The Relationship Between Islamic Cultural Values and Corporate Social Accountability: Malaysian Muslim Accountants

This study investigates the relationship between Islamic cultural values and corporate social accountability among Muslim accountants in Malaysia. Two independent variables are proposed namely collectivism and power distance. Multivariate analysis was employed to examine the relationship between the variables in the framework and 124 respondents participated in this study. It is found that there is no relationship between collectivism and corporate social accountability. On the other hand, there is a significant positive relationship between power distance and corporate social accountability. In conclusion this study recommends that the understanding on zakat and equality should be given utmost priority in order to increase the level of social accountability among Muslim accountants in Malaysia. Such learning activities should be given continuous professional development (CPD) point by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) as a motivation.

Social accountability of Russian agribusiness

Social accountability of Russian agribusiness is currently at an early stage of development. Socially accountable agribusiness helps reducing social tension in rural areas and acts as a reliable ally to the government in executing social programs. The purpose of this research is to proof the necessity of social accountability popularization in agribusiness entities’ operation in order to provide high level of competitive capability and stable rural development. Through the research we established limiting factors in development of social accountability in functioning of the agribusiness entities and estimated the level of social accountability among biggest agribusiness holding companies as well as its impact on rural development. As a result of the study we developed measures for expanding corporate social accountability of agribusiness and enlarging its social orientation. The motives of the socially accountable agribusiness are as followed: employee development, working efficiency growth in the company, better company image, reputation growth, stable company growth in the long term, possibility of additional investments.

Commentary on Public Health Advocacy to Change Corporate Practices

Responsible practitioners who plan programs to promote health and prevent diseases must understand and address those factors and conditions that influence the health status of the population they serve. It is clear that some corporations and businesses promote and sell products and pursue other policies that can have deleterious effects on the public’s health. This commentary urges planners and practitioners who seek to redress the actions and polices that lead to corporate disease promotion to consider expanding their working knowledge of (a) the core values that drive corporate culture and (b) how those values are often framed to distort and override the social justice values of public health. Such understanding can serve to strengthen public health professionals’ capacity to take discrete steps, including the strategic use of community organizing for power, to heighten public demand for greater corporate social accountability for the health consequences of their actions.

NGO Strategies for Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility

This article describes and evaluates the different strategies that have been employed by international human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in attempting to influence the behavior of multinational corporations (MNCs). Within the NGO world, there is a basic divide on tactics for dealing with corporations: Engagers try to draw corporations into dialogue in order to persuade them by means of ethical and prudential arguments to adopt voluntary codes of conduct, while confronters believe that corporations will act only when their financial interests are threatened, and therefore take a more adversarial stance toward them. Confrontational NGOs tend to employ moral stigmatization, or “naming and shaming,” as their primary tactic, while NGOs that favor engagement offer dialogue and limited forms of cooperation with willing MNCs.The article explains the evolving relationship between NGOs and MNCs in relation to human rights issues and defines eight strategies along the engagement/confrontation spectrum used by NGOs in their dealings with MNCs. The potential benefits and risks of various forms of engagement between NGOs and MNCs are analyzed and it is argued that the dynamic created by NGOs pursuing these different strategies can be productive in moving some companies to embrace their social responsibilities. Yet, in order for these changes to be sustainable, national governments will need to enact enforceable international legal standards for corporate social accountability.