Handbook of Corporate Communication and Public ... - Blogs Unpad

found that a great deal was right with the present
state of reporting in the United States,
but identified particular areas open to criticism
where feasible solutions were offered.
Similarly the Research Committee of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
(1999) decided to publish a report following
their investigation into the needs and
expectations of expert users regarding corporate
information in the United Kingdom
(Westman, Beattie, 1999). The ICAS research
committee set out a blueprint for future
reporting practices of linked companies
(quoted enterprises) focusing on original empirical
research work into current practices of
users of business information including institutional
investors, broker analysts and bank
leaders. Their findings identified that: ‘the
analysis of the decision making process identified
for attention the cycle of communication,
the importance of maintaining confidence,
the ability of expert users to explore and sift
data, their selective use of key measures and
the importance they attach to information
about change’.
In the European Union, member states are
required to establish and implement freedom
of information acts to ensure greater access
to information, decisions and provide for
greater accountability in respect to publicly
owned organizations, such as government
departments, companies run as state owned
bodies, and local government authorities. This
approach to openness and accountability
supported by legislation has not yet spread
to include enterprises although regulatory
controls on publicly quoted enterprises are
established and policed by stock exchange
organizations. Non-listed enterprise enjoys
little restriction control to communication
and freedom of information access. The only
information/communication requirement governed
by legislation is to submit brief annual
returns to the relevant government company’s
office (Companies Act, 1963).
Corruption in government by unscrupulous
enterprise has come to the fore in some EU
countries. Ireland has three major tribunals
investigating corruption links between politicians,
officials and enterprise on planningbribery
issues. Hegarty (2002) has already
outlined the measures adopted by Ireland,
specifically. Barnett, Cochran and Taylor
(1993) report that legal, ethical and practical
considerations increasingly compel companies
to encourage employees to disclose suspected
illegal and/or unethical activities through
internal communication channels: ‘Internal
disclosure policies and procedures have been
recommended as a way to encourage such
communication.’
Since the 1960s, the corporate governance
battle in the United Kingdom has been
focused on accountability of the board and
the system of self-regulation (Walker, Profile
Magazine, IPR, issue 24, 2002). Walker asks
whether corporate governance is best
achieved through statutory accountability
of the board to the shareholder alone or can
self-regulation ensure the integrity, probity
and transparency society demands and needs
For its part, the UK Institute of Public Relations
(IPR) (Profile Magazine, IPR, issue 25, 2002)
has welcomed the consultation document into
the relationship between ministers, special
advisers and civil servants by the House of
Commons Committee on Standards in Public
Life. The IPR’s 2002 President, John Aaron,
said that the role of the so-called ‘spin doctors’
needs to be transparent, accountable and clarified
as the unregulated actions of a few have
damaged confidence in the democratic
responsibility of government and enterprise to
communicate professionally.
For many years there has been a corporate
governance debate and considerable concerns
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors