While our comments have primarily been directed towards the development of internal or
managerial human capital measurement systems, we believe that these ideas also have
implications for the broader debate about the development of measurement systems for external
reporting (see Lev, 2001). The accounting profession devoted considerable resources into what
was then called HR accounting in the early 1970s (see Flamholtz, 1989), which focused on the
feasibility and acceptability of capitalizing investments in people on the firm’s balance sheet.
While those efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, given the rise in importance of intangible assets
in the determination of shareholder wealth in the 1990s, external reporting for investments in HR
has once again come to the attention of the accounting and finance professions. Given the
importance of intangibles assets in the determination of firm performance, the accounting
profession has turned its attention to developing measurement systems to begin to track these
assets. Consider the comments made in October, 2001 by Harvey Pitt, Former Chairman of the
Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commission:
“We may need to reconsider whether our accounting principles provide a realistic picture
of corporate performance…….While rules can be useful tools in achieving our reporting
goals, such as comparability and verifiability, they are not and should not be treated as
ends in themselves - rather, the goal is clear, verifiable information. When rules get in the
way of providing clear, reliable information to investors, then it is time to change them.
We could consider, for example, whether financial disclosure would be more relevant if
this picture contains more information about intangibles, and, if so, whether that
information would be contained inside or outside financial statements. Of course, we
would work closely with FASB [Financial Accounting Standards Board] in any such
undertaking.”
If the HR community does not want to be held accountable by metrics designed by
accountants, we would encourage increased attention to the development of HCMS. While the
SEC deliberates the role and measurement of intangibles in front of the US Congress and
prepares to issue directives on disclosure of intangibles, the HR Community has been largely
absent in this debate. To our knowledge, there are no major initiatives underway on the
measurement of intangibles by any of the major organized bodies in this area, including the