Accounting and reporting for human capital in a public healthcare organization: do they promote effective human capital management to achieve social sustainability?

Caterina Cavicchi and Emidia Vagnoni

Chapter 24 in Handbook on Intangibles, 2026, pp 456-469 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter explores non-financial reporting practices in public sector organizations (PSOs), with a specific focus on healthcare. While non-financial reporting in PSOs has expanded, its links to management control and decision-making remain under-researched. Intellectual capital (IC), particularly human capital, is identified as a key enabler of sustainable value creation. Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) is presented as essential to achieving financial, social, and ecological goals. Despite growing interest, social sustainability in healthcare—especially the organizational aspects related to human capital—remains insufficiently explored. The COVID-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to human capital sustainability, highlighting issues like work-life balance and mental health. This chapter addresses scholarly calls to study public healthcare accounting during crises to support sustainability. It presents an action research project within an Italian local health authority (LHA) aimed at assessing the pandemic’s impact on healthcare professionals. The study particularly examines gender equality as a critical dimension of unsustainability revealed by the crisis. Overall, the research seeks to inform the development of sustainable human capital practices in public healthcare organizations.

Keywords: Human capital; Public healthcare; Social sustainability; Human capital management; Accounting and reporting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035306367
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