Corporate ‘silent’ and ‘shadow’ social accounting

Many readers of SEAJ will be familiar with Rob Gray's statement, 'accountability should hurt', which arguably distils the underlying intent behind social and environmental accounting.However, based on the evidence of most current corporate social reporting (CSR) practice, it is often managers and shareholders who stand to gain most, rather than to 'feel pain' 1 .At the same time the prospects for effective mandatory CSR in the UK seem distant: the much-vaunted Operating and Financial Review is not explicitly designed for this purpose, and is deficient in both form and substance.