Budgetary practices and accountability habitus: A grounded theory
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 1 September 2004
Abstract
This paper is the first of several emanating from a study of the relationship between accounting, governance and accountability in local government in the UK. A grounded theory methodology was used to discover participants' perceptions of these phenomena in four UK local government organisations. The budget system was found to be the most important organizational process with respect to accountability and this paper focuses on the core relationship discovered between budgetary practices and accountability perceptions. The way in which accountability was perceived and the budgetary practices were quite distinct in each of the four case studies. A grounded theory of this relationship is developed from the case studies to explain these differences. Bourdieu's concept of habitus is used to further develop this grounded theory and to suggest a more formal theory.
Keywords
Citation
Goddard, A. (2004), "Budgetary practices and accountability habitus: A grounded theory", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 543-577. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570410554551
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited