COVID-19 and sustainability reporting: what are the roles of reporting frameworks in a crisis?

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to commentate on the roles of sustainability reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. It evaluates the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) framework, designed as a guide for best-practice in sustainability reporting, for its applicability to cover COVID-19 issues and, more generally, issues arising in crisis conditions. Design/methodology/approach The GRI’s COVID-19 communications and the GRI framework are reviewed using three common theories of reporting, namely, institutional, stakeholder and legitimacy theory. For each theory, the authors contrast expectations under business-as-usual conditions against crisis conditions to identify gaps and avenues to guide COVID-19 responses. Findings This commentary opines the GRI framework risks perpetuating incremental change towards the “new normal”, rather than motivating the urgent responses needed in a crisis. The GRI can play a significant normative role to guide immediate and short-term best practice in COVID-19 reporting. Findings motivate the need to report for vulnerable rather than powerful stakeholders and to recognise and celebrate proactive change. Originality/value This paper commentates on the suitability of a major sustainability reporting framework and its role in improving responses to the current COVID-19 crisis. Findings propose challenges to the GRI and GRI framework to motivate urgent responses and communication for the pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19 on the operations and management of NGOs: resilience and recommendations

“…Theoretically, disruption has been shown to have impacts on organisations (Zharfpeykan and Ng, 2021) and, more specifically, on NGOs (Kuruppu and Lodhia, 2019). Kuruppu and Lodhia (2019) explored why and how NGOs can be disrupted by changes in the external environment of their operations in a case study of a large Sri Lankan NGO.…”

“…However, normative isomorphism springs from relationships between organisations from the same operational environment emanating from socialisation and interactions between organisations. As the individual organisations interact with each other, behavioural norms and operational characteristics tend to spread, thereby strengthening the individual organisation’s normative tendencies (Raab et al , 2017; Zharfpeykan and Ng, 2021). Through this theory, we have seen how NGOs can be more driven by external factors and symbolic actions such as rules, norms and routines and less driven by functional considerations.…”

“…As the impact of COVID-19 continues to attract interest in research, the link with the global vision of sustainable development champions such as the NGOs has not been in focus. Previous research has focused on the roles of reporting frameworks in a period of COVID-19 (Zharfpeykan and Ng, 2021) and minimising waste and other environmental footprints related to COVID-19 (Klemes et al , 2021). No research has explored the impact of COVID-19 on development agents and/or from a developing country perspective, to the best of our knowledge.…”

Mainstreaming Standardized Sustainability Reporting: Comparing Fortune 50 Corporations’ and U.S. News & World Report’s Top 50 Global Universities’ Sustainability Reports

“…Reports are too focused on "the user needs of powerful funders, influenced by media attention, sometimes misleading or more in line with an impression management than providing an overall, unbiased picture of NGOs performance" [20] (p. 1295). Reporting frameworks such as GRI can play a significant normative role to guide immediate and short-term best practices [21].…”

Business and society in the age of COVID‐19: Introduction to the special issue

“…A review and synthesis of research on CSR policies implemented during the pandemic supported the importance of embedding CSR in the organization's core activities to achieve positive outcomes versus the negative outcomes that result when CSR is on the periphery of an organization's activities (Aguinis et al, 2020 ). Elsewhere, Zharfpeykan and Ng ( 2021 ) asked how well does the Global Reporting Initiative framework, designed as a best practice in sustainability reporting, cover COVID‐19 issues? They argued that it “risks to [perpetuate] incremental change towards a ‘new normal,’ rather than motivating the urgent responses needed in a crisis” (p. 189).…”