Readdressing accountability for occupational health and safety in a pandemic era

Abstract

Purpose In the Covid-19 pandemic era, corporate responsibility and accountability for maintaining employee health and safety, particularly from this pernicious virus, have become a matter of major social and economic importance. From an accountability through action perspective, this study aims to set out to evaluate the potential occupational health and safety accountability consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based upon purposive sampling of several sets of publicly available data including published research literature addressing corporate social responsibility and accountability, and the literature more specifically addressing occupational health and safety (OHS) and its reporting. Also included are recent Web-based reports and articles concerning Covid-19-related OHS government and industry sponsored guidelines for employers and their workplaces across the UK and Australia. Findings The findings of this research highlight that firstly, the extant literature on OHS has been predominantly functionalist in its approach and that accountability through action provides an opportunity to make employers more visibly accountable for their response to Covid-19. Secondly, the paper highlights that despite recent progress on OHS issues significant concerns remained in the pre-Covid-19 era and that emerging regulations and legal obligations on employees have the potential to make OHS issues a prominent part of corporate social responsibility research. Originality/value Disease and mental health statistics reveal the potential significance of their expansion in the Covid-19 environment, and regulatory and legal liability concerns emerge as potential drivers of renewed corporate as well as researcher attention to OHS issues. Implications for the emergence of a broader range of accountability forms and visibilities are also canvassed.

COVID-19 and accounting as multidimensional technical, social and moral practice: a framework for future research

“…Importantly, Parker and Narayanan (2023) observe that “while corporates may see these [obligations] as dysfunctional impacts on productivity and profits, they more importantly represent major ongoing impacts on human lives, families, communities and the general society”. The authors argue that accountability through action is the opportunity to make employers more visibly accountable.…”

“…Parker and Narayanan (2023) explore corporate social responsibility and accountability for maintaining employee health and safety during the COVID-19 era. The authors adopt an accountability in action lens in evaluating the potential OHS accountability consequences of this pandemic, which is of major social and economic importance globally.…”

Pursuing Big Issues in Covid-World Accounting Research

“…on communities, health and welfare, employees, and product safety). The implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for our responsibilities to renew attention to accountability for occupational health and safety (OHS) are identified by Parker and Narayanan (2022). Attention to this organisational impact and responsibility amongst accounting researchers has been very limited, yet national statistics on workplace disease, employee mental health, injuries and fatalities have remained significant concerns, with Covid-19 poised to exacerbate those impacts (Parker & Narayanan, 2022).…”

Impact of organization decision making styles and safety accountability on occupational health and safety implementation: The moderating role of mimetic motives

“…Likewise, Otok et al ( 23 ) claimed that organizational decision-making styles help to mitigate disaster risk in developing countries. Additionally, in the era of COVID-19, safety accountability is a prominent enabling factor for OHS implementation at the organizational level ( 24 ). Although the OHS research domain has gained significant attention, several lines of inquiry need urgent action, like organizational strategic decision-making style ( 22 , 23 ), and safety accountability ( 24 ).…”

“…Additionally, in the era of COVID-19, safety accountability is a prominent enabling factor for OHS implementation at the organizational level ( 24 ). Although the OHS research domain has gained significant attention, several lines of inquiry need urgent action, like organizational strategic decision-making style ( 22 , 23 ), and safety accountability ( 24 ). Additionally, Ju et al ( 25 ) claimed that some external stimuli or motives influence a firm's strategic actions to promote OHS implementation.…”