Struggling with the praxis of social accounting

Gray, Rob; Dey, Colin; Owen, Dave; Evans, Richard; Zadek, Simon

doi:10.1108/09513579710178106

Cited by 391 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Clearly, as Gray himself acknowledged, they were by no means a complete list, but in the absence of more complete and inclusive corporate disclosures, a wider picture of stakeholder accountability could not be easily generated. Indeed, to overcome this problem, Gray appears to envisaged his experiment as an initial test of the feasibility of a more complete and coherent form of organisation-centred SER (see especially, Gray et al, 1997).…”

Section: Experiments To Date In Silent and Shadow Accountingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing silent and shadow accounts

Dey¹

2007

Sustainability Accounting and Accountability

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Section: Experiments To Date In Silent and Shadow Accountingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing silent and shadow accounts

Dey¹

2007

Sustainability Accounting and Accountability

Self Cite

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“…The first stage of the Traidcraft social bookkeeping project involved a feasibility study which sought to identify the company's stakeholders and assess the extent to which 'bookkeeping' information relating to each stakeholder group could be identified and gathered (see Table II). Further empirical details of the social bookkeeping project may be found elsewhere (see Dey et al, 1995;Gray et al, 1997), but a short summary of this early stage of the project is provided here in order to establish a context for the remainder of the paper.…”

Section: The Traidcraft Social Bookkeeping Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, at the time of the study, the view of the academics involved in the work was that the organisation's accountability to its stakeholders did not need to be theorised differently (see Gray et al, 1997). Traidcraft social bookkeeping project planned and theorised Bookkeeping system feasibility study undertaken on-site On-site bookkeeping development work, ethnographic diary and additional data gathering undertaken Development of bookkeeping system completed Bookkeeping system implemented; social accounts produced Disengagement from research site Theoretical grounding undertaken; first part of ethnographic narrative written up Follow-up interviews planned and arranged Follow-up interviews undertaken on-site Second part of ethnographic narrative written up Ready -to meet the challenge of a more demanding market place A year ago the Directors announced that Traidcraft had embarked on a radical review of its business processes.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The overall aim of the work at Traidcraft was to develop new forms of social accounting that would be more widely applicable to commercial organisations 1 . The practical insights gained from the Traidcraft study have already been disseminated (see Dey et al, 1995;Gray et al, 1997), and this paper seeks to reflect more critically on the social accounting interventions in the company using an ethnographic research method. Although the empirical research at Traidcraft dates from the 1990s, as has been noted already, very few in-depth empirical studies of social accounting interventions have been undertaken, and the insights obtaining from the research are still valuable in this context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social accounting at Traidcraft plc

Dey

2007

Accounting, Auditing &Amp; Accountability Journal

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Purpose -This paper provides an account of the development and implementation of social accounting at the UK fair trade organisation Traidcraft plc.Methodology -Using an ethnographic approach, the paper critically reflects on the role of this emerging form of accounting in an ongoing intra-organisational struggle for meaning within Traidcraft over the management of its 'fair-trade' business.Findings -The paper argues that the implementation of a formal system of 'social bookkeeping' largely failed to achieve its intended objective to further augment the organisation's accountability relationships with its key stakeholders. However, in the context of organisational change, the accounting intervention was nevertheless significant, in a quite unexpected (and possibly undesirable) way. Along with a number of other intraorganisational factors, the intervention produced a decisive, management-led change within the organisation towards a more commercial interpretation of its religious principles, which the organisation termed 'New Traidcraft'.Originality/value of the paper -The paper contributes to the change/appropriation debate surrounding CSR by providing insights into the complex range of political, functional and social factors that may influence the outcome of social accounting interventions. The paper also provides evidence to support the argument that social and environmental accounting interventions can be influential (if not necessarily desirable) when they are aligned with substantive changes in the organisation itself.

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“…This author's ethnographic work centred on the development of social accounting at the UK fair-trade organisation Traidcraft plc [8,9]. This work has to date provided both tentative practical guidance towards the development of systematic social 'bookkeeping' processes (Dey et al., 1995 as well as theoretical insights into the development of wider 'conceptual frameworks' for social accounting (Gray et al., 1997). One of the main objectives of the Traidcraft plc empirical work was to undertake a critical study of social accounting experimentation in its organisational context [10].…”

Section: Critical Ethnography: Still Too Passive?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Methodological issues

Dey

2002

Accounting, Auditing &Amp; Accountability Journal

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Ethnography has emerged as a potentially valuable empirical means of understanding how and why accounting operates within organisations. However, its use in the accounting literature has not been without controversy. This paper addresses one of the key issues of dispute: the role of critical foundational theories in ethnographic accounting research.Firstly, the paper draws from competing proposals for ethnography in the accounting literature in an attempt to shed further light on the use of critical theory within an ethnographic field study. It is argued that critical theory can be a valuable tool in developing further insights from ethnographic study, but that its timing within the stages of the empirical work is crucial to achieve a balance between understanding and explanation.Secondly, in highlighting the lessons learnt from the author's own ethnographic research, the paper discusses the (as yet untapped) potential for critical ethnography to directly inform the design and development of new accounting systems. It is proposed that using ethnography 'actively' in this way could provide the methodological basis for the development of new forms of accounting, such as social accounting.

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Struggling with the praxis of social accounting

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 391 publications

References 43 publications

Developing silent and shadow accounts

Developing silent and shadow accounts

Social accounting at Traidcraft plc

Methodological issues

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