Exploring the importance of social responsibility disclosure for human resources

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social responsibility disclosure (SRD) on the internet by Portuguese companies which are engaged in processes of obtaining or enhancing a good social responsibility reputation and are confident of having a good social performance pertaining to the human resources area – the best companies to work for (BCWF).

Design/methodology/approach

A matched pair approach is used to address the empirical question of whether the SRD on the internet of the BCWF differs from that of a benchmark group of companies selected by matching industry and size. Using a resource‐based perspective (RBP) the hypothesis that the BCWF disclose more social responsibility information is analysed.

Findings

Results suggest that BCWF do disclose more items of social responsibility information than control companies, which allows thinking that companies which want to have a good social responsibility reputation and think that their social performance relating to their employees is good, recognize the need to use SRD also to influence their perception of its reputation.

Research limitations/implications

The sample is small. There may be content analysis issues associated with subjectivity in the coding process and the use of a limited content analysis method.

Originality/value

It adds to the scarce research on SRD by Portuguese companies by providing new empirical data and extends prior research using RBPs.

Citation

Castelo Branco, M. and Lima Rodrigues, L. (2009), "Exploring the importance of social responsibility disclosure for human resources", Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 186-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/14013380910995494