Title: Sustainability accounting - A qualitative study about the understanding, usefulness and
relevance of sustainability reporting based on an employee perspective.
Problematization: There has been previous research about sustainability reporting through
an external point of view. There is however a gap in research about sustainability reporting
from an employee perspective.
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a better comprehension of how employees
perceive the information presented in sustainability report and if they feel that the report is
aimed for them or external stakeholders.
Frame of reference: This episode began with previous research about the three qualitative
characteristics that are used when creating a financial report. The framework of GRI is also
presented. Lastly the stakeholder theory and stakeholder dialogue are introduced.
Method: This study has a qualitative approach where 10 semi-structured interviews have
been held to collect data.
Research: The employees have a better understanding of the information related to the social
and environmental issues. Furthermore they only consider the information regarding the
environment to be useful in their daily work. The employees believe that the environmental
and social part of the report is relevant while the economic could not be assessed by the
employees.
Conclusions: Diagrams, thorough explanations and knowledge of the subject increased the
understanding of the report. The economical part can be further understood if there is more
extensive content. The information becomes useful when they can directly use it in their daily
work and when they feel that the information is aimed for them. They need to receive the
information through meetings for it to be useful for them. They had little previous knowledge
of the economical part and were there for not able to assess the relevance of the report's
content while the environmental and the social area were relevant because the content has
currently been highlighted in newspapers and debates.
2019. , s. 46
Sustainability reports, Global Reporting Initiative, employee, understanding, usefulness, relevance.
Hållbarhetsrapport, Global Reporting Initiative, medarbetare, begriplighet, användbarhet, relevans.