Abstract
Human rights are among the positive or negative impacts found within corporate spheres
of influence. The United Nations Guiding Principles for Human Rights (UNGPs), an
international instrument recommends corporate human rights disclosures. For many
investors, these now constitute a critical aspect of business accountability and
transparency, aimed at curbing corporate human rights abuses. In emerging and poor
economies, corporate human rights disclosure practice is often weak, reducing the
capacity of corporations to identify and manage their human rights risks and impacts and
ultimately contributing to their disrespect for human rights – and investor hesitancy.
Managerial motivation has been identified as a critical factor in corporate human rights
disclosure practice. This study investigated managerial motivations for human rights
disclosures through in-depth interviews with corporate managers of stock-exchange-listed
firms in Zimbabwe, a poor economy that has faced human rights challenges over a
protracted period. The study also reviewed annual reports of the listed firms for the extent
of their human rights disclosures. The findings of the study were that stock exchange-listed
firms in Zimbabwe had poor corporate human rights disclosure practices, due to
managerial disinclination, the voluntary nature of UNGPs, and the inhibiting contextual
environment for corporate human rights disclosures. The findings were compatible with
both the legitimacy and stakeholder theories of managerial motivation for voluntary social
disclosures. The legitimacy theory posits that managers voluntarily make social
disclosures for corporate legitimation to be accepted by their stakeholders, while the
stakeholder theory posits that managers respond to the information demands of influential
stakeholders.