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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between organizational leaders’ internal communication efforts, employees’ work engagement, and their public relations performance. Findings from a survey of public relations agency employees in South Korea (N = 100) indicate that transparent employee communication, having three dimensions of sufficient and accessible information, accountability/authenticity, participation/ openness, would not only enhance employees’ reputation perceptions toward their own organizations (B = .54), but also foster job engagement (B = .41), and their willingness to adopt an accommodative stance to public (B = .41). Findings are discussed in terms of how organizational leaders (i.e., that include top management, managers, and unit supervisors) can inspire greater workplace performance.

This study revealed the differences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) presentation through a content analysis of 174 American and Chinese corporate websites. The findings showed that websites of the U.S. companies on the Fortune Global 500 list demonstrated more thorough CSR representation than their Chinese counterparts. Specifically, the U.S. websites focused on the majority of the CSR topics such as environment, diversity and equal opportunity, charitable giving, and volunteering. On the other hand, Chinese websites seemed to focus on a limited number of CSR themes. The findings also revealed cultural differences of the CSR communication between the two countries. Chinese company websites display more power distance, collectivism, long-term orientation than the U.S. company websites. On the other hand, the U.S. company websites displayed more uncertainty avoidance than their Chinese counterparts. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study examines the role of culture in shaping publics’ expectations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication through survey research in the United States (N = 316) and China (N = 315). Based on Kim and Ferguson’s (2014) investigation of what and how to communicate CSR among U.S. publics, this study aims to further contribute to CSR communication literature by examining public expectations of corporations’ CSR activities in a global context. Furthermore, this study applies Hofstede’s cultural dimensions as adapted by Vitell et al. (2003) to determine how various cultural elements may serve as predictors for why and how publics in both the U.S. and China develop expectations and perceptions of companies’ CSR efforts. Two online surveys were administered through a Qualtrics panel to include a representative sample of general U.S. consumers and general Chinese consumers. The English survey was administered to the U.S. sample, while the Chinese survey (translated and examined by two bilingual researchers) was administered to the sample in China. Questionnaire items measured participants’ expectations of companies’ CSR communication and several cultural dimensions that could potentially impact participants’ expectations of effective CSR communication. Results highlight differences in each public’s expectations of what and how companies should communicate CSR. Specifically, this study found that Chinese consumers seem to place higher importance on CSR communication content (e.g., what to communicate) than U.S. consumers. Also, U.S. consumers prioritized communicating about who is benefitting from a company’s CSR activities while Chinese consumers felt that it was most important to communicate the consistency of the company’s commitment to its CSR initiatives. Both samples felt that message tone was the most important factor when considering how companies should communicate CSR information. Among Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity are identified as the strongest predictors for CSR variables, but results regarding what and how publics expect from companies’ CSR communication efforts highlight different items that participants in each country rate as the most important factors to them. Overall, results suggest that the role of culture might be slightly stronger in shaping CSR expectations in China than in the U.S. since there were more predictor variables and stronger coefficients in the Chinese sample than in the U.S. The study broadens theoretical developments in CSR and public relations research and provides insight for public relations practitioners and companies who continue to search for best practices to effectively communicate about social responsibility with key publics on a global level.