Diversity at Work: Firms’ Strategic Responses to Mandatory Diversity Disclosure

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftForschungsartikelBeigetragenBegutachtung

Beitragende

Abstract

Diversity has emerged as a topic of increasing organizational and legislative relevance. Despite forming a burgeoning research field in accounting, little is known about how organizations respond to diversity disclosure legislation. In this paper, we study the introduction of diversity disclosure legislation in the European Union that mandates corporate diversity disclosures, and we analyze how 30 large German companies disclose diversity in their annual reports. Drawing on institutional theory and Oliver’s (1991) seminal work on strategic responses to institutional processes, our analysis reveals four mandatory reporting responses: dismissal, concealment, imitation, and transcendence. Overall, our findings show that although diversity has been institutionalized into organizational environments by the European Union through legislative action, organizational responses vary, from resistance to passive conformity or proactive compliance. With these findings, our study adds to the emergent diversity accounting literature, and we conclude by highlighting implications of our work for policymakers, managers, and researchers. Data Availability: Data are available from the public sources cited in the text.

Details

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)123-138
Seitenumfang16
FachzeitschriftAccounting Horizons
Jahrgang38
Ausgabenummer1
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - März 2024
Peer-Review-StatusJa

Externe IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-0958-5514/work/170107588

Schlagworte

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Schlagwörter

  • compliance, diversity, diversity disclosure legislation, institutional theory, nonfinancial reporting, resistance