Organisational stakeholders and alternative models of social responsibility and reporting

Woodward, David Graham (2006) Organisational stakeholders and alternative models of social responsibility and reporting. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

The papers here presented have a particular emphasis, within the totality of the accountability exercised by organisations towards the society in which they exist, upon the organisational legitimacy interpretation of the extant relationship.  This conceptualisation relies upon the assumption of a principal:agent relationship existing between society and business and suggests the former requires on-going evidence from the latter that it is behaving ‘responsibly’ i.e. doing those things of which society approves.  Such responsibility can be evidenced, as one method, by corporate social reporting and numerous suggestions are made as to how this might occur.  However, envisaged in this way the business:society relationship must be perceived as essentially reactive in nature, and the thesis therefore also considers the alternative, and far more proactive stance, suggested by a political economy (of accounting) formulation.  Suggestions as to how corporate executives might demonstrate their adherence to this alternative conceptualisation are hence also indicated.

Since "society" at the total level is considered to be a somewhat meaningless construct within a reporting framework, stakeholder analysis is employed to identify both the societal interest groups to whom an object organisation might be considered ‘accountable’, and the nature of (some at least of) the information regarding organisational activity that it might be deemed appropriate to then provide. In particular, amongst the stakeholders the thesis identifies and regarding which corporate reporting should occur, a cogent argument is mounted for the specific place of environmental reporting (meanwhile questioning the relevance of the ‘sustainability’ precept advocated elsewhere).

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