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The Philosophical Challenges of social accounting and audit

The Philosophical Challenges of social accounting and audit. Alan Kay SAN Gathering Workshop 19/04/13. Introduction…. Purpose : To get people to think about and discuss some of the issues facing organisations in assessing their performance and impact How: Introductions…

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The Philosophical Challenges of social accounting and audit

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  1. The Philosophical Challenges of social accounting and audit Alan Kay SAN Gathering Workshop 19/04/13

  2. Introduction… • Purpose: To get people to think about and discuss some of the issues facing organisations in assessing their performance and impact • How: • Introductions… • 5 challenges - for each challenge - introductory context finishing with a question • Discuss in changing pairs – promiscuity! Draw on your own experience!! • At the end everyone writes out three new insights and sticks them up as leaving

  3. Find someone in the room you have not met before… • Introduce yourself and find out about them – who they are and what they do…

  4. IMPACT: In accounting for performance and impact, what are we truly doing? • Measuring, accounting or reporting? • Objectivity vs. subjectivity? • Cherry picking the best? • Working by creaming off the best bets? • Dictatorship of ‘targets’! • Do we truly understanding ‘impact’ and the change that happens? • Do we concentrate on the easy-to-account for?

  5. Challenge One… What do we mean when we use the word ‘impact’?

  6. VALUES: Do we, and how do we, value the values of social enterprise? • Are there values and priorities that distinguish a social enterprise from private sector organisations? • Are there values common to all social enterprises? • Are values the same as ‘ethics’? • Are there some things that some social enterprises will or will not do? • How could we account for ‘values’?

  7. Challenge Two… Why is it important for a social enterprises to have values or ethical behaviour and to account for them?

  8. BOTTOM LINE: Do we need to change the traditional triple bottom line? • Traditional: social enterprise has social, environmental and economic impacts • Change this to social, environmental and cultural • Thus, economic activity is a means to an end and not an end impact…

  9. Challenge Three… How useful is this diagram as a ‘thinking tool’ in making sense of social enterprise and their impacts?

  10. WHO FOR: Who wants to know about performance and impact? • Does each stakeholder want to know different things about performance and impact? • Should the views of funders and social investors be paramount? • Who should benefit most from an organisation accounting for its performance and impact? • Are funders and investors the tail wagging the dog? • Is impact assessment a form of empowerment or a ‘birch rod’?

  11. Challenge Four… How much is it possible to satisfy the needs of all the stakeholders?

  12. Crystal-ball gazing… • Each pair joins another pair – an orgy of discussion…. • 20 years ago there was little mention of assessing impact…. • Go forward in time – 20 years to 2033… What do you see in terms of social enterprises and how they account for their performance and impact?

  13. Collected insights… • Write down three insights – one on each sticky sheet • Stick them on the flip chart before you leave Thank-you!

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