Business leaders struggle with the application of appropriate leadership models to retain stakeholder trust. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of mortgage and investment leaders and stakeholders on applying various leadership models to restore stakeholder trust. Stakeholder and stewardship theories formed the conceptual framework of this study. A purposive sample of 20 stakeholders from the investments and mortgage industry in central Colorado participated in semistructured interviews. The research questions were on a leader's application of various leadership traits to restore stakeholder trust. Six themes emerged following coding and reduction using a modified van Kaam approach: (a) benevolence, (b) transparency, (c) humility, (d) approachability, (e) authenticity, and (f) personality. The themes were consistent with transformative leadership traits and satisfied stakeholder affective needs for trust. These findings may be applicable to mortgage and investment business leaders who adopt a transformative leadership approach; such leaders may find an ethically sustainable leadership style that facilitates follower commitment and organizational change, reduces turnover, improves performance, and strengthens social relationships. Stakeholders may find that business leaders who adopt a transformative leadership approach may eventually commit to long-term wealth creation, maintain near-congruent values, and avoid self-serving behaviors.

As of June 2013, all California public school districts are required to incorporate stakeholder input into their operational goals and expenditures to increase stakeholder trust. Trust is a belief by one party in a transaction that the other party in the transaction will act in a way that is fair and in the interest of both parties. The problem is that no guidance or direction relative to the methods or extent to which stakeholder input should be gathered and incorporated was provided within the new regulations. Lawmakers and stakeholders had no insight into the effectiveness or level of school district compliance relative to the new regulations. The research questions of this qualitative, holistic explanatory case study examined how financial managers in the California public school system are engaging stakeholders and gathering and integrating stakeholder priorities into financial planning and budgets in light of limited guidance. The conceptual framework for this study was that stakeholder trust is required for operational efficiency and is increased through transparency and stakeholder engagement. In this study, data was triangulated through 17 semistructured interviews and multiple sources of historical documents. Through data coding it was found that all school districts in the study were using similar engagement methods to gather input and all districts were engaging all required stakeholder groups. It was also found that these engagement processes increased transparency with the districts' stakeholders. This study contributes to positive social change by providing additional insight into how California public school districts are complying with law established to increase transparency and trust relative to the use of public funds where limited guidance for implementations is provided.

Cyber attackers targeting large corporations achieved a high perimeter penetration success rate during 2013, resulting in many corporations incurring financial losses. Corporate information technology leaders have a fiduciary responsibility to implement information security domain processes that effectually address the challenges for preventing and deterring information security breaches. Grounded in corporate governance theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between strategic alignment, resource management, risk management, value delivery, performance measurement implementations, and information security governance (ISG) effectiveness in United States-based corporations. Surveys were used to collect data from 95 strategic and tactical leaders of the 500 largest for-profit United States headquartered corporations. The results of the multiple linear regression indicated the model was able to significantly predict ISG effectiveness, F(5, 89) = 3.08, p = 0.01, R-² = 0.15. Strategic alignment was the only statistically significant (t = 2.401, p <= 0.018) predictor. The implications for positive social change include the potential to constructively understand the correlates of ISG effectiveness, thus increasing the propensity for consumer trust and reducing consumers' costs.

Corporate governance is a leading factor in organizational performance, financial reporting, and stakeholder satisfaction. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that senior managers in the accounting industry implement to enforce corporate governance and improve organizational performance. The conceptual framework for the study was stakeholder theory. The population for this study included 3 senior managers of 3 different organizations in the accounting industry located in western United States. Data were collected through semistructured face-to-face interviews and from review of documented corporate governance strategies. The data analysis consisted of the following steps: compiling the data, disassembling the data, reassembling the data, interpreting the data, and drawing conclusions. Three themes emerged from this study: corporate governance, laws, rules, and regulations; the role of corporate governance in organizational performance; and effective corporate governance strategies. The results of this study may contribute to social change by improving the quality of employees' work lives. With improved quality of employee work life, employers may benefit from higher productivity, and consumers may experience improved services.

Environmental management accounting (EMA) is attracting increased recognition as a management tool that assists in improving financial and environmental performance through enhanced environmental accountability. Various industries have been included in EMA-related research and study, but universities have typically failed to be the focus of the attention. This research studied the experiences of key managers from five universities to explore potential factors influencing the decision to adopt, or not to adopt, EMA within the higher education sector. For the purpose of this study, EMA is defined as the generation, analysis, and use of monetary (or financial) and physical (or non-financial) environment-related information in order to improve organisational financial and environmental performance. The two objectives of this study were to understand current accounting practices for managing major environmental costs, and to identify factors influencing EMA adoption within universities. For the purpose of this study, the major environmental costs referred to are limited to the costs pertaining to the consumption of electricity, water and paper, and the generation of wastes. A case study methodology was followed using semi-structured interviews of key personnel with four different management functions (i.e. environmental management, management accounting, senior management, and heads of academic schools) within each university, and performing content analysis on the transcribed interview data. Specifically for achieving the second research objective, a theoretical framework that considers four theories was embraced to guide the data collection and focus the study. The four theories are contingency theory, institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and stakeholder theory. The findings of the first research objective revealed that there was a general lack of EMA utilisation within the case universities. This was in part due to a perceived lack of appreciation by key personnel of the extent of environmental costs being incurred, but arguably mainly because of the absence of relevant environmental cost information being brought to the attention of senior management. Although environmental sustainability was promoted as important from an environmental management perspective, efforts to improve internal environmental accountability, in particular from an accounting perspective, were still absent. In relation to the second research objective, it was found that five key barriers contributed to this lack of EMA utilisation within the five case universities, and they were attitudinal, financial, informational, institutional, and management barriers. Among the factors that provide further explanations about how each barrier influences EMA adoption, resistance to change, resource constraints, (a lack of) legitimacy considerations, and a lack of environmental responsibility & accountability were found to be strong factors, as they were supported in all of the five cases. Apart from the theoretical extension to this area of research, the results and findings of this study supported the uses and applications of EMA by the higher education sector. Much more can, and should, be done by universities in relation to how they account for the environment. This can provide benefits not only for the sector itself, but also for the environment in which we live.

<p>Att ta ett större ansvar inom miljömässiga, ekonomiska och sociala frågor blir en allt viktigare punkt på många företags agendor, och en allt betydelsefullare aspekt för konsumenter att ta hänsyn till när de överväger köp av produkter eller tjänster. Företagsansvar, internationellt benämnt som corporate social responsibility eller CSR, har också fått ett genombrott bland myndigheter och andra officiella organ såsom FN och EU, som jobbar för att underlätta för företag genom olika riktlinjer och redovisnings­standarder för CSR. Fristående intresseorganisationer har också en viktig del i CSR-frågan, både som samarbetspartner och som granskare. Många av företagens intressenter är intresserade just av statistik och resultat, men hur kommunicerar ett konsumentföretag till sina kunder att de satsar på CSR-frågor? Hur kan företag använda av olika typer av strategier, kanaler och budskap för att stärka sitt varumärke och nå ut med sitt ansvarstagande? Trots att arbetet med CSR ofta föregås av noggranna strategiska överväganden och diskussioner om hur CSR påverkar varumärket, är det inte alla företag som har en tydlig plan för hur de ska kommunicera CSR mot konsumenter.</p><p>Denna uppsats syftar till att undersöka hur kommunikationen kring företags CSR-arbete sker, ser ut och uppfattas hos den intressentgrupp som företagets produkter eller tjänster riktar sig mot ­– konsu­menterna. I en form av nulägesanalys har fallstudier utförts på två svenska konsumentföretag, Arla och Löfbergs Lila, som båda har inledda CSR-åtaganden och har certifierade produkter i sitt sortiment. I fallstudierna ingick djupintervjuer med företagens CSR-ansvariga, kvalitativa innehålls­analyser av deras marknadsföringsmaterial och en enkätundersökning om konsumenternas kännedom och agerande inom området samt deras uppfattning av fallstudieföretagens ansvarstagande. Kopplat till en referens­ram innehållandes teorier om CSR som begrepp, CSR i dagens samhälle och hur CSR-orienterad kommunikation kan ske har frågor och modeller för dessa metoder tagits fram och analyserats.</p><p>Analysen visar på att inget av företagen ännu har en tydlig strategi för sin CSR-kommunikation. Företagen har implementerat CSR-arbetet väl internt inom företaget, men kommunicerar bara i liten utsträckning externt mot konsumenter. Det finns en svårighet i att involvera konsumenter i CSR-frågan och låta denna dialog influera och ingå i CSR-kommunika­tionen. Båda företagen ger tillgång till mycket information kring sitt ansvarstagande via sina webbsidor, men webbsidornas information tycks inte nå fram till konsumenterna då de inte är en välintegrerad del av marknadsföringen. Primärt knyts CSR-värden till företagens pro­dukter, och konsumenter relaterar företagens ansvarstagande med deras certifierade produkter framför­allt. Företagen använder sig av olika typer av kommunikations­budskap, vilka i Arlas fall är för vaga och visionsfokuserade, och i Löfbergs Lilas fall har svårt att väcka känslor för varumärket och ansvarstagandet. Konsumenterna visar på ett intresse för att agera i ansvars­frågor samt en viss kunskap inom området, men när det kommer till hur de uppfattar företagens ansvars­tagande finns det en stor osäkerhet och låg kännedom om vad företagen faktiskt gör inom CSR-området. En stor del av respondenterna har inte fått reda på någon information om hur företagen tar ansvar, och det är ännu inte många bland konsumenterna som aktivt söker upp information eller deltar i en dialog med företagen.</p> / <p>To take greater responsibility in environmental, economic and social issues is an increasingly important item on many companies' agendas, and an increasingly important aspect for consumers to take into account when considering purchase of a product or a service. This field, internationally called corporate social responsibility or CSR, has also made a breakthrough among authorities and other official orga­nizations such as the UN and the EU, which are facilitating for companies engaging in CSR by provi­ding various guidelines and accounting standards for CSR. Non-governmental organizations are also an important part of the CSR issue, both as partners and as reviewers. Many of the companies' stakehol­ders are interested in statistics and results, but how do consumer businesses communicate to their customers that they are investing in CSR issues? How can companies use different kinds of strategies, channels and messages to strengthen their brand and make the public notice their responsibility? Although the work with CSR is often preceded by careful strategic considerations and discussions about how CSR affects the brand, not all companies have a clear plan how to communicate CSR to consumers.</p><p>This thesis paper aims to examine how information concerning the companies' CSR initiatives is communicated, designed and perceived by the stakeholder group which the products or services are made for – the consumers. In the form of a situation analysis, case studies have been conducted on two Swedish consumer companies, Arla and Löfbergs Lila, both of which have initiated CSR commitments and have certified products in their range. The case studies included interviews with corporate CSR managers, qualitative content analysis of the companies' marketing materials and a survey of consumer knowledge and behavior in CSR issues as well as of the customers' view of the case study companies' responsibility. Linked to a theoretical framework including theories of CSR as a concept, CSR in today's society and how CSR-oriented communication can be designed, the issues and models for these methods have been developed and analyzed.</p><p>The analysis shows that neither of the companies have a clear strategy for their CSR communication. The companies have implemented CSR well within the organisation, but communicate only to a small extent externally. There is a difficulty in involving consumers in CSR issues and making this dialogue influence and be part of the CSR communication. Both companies provide access to much information about their responsibility through their web pages, but this information does not appear to reach consumers as the web pages are not well-integrated in the marketing. Primarily, the CSR values are connected to the companies' products, and consumers in particular relate the companies' CSR involvement to their certified products. The companies use different types of communication messages, which in Arla's case are too vague and vision focused, and in Löfbergs Lila's case have difficulties to arouse fee­lings for the brand and the CSR issues. Consumers show an interest to act on CSR issues and have a certain knowledge in the field, but when it comes to how they perceive the companies' CSR initiatives, there is a great uncertainty and low knowledge of what companies actually do in the CSR field. A large proportion of the respondents has not found out any information about how the companies are taking responsibility, and it is at this time not many among the consumers who actively seek out information or participate in a dialogue regarding CSR issues with companies.</p>

Engineering education reform has been a topic of discussion for the last twenty years. The concern has only intensified in recent years as stakeholders strive to improve quality in engineering education. Today, stakeholders are recognizing that one of the keys to successful engineering education reform is in taking a systems view of higher education. Academic departments within the higher education system are organized around academic disciplines for the purpose of creating, transferring, and applying knowledge in three principal areas: teaching, research and service. This study addresses the need for quality improvement in the engineering higher education system by first completing a literature review in order to identify recurring themes on the issue. A proposed systems view is presented. The thesis builds a case for viewing students as the primary stakeholder based on stakeholder theory concepts. The application of a systems view is then used to identify the impacts of the recurring issues on the identified stakeholders of the system. Recommendations are made to address the system’s issues.

<p>Frivilligt företagsansvar för samhälls- och miljöfrågor, är en trend som vuxit sig stark de senaste tio åren. Samstämmigheten, om att dagens sätt att leva är långsiktigt ohållbart, växer och det har blivit näst intill en självklarhet att företag, ska ta större ansvar än enbart vinstmaximering. Vad hållbar utveckling praktiskt innebär är inte lika självklart som att utvecklingen idag är ohållbar. Förenklat kan perspektiven delas upp i dikotomin svag hållbarhet, stark hållbarhet. Skillnaden mellan synsätten är konsekvenserna av att erkänna problemen. Den starka hållbarheten drar mer långtgående slutsatser än den svaga, när det gäller vilka nödvändiga förändringar som måste till, för att grunden till all mänsklig verksamhet ska kunna säkras.</p><p>Undersökningens ansats för att undersöka hur mening skapas till hållbar utveckling i företagskontexten är diskursanalys. En diskurs kan förklaras som en gemensam berättelse om verkligheten. Det är språket som möjliggör förståelse men det sätter också gränserna för hur omvärlden uppfattas. När det inte finns ord för ett fenomen ser människor det heller inte. Språkets meningsskapande är det som möjliggör handling men samtidigt innebär det att alternativa synsätt och handlingsmöjligheter utesluts från berättelsen. I de flesta fall samexisterar flera diskurser parallellt med varandra i det som kallas för det diskursiva fältet, där de kämpar om att nå hegemoni. Uppnår en diskurs en sådan ledande ställning omfattar den allt och alla och innehar problemformuleringsföreträdet i ämnet.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur och på vilket sätt, den avgränsade del av diskursen, som formas i företagskontexten, begränsar förståelsen av hållbar utveckling. Hur går det då till när mening skapas till begreppet hållbar utveckling i företagskontexten? Vad utestängs och omfattas av diskursen och vilka konsekvenser får det?</p><p>Diskursen om hållbar utveckling centreras kring värdeskapande. Ekonomisk, ekologiskt och socialt värde ska skapas av aktiviteten för att den ska anses hållbar. Företagen vill betrakta hållbar utveckling som en vinna-vinna situation men erkänner att kompromisser ibland är nödvändiga. Synen på hållbar utveckling liknar mest den svaga hållbarheten. Fokus för insatser ligger på effektivisering och optimering av nuvarande verksamhet. När kompromisser blir nödvändiga finns en tydlig hackordning där värdeskapande för ekonomi är viktigast och det balanseras då mot social- eller ekologisk skada. Ekonomiskt värdeskapande är en stark värdering, som effektivt utesluter många för samhället och miljön hållbara aktiviteter.</p><p>Ett problem är att företagens hållbarhetsarbete i stor utsträckning liknar varandras, därför blir aldrig arbete med hållbarhetsfrågor en uthållig konkurrensfördel. Förslaget för att stärka både hållbarheten och konkurrenskraften är att utgå från cykelhjulsmodellen, som är en reviderad version av intressentmodellen och skapa en strategi som passar företaget, genom att aktivt kompromissa mellan intressen och aktiviteter. Frågan är bara om kunderna efterfrågar stark hållbarhet och i vilken utsträckning företagsledningen sitter fast i det nät av mening de själva spunnit.</p> / <p>Voluntarily responsibility for sustainable issues is a growing concern on corporate business agenda. Thirty years ago the business of business was business and sustainability a question for governments and society. The new trend is mainly driven by a public notion that corporations ought to be held accountable for their operations. To meet the public sense and expectations, corporations use CSR-strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility, and produce annual reports on performance, regarding social, environmental and economical issues of importance. But what is actually said in these reports, and how do they influence the discourse on sustainable development that gives the concept meaning into the business context?</p><p>What is and what isn’t sustainable is judged by how convincing the argument is that the activity is linked to value creation for people, planet and profit. Profit effectively excludes actions that threatens to question the web of meaning that enable certain actions on expense of others, that might be beneficiary for society and environment. If stakeholders really would accept trade-offs which gives no man-made capital in return is however an empirical question. Moreover it is unclear to what extent the self-spun web of significance, suspends senior management from stepping outside the box.</p><p> </p>

Företagsledningar ägnar en stor del av sin tid åt att hantera strategiska frågor av delvis annan art än de klassiska affärsstrategiska områdena som marknadspositionering och produktutveckling. Visavi intressenter som ägare, regering, massmedia och fackklubbar utformar de strategier för att säkra resursflöden och legitimitet. Att hantera en dylik koalition av en mängd intressenter med olika och ofta konflikterande förväntningar på företaget är en svår uppgift. Lätt uppstår rollkonflikter och legitimitetskriser som hotar företagets existens om felaktig eller ingen strategi sätts in. Denna studie fokuseras på två huvudfrågor. Den första är hur formering och förändring av dylika intressentstrategier sker. Den andra frågan är om en interaktiv planering är ett kraftfullt verktyg för företag att utveckla framgångsrike intressentstrategier. För att söka besvara dessa frågor valdes en klinisk forskningsansats. Tre fältexperiment genomfördes i ett par svenska företag med en unik möjlighet att följa de relativt dramatiska strategiska förloppen i respektive företag. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to interview four legal jurists in order to explore how they conduct CSR activities within their service corpora-tion, with primary focus on SME law firms. Background: A current issue to address concerning the conduct of business these days is CSR activities. Although, the previous research concerning CSR activities and the service sector is limited. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework is divided into four parts; a general part concerning the concept of CSR activities, a review of earlier studies of CSR activities, the stakeholder theory and finally the theory about the triple bottom line. Method: A qualitative case study was employed in order to answer the purpose. The most suitable research approach was a combination of a deductive and partially an inductive approach. The primary data consisted of semi-structured interviews. The secondary data were used in order make a comparison in relation to manufacturing corporations. Empirical findings &amp; Analysis: As for all corporations an integration of voluntary social and environmental concerns in their business operations are considered as CSR activities. A significant concern is CSR activities that the inter-viewed service corporations experienced was the lack of human and economic resources to deal with CSR activities. Furthermore, the lack of stakeholder pressure does not facilitate the matter of implementing more CSR strategies into the corporations‟ business conduct. As a result of the lack of stakeholder pressure the interviewed corporations tend to only take part in CSR activities that create goodwill value for the corporation. According to the interviewed service corporations CSR activities is a new phenomenon that is likely to become a bigger part of their business conduct in the future. Conclusion: The interviewed corporations tend to focus their CSR activities to-wards the social activities since this is the kind of activities that is closely connected to the core business.