Internal Social Performance Motivators

The growth in research and writing on social reporting over recent years has seen an overwhelming focus on the external reporting of social performance measures. A remaining gap in our knowledge relates to what motivates managers to make socially aware decisions. This project identified relevant factors that guide decision-making in a firm that publishes audited social responsibility reports. A grounded theory approach was used. Data was collected from observation, documentation, and interviews with 19 managers. There were three significant findings for this firm. Firstly, with regard to social issues there was far more emphasis on responsibility than on accountability1. Consistent with this, there were far more positive social responsibility outcomes than those reported in the published audited social responsibility reports. Secondly, the primary social responsibility motivator was the culture of the firm, which led to a number of decisions that reduced financial performance based rewards. This culture was nurtured by orientation programmes and careful recruitment. Thirdly, there was a need for guidelines that would facilitate decisions for which there was conflict between social and financial outcomes. The need to balance these considerations was perceived but very much left to personal bias. The first two issues illustrated the greater importance in this firm of self control and social control, compared with organisational control. This matter is discussed in the paper. 1 Accountability is distinguished by the requirement to provide a statement of account.