Internal Communication of CSR Projects : A case-study within a multinational group.

Abstract: The interest for corporate social responsibility increases with the time and more companies conducts it for every year. The VINCI group is no different and has from 2002 had a Foundation, initially developed in France. However, over the years it has expanded into multiple countries throughout Europe and has now initiated a development of the VINCI UK Foundation with the purpose of fighting social exclusion and isolation. The decentralized company structure and the involvement of multiple subsidiaries demand a high quality of the internal communication regarding the project. That is also what this study will be investigating, how the internal communication of the VINCI UK Foundation was conducted. This research was conducted via a case study, with the author employed at VINCI Energies UK and RoI, working first hand with the subject whilst also conducting interviews with the people involved. Multiple perspectives of both corporate social responsibility and internal communication will be discussed and how the initiation was communicated to the employees within the subsidiaries. It is important for organizations to include the real reasons as to why it was initiated, not only providing the reason of being responsible as a company. Since this will develop a skepticism in the minds of the internal stakeholders affecting the trust towards the project, or even towards the organization. The different interpretation of what corporate social responsibility is, alongside with how the subsidiaries conduct their internal communication on a daily basis, resulted in that the information regarding the VINCI UK Foundation was communicated differently. For the years to come it could be important for the subsidiaries involved to meet prior to communicating the information in order to determine a code of conduct. This is important to develop a united front.