scholarly journals Assessing the Potential for Agonistic Engagement Among Accountants: A quasi-experimental repeated Q study of social and environmental reporting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew Sorola
Keyword(s):  
Q Methodology ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Control Group ◽  
General Category ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

<p>A number of writers have recently criticised a perceived narrowness in accountants’ understanding of their profession. In particular, they claim that the predominant focus on shareholders and capital markets may be at the expense of wider public interests that accounting should serve. As accountants engage increasingly with a variety of complex and politically contentious issues, there is cause for concern regarding their capacity to represent and engage with non-financial interests. Some of these concerns are reflected in ongoing debates regarding social and environmental reporting (SER). Accountants are important players in the SER field. They have high-profile roles as self-proclaimed ‘thought leaders’ in areas such as sustainability and integrated reporting, and are increasingly involved in developing SER concepts and practices, discussion papers and best practice guidance. These technologies increasingly rely on, and are legitimised by, their incorporation of a plurality of perspectives. However, both academics and civil society groups have raised concerns that professional accounting bodies are too closely aligned with business interests, and prioritise ‘business case’ (BC) understandings of concepts such as SER, which favour shareholder-oriented perspectives. As in other areas of policy controversy, the capacity to engage with a plurality of perspectives is important because of its impact on, inter alia, the issues that are recognised, how problems are conceived and responded to, and which or whose perspectives are prioritised.  While prior research has explored management and stakeholder perspectives, there has been very little research to date on accountants’ perspectives on SER. Relatedly, relatively little is known about accountants’ abilities to incorporate a multiplicity of views when attempting to engage with complex issues. This study seeks to fill this gap. My research was designed as a quasi-experimental investigation that uses Constructive Conflict Methodology (CCM) and Q methodology (QM) to examine divergent perspectives of SER among three groups of accountants: academics, practitioners, and students. In particular, my research explores the use of CCM as a framework, which when implemented via QM, can help operationalise the theoretical developments of an agonistic approach to critical dialogic accounting (CDA). Drawing on applications of CCM and QM in political theory and policy analysis, my research design is divided into two distinct phases. Phase One focuses on identifying and understanding the range of perspectives among participants regarding SER. Informed by this understanding, Phase Two develops a workshop, the SER Dialogue, to bring together participants who are representative of the diverse perspectives identified.  In Phase One, 34 participants’ perspectives of SER were explored through a mix of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and QM. The participants evidenced a range of diverse understandings of SER, with three general approaches identified from participants’ Q data: the Critical (F1(CR)), Business Case (F2(BC)) and Incremental Change (F3(INC)) approaches. These general categorisations helped identify differences, inconsistencies and contradictions in the participants’ ideological orientations and illustrated the contested discursive landscape within which SER is conceptualised. Participants’ alignment with each general category also identified possible constraints in their capacity to recognise and understand divergent perspectives. Informed by these insights, Phase Two focused on developing a discursive space for agonistic pluralist engagement (the SER Dialogue) with a group of participants, representing the three diverse perspectives. Ultimately, these participants had both a larger number and magnitude of shifts in their perspective of SER compared to a control group. There was also a general increase in alignment with F1(CR), with many participants demonstrating the development of critically pluralist and reflexive understandings. These findings illustrate the potential for agonistic pluralist engagement to develop accountants’ capacity for pluralist engagement with perspectives surrounding complex and politically contentious issues, while also enabling resistance to the hegemony of BC perspectives within the field of accounting.</p>

scholarly journals Assessing the Potential for Agonistic Engagement Among Accountants: A quasi-experimental repeated Q study of social and environmental reporting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew Sorola
Keyword(s):  
Q Methodology ◽  
Business Case ◽  
Control Group ◽  
General Category ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

<p>A number of writers have recently criticised a perceived narrowness in accountants’ understanding of their profession. In particular, they claim that the predominant focus on shareholders and capital markets may be at the expense of wider public interests that accounting should serve. As accountants engage increasingly with a variety of complex and politically contentious issues, there is cause for concern regarding their capacity to represent and engage with non-financial interests. Some of these concerns are reflected in ongoing debates regarding social and environmental reporting (SER). Accountants are important players in the SER field. They have high-profile roles as self-proclaimed ‘thought leaders’ in areas such as sustainability and integrated reporting, and are increasingly involved in developing SER concepts and practices, discussion papers and best practice guidance. These technologies increasingly rely on, and are legitimised by, their incorporation of a plurality of perspectives. However, both academics and civil society groups have raised concerns that professional accounting bodies are too closely aligned with business interests, and prioritise ‘business case’ (BC) understandings of concepts such as SER, which favour shareholder-oriented perspectives. As in other areas of policy controversy, the capacity to engage with a plurality of perspectives is important because of its impact on, inter alia, the issues that are recognised, how problems are conceived and responded to, and which or whose perspectives are prioritised.  While prior research has explored management and stakeholder perspectives, there has been very little research to date on accountants’ perspectives on SER. Relatedly, relatively little is known about accountants’ abilities to incorporate a multiplicity of views when attempting to engage with complex issues. This study seeks to fill this gap. My research was designed as a quasi-experimental investigation that uses Constructive Conflict Methodology (CCM) and Q methodology (QM) to examine divergent perspectives of SER among three groups of accountants: academics, practitioners, and students. In particular, my research explores the use of CCM as a framework, which when implemented via QM, can help operationalise the theoretical developments of an agonistic approach to critical dialogic accounting (CDA). Drawing on applications of CCM and QM in political theory and policy analysis, my research design is divided into two distinct phases. Phase One focuses on identifying and understanding the range of perspectives among participants regarding SER. Informed by this understanding, Phase Two develops a workshop, the SER Dialogue, to bring together participants who are representative of the diverse perspectives identified.  In Phase One, 34 participants’ perspectives of SER were explored through a mix of semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and QM. The participants evidenced a range of diverse understandings of SER, with three general approaches identified from participants’ Q data: the Critical (F1(CR)), Business Case (F2(BC)) and Incremental Change (F3(INC)) approaches. These general categorisations helped identify differences, inconsistencies and contradictions in the participants’ ideological orientations and illustrated the contested discursive landscape within which SER is conceptualised. Participants’ alignment with each general category also identified possible constraints in their capacity to recognise and understand divergent perspectives. Informed by these insights, Phase Two focused on developing a discursive space for agonistic pluralist engagement (the SER Dialogue) with a group of participants, representing the three diverse perspectives. Ultimately, these participants had both a larger number and magnitude of shifts in their perspective of SER compared to a control group. There was also a general increase in alignment with F1(CR), with many participants demonstrating the development of critically pluralist and reflexive understandings. These findings illustrate the potential for agonistic pluralist engagement to develop accountants’ capacity for pluralist engagement with perspectives surrounding complex and politically contentious issues, while also enabling resistance to the hegemony of BC perspectives within the field of accounting.</p>

Empathy, closeness, and distance in non-profit accountability

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 224-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ericka Costa ◽  
Caterina Pesci ◽  
Michele Andreaus ◽  
Emanuele Taufer
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Multiple Stakeholders ◽  
Edith Stein ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting

Purpose Drawing on the phenomenological concepts of “empathy” and “communal emotions” developed by Edith Stein (1917, 1922), the purpose of this paper is to discuss the co-existence both of the legitimacy and accountability perspectives in voluntarily delivered social and environmental reporting (SER), based on different “levels of empathy” towards different stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts an interpretive research design, drawn from Stein’s concept of empathy by using a mixed-method approach. A manual content analysis was performed on 393 cooperative banks’ (CB) social and environmental reports from 2005 to 2013 in Italy, and 14 semi-structured interviews. Findings The results show that CBs voluntarily disclose information in different ways to different stakeholders. According to Stein, the phenomenological concept of empathy, and its understanding within institutions, allows us to interpret these multiple perspectives within a single social and environmental report. Therefore, when the process of acquiring knowledge in the CB–stakeholder relationship is complete and mentalised (level 3, re-enactive empathy), the SER holds high informative power, consistent with the accountability perspective; on the contrary, when this process is peripheral and perceptional (level 1, basic empathy), the SER tends to provide more self-assessment information, attempting to portray the bank in a positive light, which is consistent with the legitimacy perspective. Originality/value The concept of empathy introduced in this paper can assist in interpreting the interactions between an organisation and different stakeholders within the same social and environmental report. Moreover, the approach adopted in this paper considers different stakeholders simultaneously, thus responding to previous concerns regarding the lack of focus on multiple stakeholders.

Supporting Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning Through Kinect-Based Gaming

2019 ◽  
pp. 1486-1503
Author(s):  
Mehmet Fatih Urun ◽  
Hasan Aksoy ◽  
Rasim Comez
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environments ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
State University ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Qualitative Part

This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of a Kinect-based game called Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to investigate possible contributions of game-based learning in a virtual language classroom at a state university in Ankara, Turkey. A quasi-experimental design where the treatment group (N= 26) was subjected to kinect-based learning environments, and the control group (N = 26) continued with traditional learning environments was used. All the participants were administered an achievement test as a pre-test, and a post-test. Moreover, the qualitative part of the study included post-study semi-structured interviews with 10 students. The findings showed that there was significant mean difference in student achievement in post-test scores in favor of the experimental group. In addition, the study explored the opinions of the students toward the use of gesture-based computing systems for instructional purposes. The findings suggested some important points to consider while making use of kinect-based games for educational purposes like interaction and learner motivation.

The effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on the academic achievement of students studying ‘Electrochemistry’

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuğçe Günter ◽  
Sibel Kılınç Alpat
Keyword(s):  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Chemistry Teaching ◽  
Academic Achievements ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Experimental Group

This study investigates the effects of problem-based learning (PBL) on students' academic achievements in studying ‘Electrochemistry’ within a course on Analytical Chemistry. The research was of a pretest–posttest control group quasi-experimental design and it was conducted with second year students in the Chemistry Teaching Program at the Faculty of Education at Dokuz Eylul University. The topic was taught with PBL in the experimental group and with expository teaching strategies in the control group. The ‘Chemistry achievement test (CAT)’ was applied as the pre-test and post-test in both groups. Post-test scores from the CAT demonstrated that there was a significant difference between the academic achievements of the two groups in favour of the experimental group (U= 8.500,p< 0.05). After using PBL for a period, eleven open-ended questions related to the topic were asked to both groups. The results of these questions were categorized and the scores obtained from the categories were evaluated using content analysis. The results of the scores obtained from the open-ended questions showed that the students in the experimental group were able to make statements containing fewer misconceptions and also had a better understanding of this topic when compared to the students in the control group (U= 2.500,p< 0.05). The correlation between the scores in the CAT post-test and the scores obtained from the open-ended questions of the experimental and control groups was also examined. The Spearman correlation coefficients were found to be 0.907 and 0.595 for the experimental and the control group, respectively. This finding indicated that there was a positive and very high level of statistically significant correlation between the scores in the CAT post-test and the scores obtained from the open-ended questions of the students in the experimental group. Therefore this finding also supports the conclusion that the students in the experimental group were better able to understand the topic and its structure compared to the students in the control group. At the end of the application, the results of semi-structured interviews carried out showed that students in the experimental group had positive opinions regarding PBL.

scholarly journals The Impact of Drama Instruction on EFL Omani Fifth Graders’ Read-ing Comprehension

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 674
Author(s):  
Ruqaya Al Rabeei ◽  
Salma Al-Humaidi ◽  
Saleh Al-Busaidi
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Fifth Graders ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Teacher's Perceptions ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group

Drama instruction is one of the methods recommended in EFL literature. This study aimed to investigate the impact of drama instruction on EFL fifth graders’ reading comprehension. It also explored the students’ and the teacher’s perceptions of the use of drama in reading lessons. A total of 74 randomly selected students participated in the study and formed the control group and the experimental group. The study followed the mixed quasi-experimental design. A pre- and posttest reading test was administered to examine the impact of drama on reading comprehension. A questionnaire was implemented to explore students’ perceptions of drama. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to probe students’ and teacher’s perceptions of drama. The results were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. They showed no significant difference in reading comprehension between the control group and the experimental group. However, the experimental group performed better in the posttest than the control group although their mean scores in the pretest were lower. The participant teacher and students responded positively towards the use of drama in reading lessons. They reported that drama activities were exciting and made them love reading.

scholarly journals The emergence of integrated private reporting

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Frances Atkins ◽  
Aris Solomon ◽  
Simon Norton ◽  
Nathan Lael Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Institutional Investors ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Integrated Reporting ◽  
Institutional Investment ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Responsible Investment ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting ◽  
The Uk

Purpose – This paper aims to provide evidence to suggest that private social and environmental reporting (i.e. one-on-one meetings between institutional investors and investees on social and environmental issues) is beginning to merge with private financial reporting and that, as a result, integrated private reporting is emerging. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, 19 FTSE100 companies and 20 UK institutional investors were interviewed to discover trends in private integrated reporting and to gauge whether private reporting is genuinely becoming integrated. The emergence of integrated private reporting through the lens of institutional logics was interpreted. The emergence of integrated private reporting as a merging of two hitherto separate and possibly rival institutional logics was framed. Findings – It was found that specialist socially responsible investment managers are starting to attend private financial reporting meetings, while mainstream fund managers are starting to attend private meetings on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Further, senior company directors are becoming increasingly conversant with ESG issues. Research limitations/implications – The findings were interpreted as two possible scenarios: there is a genuine hybridisation occurring in the UK institutional investment such that integrated private reporting is emerging or the financial logic is absorbing and effectively neutralising the responsible investment logic. Practical implications – These findings provide evidence of emergent integrated private reporting which are useful to both the corporate and institutional investment communities as they plan their engagement meetings. Originality/value – No study has hitherto examined private social and environmental reporting through interview research from the perspective of emergent integrated private reporting. This is the first paper to discuss integrated reporting in the private reporting context.

scholarly journals Autonomous English as a second language writing through group-writing transformations

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 25
Author(s):  
Nalini Arumugam ◽  
Kaarthiyainy Supramaniam ◽  
Geraldine De Melle ◽  
Laura Christ Dass
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
And Control ◽  
Experimental Group

The study investigated the effects of group-writing on learners at an institution of higher learning who worked in cooperative based writing groups (group-writing henceforth) and individually. 117 undergraduates participated in this quasi-experimental study for 14 weeks. The learners were grouped in groups of three or four. A mixed-design approach was employed in data collection. Questionnaires were administered and semi-structured interviews were carried out to elicit information. The results indicated a favourable view of group-writing as an instructional approach in English as a second language (hereafter ESL) writing classrooms. The learners in the group-writing cooperated with each other on assigned tasks. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the experiment and control groups, whereby the m 39.3 772 value for the experimental group while m 28.1149 for the control group at (0<,05). This obviously shows that the learners in the experimental group have out performed the learners who worked individually. As they had more opportunities to work together, they built a strong perception of group cohesion and responsibility for other's learning which gradually helped them become autonomous writers. This study adds insights into pedagogical approaches used in ESL centres of higher learning and recommendations are suggested for further research.

scholarly journals Corporate Social and Environmental Strategy and Reporting in Indonesian Plantation Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Intan Belinda Lestari ◽  
Noradiva Hamzah ◽  
Ruhanita Maelah
Keyword(s):  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Corporate Image ◽  
Environmental Strategy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Environmental Reporting ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Social And Environmental Reporting ◽  
Corporate Social

This study aims to investigate how corporate social and environmental strategy can contribute to corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) in the plantation industry in Indonesia. This study employed a case study approach by using semi–structured interviews to collect data from Indonesian plantation companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and state–owned plantation companies that included CSER in their annual report. The motivation of CSER implementation in Indonesian plantation companies was influenced by proactive and reactive strategies. The corporate social and environmental strategy of proactive principles would publish CSER due to the social discretion beyond the regulatory requirements or pressure of certain stakeholders, and prior to any negative information being received by the public. Moreover, the corporate social and environmental strategy of reactive principles would also publish CSER to meet stakeholders’ needs and demands, obtain good corporate image and reputation, and avoid negative impacts (e.g., harm, hazards, mishap, complaints, etc.). Therefore, corporate social and environmental strategy can contribute to CSER depending on whether the company has proactive or reactive principles. This research contributes to the knowledge of social accounting literature in which CSER practices can be influenced by corporate social and environmental strategy.

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