ABSTRACT
In the Traidcraft model, social accounting is based on the perceptions and evaluation of the company's performance made by its stakeholders, and comparative benchmarks established by the company. The models or frameworks of social audit have been approached differently. R. H. Gray et al. discuss the 'organisation-centred', the 'stakeholder-centred' and the 'polyvocal citizenship perspective' approaches to social audit. The global reporting initiative guidelines represent the first global framework for comprehensive sustainability reporting, encompassing the 'triple bottom line' of economic, environmental and social issues. Many organisations across the world have gone through a process of social auditing irrespective of the nature of their business and size. The Beechwood model was developed in the late 1970s in connection with social audit at Beechwood College in Leeds. The model was designed for community organisations to plan, manage and measure non-financial activities and to monitor both the internal and the external consequences of the organisations' social and commercial operations.
