Human Resource Accounting: Interests and Conflicts. A Discussion Paper. CEDEFOP Panorama.

This document examines the principles, use, and benefits of human resource accounting (HRA), which uses numerical and nonnumerical data on items such as costs and benefits of training, staff turnover, absenteeism, and the value of employees' knowledge to measure the value of human resources in enterprises. The introduction presents an overview of HRA and its potential uses as a political tool, pedagogical instrument, and decision-making aid. The following topics are discussed in sections 1 through 3: rationale for the emergence of HRA at the macro- and microlevels (changing production and employment patterns and work organizations; changing roles of governments, enterprises, and individuals; reasons for developing HRA internally and externally); existing regulations and standards on reporting practice and definitions of key terms (accounting, audit, performance, intellectual capital, and bodies); and stakeholders in HRA (governments, trade unions, investors, enterprises, employees). Concluding the document are a review of key issues and stakeholders in HRA and case studies of HRA in practice in five organizations in three countries (Denmark, Sweden, and the United Kingdom): a private production enterprise, a public service provider, a private service provider, a public administrative organization, and a private production and retail enterprise. Contains twenty tables/figures and 44 references. (MN)