Human Asset Accounting: A Reconsideration of Some Contending Issues

Abstract

There have been arguments as to whether human resource should be included in the financial statement or not. While the proponents of its inclusion are of the view that human assets are the most valuable assets in an organization and should therefore be included, those against it based their argument on the fact that human beings are not owned by organization in the legal sense of it. It is on this premise that this paper seeks to put in proper perspective the reasons why the accounting profession has maintained the statusquo despite the clamour for inclusion of human resource in the financial statement. The paper argues that the absence of a faithful and reliable model for measuring the value of human asset is one of the main reasons for its non-inclusion in the financial statements. It is recommended that, until the development of a reliable model, the inclusion of human resource in the financial statement should be limited to sports, like football where the value of players, to an extent, can be determined with some level of certainty and reliability, and the players can be tested for impairment periodically unlike employees in other organizations.