Management Systems and Accountability in “Ethical-Oriented Entities”

Abstract

In some entities, in order to assure a systematic government coherent with values and guidelines, the traditional and main economic control systems is integrated with ethical-social, environmental and quality management systems. This process of integration guarantees the definition and the analysis of the global (economic, social, environmental) performances both inside the organization than outside when specific accountability instruments are used.The present work aims to deepen the relationship between the management instruments for quality, environment and ethical-social aspects, and the correspondents “accountability systems”.In consequence of a comparative analysis on the requirements of such instruments/systems an hypothesis is carried out for an intermediate operative framework - or “informative system” - that concurs to transfer, through the continuous improvement cycle (PDCA), main information for a correct and sustainable management of the organizations.With reference to the instruments, the analysis focuses on the relationship between accountability and the requirements for quality (ISO 9001), environmental (ISO 14001) and ethical-social (SA8000) management systems.An analysis has been conducted on a sample of all Italian companies with certified environmental and social management systems (defined as “ethical-oriented entities”). It showed that not only big entities use accountability instruments and that the number of reporting instruments is higher for “ethical-oriented organisations”.The obtained results represent the first step of a research aimed to define (i) how deep is the relation between reporting instruments and management systems and (ii) if the degree of reliability of reporting instruments is higher as a consequence of the presence of ethical-oriented management systems.