Research Quotes for CSR and SER Essay PDF

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Research for use in an essay re: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Social and Environmental Reporting (SER)...

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Research Trail Quotes for Essay Comments in square brackets are my paraphrases of the cited material [ ].

Olivier Boiral, (2013) "Sustainability reports as simulacra? A counter-account of A and A+ GRI reports", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 26 Issue: 7, pp.1036-1071, https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-04-2012-00998

In this critical perspective, sustainability reporting could potentially amount to a kind of simulacrum: an artificial and idealized representation which is disconnected from reality to some extent. At 1037

In this view, more information does not contribute to a better understanding of reality, but rather tends to increase confusion and bolster the illusion of an increasingly transparent representation of things. At 1042

Nevertheless, as stressed by Debord and Baudrillard, information overload is all the more confusing and misleading when it is, from the outset, disconnected from reality, and thus reinforces the hold of the spectacle which “keeps people in a state of unawareness” at 1042

…Debord’s perspective, these assurance mechanisms could be part of the spectacle itself, helping to reinforce the stakeholders’ alienation by artificially inflating the credibility of a fake reality. From Baudrillard’s perspective, assurance mechanisms could cover the very absence of such a reality. Thus, sustainability reports and assurance mechanisms could represent a hyperreality conveying signs, data and images without any reference to the real world. Although this perspective may seem too radical, it calls into question the concept of sustainable development, whose vague definition, lack of concreteness and uncertain applications inside organizations have been largely criticized (Springett, 2003; Livesey and Kearins, 2002; Gray, 2010; Moneva et al. 2006; Milne et al. 2006). At 1043

Second, the control and manipulation of information is a key driver of the simulacra of the society of spectacle, which are established by and for leaders to maintain the established order. This control results in distorted and idealized representations of reality which have implications for reporting practices at 1043

This control is particularly significant because sustainability reports are issued on a voluntary basis and subject to very little outside control. Because of the managerial capture of the reporting process,

the information that firms disclose tends to be biased, reflecting the management’s interests rather than the firm’s true situation. at 1043

The control of this information by company executives favors a tendency toward greenwashing rather than transparency (Laufer, 2003; Ramus and Montiel, 2005; Wagner et al. 2009). Greenwashing presupposes the existence of a simulacrum that artificially showcases the firm and its supposed concern for the environment and good stakeholder relations.

These criticisms of the control and alienation resulting from corporate simulacra raise the question of the extent to which we can emancipate ourselves from the hegemonic discourse conveyed in sustainability reporting. This emancipation poses various challenges [4], one of which would be overcoming the companies’ control of information in order to obtain a more realistic view of corporate sustainability. Nevertheless, most firms’ real sustainable-development issues and commitments remain, from the outset, uncertain and opaque (Springett, 2003; Milne et al. 2006). What would “true” sustainability performance be in organizations? Is belief in such a “truth” and its subsequent measurement not a myth conveyed by the society of spectacle itself? How can it be unequivocally measured and communicated, independent of biased corporate statements? At 1045

The first type of reporting practice that of acknowledging significant adverse events related to sustainability involves disclosure of relatively clear information about the event. Although such disclosure is required by the GRI (according to the principles of balance, completeness, transparency, stakeholder inclusiveness, etc.), only 10 percent of the identified events were clearly presented in the sustainability reports we examined. At 1051

Current Developments and Trends in Social and Environmental Auditing, Reporting and Attestation: A Review and Comment by R. Gray

An environmental or social report might be thought of as seeking to satisfy either the intentions of management or the demands of accountability. Whilst there is some overlap between the objectives there is more conflict here than is generally recognised. At 248

[Rob, in reference to the 70s and 80s brief embrace of social accounting followed by its disappearance says] “We would be ill-advised to trust in the efficacy of voluntary initiatives.” At 249

[abuse of terminology as a means of supplementing the distortion (i.e. creating goodwill over a fake problem by saying you’ll take action via ‘social audit’].

[in response to the argument that external reporters are bias, Rob says that] most organisations which are the subject of such audits are quite capable of collating and communicating their own side of the story - and, indeed, do so on a regular basis - and so an external social audit can be characterised as a balancing rather than as a balanced activity. For these reasons - plus the considerable diversity of such audits, to consider any systematic approach to attestation would be largely impractical and not especially valuable. At 252.

[re: NGO social audits] That is, they have, in simple terms, intended to bring the external participants ‘inside’ the organisation, and to take the internal participants outside the organisational boundaries. Thus, there has been a deliberate attempt to blur the organisational boundaries and to see social auditing and accounting as a fluid two-way communication process through which organisational change can be achieved via a harmonious partnership of stakeholders. At 254

[looks idealist] The upshot of all of this is that if social accounting is not about holding organisations to account, then it is of interest to us only as a management tool - not as a mechanism of a democratic society. At 255 They only look, smell and quack like accountability because too many have swallowed a bland and incorrect definition of accountability. They actually smell, look and quack like the ugly duckling of managerial control and not the swan of accountability. At 255 [rob treats accountability as self-evidently desirable]

[on how CER helps businesses?] environmental factors are of increasing (economic) importance to organisations - even though the organisations themselves too often fail to recognise this. These matters - including such issues as liabilities, provisions, contingencies, plant and stock write-down and, more widely, matters of risk are, therefore, of increasing importance to the statutory auditor who needs to take formal steps to assess whether the organisation is vulnerable in these areas and has taken steps to identify and control those vulnerabilities. At 255

[rob offers a personal anecdote where auditors failed to transition their skills from auditing financial accounts to auditing social account] at 257

This, Ball et al. argue, is evidence of ‘managerial capture’ in the audit of environmental statements and as discussed above - the whole value of environmental reporting lies in accountability and the contribution that accountability can make to a well-functioning democracy. At 258 [Rob Gray is view 2]

The Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility: A Critique and an Indirect Path Forward Michael L. Barnett1

The literature and along with it, firms, have confused CSR with critical stakeholder responsiveness at 170...