CORPORATE SOCIAL REPORTING

Corporate Social Reporting



Corporate Social Reporting

Corporate Social Reporting

The experience gained with the three preceding models and similar approaches quickly exposed a fundamental obstacle to the effective operationalization of social reporting. If the assessment was based and sold squarely on traditional procedures of cost accounting, then it was highly compatible with and easily accepted within customary management systems. However, it was partially, if not completely, unsuccessful at achieving the underlying social objectives of social reporting. If, on the other hand, no traditional costing methods were applied, then the social report became structurally decoupled from the management systems used to set goals and take the necessary actions. Both paths threatened to sidetrack social reporting. The development of "goal accounting and reporting" offered an early and practicable escape from this dilemma.

There are two main factors goal accounting and reporting model was considered as the most comprehensive and advanced approach to corporate social reporting. The point of this approach was to ensure that all the social objectives to which a company committed itself on behalf of its internal and external stakeholders were fully and publicly documented. The first two reports were quite comprehensive in scope, encompassing about a hundred pages. An effort was made to condense the third report in length without sacrificing the detailed and comparative content. All three reports first summarized the corporation's social goals and documented the different stakeholders' perception of the relevance of the goals as well as their perception of the degree to which the goals were achieved. A combination of quantitative and qualitative measures was then used to describe in some detail the activities undertaken to meet the goals in the reporting period as well as their impact. In addition, the reports provided an overview over the value added the company generated. This model avoided bogging companies down with excessively formalized and counterproductive accounting routine. It also precluded noncommittal behavior by ensuring that the achievement of the stated targets for reducing social costs and raising the social benefits of the company's activity was subjected to exacting, problem-oriented, and quantifiable scrutiny.

Discussion

United Utilities

This company provide provides wastewater and water services in the North West England with approximately seven million people. The company is supplying their services to over 200,000 business premises and about 3 million households (United Utilities, 2012). The company manage the catchment land around reservoirs in order to ensure the optimal quality of the water supplied. United Utilities (www.unitedutilities.co.uk) is a multi-service of the United Kingdom and the Report of the 2000 socio-environmental has received several awards internationally. The ratio of the group was awarded second place among the best European Environmental reporting and award conferred by ISEA and ACCA as a Social Report. ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) has also graduated in first place with its United Utilities Environmental Report.

The company engages in the distribution of electricity, water, gas and water purification in the United Kingdom and abroad. It deals with processes in the telecommunications and business services ...