Corporate activism in conflict escalation: The strategy of discursive mediation
研究了企业如何通过话语调解策略应对社会政治冲突，避免站队加剧极化，以加泰罗尼亚独立冲突为例，展示了雇主组织如何通过呼吁谈判和改变敌对表述来缓和紧张局势。
• Discursive mediation is a CSA strategy alternative to side-taking. • It differs from peace brand activism in its focus on depolarization. • It is deployed in the destructive stage of conflicts. • It is used to de-escalate tension and rapproach factions into negotiation. • It performs instrumental, expressive, and defensive functions. Side-taking, a much-studied form of corporate sociopolitical activism, can help organizations align with their stakeholders but also fuel polarization, a pressing risk that can destabilize their operating environments. How can organizations thus respond to their stakeholders’ pressures to take a position on sociopolitical issues while simultaneously addressing this risk? We conceptualize an alternative strategy, discursive mediation, which differs from side-taking and peace brand activism in terms of how, when, and why it is carried out. We find evidence of this strategy by conducting a historical case study of the conflict over Catalan independence. We show that employer organizations strategically positioned themselves as mediators with explicit calls for negotiation and with discourse that changed the hostile representation of factions and that proposed solutions that could de-escalate the mounting tensions. These strategies set the stage for a rapprochement of the factions while protecting organizational interests.