Social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting (SEAAR) is a process with a range
of tools and techniques that enables an organization to measure, account for, understand, report
on and improve its social performance over time.
Before 1993, British Columbia's post secondary education institutions implemented
public policy and operated with a level of autonomy that enabled them to meet the needs of their
students, employees and distinct communities. After 1993, public policy aimed at increased
efficiency, effectiveness and accountability centralized major aspects of human resource and
labour relations policy in British Columbia's public sector. This thesis describes the process, the
results and the implications of conducting a social audit to assess the social performance of one
particular community college.
During the years 1991 - 2000, the College grew; diligently balanced its budgets through
significant entrepreneurial efforts and employees remained committed to their students and the
purpose of the College. However, as entrepreneurial efforts increased, it was apparent that the
increased productivity had stretched the capacity of employees to deliver services and the
consequences were evident. The use of sick leave increased with a concomitant increase in the
incidence of short and long-term disability leaves. More employees reported feeling stressed and
expressed less satisfaction about their work at the College.
Social auditing is about accountability. Its stakeholder process complements traditional
strategic planning processes. Within the context of a public sector organization, a process of
social auditing, previously used in the private sector, was adapted to evaluate a broad range of
organizational issues related to human resource policies and managerial practices.
The College had a foundation of human resource policies, practices and programs that
had achieved some of their purposes over time, and the social audit clearly identified where
improvements where required. Key findings included the need to attend to workload and work
design issues that were creating stress, the need to refocus performance evaluation, professional
development and to enhance programs that recognized the contribution of employees. Training,
particularly in the area of technological skills was recognized as critical for ensuring that
employees were prepared for workplace changes. In particular, the social audit provided
feedback on communication processes and identified improvements necessary to enhance open
and transparent decision-making. Health and wellness programs were recognized as key to
restoring balance to employees' work lives and reducing stress.
A number of recommendations from the social audit were integrated into the College's
Strategic Plan 2000 - 2003, and funds were allocated during the College's 2000 - 2001 budget
process. In June 2000, the Board of Governors allocated additional funding to manage issues
related to workload and stress that arose from the strategic plan and the social audit.
Through a reflective process, the research enabled a human resource practitioner to
develop and implement a process of social auditing, examine and understand the effects of
centralized public policy on human resource management and labour relations policy in British
Columbia's public sector and make recommendations for improvement to human resource policy
in one of British Columbia's community colleges.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11154 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Holden, Jennifer |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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