Principer för hållbarhetsredovisning i teori och praktik: En studie av fjärrvärmebranschen.

Intresset för hållbar utveckling har ökat markant under det senaste åren. Inte minst märks det i att allt fler företag numera lämnar hållbarhetsredovisningar. I takt med denna utveckling har även olika ramverk växt fram för att utveckla kvaliteten på dessa redovisningar där GRI(GlobalReportingInitiative)är den vanligast förekommande. I den här rapporten granskar vi fjärrvärmeföretag (143 företag) i syfte att kartlägga hur de redovisar hållbarhetsinformation och om de redovisningsprinciper som presenteras i GRI:s ramverk beaktas och tillämpas. Resultatet visar att endast ett fåtal av företagen följer GRI:s ramverk men att ungefär hälften av företagen lämnar någon form av hållbarhetsredovisning separat eller som en del av årsredovisningen. Studien visar också att den information som lämnas av de företag som inte följer GRI:s riktlinjer är olikartad och ofta saknar precision varför exempelvis möjligheten att jämföra företag är liten samt pekar på att behovet av redovisningsstandards för hållbarhetsredovisning.Sustainability reporting; GRI; energy industry; Sweden

Explaining workers’ resistance against a health and safety programme: An understanding based on hierarchical and social accountability

The seemingly paradoxical phenomenon of workers’ resistance to health and safety measures has been explained in various ways, for example through production or efficiency pressure, risk-taking behaviours or problematic safety cultures. This article addresses resistance but analyses it through the lens of hierarchical and social accountability. In a case study of a Swedish paper mill, a health and safety programme is resisted by workers even though it enjoys support from the local trade union. Explanations for this is found in the socialising form of accountability that conditions how workers perceive of work-related health and safety. The aspects of work identity, facilitation and visibility are identified and understood in terms of accountability. Who you are, how you perform work, and what is visualised is filtered and evaluated through horizontal relationships rather than in terms of hierarchical accountability to the company.publishedVersio

Attempts to share information between public sector organisations over time: A case-based exploration of value conflicts

Despite the importance of inter-organisational information sharing (IOIS) in the public sector, such endeavours often fail. Existing research has shown that the values held by collaborating organisations are one important factor affecting these kinds of initiatives. However, research has sought only to a limited extent to address how value conflicts come into play over time. Therefore, this paper aims to explore how conflicting values shape an inter-organisational information-sharing practice in the public sector over time. Using the local/global network framework, we analyse four years’ worth of information sharing in an inter-organisational advisory group in the context of Swedish nuclear waste management. We conclude that different value conflicts are emphasised to different extents at different points in time. That is, values do not uniformly affect IOIS activities, and such conflicts over time reduce the set of potential IOIS activities. We also conclude that when IOIS activities are driven by an individual organisation’s values, individual value rational activities may co-exist with a dysfunctional long-term IOIS practice.publishedVersio

Hållbarhetsredovisning i svensk detaljhandel : Roll, relevant och nytta.

En alltmer central del av företagens arbete med och kommunikation av socialt ansvar(Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR) har kommit att handla om hållbarhetsredovisning; dess roll, relevans och möjligheter. Detta projekt har därför fokuserat på hur svenska detaljhandelsföretag använder sig av hållbarhetsredovisning och hur det kan relateras till företagens interna organisatoriska hållbarhetsprocesser.Godkänd; 2013; 20131014 (sanjoh

Organizational sustainability identity: Constructing oneself as sustainable

In the literature, organizational sustainability identity tends to be treated as something that is ‘engineered’ within business organizations through control, reporting, target setting, strategic communication, and other instruments. Through a case study of a company mainly active within the recycling industry, an alternative understanding is given. A distinct organizational sustainability identity is, rather, a social construct based on perceptions of the core operations as “sustainable in themselves” and collaborative work with customers that is perceived as entailing sustainable solutions. Understood in this way, organizational sustainability identity has relatively little to do with formal controls such as codes, policies, reports used by management to position the company as sustainable. Rather, for organizational members, the process of constructing oneself as sustainable builds on convictions about the core operations and the possession of specific capabilities manifested in customer relations. The article adds to current literature through its constructivistic approach and through identifying underlying beliefs that condition the process of forming an organizational sustainability identity

Accounting as a means to legitimacy : the case of internally generated intangibles

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the norms that underlie and condition the decisions madeby preparers of financial reports. Design/methodology/approach – This interview-based study illustrates how financial report preparersengage in behaviors linked to the perception of recognition and measurement of internally generatedintangible assets by important stakeholders. All of the companies included in the study adhere toInternational Financial Reporting Standards when creating their consolidated financial statements. The participants selected for the study are involved in accounting decisions related to research and developmentin accordance with International Accounting Standard (IAS) 38. Findings – The authors identify the normative assumptions underlying the recognition and measurementof internally generated intangibles, which are based on concerns of consistency, credibility andreasonableness. The authors find that the normative basis for legitimacy in financial accounting is primarilyrelated to cognitive legitimacy and is not of a moral or pragmatic nature. Originality/value – The study reveals that recognition and measurement of internally generatedintangibles in financial accounting relate to legitimacy. The authors identify specific norms that form thebasis of this legitimacy, namely, consistency, credibility and reasonableness. These identified norms serve asconstraints, mitigating the risk of judgment misuse within the IAS 38 framework for earnings management

The professional logic of sustainability managers : Finding underlying dynamics

The role of the Sustainability Manager (SM) is expanding. Whether SMs are turning into a new profession is under debate. Pointing to the need for a distinct professional logic to qualify as a profession, we identify what is contained within a professional logic of SMs. Through analyzing ambiguities present in the role of the SMs, we show that there is no specific distinct professional logic of SMs, but rather a meta-construct building on market, bureaucratic, and sustainability logics. In addition, we point to the complex configurations of and relationships between these underlying logics. The complexities also explain why the SMs differ from traditional professions and why it is problematic to talk about a ‘SM profession’. Rather, SMs are ‘organizational professionals’. The article builds on 21 interviews with SMs working for Swedish companies

Explaining workers’ resistance against a health and safety programme: An understanding based on hierarchical and social accountability

The seemingly paradoxical phenomenon of workers’ resistance to health and safety measures has been explained in various ways, for example through production or efficiency pressure, risk-taking behaviours or problematic safety cultures. This article addresses resistance but analyses it through the lens of hierarchical and social accountability. In a case study of a Swedish paper mill, a health and safety programme is resisted by workers even though it enjoys support from the local trade union. Explanations for this is found in the socialising form of accountability that conditions how workers perceive of work-related health and safety. The aspects of work identity, facilitation and visibility are identified and understood in terms of accountability. Who you are, how you perform work, and what is visualised is filtered and evaluated through horizontal relationships rather than in terms of hierarchical accountability to the company

On the dark side of codes: Domination not enlightenment

In this paper, we show how a middle manager interprets the action of two employees as problematic and how he solves it by using the company's code of ethics as the basis for firing them. Our telling of the story unmasks a darker side of codes and we conceptualize it in terms of power and domination. The paper contributes to the literature on corporate codes of ethics (CCEs) and corporate ethics programs by showing that such codes need not necessarily play an enabling role in organizations. Rather than being instruments of enlightenment and self-regulation, they may be used as instruments to further domination.Code Control Domination Ethics Narrative Power