The second stage of the interviews, which took place in late October/early November 2012, involved interviews with representatives from some of the design and consultancy firms employed to assist the organisations interviewed in stage one with the preparation of their social and environmental reports. The purpose of these interviews was to facilitate the triangulation of data from the first two stages of the study, provide a balanced perspective to the first stage interviews and address research questions three and four by garnering greater insights into the design choices that are made, including the use of images such as graphs, pictures and photographs, and the general presentation of the report.
6.5.1 Sample Selection
Of the ten organisations interviewed in stage one of the study, six employed the services of external design or consulting firms to assist with the preparation of their social and environmental reports, with the remaining four preparing their reports internally. The same design firm was used by three of the organisations, resulting in a total of four potential interviewees. Given the participation rate of the first stage interviews, and expecting a similar result for this stage it was deemed necessary to expand the pool of potential interviewees. In order to do this a list of the 2011 Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) Australia Sustainability Reporting Award winners, and those shortlisted for awards was obtained, and a list of the designers involved in the preparation of those award-winning reports was compiled. Most of the designers employed by the organisations interviewed in stage one were also on this list, suggesting that their level of skill and experience may be comparable. A total of six potential interviewees were contacted: the four design and consultant firms employed by the reporting organisations interviewed, one designer involved in the preparation of an ACCA Australia Sustainability Reporting Award winning report, and one designer involved in the preparation of a shortlisted report. The award winning and shortlisted designers were selected on the basis that they were the only ones not involved in the preparation of the social and environmental reports of the organisations represented in the first stage of the research. Of the six consulting firms contacted, three agreed to participate. The participants included one external S&ER consultant employed by one of the organisations represented in the first stage of
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the interviews, two designers from one of the external design firms employed by one of the organisations interviewed in stage one of the study, who were interviewed at the same time, and the Head of Strategy from the design firm involved in the preparation of an award winning report. This was a pleasing outcome, particularly in such an under-explored area of research interest. The participants were from very diverse backgrounds, thus providing a rich data set encompassing different perspectives. The consultant was able to provide insights on data compilation, whilst the designers employed by the stage one interviewee were able to provide information directly relevant to findings from that earlier stage of the research. However, these designers were from a small firm with limited experience in assisting other organisations with their S&ER. The second design firm was a large, well-established organisation with a number of high-profile clients operating in similar industries to those organisations interviewed in stage one. The interviewee did not have a background in design; however, in her role as Head of Strategy she had knowledge regarding all of their clients in all divisions of the business, and was thus able to provide a broader overarching perspective. Whilst these differences were expected to enrich the exploratory nature of the findings, they also resulted in the need for additional care to be taken with the development of the interview protocol, which is discussed in the following section.
6.5.2 Development of Interview Protocol and Data Analysis Method
The interview protocol developed for the stage one interviews was adapted to be suitable for use in interviews with the external designers and consultant. Many of the questions remained the same, but changes were made to the order in which they were asked to reflect their differing degrees of importance in the context of the different focus of the second stage interviews. Additional questions were also asked to capitalise on the specialised knowledge of the interviewees. Each of the firms interviewed in the second stage provided slightly different services, so the interview protocols were adapted accordingly. The first design firm interviewed did not assist with the preparation of content, so all questions in relation to this area were removed from the protocol. The second design firm interviewed also provided copywriting services to clients, so some questions regarding content preparation, though not those relating to data collection, were allowed to remain in the protocol for this interview. The consultant interviewed provided data collection and report writing services, however did not contribute in
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any way to design. Therefore, questions relating to design were removed from the protocol. As with the stage one interviews, flow charts for the interviews were prepared and notes were taken both during and immediately following the interviews. The data analysis method used was consistent with that used in the stage one interviews and described in Section 6.3.3 above. The first stage of the research focused broadly on organisational choices in the S&ER process, while the second focused specifically on the disclosure strategies used in hard copy reports. The third stage of the research also focused on hard-copy reports, as the consultants interviewed had little involvement with web-based reporting. However, as discussed in Chapter 3, organisations should use different communication channels to make S&ER as accessible to as broad a range of stakeholders as possible. Furthermore, the internet offers features not available in traditional print media, such as multi-media and interactivity. Therefore, this important communication channel must not be omitted from the analysis. The final stage of the research involves analysis of S&ER on the internet, and is discussed in the following section.