Editorial

Citation

Roslender, R. (2010), "Editorial", Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, Vol. 14 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jhrca.2010.31614daa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, Volume 14, Issue 4

It seems like it was just a few weeks ago that I finalised the previous issue by writing the editorial. Since then I have had the opportunity to visit colleagues in Denmark to do both a little teaching and a lot of talking about research and related issues. One of the outcomes of the visit is a call for contributions to a proposed special issue of the journal in 2012 on the “Role of human resources in business model performance”, details of which can be found at the end of this issue. The previous special issue, Vol. 13 No. 2, was highly successful, and I hope that it will be possible to publish further similar collections in the coming years, starting with papers presented at our forthcoming Edinburgh conference.

Many readers may already be familiar with the work of the World Intellectual Capital Initiative, a collaborative network formed in 2008 with the aim of promoting the improved business reporting of intellectual capital assets. A meeting of interested parties in the UK is being held in Glasgow in early December, thereby adding a further element to the renewed interest in “taking people into account” that I commented on in my previous editorial. The feasibility study of human capital reporting in the UK commissioned by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills is now well underway and is expected to report around Easter time. A review of the study’s deliberations and proposals will be reported in the journal in due course.

Updated details of the April 2011 conference to be held in collaboration with the Emerald Group and the Centre for Research in Work and Wellbeing (CRoWW) at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh are now available on the journal’s web site. The next step is to begin to collect firm expressions of interest in participating at the event, and in taking the opportunity to spend a few days in the beautiful city of Edinburgh and its environs. To this end a registration pro-forma document has been created and will be regularly and widely circulated with the relevant research communities. Having recently revisited the conference venue, the Apex International Hotel, in the city’s historic Grassmarket, I can assure those who plan to attend that they will have an unrivalled view of Edinburgh Castle as a backdrop to the conference dinner.

This issue again contains four full length papers, the first of which, by Vivienne Beattie and Sarah Jane Smith, draws on the findings of their recently completed study of intellectual capital reporting activity in the UK, funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). The particular focus of this paper is on how human resource directors view the contribution of human capital to value creation and a number of issues associated with the external disclosure of human capital information. During the past decade ICAS has assumed a vanguard role in promoting the study of intellectual capital in the UK, initially under the direction of Vivienne Beattie herself and subsequently with the support of her successors Christine Helliar and Angus Duff. Further details of this growing corpus of work can be found on the ICAS web site: www.icas.org.uk

Two papers originating in Sweden are included in the following pages. The first, by Mikael Holmgren Caicedo and Maria Mårtensson, provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the health statement concept in a Swedish municipality. Health statements are a relatively recent development within Scandinavia, a region in which levels of sickness absence are among the highest in Europe. Essentially narrative reports, health statements continue in the tradition of intellectual capital statements such as those pioneered in the Danish Guidelines and the Meritum Report. Kristina Jonäll and Gunnar Rimmel’s paper also focuses on narrative reporting practices, on this occasion CEO letters. The authors examine how such letters are used by CEOs in three large organisations to make themselves accountable to their stakeholders as well as to contribute to establishing the legitimacy of their companies.

The final paper in the issue, by Md Habib-Uz-Zaman Khan and Md Rasidozzaman Khan, returns to the topic of human capital reporting. The authors provide a content analysis of human capital reporting practices in a sample of leading Bangaladeshi companies. They conclude that the extent of such practices is rather more extensive than might have been expected and appears to be increasing, partly as a consequence of the encouragement that has been provided by Bangladeshi regulators.

I am delighted to be able to announce that my colleague at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Abigail Marks, will become the journal’s new Associate Editor from the beginning of 2011. Abigail is a specialist in work and employment studies and the founding Director of the CRoWW at Heriot-Watt, a recognised grouping that we recently created in association with a number of colleagues to promote this field in the UK. Her initial responsibility is to promote the journal among researchers working in the fields of work and employment studies as well as to assist me in getting to grips with the ScholarOne system that will soon be extended to the journal.

Finally, a further change is also imminent. Following five and a half challenging years at Heriot-Watt, as of April 2011 I will be based in the new School of Business at the University of Dundee. Until further notice, however, all submissions should continue to be sent to me at my current email address, a facility that I imagine will continue for some months after my physical move to my new position.

Robin Roslender