Juliet Roper

Social and environmental reporting at the VRA: institutionalised legitimacy or legitimation crisis?

Abstract Literature on social and environmental disclosure has sought to provide explanations for corporate decisions to disclose information in annual reports. This paper uses a combination of institutional theory and Habermas’ legitimation theory to explain social and environmental reporting at a Ghanaian public sector organisation, the Volta River Authority (VRA). In the case of the VRA a major influence on environmental reporting is the constant pressure to comply with the requirements of funding agencies, such as the World Bank, in order to provide institutional legitimation. The same sources of pressure which encourage the reporting of physical environmental impacts, lead to undesirable outcomes for the local population. Institutionalised practices lead to prices beyond the reach of local people and work against the original developmental goal of the VRA project. Such effects are invisible and remain so in accounting systems designed to meet the requirements of international institutional legitimisation. The result of institutionalised reporting procedures is not legitimacy, but a crisis of legitimation.

BOUNDARYLESS CAREERS: BRINGING BACK BOUNDARIES

Boundaryless career theories are increasingly prominent in career studies and management studies, and provide a new ‘status quo’ concerning modern careers. This paper contextualizes the boundaryless careers literature within management studies, and evaluates its contributions, including broadening concepts of career and focusing interorganizational career phenomena. It acknowledges the considerable stimulus given to career studies by this literature, but also offers a critique based on five issues: inaccurate labelling; loose definitions; overemphasis on personal agency; the normalization of boundaryless careers; and poor empirical support for the claimed dominance of boundaryless careers. Because these problems render the boundaryless career concept increasingly obsolete as a ‘leading edge’ construct in career studies, we offer new directions for theory and research. In particular we re-examine the role of career boundaries, and suggest the development of new, boundary-focused careers scholarship based on boundary theory, to facilitate studies of the processes whereby career boundaries are created, and their effects in constraining, enabling and punctuating careers.

Neoliberalism and knowledge interests in boundaryless careers discourse

Decades of critical research have established that economic and political ideologies permeate and shape thought, text and action, and academic knowledge production is no exception. This article examines how ideologies might permeate academic texts, by assessing the reach and influence of neoliberalism in research on boundaryless careers. Specifically, it asks: did the emergence and growth of scholarship on boundaryless careers support, challenge, or merely run parallel to the rising dominance of neoliberal ideology? It was found that a diversity of knowledge interests, including managerial, agentic, curatorial and critical interests underlie the production of research on boundaryless careers. However, all four of these knowledge interests are complicit in discursively constructing and aligning the notion of boundaryless careers with neoliberalism in two specific ways. Implications for scholarship on careers and work are discussed.

Focus Groups as Sites of Influential Interaction: Building Communicative Self-Efficacy and Effecting Attitudinal Change in Discussing Controversial Topics

Although most focus group theorists consider interaction to be a defining feature of focus groups, the influence that occurs through this interaction has been under-theorized. We argue that two important forms of influence may occur: influence on peoples beliefs about the substantive issues under discussion and influence on self-efficacy beliefs. As a result of such influence, focus groups provide a learning context that may facilitate empowerment of participants through the development of communicative self-efficacy as they struggle over constructing and sharing understandings of controversial issues. As part of a larger research project on dialogues about science, we present a case study that puts qualitatively analyzed transcripts of interaction and quantitative self-report measures into empirical conversation. The case study demonstrated that focus group participants were influenced in two important ways: participation and interaction led to increased participant confidence and motivation towards participating in public dialogues and to the construction, modification, and contestation of attitudes toward science, scientists, and biotechnology. Findings suggest that scholars should rethink their rationales for and use of the focus group as just a method of data collection and reconsider and explore alternative ways of presenting focus group results.

State-Owned Enterprises: Issues of Accountability and Legitimacy

This article seeks to broaden the parameters of the research into and discourse of CSR, which, by definition, has focused on corporations, but has neglected the role of governments as corporate owners. Greater awareness and transparency of corporate ownership should open up discussions of accountability, especially as citizens are arguably the principal shareholders of government-owned companies. These are issues of potential concern to organizational communication scholars. The article first examines the nature and genesis of government-owned corporations, particularly in the New Zealand context, which very much follows the pattern of similar corporations around the world. A case study follows, with extant literature of CSR, legitimacy, and the conventionally regarded relative roles of state and the economy drawn upon to inform discussion of the broader ramifications of the case for other organizational contexts.

Applying critical discourse analysis: Struggles over takeovers legislation in New Zealand

We elaborate an interpretation of the critical discourse analysis of Norman Fairclough illustrating this in focusing upon struggles over takeovers legislation in New Zealand. We indicate the more general applicability of such analysis in the area of financial and accounting regulation.

Does accounting construct the identity of firms as purely self-interested or as socially responsible?

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is time for change in the way the paper teach, theories and practice accounting. Traditional accounting practice constructs the identity of the accountable entity as purely self-interested. Yet, there is evidence that firms do engage in broader activities. This paper aims to explain and illustrate that there are groups of firms that engage in socially responsible activities, yet their accounting systems still assume autopoietic behavior. Accounting should resonate with social expectations, but at present it does not. Design/methodology/approach - – Literature concerning theories of biological autopoiesis and social equivalents are reviewed. They are related to accounting practices, and to concepts of open and closed systems. The theories are related to survey results of socially responsible activities practiced by firms. National surveys undertaken in New Zealand at three-year intervals are the basis of the empirical content of the paper. Findings - – There is evidence that firms behave socially and environmentally responsibly. Yet accounting practice does not encourage such behaviour. Accounting practice has to be able to construct the identity of the accountable entity so that it pursues more than its own self-interest, and resonate with societal expectations. Research limitations/implications - – The paper is unconventional. It challenges extant practice. Its theoretical content may not appeal to many traditional accountants. Originality/value - – The theory and empirics are original. The theory of autopoiesis is illustrated through survey evidence of business practices.

Influence in science dialogue: Individual attitude changes as a result of dialogue between laypersons and scientists

Dialogue as a science communication process has been idealized in both practitioner and scholarly literature. However, there is inconsistency in what is meant by dialogue, the forms it should take, and its purported consequences. Empirical research on the experienced benefits of dialogue is limited. The present study addresses this gap by examining attitudinal changes among laypeople and scientists in dialogue on the topic of human biotechnology (HBT). We found that, as a result of participation in dialogue, laypeople’s attitudes toward scientists were more positive and scientists’ and laypeople’s attitudes toward HBT tended to converge. Additionally, laypeople reported increased communicative self-efficacy after the dialogue experience. However, effects in some cases differed by dialogue format. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

A Confucian approach to well‐being and social capital development

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss and demonstrate the synergies between the western concept of corporate social responsibility that is emerging from a background of individualism and market competition, and the traditional values of Chinese Confucianism, as applied to managerial practice.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is primarily theoretical in perspective. It also draws upon interview data derived from an in depth study of a large state‐owned corporate group in China in order to demonstrate the model that is known as modern Confucian entrepreneurship.Findings – Adherence to Confucian values was demonstrated by both manager and employee interviewees. However, Chinese managers also need to reform some practices as they move into the international market place. As western managers, at the same time, increasingly seek to increase their social capital it is clear that Chinese and western managers can learn from each other.Research limitations/implications – The examples drawn upon in this paper c...

Strategic schizophrenia: The strategic use of trade associations in New Zealand

This paper draws on and extends corporate political strategic theory through examination of how trade associations were used in reaction to ratification of the Kyoto Protocol in New Zealand. It is well established that firms can influence the legislative and regulatory process either individually and/or collectively via trade associations. The findings of this research reinforce current theory by demonstrating that firms use their membership in trade associations to gain expertise they lack, and to leverage their influence through collective advocacy. Large firms were found to be more likely to engage in collective action than small firms, and collective action was more likely on high profile issues than issues that were not receiving significant public and political scrutiny. The findings, however, also necessitated an extension of existing theory to explain firms’ response when faced with competing stakeholder demands. When the social and economic objectives of a firm diverged, trade associations were utilised in the dual and contradictory strategies of protecting a firm’s positive environmental image while simultaneously advocating less stringent environmental regulatory outcomes.