Critical Review of Research Papers on Corporate Accountability and Environmental Reporting

Critical Review
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Table of Contents
Part A.........................................................................................................................................3
Research Paper 1........................................................................................................................3
Research Paper 2........................................................................................................................4
Research Paper 3........................................................................................................................5
Research Paper 4........................................................................................................................6
Part B..........................................................................................................................................8
The sustainability report of BHP 2017.......................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10
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Part A
Research Paper 1
Karen in his article “Corporate accountability in the Samarco chemical sludge disaster” has
majorly focused on the corporate accountability during the time of disasters. The author has
discussed this topic by taking the example of the Samarco chemical sludge disaster that took
place in Brazil, in the year 2015. The author has identified the national efforts taken during
the time of disaster and the international guidelines that make organizations liable towards
their corporate accountability. This article can be utilized by the businesses that find
themselves stuck in such situations that demand their responsibility towards corporate
accountability during the time of disasters. The author has further mentioned about the
different chemical tragedies that have taken place worldwide apart from the Samarco
incident. After providing the facts related to the disaster, the author went ahead to describe
the term disaster used in this context. Disaster can be understood as an event that has
negatively impacted a society, which can be prevented in future with the adoption of right
efforts (Perry, 2007). The author has drawn a clear link between the expectations from the
“states” at the time of such disasters, and the “non-state actors” like organizations that are not
expected to show any responsibility towards such disasters (Bantekas & Oette, 2016). But, it
is believed that when the activities of these organizations pose harm over the society, then it
should be their responsibility as well to take the accountability of such mishap and try to
compensate to the society. Since last few decades’ efforts are being taken at international
level to make organizations perform their corporate social responsibility towards the society
in order to improve the society’s position. This case study has mentioned that how along with
the national efforts Samarco has also taken efforts towards the affected communities to
provide them relief (Telesetsky, 2015). According to the guidelines of Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the organizations apart from voluntary
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commitments are obliged towards the protection of human rights and environment. The CSR
norms adopted by organizations are largely voluntary in nature. On the other hand, corporate
accountability deals with the responsibility towards the human beings and society as a whole.
The guidelines released by OECD are the most promising international standards in the field
of corporate accountability, which includes about human rights, environment, labour
standards, etc. (Amao, 2011). In the end, the author has concluded by suggesting that these
international norms can be used in order to reflect the responsibilities of businesses at the
time of disasters that have taken place because of their mistake (Costa, 2017).
Research Paper 2
Kathyayini and others in their article “Corporate governance and environmental reporting: an
Australian study” has discussed about the relationship between the environmental reporting
and corporate governance of the Australian firms. The authors have included the regulators of
organizations in Australia as well as the strategies adopted by the organizations towards the
protection of the environment. The authors in this article has discussed about the corporate
governance principles released by the Australian Stock Exchange, which is mandatory to be
followed by the Australian organizations. This is so because the authors have revealed that
the composition of the board of directors, which is an important principle of the corporate
governance by ASX, has a direct impact on the environmental information being disclosed by
the companies. This is important because today almost every organization across the globe is
providing environmental information related to their social or environmental activity (Gibson
& O'Donovan, 2007). Corporate governance is a very wide concept and it extends to involve
the interest of shareholders as well as stakeholders because of which, the organizations
accountability as well as responsibility both increases (Jamali, Safieddine, & Rabbath, 2008).
The author has discussed that when the corporate governance is effective, then the
environmental information is reflected in the company’s statements whether it is mandatory
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