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1 – 10 of over 2000Building on an integration of strategic human resource capital management and human capital disclosure literature streams, this paper explores the associations between human…
Abstract
Purpose
Building on an integration of strategic human resource capital management and human capital disclosure literature streams, this paper explores the associations between human resource performance and human resource disclosure in the financial services sector.
Design/methodology/approach
Using content analysis and panel regression methods, the paper examines the extent, nature, and information content of human capital disclosures in the financial services sectors in North America during the global financial crisis period.
Findings
Labor costs and marginal labor productivity are significantly associated with human resource disclosure and the latter is significantly related to both financial (explicit) and non-financial (implicit or relational) components of the employment relationship. Results show inverted effects between the US and Canadian samples. The findings support a contingency view or “best-fit” approach to human resource capital management.
Practical implications
Differences in labor market structures and human capital attributes could have significant impacts on human capital disclosure strategies. More transparent and detailed disclosures regarding human resource capital management may provide useful and relevant information for investors and stakeholders in general.
Originality/value
The study provides insights into how labor market structures and human capital attributes jointly affect the extent and nature of corporate disclosures with regards to rents distribution and relational governance between employers and employees.
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Surinder Kaur, Venkat A. Raman and Monica Singhania
Human resource (HR) disclosures are voluntary in nature in most countries including India. The voluntary nature of HR disclosures results in discrepancy in the HR disclosure…
Abstract
Purpose
Human resource (HR) disclosures are voluntary in nature in most countries including India. The voluntary nature of HR disclosures results in discrepancy in the HR disclosure practices across companies and industries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of HR disclosures in annual reports of Indian listed companies and to identify their determinants in a three stage analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
In the first stage a 16 item human resource disclosure index (HRDI) has been constructed for the set of CNX 200 companies listed on National Stock Exchange. Thereafter the effect of various independent variables on HRDI is analysed descriptively. Finally in the third stage HRDI has been regressed against the independent variables using regression analysis technique to identify key determinants of HRDI.
Findings
The research reveals that there is high variation among sample companies as regard HRDI. The results of descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis establish that government’s participation in ownership and market capitalisation has positive significant effect on HRDI at 1 per cent, presence of separate HR directors committee, presence of more independent directors on board at 5 per cent and cross-list America and profit after tax at 10 per cent level. Implicitly HRDI is positively affected by size of company as measured by market capitalisation. Though contrary to expectations, other variables leverage, number of employees, assets, ownership concentration, type of auditor, age, complexity of business structure, employee expense to total operating expense ratio, industry affiliation, foreign investment and proportion of non-executive directors on board are found to have moderate though insignificant influence on HRDI.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional design, dependence on annual reports as a primary document for disclosure and subjectivity in HRDI construction are the main limitations of the research. A longitudinal study may be carried to study the pattern of HR disclosures in future. Weighted ranking of different items of disclosures may be studied to improve the understanding of extent of disclosures.
Practical implications
The HRDI as constructed in the research may be used as a benchmark by companies to improve their HR disclosures. It can also be used by accounting bodies and company regulators while deciding about standards regarding HR disclosures. Investors can also use HR disclosures made by a company as a basis to understand its financial standing and future potentials.
Originality/value
The study adds to the existing literature by developing 16 item HRDI to measure the extent of disclosures by listed companies in India and thereafter by including some new propositions in the determinants of HRDI have never been tested in the existing studies. These propositions are government’s participation in ownership, separate HR committee of directors, board composition and foreign activity. These propositions have been empirically validated in this research except for foreign activity.
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Petr Petera and Jaroslav Wagner
The purpose of the paper is to investigate voluntary human resources disclosure (hereinafter referred to as “HR disclosure”) by the largest companies domiciled in Czechia. The key…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to investigate voluntary human resources disclosure (hereinafter referred to as “HR disclosure”) by the largest companies domiciled in Czechia. The key research questions are: What is the quantity of disclosure on various topics related to HR? Is there a significant difference in the quantity of HR disclosure between companies? Which factors influence the quantity of HR disclosure?
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative content analysis (CA) of annual reports of the 50 largest companies domiciled in Czechia was used. An established coding scheme is used to code annual reports, and subsequently, various statistical methods (descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multiple linear regression) are used to answer the key research questions.
Findings
Primarily, social information is reported (what a company does for its employees) as information on the contribution of employees to the company’s value is rudimentary. Secondly, there is a significant difference in the quantity of HR disclosure between companies. Finally, the findings of the regression analysis confirm the impact of presence on the stock exchange and size and on the quantity of HR disclosure.
Research limitations/implications
The annual reports of 50 companies from one country are analysed. The study provides a basis for further research.
Practical implications
The findings of this study may inspire companies to improve their HR disclosure, while policymakers should consider imposing more concrete demands on HR disclosure.
Originality/value
Quantitative CA research into the HR disclosure of companies domiciled in Czechia is nearly non-existent. This study fills this gap.
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Nahg Abdulmajid Alawi and Husam Mohammed Belfaqih
The purpose of this paper is to determine the quality of HR disclosure of companies listed in Qatari Exchange Market and identify factors that influence the level of this HR…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine the quality of HR disclosure of companies listed in Qatari Exchange Market and identify factors that influence the level of this HR disclosure quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis of annual reports and sustainability reports of 12 companies from industrial and real estate sectors over the period 2013–2015 had been analyzed using the three-point scale (0–2, numerical disclosure 2, 1 for narrative form and 0 for not disclosed). This research employed also multiple regressions, in order to examine the impact of profitability and employee expenses on HR disclosure quality.
Findings
The results point out that HR disclosure quality level is very low among the sample companies. The ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis results indicate that the level of HR disclosure quality is associated with company’s employees expenses as a proportion of its total operating expenses, whereas profitability does not have a significant influence on its level of HR disclosure quality.
Research limitations/implications
The current study has two important limitations. First, the sample of the study consists of only 12 leading Qatari industrial and real estate sectors firms listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange Market. Second, the study used an unweighted index which implies equal importance of the selected information items.
Originality/value
The study has bridged the literature gaps by offering empirical evidence and new insights on the HR disclosure quality in Qatar and the factors that affect, which have not been examined before.
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Monika Kansal and Mahesh Joshi
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of corporate disclosure on human resources (HR) in the annual reports of top performing Indian companies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of corporate disclosure on human resources (HR) in the annual reports of top performing Indian companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the extent to which top 82 companies from India present information about HR in their annual reports. This study examines the annual reports of each of the top Indian firms listed on the Bombay stock exchange, using the “content analysis” method. Statistical tests have been performed to analyse the difference between the HR disclosure score across public and private sectors and disclosure variations among various industrial sectors.
Findings
In-house training programmes has been noticed to be the favourite item of disclosure followed by safety awards/certifications and statements regarding cordial relations with the employees/unions. A majority of the Indian firms have ignored significant HR issues such as employee welfare fund, maternity/paternity leaves, holiday benefits, employee loans and adopting old age homes, etc. Overall, the study reflects low HR related disclosures. No statistically significant difference has been found between the mean HR disclosure from one industry to another and disclosure practices of the private and the public sector companies.
Practical implications
The disclosure pattern of the Indian companies suggests that they only a few companies are concerned about employees’ welfare than the rest. This may motivate a change of the disclosure policy of the rest of the firms who may follow the reporting pattern of the most disclosing ones.
Originality/value
This is first study on the disclosure of HR by the Indian corporate sector in the CSR domain with a disclosure analysis for a period of nine years . This research provides new directions for the literature in this area and may promote comparative studies on HR-based studies from different perspectives.
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The objective of the present study is to examine the impact of corporate characteristics on human resource disclosures in Indian corporate sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of the present study is to examine the impact of corporate characteristics on human resource disclosures in Indian corporate sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The study investigates the annual reports of 336 Indian listed companies of NSE-500 Index. The data are collected for the latest time period which contains eight years (FY 2012–13 to 2019–2020). The data of independent variables (company characteristics) have collected from annual reports and CMIE ProwessIQ Database of the Indian listed companies. The data of human resource dissclosure index (HRDI) is collected form annual reports using content analysis approach. For analysis purpose, descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation matrix, Two-way Least Square Dummy Variable (LSDV) regression model have been used.
Findings
The outcomes show that net sales, market capitalisation, ROTA, return on equity, quick ratio, PAR have significant positive and age, profit after tax, current ratio have significant negative effect on HRDI. On the contrary, debt-equity ratio, earnings per share, type of auditor, listing status have insignificant positive and net fixed assets, promoter's holding have insignificant negative effect on HR disclosures of the selected Indian listed companies.
Originality/value
The HRDI constructed in the present study helps the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and other regulatory bodies to make some standards regarding voluntary HR disclosure practices in Indian corporate sector.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of corporate disclosure on human resources (HR) in the annual reports of top-performing Indian companies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of corporate disclosure on human resources (HR) in the annual reports of top-performing Indian companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the extent to which top 82 companies from India present information about HR in their annual reports. This paper examines the annual reports of each of the top Indian firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, using the “content analysis” method. Statistical tests have been performed to analyze the difference between the HR disclosure score across public and private sectors and disclosure variations among various industrial sectors.
Findings
In-house training programmers has been noticed to be the favorite item of disclosure followed by safety awards/certifications and statements regarding cordial relations with the employees/unions. A majority of the Indian firms have ignored significant HR issues such as employee welfare fund, maternity/paternity leaves, holiday benefits, employee loans, adopting old age homes, etc. Overall, the paper reflects low HR-related disclosures.
Originality/value
This is the first paper on the disclosure of HR by the Indian corporate sector in the CSR domain with a disclosure analysis for a period of nine years. This paper provides new directions for the literature in this area and may promote comparative studies on HR-based studies from different perspectives.
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Sugumar Mariappanadar and Alma Kairouz
The purpose of this paper is to apply the strategic human resource management (HRM) perspective to investigate the schematic relationship between the dimensions of human resource …
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to apply the strategic human resource management (HRM) perspective to investigate the schematic relationship between the dimensions of human resource (HR) capital information and intentions to use such information in individual investors’ decisions relating to investing equities in the banking industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A two-stage empirical study was conducted in 2010 using a four-part HR capital disclosure questionnaire, which was developed and validated in stage 1 (n=145) of the study. In stage 2 (n=157), current or previous shareholders in one of the Australian banking sector corporations participated in the study. The collected data were analyzed using confirmatory factor and logistic regression analyses.
Findings
The findings of this explorative study highlight that the individual investors’ perception on the importance of performance management dimension of HR capital information has varied impacts on their intentions to use such information in investment decisions to buy, hold on to, or sell stocks.
Practical implications
This study has made an important contribution to the strategic HRM and behavioral finance literature that the human capital information facilitates the propensity to avoid regrets in selling shares too early (dispositional effect bias) to achieve utility benefits in future which is different from the findings of financial information disclosure study.
Originality/value
A recent critical review of HR disclosure indicated that most of the published articles on HR capital have used company annual reports for data source. However, this is the first study that attempts to understand the impact of HR capital disclosure information on investment intentions from individual investors’ schema rather than drawing data from company annual reports.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which economically significant Caribbean and African firms provide human resources disclosures (HRD), and the factors related…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which economically significant Caribbean and African firms provide human resources disclosures (HRD), and the factors related to their disclosure practices. It is motivated by the dearth of studies of HRD among firms in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
All companies with common shares listed on the main tier of the major stock exchanges in each country examined on December 31, 2013 as well as selected state enterprises were included in the study if their annual report, sustainability report or integrated report was available online. HRD was measured using an unweighted 174-item disclosure index. The research hypotheses were examined using multiple-regression analysis.
Findings
The level of HRD in the Caribbean and Southern Africa was relatively low (M=33.7 percent, SD=25.3 percent). The amount of HRD was related to organizational culture, firm size, industry affiliation, national governance environment and foreign influence. Geographical region, gender diversity and director independence were not statistically related to the amount of HRD.
Practical implications
Caribbean and African governments may need to implement incentives for economically significant companies to participate in targeted human resources (HR) development initiatives, to provide more comprehensive HR disclosures and incorporate HR consideration in their strategic decision making.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies to compare the amount and determinants of HRD by economically significant Caribbean and African companies.
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Ana Paula Castelo Branco, Maria Teresa Bianchi and Manuel Castelo Branco
This paper aims to examine the relationship between board demographic diversity and human rights reporting for a sample of large Western European companies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the relationship between board demographic diversity and human rights reporting for a sample of large Western European companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded on resource dependence theory, the authors hypothesize that greater gender, age and nationality diversities will translate into enhanced levels of human rights reporting. The authors use ordinal logistic regression analysis to analyze the association between these types of board diversity and such reporting.
Findings
The findings suggest that the companies in the sample attribute little importance to the reporting of information pertaining to the issue of human rights. They also suggest that only the diversity of nations represented in the board of directors is significant in explaining this type of reporting.
Research limitations/implications
The sample includes only large companies from Western Europe and the analysis covers only one year.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first empirical analysis of factors influencing human rights reporting conducted on a multiple-country setting. It is also the first investigating the association between boards of directors’ demographic diversity and such reporting.
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