............................................................................................................... 89 4.2.7 Diversion ........................................................................................................................ 97 5 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 102 5.1 How do Companies Respond to Allegations of Wrongdoing? ........................................... 103 5.2 Do Companies Exploit Weak Legislation in the Global South? ........................................ 105 5.3 Discussion of New Categories ............................................................................................ 106 5.4 Self-Promotion in Relation to Existing Literature .............................................................. 108 5.5 What can we Learn from the Companies’ Responses? ...................................................... 111 5.6 Is there a Connection between Self-Promotion & Appeal to Legal Rights? ...................... 113 5.7 Does Self-Promotion Serve a Strategic Purpose? ............................................................... 114 5.8 Limitations .........................................................................................................................
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