Exploring Dialectical Tensions for Institutional Maintenance: A Case of Google and Its Censored Chinese Search Engine

Authors

  • Jane Stuart Baker Department of Communication Studies, University of Alabama
  • Lu Tang Department of Communication Studies, University of Alabama

Keywords:

corporate social responsibility, China, Internet censorship, discourse, institutional work, dialectics

Abstract

Organizations can adapt to the institutional environment by exploiting the equivocality within the existing institutional discourses to strategically position themselves within their institutional environments. This process is illustrated through a case study of Google’s discussion of the institution of corporate social responsibility. Google reframes the dialectical tensions of business and ethics, global standards and local compliance, and corporate control and state control, defending and then denouncing its censored search engine in China.

Author Biographies

Jane Stuart Baker, Department of Communication Studies, University of Alabama

Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Alabama. Dr. Baker studies organizational discourse, diversity, conflict, and group communication in organizations.

Lu Tang, Department of Communication Studies, University of Alabama

Associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Alabama. Her research focuses on how communication shapes the relationship between business and society in the era of globalization.

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Published

2015-09-14

Issue

Vol. 9 (2015)

Section

Articles

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