Abstract

Corporate social responsibility reports are now required by the many Governments to supplement the accountability of large corporations and to increase their accountability to all stakeholders some of which have showed an increased interest in more sustainable practices. For contracting corporations this has put pressure on them to provide more influence on the design and the production processes to provide an ethical approach in the economic, social and environmental areas. Communities, employees, government bodies and investors amongst others all have an interest and require adequate and appropriate communication. They may also exercise power to change what they see as outdated or unacceptable practices. The influence of the policies is assessed at the managerial level for the purpose of this paper and largely qualitative methods are being used to provide some insight into their effectiveness and the longer term balance of power.