Reporting and the Politics of Difference: (Non)Disclosure on Ethnic Minorities

Abstract

This article is based on two related research questions. First, what is the level of disclosure on ethnic minorities in the two sectors of the U.K. economy that historically have employed the most ethnic minorities: the banking and retail sectors? And secondly, what influences the (non)disclosure? It specifically investigates the level of disclosures from 1935 to 1998 and situates them within the changing social, political and economic context of this period. It is contended that the changing pattern of disclosure during this period can be understood with reference to changes in the political strategies for managing the threat of racism adopted by successive governments. The article provides some tentative theoretical reflections on the nature of the racism problematic and the way in which power may be seen to operate through (non)disclosure in this particular instance.

Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights and Business Schools' Responsibility to Teach It: Incorporating Human Rights into the Sustainability Agenda

“…2 The accounting literature does contain some research on human rights, although not always labelled as such. Adams and McPhail (2004) provide an analysis of corporate engagement with discrimination. However, a discussion that seeks to frame corporate social responsibility in terms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is substantively missing.…”

Exploring the implications of integrated reporting for social investment (disclosures)

“…Agency, stakeholder, institutional, legitimacy and political economy theories have all been used in the past to enhance our understanding of disclosure practices, particularly with respect to disclosures of voluntary, non-financial information (see, for example Davis, Schoorman & Donaldson, 1997;Deegan & Rankin, 1996;Hopwood, 2009;Larrinaga-González, Carrasco-Fenech, Caro-Gonzalez, Correa-Ruýz and Paez-Sandubete, 2001). A number of studies have concluded that whilst any one of these theories on their own have limited explanatory power, they do, when considered together, shed some light on corporate voluntary, non-financial disclosures (see, for example, Gray, Adams & Owen, 2014;Adams & Harte, 1998;Adams & McPhail, 2004). Adams and Whelan (2009) observe that much of the research and the theoretical perspectives used to examine the voluntary disclosure of non-financial information concludes that organisations tend to act in self-interested ways, particularly in seeking to maximise financial outcomes such as profit.…”

Transformative change towards sustainability: the interaction between organisational discourses and organisational practices

“…The extant literature considers factors influencing sustainability accounting and reporting (see, for example, Deegan, 2002;Adams and McPhail, 2004). The focus of these studies has largely been on factors external to the organisation rather than internal processes (but see Williams and Adams, 2013) and few studies have examined the process of organisational change to embed sustainability practices in organisations (but see Adams and McNicholas, 2007;Gray et al, 1995;Larrinaga-González et al, 2001).…”