Reporting organisational performance in managing human resources : Intellectual capital or stakeholder perspectives?

Purpose – To examine how the performance of organisations in managing and utilising their human resources is disclosed through key performance indicator (KPI) reporting. Design/methodology/approach – Utilises intellectual capital (IC) and corporate social responsibility (CSR)/stakeholder perspectives in performing a content analysis of KPIs reported by Australian banks. Findings – Examining KPI reporting in relation to human resources across the sample of Australian banks indicates significant differences in the amount of KPIs reported and the focus of the KPIs reported, with the emphasis varying from disclosing the value derived from human capital to the value provided to employees and the broader society. Overall, the findings suggest the popularity of a stakeholder perspective in reporting on the management of human resources. Practical implications – Policy formulators and researchers need to investigate the benefits and cost of mandating or providing further guidance for extended performance reporting, the need for integration and convergence in IC and CSR‐stakeholder reporting and how reporting practices align to internal measurement and management of organizational sustainability. Originality/value – This paper integrates IC and CSR perspectives to examine which approach better explains observed KPI reporting patterns in relation to human resources. Thus, far, both disciplines have advanced in isolation despite both being concerned with sustainability issues. In classifying disclosed KPIs for human resources within four alternative reporting frameworks (two from the IC literature and two from the CSR‐stakeholder literature), it determines whether IC (with its focus on how value is derived from human capital) or CSR‐stakeholder (with its emphasis on the delivery of value to employees as stakeholders) has garnered more traction in both influencing reporting practices and mitigating the limitations of financial reporting practices.