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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.

This paper aims to investigate the extent of shareholder engagement and satisfaction with corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports of a Chinese-owned company compared to an Australian-owned company in the Australian mining industry. The study is motivated by the speed, extent and nature of Chinese foreign direct investment in Australia, the resulting negative social attitudes and the impact on the perceptions of a report’s credibility.

The authors conducted a survey of 202 minority shareholders of two Australian mining companies, one has a Chinese majority shareholder and the other an Australian majority shareholder. The responses highlight users’ comparative perceptions of corporate motivations for reporting, the level of perceived shareholder power over reporting decisions and the resulting propensity to read CSR reports.

The authors found that, contrary to decision-usefulness theory, which posits that users will read CSR reports only if they are deemed to be reliable, that perceptions of poor credibility and poor CSR performance actually result in a higher propensity to read the reports. This suggests that the minority shareholders of the Chinese acquired firm are using reports to monitor the level of corporate accountability.

The findings have implications for firms operating in politically or socially sensitive industries that are likely to use CSR reporting as a legitimising strategy. The paper also provides guidance to regulators in the provision of information, which is meaningful to minority shareholders.

The purpose of this study is to examine bribery and its accountability implications within Papua New Guinea's (PNG's) public sector.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 senior public servants from three central government departments. Perceptions, forms and accountability dimensions compromised through bribery were analysed through an actor network theory (ANT) lens to understand the actors contributing to bribery and how it might be addressed.

Forms (and variations) of bribery included “promises” by clients, pre-commitments by public servants and expectations/obligations imposed by public servants. Multiple and interdependent actors (including compromised accountability perceptions) are identified.

Findings provide important insights for public servants and policy-makers within and beyond PNG's government departments, highlighting the associated implications for individuals, the public sector and the country more broadly.

The incorporation and analysis of accountability dimensions through an ANT lens provides new perspectives on bribery. Further, the significance and extent of compromised accountability dimensions within the network suggests a broken accountability system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of situational factors in improving learning for trainees with low conscientiousness.

A sample of 117 employees completed a survey questionnaire in the context of a training intervention. Perceptions of conscientiousness, legitimacy, and accountability were used to predict employee learning in a training context. Moderated multiple regression was used to test the hypotheses.

Results support interactions of conscientiousness and perceived accountability to predict learning such that learners who are low in conscientiousness showed higher levels of learning when perceived accountability was considered strong than when perceived accountability was considered weak. There was no support for the proposed interaction of conscientiousness and perceived legitimacy to predict learning.

Results support the view that organizations should implement formal controls to increase perceived accountability and improve learning. Trainees with low conscientiousness had higher levels of learning in situations with strong accountability perceptions.

The study is one of the few to evaluate perceived accountability in a field study, whereas most previous research has evaluated this concept in lab experiments. Therefore, the findings support the wide range of perceived accountability that exists in most organizations. The results imply the need for more accountability controls within an organization to increase learning in a training context.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain how upward accountability processes can be enabling in, or constraining to, the effective deployment of development aid funding.

The paper derives its primary insights from in-depth interviews and focus groups with non-governmental organization (NGO) fieldworkers working and delivering development aid in Northern Ghana. It analyses inductively the perspectives of fieldworkers to explain their experiences of upward accountability.

The fieldworkers’ perception of upward accountability was mainly one of external control, in response to which they enacted a skilful form of compliance accountability. This perception of control failed to stifle their initiative and intrinsic commitment to beneficiaries. The fieldworkers craved “conversations for accountability”, in which they had a voice in the development of upward accountability metrics, thereby enabling them to fulfil their sense of felt responsibility to beneficiaries. While aspects of “conversations for accountability” were emerging in fieldworker-funder interactions, it was unclear to what extent funders were committed to further advancing them. Overall, the analysis unveils how felt responsibility mediates for, and partly diminishes, the perceived negative impacts on aid effectiveness of upward accountability processes informed by a focus on control.

The authors examine the potential of upward accountability processes using in-depth analyses of the actual experiences of those involved in delivering NGO services at the grassroots level. The authors contribute to emerging work in this vein by enriching the authors’ understanding of local constituencies’ experiences of accountability processes more generally, especially the impact these mechanisms have on NGO operational activities. The authors also unveil the mediating role fieldworkers’ “felt responsibility” to beneficiaries’ plays in moderating the perceived negative impacts on aid effectiveness of upward accountability processes.

The purpose of this research paper was to examine the construct of accountability and its impact leadership development initiative in an upward feedback framework. Previous research has suggested that accountability may be an important moderator of the relationship between upward feedback and self‐development. However, there has been little research examining the construct of accountability and this study sought to modify that.

Within the context of upward feedback the present study examined the impact of two contextual antecedents of accountability (LMX and feedback environment) and self‐development initiative as an outcome of accountability in a path model framework. Survey methodology was used to assess the constructs of interest and the results were analyzed with regression‐based path modeling.

The results indicate the path model was partially supported by the data: the feedback environment and LMX were related to accountability and accountability was related to self‐development initiative.

Limitations of this study include the self‐report methodology and relatively small sample size.

The current study was unique in that it examined manager's perceptions of accountability for using upward feedback. Managers who utilize upward feedback for self‐development are role models for subordinates and others, potentially contributions to a favorable feedback environment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the degree of stakeholder salience and the degree of emphasis placed on accountability dimensions for infrastructure assets (IFAs) as perceived by mayors and chief executive officers (CEOs) of local government authorities (LGAs). Comparisons are drawn between the salience accorded to two broad stakeholder groups at the public level and at the government level.

Perceptions of mayors and CEOs are examined through a mail questionnaire survey administered among LGAs in Australia.

Overall accountability for IFAs by the LGAs is influenced by the salience accorded to the demands and needs of public stakeholders (PSs) but not the salience accorded to government stakeholders (GS). It is evident that public and managerial accountabilities are impacted by PS salience, whereas political accountability is impacted by the salience of GS. Thus, it emphasises that the establishment and implementation of policies, processes and systems that render transparency and responsiveness to the public, as well as service quality and the disclosure of performance measures, are positively affected by the salience accorded to PS groups.

The results of the study may be affected by the inherent weaknesses associated with mail surveys.

Accountability of LGAs for IFAs to GS needs enhancement, specifically stronger policy incentives.

This paper contributes to the literature, providing evidence on how mayors and CEOs of LGAs perceive the salience of different stakeholders of IFAs and its impact on the perceived accountability.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the tensions between external accountability obligations, educator's professional values, and student needs. Strategic, cognitive, and moral dimensions of this tension are captured with the central category of integrity.

This is a mixed methods study that compares five exceptionally high performing middle schools with four exceptionally low performing middle schools in the state of California (USA), controlling for demographics, school context factors, and below average performance range.

It is found that schools under similar circumstances differ on the degree of integrity. Schools with high integrity have a good balance between values and reality, are more cohesive and more open to dissent. In each case, integrity was associated with an expansion of agency that combined moral earnestness with prudent strategizing and actively constructing interpretive frames that maintained a school's sense of self‐worth. Integrity develops or survives with a good dose of educational leaders’ personal strength, but also depends on leaders’ insistence to fully exhaust the moral horizon of an institution which obligates educators to balance equity, system efficiency, child‐centeredness and professionalism with prudence.

This is a case study of nine schools in one state. Explanatory relationships can be explored, but not generalized.

The research has implications for leadership. It demonstrates the power of integrity as a key virtue of leadership under accountability pressures. It shows the different ways integrity can be forged in schools and the different ways it can be missed with consequences for school life.

The paper stresses the point that it is quite conceivable that ideological zeal, Machiavellian strategizing, or eager system conformism may produce more forceful agency than integrity. But as everyday responses they are not as realistic, ethical or productive as the striving for integrity.

The practitioner literature often points to integrity as a desirable quality when dealing with tensions of the sort addressed in this paper, but little systematic theoretical thinking and empirical exploration of this concept exists. The paper makes an advance in both areas.

Combining early and untested accountability perspectives with stress research, the authors examined the degree to which employees perceive workplace accountabilities as either worthy challenges to be overcome or potential threats to be avoided.

The authors utilized structural equation modeling to evaluate our hypotheses and tested them across two data samples, using two different sampling techniques collected four years apart.

Employees' individual differences of attribution style, negative affectivity and core self-evaluations influenced how subjects approached accountability pressures in their workplace, which in turn, was associated with job satisfaction and turnover intentions.

By examining how employees evaluate accountability pressures, this investigation advances existing research by exploring the different ways in which employees perceive workplace accountabilities.

This paper examines how lateral accountability mechanisms may be used to address the unity–diversity tension in a large not-for-profit (NFP) inter-organizational partnership governed under a lead organization model.

A case study was conducted in the New South Wales Settlement Partnership comprising 23 NFP organizations providing settlement services for migrants and humanitarian entrants. Multiple data sources included semi-structured interviews, proprietary and publicly available documents and observation.

The paper demonstrates (1) the usefulness of a strength-based approach that the lead organization adopts in enacting lateral accountability mechanisms, which enables a balance between unity and diversity in the partnership; and (2) the capability of the lead organization governance model to address the unity–diversity tension.

The paper (1) identifies the importance of a strength-based approach in implementing lateral accountability mechanisms to address the unity–diversity tension; and (2) challenges prior research that advocates the network administrative organization governance model in addressing the tension.

For practice, the paper identifies a suite of lateral accountability practices designed to address the unity–diversity tension. For policy, it provides confidence for government in promulgating the lead organization governance model in “purchasing” public services.

The paper demonstrates how lateral accountability mechanisms may be used to provide a balance between the objectives of preserving and leveraging the benefits of partner diversity and achieving unity. The strength-based approach (used in enacting the accountability mechanisms), while having a history in psychology and social work research, has not been recognized in prior partnership accountability and governance studies.