Impression management in social sustainability reporting before and during COVID-19: The case study of Top Glove Berhad / Ng Sin Yi

Ng , Sin Yi (2023) Impression management in social sustainability reporting before and during COVID-19: The case study of Top Glove Berhad / Ng Sin Yi. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

The study analyzes Top Glove Berhad (Top Glove)’s social sustainability reporting during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period. Specifically, its purpose is to investigate the extent of the impression management (IM) strategies used in employee and human rights information disclosure in its social sustainability reporting before and during the COVID-19. A qualitative content analysis of Top Glove’s social sustainability reports for the period of 2017 to 2021 was conducted. These length periods are selected because Top Glove has faced an allegation about human rights in the December of 2018. A content analysis was adopted as it is a flexible method that allows data to be presented in a variety of ways, such as quotations and words, diagrams, statistics, and percentages. The data analysis was separated into two phrase which include analysis of information disclosure in sentences and analysis of information disclosure in visual. In this case, an analysis of employee and human rights information in Top Glove’s sustainability reports was first performed in comparison to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines 2016 to evaluate the state of disclosure. The findings reveal that there are two interdependent and non-exclusive issues impacting the transparency and credibility of Top Glove statements. Furthermore, the evolution of disclosure practices has also been investigated in this study, demonstrating that Top Glove is committed to improving its employee and human rights information disclosure. Next, an investigation of IM tactics being adopted by Top Glove on its employee and human rights information disclosure have shown that there are five IM tactics used in its overall sustainability reporting. Moreover, the result also shows that Top Glove’s reports before the allegation revealed the corporation’s self-presentation iv techniques and there are five IM tactics identified after the allegation. The findings suggest that the firm mostly attempted to show itself in the best light possible, highlighting its competency and competent problem-solving ability. Besides that, a visual analysis has been carried out in the next phrase to examine how employee and human rights issues are represented in Top Glove’s sustainability reports using a research instrument based on GRI standards. Thus, the study illustrates how photographs are utilized to generate images of diversity, safety, happiness, and mutual support. In the conclusion, companies should consider the users of sustainability reporting, such as corporate stakeholders, while choosing how to construct their sustainability reports and the IM methods to implement. Many individuals view sustainability reports as image-building public relations tools that provide a favorable image of a corporation. A frequent adoption of certain IM strategies may strengthen this impression, unknowingly informing the audience that the organization utilizes sustainability reports to establish a sustainable profile in the lack of true involvement and activities. This study would contribute to the existence of research on the numerous IM strategies utilized by organizations in times of crisis. Furthermore, this research broadens the scope of sustainable accounting research by focusing on employee and human rights information disclosures.

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