Human Resource Disclosure Research Articles

Company characteristics and human resource disclosure in Spain

PurposeThe purpose if this paper is to investigate the determinants of corporate disclosure on human resources.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the extent to which 105 Spanish listed companies present information about human resources in their annual report. It distinguishes information about human capital, which includes the items about human resources usually integrated in intellectual capital, and social and ethical aspects of information about employees. A content analysis of 105 companies' annual reports was conducted. Once the information was quantified, using a regression analysis the influence certain company characteristics have on this disclosure was examined.FindingsThe results confirm the impact of variables like size, type of industry and property concentration on human resource disclosure.Practical implicationsThe disclosure of the most competitive companies suggests that they are more concerned about employees' welfare than the rest. This may motivate a change of the disclosure policy of the rest of the firms who may follow the behavior of the most competitive ones.Originality/valueContent analysis has been carried out in some papers referring to human capital disclosure but with a descriptive character. In addition, considering different types of information about employees will permit the observation of the existence of any difference in the determinants depending on the users of this disclosure: shareholders or stakeholders (more concerned about social matters). Furthermore, using a variable to distinguish competitive companies from the rest has allowed us to see what human resources issues are relevant for competitive businesses.

The impact of human resource disclosure on corporate image

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of human resource disclosure on corporate image.Design/methodology/approachThe information about human resources presented in their annual reports by 105 Spanish listed companies was grouped in three categories, previously defined in literature. We distinguish information about human capital (items usually included as human capital in Intellectual Capital reports), social information about employees and information about ethics questions relative to employees. A content analysis of these 105 annual reports was conducted to measure human resource disclosure and a regression analysis was carried out to study the impact of this information on company image.FindingsThe findings reflect the significant effect of the three categories of human resource disclosure on corporate image.Practical implicationsThis study might encourage firms to improve their disclosure policy on issues related to human capital, such as training, and on social and ethical aspects of employees, such as health and safety at work and working rights.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to research on human resources by confirming the impact not only of information about human capital, which is mainly oriented to shareholders, but of social and ethical information about employees, oriented as well as to stakeholders, on corporate reputation.

Human Resource Disclosure: Practice and Influences in the Libyan Oil Industry

Human Resource Disclosure: Practice and Influences in the Libyan Oil Industry

Perceptions of Human Resource Disclosure and Accountability: Evidence from Users’ and Providers’ in the Libyan Oil Industry

Perceptions of Human Resource Disclosure and Accountability: Evidence from Users’ and Providers’ in the Libyan Oil Industry

Corporate Social Reporting in the European Context and Human Resource Disclosures: An Analysis of Finnish Companies

This paper explores by means of content analysis the extent to which the Finnish biggest companies have adapted socially responsible reporting practices. The research focuses on Human Resource (HR) reporting and covers corporate annual reports. The criteria has been set on the basis of the analysis of the documents published at the European level in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR), paying special attention to the European Council appeal on CSR in March 2000. As CSR is a relatively new concept in Finland, the paper also contributes to the discussion on interface between HR reporting (especially as based on measurements such as Human Resource Accounting and Intellectual Capital schools) and corporate social reporting practices. The results of the content analysis indicate that social reporting practices are still at an early stage of development in Finland. The most reported theme was ‘training and staff development’. A positive sign was that the majority also disclosed themes ‘participation and staff involvement’ and ‘employee health and well-being’. Furthermore, nearly one-third made references to their work atmosphere or job satisfaction survey. However, disclosures lacked overall consistency and comparability with each other and especially quantitative indicators were disclosed by few. Further concern was lack of information related to the theme equal opportunities and going beyond a sheer disclosure of age or gender structure. The other issues rarely disclosed were those related to employee work–life balance and integration of disadvantaged groups in the labour markets.

Human resources disclosures in the annual reports of Pacific Island countries' entities

This paper explores the provision of human resources disclosure (HRD) in the annual reports of the Pacific Island countries (PIC), and compares and contrasts PIC user and preparer needs of HRD through the medium of mailed survey. Multiple regression testing for significance between the level of HRD and ethnic background, industry, entity and size attributes is not significant for the overall model. However, the results indicate that there are low disclosure levels for the eight components of HRD, suggesting that HRD is not central to preparers' presentation of PIC annual reports. Surprisingly, results show no significant difference between users' and preparers' rating of the importance of eight components of HRD issues. A partially significant result was found for the HRD component Employment minorities or women, but both users and preparers ranked this lowest.

Separation of Ownership and Control

ABSENT fiat, the form of organization that survives in an activity is the one that delivers the product demanded by customers at the lowest price while covering costs.1 Our goal is to explain the survival of organizations characterized by separation of "ownership" and "control"-a problem that has bothered students of corporations from Adam Smith to Berle and Means and Jensen and Meckling.2 In more precise language, we are concerned with the survival of organizations in which important decision agents do not bear a substantial share of the wealth effects of their decisions. We argue that the separation of decision and risk-bearing functions observed in large corporations is common to other organizations such as large professional partnerships, financial mutuals, and nonprofits. We contend that separation of decision and risk-bearing functions survives in these organizations in part because of the benefits of specialization of