ROBIN ROSLENDER, JOANNA STEVENSON and ROBIN FINCHAM
In this paper, the work of the 2003 UK Task Force on Human Capital Management is reviewed. This initiative emerged from a broader Department of Trade and Industry interest in the…
Abstract
In this paper, the work of the 2003 UK Task Force on Human Capital Management is reviewed. This initiative emerged from a broader Department of Trade and Industry interest in the better usage of human labour and potential, and focuses on the current practice and future possibilities for human capital management in the UK. We emphasise an “accounting influence” present throughout the work of the Task Force, and a predilection for dealing with human capital measurement and reporting within the planned expansion of the Operating and Financial Review. However, we argue that the report has been narrow in its appreciation of interest in the cognate field of intangibles and intellectual capital. It fails to recognise the accountancy discipline’s difficulties in reporting in these areas, as well as being possibly premature in delegating responsibility for human capital reporting to the Operating and Financial Review.
The accountancy profession’s long association with measurement and reporting has ensured that it has made a substantial contribution to the evolving intellectual capital field…
Abstract
The accountancy profession’s long association with measurement and reporting has ensured that it has made a substantial contribution to the evolving intellectual capital field. While many of the motivations shaping the accounting for intellectual capital project are of a practical nature, the emergence of intellectual capital and the challenges entailed in taking it into account in some way also raise important theoretical issues. As long as the accountancy profession seeks to progress accounting for intellectual capital within the confines of prevailing accounting theory, the prospects for a successful outcome appear remote. Alternative theoretical precepts need to be explored, an exercise that also has implications for the future development of financial reporting.
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Robin Roslender and Robin Fincham
Accounting for intellectual capital is increasingly recognised to be one of the most fascinating and potentially far‐reaching challenges facing the accountancy profession. A…
Abstract
Accounting for intellectual capital is increasingly recognised to be one of the most fascinating and potentially far‐reaching challenges facing the accountancy profession. A growing literature, encompassing theoretical, empirical and practical elements, is currently emerging as researchers and practitioners endeavour to account for the hidden value that the intellectual capital concept denotes, and its pivotal role in the value creation process. To date, many of the most instructive advances have emanated from Scandinavia, reflecting these societies' sustained interest in necessity of accounting for the worth of employees, arguably the principal progenitor of intellectual capital accounting. Reports from a number of Australian, Canadian and European enquiries have added to the momentum of the intellectual capital accounting project, whilst affirming its links with contemporary debates about the information society, intangibles, knowledge management and business reporting. This paper reports and discusses some of the findings of a recently completed field study of intellectual capital accounting developments in the UK, funded by one of the professional accountancy bodies. Drawing on a series of semi‐structured interviews, it documents how senior managers in six knowledge‐based organisations view intellectual capital and related developments, their evolving attempts to respond to the challenges these present, and their progress in measuring and reporting their performance in these areas.
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Natural workgroups are an important if rarely acknowledged aspectof job design; their distinctive features reflect a radical notion ofworker choice and task structuring based on…
Abstract
Natural workgroups are an important if rarely acknowledged aspect of job design; their distinctive features reflect a radical notion of worker choice and task structuring based on “natural” work methods, i.e. common‐sense understandings of how tasks should be accomplished. The article initially gives illustrations of natural workgroups and considers possible problems in using this admittedly somewhat contentious idea. Next, it argues that natural workgroups were a basis of job design in early Tavistock studies. Two conclusions come out of re‐examining this classic research: first that “traditional” work methods need more careful examination regarding their potential for job design than has been the case so far, and second that consideration of natural workgroups as an “original” stage of work structuring reveals the process nature of meaningful job redesign. These ideas are finally explored and illustrated in relation to more recent research.
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Robin Roslender and Robin Fincham
The measurement and reporting of intellectual capital has recently attracted a growing interest from accounting researchers, promoting a lively and far‐reaching debate. Two…
Abstract
The measurement and reporting of intellectual capital has recently attracted a growing interest from accounting researchers, promoting a lively and far‐reaching debate. Two related issues have informed this debate. It is possible to identify these issues as exemplifying financial reporting and management accounting perspectives on the emergence of intellectual capital. Provides a commentary on the progress of the debate to date, while also attempting to contextualise some of the issues it entails in both earlier and wider debates. In an effort to progress the project of accounting for intellectual capital, suggests the adoption of a critical accounting perspective. This would entail exploring the possibilities of intellectual capital providing its own accounts, rather than remaining imprisoned within accounts devised by others.
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Imperial College in 1969 looked like a man's world; it was certainly difficult to locate a ladies’ room which was not apparently hastily constructed in a tight space as an…
Abstract
Imperial College in 1969 looked like a man's world; it was certainly difficult to locate a ladies’ room which was not apparently hastily constructed in a tight space as an afterthought to a great design. Yet I joined a powerhouse of women. Joan Woodward had already tempted Dorothy Wedderburn from Cambridge and together they had secured large sums of research monies from the Research Councils, Fords, Pilkingtons, ICI, the Post Office, the Coal Board, government departments, and other supporters who were each captivated by the promise of the work and rare combination of intellectual strength and practical concerns of its leader. With research funds flowing in abundance, driving passions to explore further the relationship between structure, technology, and performance, and very few specific commitments, Joan and Dorothy set about recruiting what was to be one of the largest groups of young researchers in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s.
Howard Kahn, Joanna E. Stevenson and Robin Roslender
The purpose of this paper is to report and discuss the principal findings of a recent study of thinking and practice about workforce health and wellbeing among UK accounting and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report and discuss the principal findings of a recent study of thinking and practice about workforce health and wellbeing among UK accounting and finance and human resource management professionals.
Design/methodology/approach
The data informing the paper were collected using postal questionnaires to two samples of 1,000 UK accounting and finance and human resource directors. The research design incorporated the facility for a full second mailing to respondents.
Findings
The responses received from the sample of human resource directors were generally more supportive of viewing workforce health and wellbeing as a valuable organisational asset. Accounting and finance professionals employed in private sector organisations were the least enthusiastic about such issues.
Research limitations/implications
While the design of the questionnaire afforded the opportunity for commentary on answers by respondents, semi‐structured interviews will allow a more detailed exploration of the issues.
Practical implications
The UK accountancy profession has yet to fully appreciate the significance of the intellectual capital phenomenon. In seeking to engage health and wellbeing issues, it may be desirable to consider collaboration with the human resource management profession.
Originality/value
Health and wellbeing have seldom been recognised as key constituents of human capital. Consequently, this is the first such study to be carried out.
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Christian Nielsen, Robin Roslender and Stefan Schaper
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Danish Guideline Project (DGP) and its subsequent fate within participating companies since its conclusion in late 2002…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the Danish Guideline Project (DGP) and its subsequent fate within participating companies since its conclusion in late 2002. Particular focus is placed on the traction that the intellectual capital statement (ICS) approach to reporting, as the principal outcome of the project, was able to acquire in practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the reconstruction of the original sample of 102 companies that originally participated in the project, a survey using semi-structured interviews was pursued among 64 individuals who were identified as having some involvement with the guideline project and/or producing ICSs in these companies. In addition to the interviews, a range of secondary information has been used to supplement the primary data and research protocol.
Findings
The project was found to have enjoyed only modest success and thereby failed to achieve any substantial traction among the participating companies and related public stakeholders. On balance, however, respondents believed that the exercise had been a positive experience, with benefits for the internal management of the companies, as well as for human capital (employees). The obstacles that radical initiatives such as the ICS continue to face should not be underestimated.
Research limitations/implications
A single study of a specific initiative necessarily entails many limitations. It is conceivable that the views of some of the participants in the guideline project who are absent from the present sample may provide details of a different experience, although it is unlikely that these would seriously challenge the findings reported here.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore the fate of the critically acclaimed ICS approach among companies participating in the DGP.
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Katharine K. Baker and Michelle Oberman
This paper evaluates the modern baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault (rape) cases in light of different theories of sexuality (feminism on the one hand and sex…
Abstract
This paper evaluates the modern baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault (rape) cases in light of different theories of sexuality (feminism on the one hand and sex positivism/queer theory on the other) and in light of how sexuality manifests itself in the lives of contemporary young women. The authors analyze social science literature on contemporary heterosexual practices such as sexting and hook-ups, as well as contemporary media imagery, to inform a contemporary understanding of the ways in which young people perceive and experience sex. Using this evidence as a foundation, the authors reconsider the ongoing utility of a baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault cases. This paper demonstrates the complex relationship between women’s sexual autonomy, the contemporary culture’s encouragement of women’s celebration of their own sexual objectification and the persistence of high rates of unwanted sex. In the end, it demonstrates why a legal presumption against consent may neither reduce the rate of nonconsensual sex, nor raise the rate of reported rapes. At the same time, it shows how the presumption itself is unlikely to generate harmful consequences: if it deters anything, it likely deters unwanted sex, whether consented to or not.