A board of directors is an executive committee that jointly supervise the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organization, or a government agency.
Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, liability, and the expectation of account-giving. As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, nonprofit and private (corporate) and individual contexts. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences.
Responsibility may refer to:
Corporate governance is the collection of mechanisms, processes and relations used by various parties to control and to operate a corporation. Governance structures and principles identify the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation and include the rules and procedures for making decisions in corporate affairs. Corporate governance is necessary because of the possibility of conflicts of interests between stakeholders, primarily between shareholders and upper management or among shareholders.
Corporate accountability is the acknowledgement and assumption of responsibility for the consequences of a company's actions. It can be defined in narrowly financial terms, e.g. for a business to meet certain standards or address the regulatory requirements of its business activities. Corporate accountability may also be applied more broadly, such as expectations for a publicly-traded company to be accountable to its employees and local community rather than focusing exclusively on earning profits in the short-term for the benefit of its shareholders.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethically-oriented practices. While once it was possible to describe CSR as an internal organisational policy or a corporate ethic strategy, that time has passed as various national and international laws have been developed and various organisations have used their authority to push it beyond individual or even industry-wide initiatives. While it has been considered a form of corporate self-regulation for some time, over the last decade or so it has moved considerably from voluntary decisions at the level of individual organizations to mandatory schemes at regional, national, and international levels.
The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to encourage businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is a principle-based framework for businesses, stating ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. Under the Global Compact, companies are brought together with UN agencies, labor groups and civil society. Cities can join the Global Compact through the Cities Programme.
Social responsibility is an ethical framework and suggests that an individual has an obligation to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems. A trade-off may exist between economic development, in the material sense, and the welfare of the society and environment, though this has been challenged by many reports over the past decade. Social responsibility means sustaining the equilibrium between the two. It pertains not only to business organizations but also to everyone whose any action impacts the environment. It is a concept that aims to ensure secure healthcare for the people living in rural areas and eliminate all barriers like distance, financial condition, etc. Another example is keeping the outdoors free of trash and litter by using the ethical framework combining the resources of land managers, municipalities, non-profits, educational institutions, businesses, manufacturers, and individual volunteers will be required to solve the ocean microplastics crisis. This responsibility can be passive, by avoiding engaging in socially harmful acts, or active, by performing activities that directly advance social goals. Social responsibility must be intergenerational since the actions of one generation have consequences on those following.
Corporate responsibility is a term which has come to characterize a family of professional disciplines intended to help a corporation stay competitive by maintaining accountability to its four main stakeholder groups: customers, employees, shareholders, and communities.
Sustainability reporting enables organizations to report on environmental and social performance. It is not just report generation from collected data; instead it is a method to internalize and improve an organization’s commitment to sustainable development in a way that can be demonstrated to both internal and external stakeholders. Sustainability reports help companies build consumer confidence and improve corporate reputations through social responsibility programs and transparent risk management.
A company secretary is a senior position in a private sector company or public sector organisation. In large American and Canadian publicly listed corporations, a company secretary is typically named a corporate secretary or secretary. The company secretary is responsible for the efficient administration of a company, particularly with regard to ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements and for ensuring that decisions of the board of directors are implemented.
ISO 26000:2010 Guidance on social responsibility is an international standard providing guidelines for social responsibility. It was released by the International Organization for Standardization on 1 November 2010 and its goal is to contribute to global sustainable development by encouraging business and other organizations to practice social responsibility to improve their impacts on their workers, their natural environments and their communities.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is an association advocating for corporate social responsibility. Its 300 member organizations comprise faith communities, asset managers, unions, pensions, NGOs and other investors. ICCR members engage hundreds of corporations annually in an effort to foster greater corporate accountability. ICCR's members file shareholder resolutions on issues such as climate change, human rights, corporate governance, financial practices, and other social and environmental concerns. The organization was founded in 1971.
AccountAbility is an independent, global, not-for-profit organisation promoting accountability, sustainable business practices and corporate responsibility. It is a self-managed partnership, governed by its multi-stakeholder network.
Simon Zadek is a writer and advisor focused on business and sustainability. He is the Co-Director of the UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.
Sustainability accounting was originated about 20 years ago and is considered a subcategory of financial accounting that focuses on the disclosure of non-financial information about a firm's performance to external stakeholders, such as capital holders, creditors, and other authorities. Sustainability accounting represents the activities that have a direct impact on society, environment, and economic performance of an organisation. Sustainability accounting in managerial accounting contrasts with financial accounting in that managerial accounting is used for internal decision making and the creation of new policies that will have an effect on the organisation's performance at economic, ecological, and social level. Sustainability accounting is often used to generate value creation within an organisation.
The Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) is a research and networking institution in the field of social accounting. It combines more than 600 active members, fellows and associates in over 30 countries.
Peter Mark Pruzan is a Danish organizational theorist, management consultant, and Emeritus Professor of Systems Science at the Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy at the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) in Denmark. Pruzan is known for work on corporate governance and values-based leadership. He became a naturalized Danish citizen in 1973.
Social accounting is the process of communicating the social and environmental effects of organizations' economic actions to particular interest groups within society and to society at large. Social Accounting is different from public interest accounting as well as from critical accounting.
Prem Nath Sikka, Baron Sikka is a British accountant and academic. He holds the position of Professor of Accounting at the University of Sheffield, and is Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex.
