Stakeholder Engagement in Sustainability Reporting: Evidence of Reputation Risk Management in Large Australian Companies

The objective of this research is to examine whether stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting constitutes the process of managing reputation risks. This research utilises Shrives and Brennan’s (2017) framework of rhetorical strategies of non-compliance to obtain empirical evidence of reputation risk management in the context of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting. Quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis were undertaken on 154 sustainability disclosures in both annual reports and sustainability reports of large Australian companies. This research finds that large Australian companies engage with their stakeholders to manage reputation risks: to increase market share and pre-empt social issues. It is evident that large Australian companies use several forms of rhetorical statements in their sustainability disclosures with respect to reputation risk management efforts. However, there is no evidence that they shirk responsibilities

MGNREGA, power politics, and computerization in Andhra Pradesh

The link between e-governance and accountability of state administrations for service provision has been problematized in the literature to date. However, little is known about its application to anti-poverty programmes, of which public workfare schemes are an increasingly important subset. In this paper we fill the gap with a study of MGNREGA, India’s largest workfare scheme, as it is being computerized in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. A state-level information system was devised to ensure transparency of transactions, and hence combat the illicit diversion of the programme’s funds to non-entitled recipients. But while doing so, the system carries a policy of centralization, which concentrates decision-making power in the hands of a limited set of actors rather than distributing it across the programme’s stakeholders. In particular the Field Assistants, appointed officials responsible for the village-level management of the scheme, have direct control on the information inputted in the system, which reinforces their position of authority rather than challenging it in favor of greater empowerment of wageseekers. Furthermore, wage payments are traced by the information system till they reach the disbursement agencies, but are prone to capture in the “last mile” where workers collect their salaries, which results in greater vulnerability for them. As a result, MGNREGA workers are constructed by the new information system as sheer beneficiaries rather than active participants in the programme, which concurs to crystallizing power structures rather than resulting in wageseekers’ empowerment. Lessons are drawn for other states currently computerizing their social safety nets

The Impact of Transparency and Accountability Initiatives

Transparency and accountability initiatives (TAIs) have taken democratisation, governance, aid and development circles by storm since the turn of the century. Many actors involved with them – as donors, funders, programme managers, implementers and researchers – are now keen to know more about what these initiatives are achieving. This issue of Development Policy Review arises from a study of the impact and effectiveness of transparency and accountability initiatives in different development sectors. It analyses existing evidence, discusses how approaches to learning about TAIs might be improved, and recommends how impact and effectiveness could be enhanced