Nils Förster was honored with the 2026 Best PhD Seminar Paper Award at the 8th International CSR Communication Conference held at LUT University in Finland.

Outstanding Research on Organizational Communication and Accountability

The award was given for a paper from his dissertation project on the relationship between organizational communication, organizational action, and responsibility.

The 8th International CSR Communication Conference took place September 22–24, 2026, at the LUT Business School of LUT University in Lappeenranta, Finland. This year’s conference was titled “CSR Communication in the Age of Political Instability.”

During the conference, Nils Förster received the 2026 Best PhD Seminar Paper Award for his paper “Organizations without responsibility and responsibility without organizations.”

This paper was written as part of his dissertation project, supervised by Peter Winkler, and examines the relationship between organizational communication, organizational action, and the attribution of responsibility.

Widersprüche zwischen Kommunikation und Handeln neu gedacht

This work focuses on the question of how to understand the contradictions between what organizations communicate and what they actually do.

In research, such contradictions are often viewed as pre-existing events for which different theoretical approaches offer explanations. This dissertation project reverses this relationship and places greater emphasis on interpretation itself.

In doing so, the paper challenges fundamental assumptions about the relationship between organizational communication and organizational action, while also offering a new perspective on the question of organizational responsibility.

Discussion at the PhD Workshop

The paper was discussed during a two-day PhD workshop at the conference. During the workshop, Förster received detailed and constructive feedback from Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, Lars Thøger Christensen, and Visa Penttilä.

The 2026 Best PhD Seminar Paper Award was presented to a research paper that critically challenges established notions of organizational contradictions and raises new questions regarding the understanding of organizational responsibility.

In the photo, from left to right: Jenni Sipilä, Nils Förster, and Visa Penttilä.