Corporate response to human resource disclosure recommendations

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to study corporate response to intellectual capital and social responsibility disclosure recommendations regarding employees. Such an analysis would reveal which forms of corporate interest induce a company to disclose: reflecting the firm’s value to satisfy priority shareholders’ needs of information or improving the corporate social image to meet the demands of stakeholders other than capital providers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper quantify the extent to which 105 Spanish listed companies present in their annual reports information about employees. Human resource disclosure attending the recommendations of social disclosure and information linked to value creation following the information included in the intellectual capital models are distinguished. A content analysis of 105 companies’ annual reports was conducted. Once the information was quantified, the author considers which theoretical arguments of voluntary/social disclosure motive that a company follows have different recommendations about human resource disclosure. Findings – The findings reflect the existent recommendations are not enough for companies to disclose about human resources. Spanish companies pay more attention to social issues about employee than to others human capital aspects usually integrated in the intellectual capital. Research limitations/implications – It would be interesting to extend the period of analysis to study the trend in human resource disclosure and to use an alternative measure of disclosing as the information quality. Practical implications – These findings concluded that the fundamental aim of Spanish companies is to reflect social behaviour regarding employees. Less important appears to be to inform about business capacity, through human element, for creating value. The necessity of explicit disclosure requirements to Spanish companies’ disclosure on human resources is also detected. Originality/value – Some studies have been carried out to analyse disclosure on intellectual capital or on social issues but not since a broad perspective. Furthermore, these studies have not been done in Spain. The author may confirm that the influence of some stakeholders in this country is conditioning corporate disclosure.