The theory and practice of social accounting: the case of italian post office

In the 1970s in America, France and Germany the theme of social responsibility and the possibility of measuring it (social accounting) had already begun to develop. However, for both historical and technical reasons social accounting in Italy developed later. During that period Italy underwent a series of profound social conflicts and annual accounts still lacked the necessary ability to inform stakeholders: so specialists often lacked the necessary incentives and instruments to measure social accounting effectively. In the 1980s there were a series of academic writings on social accounting (including a proposal of a model by the author of this paper that prepared the conceptual basis of the social accounting applied to the Italian Post Office “Posteitaliane s.p.a”), which were followed in the 1990s by numerous applicative initiatives. Currently there is research being carried out to establish standards to guarantee the reliability of social accounting. This paper makes particular reference to the Italian “Gruppo di Studio sul Bilancio Sociale” (GBS). The second part of the paper gives an overview of the social accounting carried out by the Italian Post Office. In 1998 the company became a stock company with the Italian government as sole shareholder: as a result the Italian Post Office, which was notoriously inefficient, has begun to improve noticeably. The Italian Post Office has voluntarily published a document indicating the social results of its improvements. The document covers the three year period from 1998, the first year of “privatization”, to 2000. The document will then integrate 2001, the year in which the company eliminated losses. An attentive examination of the document reveals both the principles on which it is based and its procedural methods. The document also examines possible areas of improvement in the quality and quantity of information. In conclusion the paper considers the risk factors connected to the extension of social accounting (bilanci sociali d’impresa). Improvements in the measuring of social accounting are called for, especially the need to extend standardization and independent controls in order to reinforce ethical and social responsibility. The difference between social accounting and what is clearly company marketing is also highlighted. In particular the paper highlights the advantages of a social accounting which observes good standards and criteria of transparency in order to satisfy all interested stakeholders. This would not only be very useful for the common good because it reduces possibilities of conflicts based on erroneous calculation, but also because good standards and criteria force companies to consider all the consequences of their activities and not only that are measured by market exchange .