Questioning the Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a remarkable resurgence of academic, professional and corporate interest in the area of social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR). One striking common feature of the myriad of initiatives taking place lies in an apparent concern to address the information needs of organisational stakeholders via the promotion of dialogue and engagement. Drawing on a programme of short interviews with corporate managers, representatives of the 'big five', consultants and NGOs active in the field, this paper suggests that despite seemingly endorsing active stakeholder engagement current SEAAR practice amounts to little more than corporate spin. An overwhelming concern with promoting the 'business case' in developing SEAAR together with a profound reluctance to address the issue of corporate governance largely removes any potential for enhancing the accountability and transparency of powerful economic organisations. Most fundamentally, failure to address the crucial dimension of corporate power robs current SEAAR of a much needed radical edge.

Social reporting, engagements, controversies and conflict in an arena context

“…In the context of social reporting, therefore, we would expect the co-existence and co-evolution of responses explained by political economy theories (Cooper and Sherer, 1984;Puxty, 1991), stakeholder theories Owen et al, 2001), AAAJ 21,8 legitimacy theories (Patten, 1991;Buhr, 1998;Campbell, 2000), emancipatory change (Bebbington, 1997;Thomson and Bebbington, 2005;Dillard et al, 2005) and democratic accountability (Gray, 1992(Gray, , 2002.…”

Defining the Content of Sustainability Reports in Nonprofit Organizations: Do Stakeholders Really Matter?

“…The main aim of the present research has been to understand the role that SE takes in SR, determining whether and to what extent the engagement is effective or rather tends to assume the characteristics of stakeholder management and a balancing of different expectations (Owen et al, 2001) in the reporting processes. The empirical research carried out has enabled identification of a limited level of stakeholder involvement in the reporting process, despite the fact that NPO reports were all inserted into the GRI database with high levels of conformity to respective guidelines.…”

“…In particular, it seeks to determine whether and to what extent the SE in this kind of reporting is effective and/or whether it tends to assume the characteristics of stakeholder management and a balancing of different expectations (Owen, Swift, & Hunt, 2001). Of course the very process of analyzing these documents affects the categories of stakeholders upon which the reports are more focused.…”

An Analysis on the Behaviour of Corporate Social Responsibility towards Profitability of Islamic Banks: Asean and Europe

“…Since the mid-1990s there has been a general increase in the demand for greater corporate accountability as evidenced by the numerous stakeholder requests for more transparent information (Anonymous, 2002;Owen et al, 2001;Swift, 2001). There are several reasons; First, stakeholders demanding more transparent financial report.…”