Sustainability Accounting And Accountability Organizations

Brief Summary and Analysis of the Key Insights Raised in the Source Article

Diascuss about the Sustainability Accounting and Accountability Organizations.

The present report has been developed to analyze and examine the key arguments presented in a research article related to sustainability accounting and reporting. In addition to this, the analyses have been used for designing a research project in an Australian business organization in relation to its sustainability accounting and reporting.

The research paper entitled ‘Engaging with organizations in pursuit of improved sustainability accounting and performance’ by Adams and Larrinaga-Gonzalez evaluates the major challenges faced by business organizations for managing and reporting their sustainability performance.            The research study emphasizes on the fields of management, management accounting and critical accounting for evaluating the present shortcomings and carrying out future research in areas of sustainability accounting and accountability practice. The paper has conducted literature review for identifying the differences present in the field of sustainability accounting and management accounting. There is in-depth literature review conducted in the research article to provide understanding to the readers regarding the concept of management and sustainability accounting. The research paper also stated that there is high need for integrating the concept of sustainability accounting in business organizations for their improved performance. The field of sustainability accounting and reporting has the potential to improve the organizational performance is the key finding obtained from the research paper (Adams and Larrinaga-Gonzalez, 2007).

The author in the research article has emphasized the need for undertaking future researches in the field of sustainability accounting for improving the businesses performance. The research paper has highlighted the need and importance of conducting future researches regarding the business organizations that are practicing sustainability accounting and reporting. The paper has identified the current gap existing in the literature regarding the integration of sustainability accounting within business organizations. The researcher has evaluated in detail the impact of ethical, social and environmental accounting on the performance of business organizations. The researcher in the paper has argued that organizational engagement is very critical for developing an in-depth understanding of the impact of integrating ethical, social and environmental accounting on business processes. The researchers need to investigate the impact of implementing sustainability accounting practices on the organizational processes ad structure. The benefits realized to the organizations integrating the practices of sustainability accounting should be explored by the researchers in the future context is the major concern held by the researcher throughout the article (Adams and Larrinaga-Gonzalez, 2007)..

Need of Academics Engagement with Businesses in Pursuit of Improved Sustainability Accounting and Performance

Need of academics engagement with businesses in pursuit of improved sustainability accounting and performance

As analyzed from the source article, there is high need for academics to participate with business organizations for improving sustainability accounting and performance. The academics field carries out wide number of researches related to the topic of sustainability accounting and reporting. Thus, as such they put forward various ideologies demonstrating the need of integrating practices of sustainability accounting in business organizations for their improved performance. The academics should actively engage with the business enterprises for demonstrating the ideologies that will act as stimulus of change for businesses in relation to the use of practices of sustainability accounting. The field of academics is key for improvement in this area because they provide necessary guidelines to the business organizations about the implementation of practices of sustainability accounting. Businesses can widen their knowledge from academics on wide range of approaches related to social and environmental impacts of sustainability accounting. The studies will enlighten the mind of business leaders about the benefits realized through the use of sustainable reporting on their organizational performance (Epstein and Buhovac, 2014).

Involvement of academics in this field will improve the process of decision-making by management in various organizations in the country. This will involve the critical areas of management such as accounting reports, the creation of awareness, disclosures and benchmarking. The field of sustainability accounting and reporting needs the input of academics to nurture future business practitioners in the accounting field. This will create a culture of organizations to include in its corporate mandates the practices of sustainability accounting reports and their efforts towards accountability improvement about sustainability performance (Bebbington and Unerman, 2014). The academic researchers can also contribute through providing understanding about various theoretical concepts related to sustainability accountability through conductive extensive researches on them. Thus, the field of academics provides extensive information to businesses in the field of management and sustainability accounting that they can utilize for improving their performance.

Potential research project in Australian Organization undertaken in relation to its sustainability accounting and reporting

Westpac is recognized as one of the leading Australian bank specialized in providing financial services to the managers and distributors in the country. The bank is recognized globally for its sustainability practices and thus has been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index as most environment sustainable bank. The practice of sustainable reporting has become an integral part of organizational performance of the bank. Thus, it has been selected for undertaking research project in relation to its sustainability accounting and reporting. The research project undertaken is to analyze the sustainability reporting system of Westpac through the use of Sustainability Balanced Scorecard. The main aim of the research project is to identify and analyze the strategies that Westpac uses for developing its sustainability reporting system for meeting the needs and expectations of its various stakeholders. The research study has been conducted with the use of various theoretical perspectives related to the concept of sustainability reporting (Huang, Pepper and Bowrey, 2014).

Potential Research Project in Australian Organization Undertaken in Relation to its Sustainability Accounting and Reporting

The theoretical perspectives included in-depth discussion about the concept of sustainability reporting, legitimacy theory, balanced scorecard and analyses of sustainability reporting system of Westpac through the adoption of balanced scorecard tool. The theoretical perspective is necessary for providing adequate understanding about the various concepts related to the field of sustainability accountability and reporting to the readers. The theoretical perspective has provided the foundation for conducting the overall research study. It has widened the knowledge perspective of the readers about the need of sustainability reporting to organizations and is very well supported by theoretical arguments. The research project has undertaken qualitative and quantitative methodology for analyzing the sustainability report system of Westpac through the use of balanced scorecard tool. The qualitative methodology involves conducting information about various literary source related to the field of sustainability accounting and reporting. The research project is then undertaken by analyzing the sustainability reports of the banking corporation from the year 2002-2008. The performance indicators are then categorized into four BSC (Balanced Scorecard) perspectives. The indicators are then quantified for evaluating the sustainability reporting system of the Westpac.

The results of each year are compared and evaluated to identify the changes in the Westpac strategies for reporting organizational legitimacy. The main finding obtained from the research project is that sustainability reporting system need to be developed by each and every business organization for improving its performance. Westpac has maintained its strong brand image in the global market through adopting responsible practices in relation to social, environmental and ethical context. The practices of sustainability accounting help in improving the legitimacy of organizations and improve stakeholder management (Hopwood and Unerman, 2010). Westpac has effective stakeholder management that is the main reason behind its success and growth. The research study has developed a scope for future researchers to analyze and examine the organizational strategies used for improving its legitimacy. The use of stakeholder engagement for developing sustainability reporting system can also prove to be a topic of future research for researchers in the field of sustainability accounting and reporting (Huang, Pepper and Bowrey, 2014).

The main concerns pointed in the source research article related to the need of adopting sustainable reporting in businesses for improving its performance. The research project is undertaken to analyze the sustainability reporting system of Westpac, a banking corporation of Australia. The bank is recognized globally on account of its adoption of practice of sustainable reporting. Thus, the research project has very well-addressed the issue pointed in the source article about the impact of sustainability reporting practices on organizational performance. It has been evident from the case study of Westpac that it has developed its brand name internationally through effective stakeholder engagement through the use of sustainable reporting practices. Thus, it can be said that stakeholder engagement can be enhanced through the adoption of sustainable reporting practices. The main issue addressed in the research article related to the relation between sustainability accounting and organizational performance. The research project undertaken in the Westpac banking corporation addressed the issue by concluding the effective stakeholder engagement results in improving organizational performance through the adoption of practice of sustainability accounting and reporting (Huang, Pepper and Bowrey, 2014).

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the overall report that the topic of sustainability accounting reporting is gaining dominance in business organizations on a large-scale. There is high need for businesses o adopt the practice of sustainability reporting for improving their performance through better stakeholder management.

References

Adams, C.A., and Larrinaga-Gonzalez, C. 2007. ‘Engaging with organizations in pursuit of improved sustainability accounting and performance’. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 20(3), pp. 333-355.

Bebbington, J. and Unerman, J. 2014. Sustainability Accounting and Accountability. Routledge.

Epstein, M. and Buhovac, A. 2014. Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Hopwood, A.G. and Unerman, J. 2010. Accounting for Sustainability: Practical Insights. Earthscan.

Huang, T, Pepper, M and Bowrey, G. 2014. Implementing a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard to Contribute to the Process of Organisational Legitimacy Assessment. Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal 8(2), pp.15-34.