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Attaining legitimacy by employee information in annual reports

Author

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  • Pamela Kent
  • Tamara Zunker

Abstract

Purpose - – The purpose of this study is to provide evidence on the category, quantity and quality of voluntary employee-related information Australian listed companies disclose in their annual report. An explanation is also sought to determine whether companies adopt employee-related disclosures to legitimise their relationship with society. Voluntary adoption of corporate governance best practice recommendations is used as a measure of companies' attempts to attainex antelegitimacy. Media agenda setting theory is used as a measure of an attempt to gain legitimacyex postfollowing adverse publicity from the media. Design/methodology/approach - – The annual reports of all companies with at least one employee listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with a 30th June balance date of 2004 are examined to identify employee-related disclosures. This employee-related information is categorised and identified as positive, negative or a combination of positive and negative information by three independent coders. Ordinary least squares regression is used to explain the quantity of disclosure with a corporate governance score and number of adverse newspaper articles included as experimental variables. Findings - – Adopting voluntary corporate governance mechanisms is associated with the quantity of voluntary annual report employee-related disclosures. Higher levels of adverse publicity are also significantly associated with higher quantities of employee-related disclosures. The quality of these disclosures is questioned because 124 companies had adverse publicity relating to employees and only two of these companies reported any negative employee-related disclosures. Few companies from the whole sample reported any negative information relating to their employees in their annual report, with 98 per cent of companies reporting positive news or no news. Originality/value - – Most previous social responsibility research has focused on environmental disclosures. This study is original because it focuses on employee-related disclosures. Honest, transparent employee disclosures are an international corporate governance recommendation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and studies have not previously tested the relation between reporting recommended corporate governance mechanisms and employee-related disclosures in annual reports.

Suggested Citation

  • Pamela Kent & Tamara Zunker, 2013. "Attaining legitimacy by employee information in annual reports," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 26(7), pages 1072-1106, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:26:y:2013:i:7:p:1072-1106
    DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-03-2013-1261
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    2. Jinghui Sun & Pamela Kent & Baolei Qi & Jiwei Wang, 2019. "Chief financial officer demographic characteristics and fraudulent financial reporting in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(4), pages 2705-2734, December.
    3. Bordunos, A. & Kosheleva, S., 2018. "Institutional fit of Strategic Human Resource Management: Myth, limitation or advantage?," Working Papers 15107, Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg State University.
    4. Areneke, Geofry & Adegbite, Emmanuel & Tunyi, Abongeh, 2022. "Transfer of corporate governance practices into weak emerging market environments by foreign institutional investors," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5).
    5. Luca Menicacci & Lorenzo Simoni, 2024. "Negative media coverage of ESG issues and corporate tax avoidance," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(7), pages 1-33, February.
    6. Pamela Kent & Tamara Zunker, 2017. "A stakeholder analysis of employee disclosures in annual reports," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 57(2), pages 533-563, June.
    7. Jolanta Maj, 2018. "Embedding Diversity in Sustainability Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    8. Balluchi, Federica & Furlotti, Katia & Torelli, Riccardo, 2020. "Italy Towards Mandatory Sustainability Reporting. Voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure of Italian Companies and Legislative Decree 254/2016 Statements. A Quantitative Analysis of the L," OSF Preprints 9agvf, Center for Open Science.
    9. Shane M. Dixon & Cory Searcy & W. Patrick Neumann, 2019. "Reporting within the Corridor of Conformance: Managerial Perspectives on Work Environment Disclosures in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-20, July.
    10. Stefanos Fotiadis & Konstantinos I. Evangelinos & Foteini Konstantakopoulou & Ioannis E. Nikolaou, 2023. "Assessing CSR Reports of Top UK Construction Companies: The Case of Occupational Health and Safety Disclosures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-32, April.
    11. Tiyas Kurnia Sari & Fitra Roman Cahaya & Corina Joseph, 2021. "Coercive Pressures and Anti-corruption Reporting: The Case of ASEAN Countries," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 495-511, July.
    12. Pamela Kent & Robyn McCormack & Tamara Zunker, 2021. "Employee disclosures in the grocery industry before the COVID‐19 pandemic," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4833-4858, September.
    13. Pamela Kent & Richard Kent & Robyn McCormack & Julie‐Anne Tarr, 2023. "Disclosure of liquidity and cash flow statements by Australian superannuation funds before Covid‐19," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2653-2675, June.
    14. Mathuva, David Mutua & Kiweu, Josephat Mboya, 2016. "Cooperative social and environmental disclosure and financial performance of savings and credit cooperatives in Kenya," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 197-206.
    15. Fabio Caputo & Simone Pizzi & Lorenzo Ligorio & Rossella Leopizzi, 2021. "Enhancing environmental information transparency through corporate social responsibility reporting regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3470-3484, December.
    16. Martina Nannelli & Stefania Oliva, 2021. "The rise of the sharing economy and its relationship with sustainable development. A critical literature review," Working Papers - Business wp2021_03.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    17. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    18. Albertina Paula Monteiro & Isabel-María García-Sánchez & Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán, 2022. "Labour Practice, Decent Work and Human Rights Performance and Reporting: The Impact of Women Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(2), pages 523-542, October.
    19. Albertina Paula Monteiro & Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán & María Garrido-Ruso & Cristina Aibar-Guzmán, 2021. "Employee-Related Disclosure: A Bibliometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-38, May.
    20. Janice Hollindale & Pamela Kent & James Routledge & Larelle Chapple, 2019. "Women on boards and greenhouse gas emission disclosures," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(1), pages 277-308, March.
    21. repec:frz:wpmmos:wp2021_02.rdf is not listed on IDEAS

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