AA1000: An Analysis of Accountability and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Contemporary Context

Abstract

Contemporaneously, companies—especially private—present themselves as institutions with accountability. The private accountability is the issue addressed by companies from adopting a posture of social responsibility. The central idea of this article is to verify the debate about private accountability, taking into account aspects that comprise it, such as the stakeholder theory.

The standard AA 1000 will also be the subject of our reflections, as it aims to disseminate the central position focused on accountability, particularly in the context of private companies. The chapter presents the main aspects that make up the theoretical debate on the subject, while also addressing their criticisms, especially those made to studies that analyze the accountability from the private sphere—that would be counter to the traditional theories on the subject.

This chapter also discusses what we understand as the development of private accountability in the public sphere. This is a complex debate, especially because many scholars understand accountability as a characteristic phenomenon of the public sphere and can’t, therefore, be thinking and applied within the private sphere. However, the paths taken in this study indicate that accountability is, increasingly, an aspect that makes the concerns of private actors, befriending others, such as social responsibility. Understanding how these relationships develop is the purpose of this article.