Suchergebnisse

Co-operatives, built on mutuality, present a challenge to the dominant paradigm of the investor-oriented business. It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand and explain co-operative activities properly in the language of returns on financial investment. This paper argues that we need to develop an accounting which facilitates understanding co-operatives on their own terms; an accounting which would allow cooperatives to reclaim the conversation about the sort of society we want to build together from the debates about returns on investment. This paper sets out to explore and champion the possibility of the co-operative movement developing a specifically co-operative oriented format for financial accounting and reporting which would allow cooperatives to differentiate themselves from both investor-oriented businesses and philanthropic organisations: a statement of recommended practice (SORP) in accounting and reporting for co-operatives. Reporting under such a SORP would allow co-operatives to recognise their fundamental principles of participation, mutuality, democracy and community through membership as opposed to investor supremacy or philanthropy whilst still complying with international financial reporting standards (IFRS). This paper uses the SORP in accounting and reporting for charities in the UK as an example of how a very different approach to accounting (concentrating on the organisational purpose) can be, and actually is, accommodated under IFRS in order to explore what can be learnt for co-operatives.

Our current organisational structures, in both the commercial and the charitable sectors, suffer from a democratic deficit which acts as a barrier to the creation of a more equal society. The FairShares Model incorporates a straightforward process to recompense providers of non-financial capital to organisations. By doing so, it addresses questions of power and control that are left unanswered by methods which simply measure different sorts of capital used and/or generated by organisations. It is currently primarily concerned with adequately recompensing intellectual, human and social capital contributions in line with financial, and to enhance the management of natural capital through commitments to social auditing.