Managerial perseptions on corporate social responsbility: A Transatlantic comparison between forest products companies in Europe and North America

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) addresses the responsibility of companies for their impacts on society. The concept of strategic CSR is becoming increasingly mainstreamed in the forest industry, but there is, however, little consensus on the definition and implementation of CSR. The objective of this research is to build knowledge on the characteristics of CSR and to provide insights on the emerging trend to increase the credibility and legitimacy of CSR through standardization. The study explores how the sustainability managers of European and North American forest companies perceive CSR and the recently released ISO 26000 guidance standard on social responsibility. The conclusions were drawn from an analysis of two data sets; multivariate survey data based on one subset of 30 European and 13 North American responses, and data obtained through in-depth interviewing of 10 sustainability managers that volunteered for an hour long phone discussion about social responsibility practices at their company. The analysis concluded that there are no major differences in the characteristics of cross-Atlantic CSR. Hence, the results were consistent with previous research that suggests that CSR is a case- and company-specific concept. Regarding the components of CSR, environmental issues and organizational governance were key priorities in both regions. Consumer issues, human rights, and financial issues were among the least addressed categories. The study reveals that there are varying perceptions on the ISO 26000 guidance standard, both positive and negative. Moreover, sustainability managers of European and North American forest companies are still uncertain regarding the applicability of the ISO 26000 guidance standard to the forest industry. This study is among the first to provide a preliminary review of the practical implications of the ISO 26000 standard in the forest sector. The results may be utilized by sustainability managers interested in the best practices on CSR, and also by a variety of forest industrial stakeholders interested in the practical outcomes of the long-lasting CSR debate.

Between Equity and Empathy: Social Professions and the New Accountability

This article explores the practical and ethical implications of the ‘new accountability’ (working to procedures, targets and standards) based on interviews with British social professionals. Although similar tendencies are present in other European countries, in Britain the rule-bound nature of social work is more intense. Practitioners who regard the ‘new accountability’ positively justify their views with reference to utilitarian and rights-based arguments relating to the promotion of good outcomes, the achievement of equity, respecting the consumer rights of service users and the rights of other stakeholders to information and value for money. Those practitioners who view the new accountability requirements negatively seem to speak in a different ‘moral voice’, which can be linked to more personal and situated approaches to ethics, stressing the importance of particular relationships in context, trust, sensitivity and a sense of ‘vocation’. Both ‘voices’ are part of professional practice, but the new accountability stresses the former at the expense of the latter. For social work to play the critical role identified by Walter Lorenz, maintaining a creative balance between equity and empathy will be important.

The Deprofessionalisation Thesis, Accountability and Professional Character

It is said that the deprofessionalisation of social work and other welfare occupations reduces workers' professional discretion and autonomy, and thus their capacity to act in the best interests of their client. Without necessarily regarding the deprofessionalisation thesis as conclusive, this paper will ask how the state's control of the role and task of social workers impacts on their role-implicated obligations as professionals. If workers are reduced (as claimed) to the status of mere functionaries in systems they neither approve of nor control, does this exonerate them from bad outcomes or service failures? How should we view the dramatic increase in formal regulation now seen in the UK - as professionalisation or deprofessionalisation? The paper will argue that whatever the drift of policy, workers remain in some measure personally accountable. Service failures imply faults of practical reason that are partly attributable to the moral and intellectual character of professionals as individuals. It is therefore up to professionals, and their organisations, to attend to the improvement of professional character.

Limited managerial attention and corporate aging

As firms have more assets in place, more of management’s limited attention is focused on managing assets in place rather than developing new growth options. Consequently, as firms grow older, they have fewer growth options and a lower ability to generate new growth options. This simple theory predicts that Tobin’s q falls with age. Further, competition in the product market is expected to slow down the decrease in Tobin’s q because it forces firms to look for alternative sources of rents. Similarly, greater competition in the labor market reduces the decrease in Tobin’s q with age because old firms are in a better position to hire employees that can help with innovation. In contrast, competition in the market for corporate control should accelerate the decline because it forces management to focus more on managing assets in place whose performance is more directly observable than on developing growth options where results may not be observable for some time. We find strong support for these predictions in tests using exogenous variation in competition.

Limited managerial attention and corporate aging

As firms have more assets in place, more of management’s limited attention is focused on managing assets in place rather than developing new growth options. Consequently, as firms grow older, they have fewer growth options and a lower ability to generate new growth options. This simple theory predicts that Tobin’s q falls with age. Further, competition in the product market is expected to slow down the decrease in Tobin’s q because it forces firms to look for alternative sources of rents. Similarly, greater competition in the labor market reduces the decrease in Tobin’s q with age because old firms are in a better position to hire employees that can help with innovation. In contrast, competition in the market for corporate control should accelerate the decline because it forces management to focus more on managing assets in place whose performance is more directly observable than on developing growth options where results may not be observable for some time. We find strong support for these predictions in tests using exogenous variation in competition

Accountability em educação : Políticas educativas e regulação da qualidade

O trabalho tem por objetivo discutir questoes atinentes à accountability em educaçao, considerando a emergência de políticas de responsabilizaçao e prestaçao de contas como mecanismo de regulaçao da qualidade no setor. Com base na revisao de literatura e por meio do recurso da análise de conteúdo, aborda aspectos conceituais do tema, realçando o caráter ambíguo e plural do termo no momento em que novas agendas políticas nacionais adotam a accountability como recurso de gestao pública. Segue discutindo sua recente entrada no campo da educaçao, nomeadamente na América Latina, onde ganha força o debate da responsabilizaçao. Por fim, destaca confluências e especificidades da accountability na educaçao básica brasileira, para o que revisita publicaçoes nacionais que enfocam o tema na sua especificidade, e questiona opçoes políticas de sistemas formais de accountability que se esgotam na recolha e publicitaçao de resultados educacionais, baseados em testes estandardizados. De forma conclusiva, alude que a visao de regulaçao da qualidade, predominante em vários países, confina a accountability a formatos que atribuem preponderantemente à escola a responsabilizaçao pelos resultados oficiais que produz

Accountability em educação : Políticas educativas e regulação da qualidade

O trabalho tem por objetivo discutir questoes atinentes à accountability em educaçao, considerando a emergência de políticas de responsabilizaçao e prestaçao de contas como mecanismo de regulaçao da qualidade no setor. Com base na revisao de literatura e por meio do recurso da análise de conteúdo, aborda aspectos conceituais do tema, realçando o caráter ambíguo e plural do termo no momento em que novas agendas políticas nacionais adotam a accountability como recurso de gestao pública. Segue discutindo sua recente entrada no campo da educaçao, nomeadamente na América Latina, onde ganha força o debate da responsabilizaçao. Por fim, destaca confluências e especificidades da accountability na educaçao básica brasileira, para o que revisita publicaçoes nacionais que enfocam o tema na sua especificidade, e questiona opçoes políticas de sistemas formais de accountability que se esgotam na recolha e publicitaçao de resultados educacionais, baseados em testes estandardizados. De forma conclusiva, alude que a visao de regulaçao da qualidade, predominante em vários países, confina a accountability a formatos que atribuem preponderantemente à escola a responsabilizaçao pelos resultados oficiais que produz

Accountability em educação : Políticas educativas e regulação da qualidade

O trabalho tem por objetivo discutir questoes atinentes à accountability em educaçao, considerando a emergência de políticas de responsabilizaçao e prestaçao de contas como mecanismo de regulaçao da qualidade no setor. Com base na revisao de literatura e por meio do recurso da análise de conteúdo, aborda aspectos conceituais do tema, realçando o caráter ambíguo e plural do termo no momento em que novas agendas políticas nacionais adotam a accountability como recurso de gestao pública. Segue discutindo sua recente entrada no campo da educaçao, nomeadamente na América Latina, onde ganha força o debate da responsabilizaçao. Por fim, destaca confluências e especificidades da accountability na educaçao básica brasileira, para o que revisita publicaçoes nacionais que enfocam o tema na sua especificidade, e questiona opçoes políticas de sistemas formais de accountability que se esgotam na recolha e publicitaçao de resultados educacionais, baseados em testes estandardizados. De forma conclusiva, alude que a visao de regulaçao da qualidade, predominante em vários países, confina a accountability a formatos que atribuem preponderantemente à escola a responsabilizaçao pelos resultados oficiais que produz

Two risky and costly end-user related taboos when developing information systems: qualifications and accountability

This work highlights two critical taboos in organizations: 1)taking for granted the quality of certain capabilities and attitudes of the end-user representatives (EUR) in information systems development projects (ISDP), and 2) the EUR´s inherent accountability for losses in IS investments. These issues are neither addressed by theory nor research when assessing success/ failure. A triangulation approach was applied to combine quantitative and qualitative methods, having convergent results and showing that in problematic cases, paradoxically, the origin of IS rejection by end users (EU) points towards the EUR themselves. It has been evaluated to what extent some EUR factors impacted a macro ISDP involving an enterprise resource planning (ERP) package, ranking the ‘knowledge of the EUR’ as the main latent variable. The results validate some issues found throughout decades of praxis, confirming that when not properly managed the EUR role by itself has a direct relationship with IS rejection and significant losses in IS investments.

Accountability, constituição e contabilidade

Inclui notas explicativas e bibliograficas