1. Social Responsibility Accounting

2. Introduction Discussion has commenced on triple bottom line reporting
reporting that provides information about the economic, environmental and social performance of an entity
Departure from sole economic focus
Tied to the concept and goal of sustainable development

3. Triple bottom line reporting

4. Responsibilities of business
Moves to provide information about social and environmental performance implies management of these organisations consider they have an accountability for social and environmental performance, as well as economic performance
But it is not a view held universally

5. Sethi’s Typology Socially Irresponsible Social Responsiveness
Social Responsibility
Elliott’s amendment
Social Obligation

6. Social Obligation: Behaviour is determined by the firm’s response to market forces and/or legal constraints.
e.g. Hanson, Ford, Barclays,
Social Responsiveness : Firms comply or adapt to social norms before being compelled to do so.
e.g. Matsushita
Social Responsibility : Firms adopt a strategic stance, anticipating future changes in societal value systems, may pioneer change.
e.g. Body Shop
Social Irresponsibility: Firms ignore legal constraints.
e.g. Maxwell

7. Differing views of business responsibility
Friedman:
rejected the view that corporate managers have any moral obligations
responsibility to increase profits as long as stays within the rules
this view often held by the media—applauds profitable organisations

8. Differing views of business responsibility—continued
Alternative view:
organisations earn their right to operate in the community
artificial entities that society chooses to create
organisations do not have an inherent right to resources
consequently accountable to society for how it operates
societal expectations may exceed profitability

9. Developments in social and environmental reporting
If sustainability becomes part of the expectations held by society, it must become a business goal
providing information about social and environmental performance will increase the trust a community has in the organisation
the view that corporate survival and prosperity is tied to community perceptions is being promoted publicly by a number of companies

10. Definitions
Social and environmental accounting is somewhat of an eclectic term which has evolved over the years.
Linowes (1968, p.37) first coined the term ‘socioeconomic accounting’ in order to highlight the sociological, political and economic aspects of an accounting that had a significantly broader scope than the conventional accounting paradigm.

11. Definitions
By the mid1970s the term had evolved into ‘social accounting’, which was defined by Estes (1976, p.3) as ‘the measurement and reporting, internal or external, of information concerning the impact of an entity and its activities on society.’
Anderson et al. (1978, p.6) extended the concept to ‘social responsibility accounting’ and defined it as ‘…a systematic assessment and reporting on those parts of a company’s activities that have a social impact.’

12. Definitions
During the 1980s, some authors broadened the term ‘social accounting’ to ‘social and environmental accounting’.
In more recent times the political aspect of social accounting has also been evident in proposed definitions of social accounting.
E.g. Mathews

13. Definitions
‘Voluntary disclosures of information, both qualitative and quantitative, made by organizations to inform or influence a range of audiences. The quantitative disclosures may be in financial or non-financial terms.’ (Mathews)
Finally, the broadest of all definitions of social accounting was provided by Gray (2002, p.692), in which he defined social accounting as ‘…the universe of all possible accountings…’.

14. Definitions AAA : A Very Broad Perspective (Pls refer Pg 301)
i) Accounting for evaluating the impact of corporate social responsibility programmes
ii) Human Resource Accounting;
iii) Measurement of selected social costs;
iv) Measuring the full impact of an entity on society;
v) Social reporting (Reporting results of items (i) to (iv)
vi) Accounting for public (Government) Programmes.