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Article
Publication date: 8 September 2023

Roel Boomsma

This paper aims to extend some of the theoretical propositions of Michael Power’s (1997) audit society thesis by exploring the capacity of organisations to push back against…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to extend some of the theoretical propositions of Michael Power’s (1997) audit society thesis by exploring the capacity of organisations to push back against external accountability pressures. The paper positions the literature on non-governmental organisation (NGO) accounting and accountability as a “case study” against which the notion of the audit society is put to the test.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative meta-synthesis of the accounting literature is used to analyse how NGOs have responded to audit society pressures – most notably funder pressures to adopt formalised accountability mechanisms. The different responses of NGOs to funder accountability demands are analysed using Christine Oliver’s (1991) typology of strategic responses to institutional processes.

Findings

This review of the accounting literature unveils that NGOs can adopt a range of strategic responses to funder accountability pressures that vary from passive conformity to proactive manipulation. The findings confirm that NGOs often perceive acquiescence to funder accountability demands as necessary to ensure organisational survival. Yet, the author also found that NGO resistance to funder accountability pressures is more common than previously assumed. Five dominant forms of “accountability resistances” emerged from the analysis: evading accountability, disguising accountability, shielding accountability, negotiating accountability and shaping accountability.

Originality/value

By conducting a qualitative meta-synthesis of the accounting literature, the author was able to integrate the findings of prior research on NGO resistance to funder accountability demands, guide future research and extend Michael Power’s (1997) work by developing a more nuanced understanding of how organisations respond to external accountability pressures.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2023

Ikenna Elias Asogwa, Maria Estela Varua, Rina Datt and Peter Humphreys

The purpose of this study is to present an in-depth examination of stakeholder engagement processes in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the perspective of NGO managers…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to present an in-depth examination of stakeholder engagement processes in non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from the perspective of NGO managers to enhance accountability and the effectiveness with which aid services are delivered. Specifically, demand-side (downward) accountability and the implications of an accountability system that is predominantly supply-side (upward) focused are explored.

Design/methodology/approach

This study draws on evidence gathered from 25 in-depth interviews with representatives of leading NGOs in Nigeria to explore and uncover the nature of stakeholder engagement and accountability processes in their respective organisations. This study shows prospects for entrenching organisational reform that balances power and influence that benefits the less economically powerful demand side of the stakeholders. A relevant aspect of stakeholder theory was used to frame the analysis.

Findings

The study reveals an overlay of a blanket engagement system and a seeming reluctance of NGOs to disclose critical information to the demand-side stakeholders (DSS), and suggests ways to meet sustainability demands and address the militating concerns. A perceived lack of understanding and prospects or outcomes of demand-side accountability are central to this; however, engagement outcomes that account for impact rather than output are explored and reported. The findings suggest that proper accountability involves adequate stakeholder engagement which is a prerequisite and paramount for sustainability.

Research limitations/implications

This study primarily delineates NGO managers’ views on NGO engagement and accountability dynamics. Future research may explore the perspectives of downward stakeholders themselves. The study highlights the concern for NGOs to maintain a defined stakeholder engagement process that resists external forces that may impact on their operations and derail their mission, resulting in duplication of services.

Practical implications

The study shows the implications of donors’ influence on accountability practices which can be improved by re-structuring supply-side stakeholders to significantly include DSS accountability requirements in the key performance indicators of NGOs in developing countries. The authors present a nuanced perspective to aid delivery and access that ensures improved services and more effective, impactful and sustainable aid which is of practical relevance to NGOs and their accountability mechanism.

Originality/value

This study deepens the understanding of the dynamics of stakeholder engagement and accountability processes and shows that the most effective way to deploy aid funds to meet sustainability goals is to draw on the experiences and local knowledge of the DSS. This would require an effective and results-driven dialogue among all the stakeholders involved. The proposed engagement and management framework contribute to theory and practice by fostering multi-stakeholder cooperation, DSS accountability and the advancement of sustainable development

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 32 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 May 2024

Chaudhry Ghafran and Sofia Yasmin

Developing economies often lack sufficient state regulation to encourage corporations to engage with environmental sustainability challenges. Environmental NGOs fill this vacuum…

Abstract

Purpose

Developing economies often lack sufficient state regulation to encourage corporations to engage with environmental sustainability challenges. Environmental NGOs fill this vacuum but this relationship is fraught with challenges, linked to each party’s competing interests. This paper examines how an environmental NGO operating in a developing country manages such challenges.

Design/methodology/approach

A longitudinal case study, from 2017–2022, based on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, with the main periods of field work in 2017 and 2020.

Findings

We unravel nuanced dynamics of accountability within an NGOs collaborative ecosystem. Our findings reveal a web of interlinked obligations and expectations, strategically adopted to reconcile environmental and CSR logics fostering trustworthy partnerships with firms. Despite aiming for transformative change, the NGO made gradual initiatives, to meet the challenges of fostering systemic change in developing nations. Institutional logics of professionalism and development allowed NGO members avoid mission drift and realign upward accountability relations into lateral ones.

Originality/value

The study provides insight into successful NGO-corporate partnerships and illustrates how accountability is negotiated, upheld, and reconceptualized in such collaborations.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 October 2023

Muhammad Zada, Jawad Khan, Imran Saeed and Shagufta Zada

This study investigates the link between servant leadership and project management effectiveness in developmental projects in non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Further, this…

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the link between servant leadership and project management effectiveness in developmental projects in non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Further, this study examined the mediating role of conflict resolution and moderating role of organisational culture.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-wave survey of 288 non-governmental organisation (NGO) employees was used to evaluate the hypotheses. Hierarchical regression analysis and Hayes' PROCESS macro technique were used for data analysis.

Findings

In this study, servant leadership positively affects employee project management effectiveness in developmental projects in NGOs, and conflict resolution mediates the relationship. Furthermore, the results show that organisational culture moderates the positive relationship between servant leadership and employee project management effectiveness. Moreover, the authors investigated the hypotheses via a moderation mediation model. The strength of the mediated link between servant leadership and project management effectiveness (via conflict resolution) depends on organisational culture strength.

Practical implications

Leaders that practice servant leadership care for their employees genuinely and serve them by allowing them to make their own decisions. Every organisation may benefit from this leadership style since it encourages project effectiveness

Originality/value

New empirical data from this study suggests that servant leadership positively and substantially affects employee project management effectiveness in developmental projects in NGOs.

Details

Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2051-6614

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 November 2023

Rogers Rugeiyamu and Ajali Mustafa Nguyahambi

The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society…

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Abstract

Purpose

The world is experiencing democratic backsliding such that the situation is down back to 1986. This has resulted in the global shrinking of civic space for civil society organizations (CSOs). NGOs engaging in advocacy activities are seen to be among the CSOs affected. Using four NGOs cases from Tanzania, the study contributes to the civic space debate by uncovering how advocacy NGOs become resilient.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is anchored in interpretivism and a cross-sectional case study design, following a qualitative approach path. Data were collected through interviews and a documentary review.

Findings

Results show that several strategies such as complying, building community back-up, collaboration, strategic litigation, using digital media and changing the scope are applied. However, strategies face obstacles including scope limitations, expected democratic roles, high cost, changes in the scope and being outsmarted by the government, and hence their effectiveness is questionable.

Research limitations/implications

This study focused on advocacy NGOs. More studies can be conducted for other advocacy-related CSOs on how they become resilient.

Practical implications

While NGOs are allowed to exist in the country, their freedom continue to be curtailed. Even the effectiveness of resiliency becomes temporary and depends on the political will of the existing regime.

Originality/value

Tanzania NGOs have to build strong bonds with citizens, expand the scope of strategies and use deliberative democratic principles to educate the government to change laws and tolerate plural political culture. Also, NGOs in other countries with confined civic space can apply the same.

Details

Journal of Humanities and Applied Social Sciences, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2632-279X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2022

Jessica Aquino and Kathleen L. Andereck

This paper aims to examine volunteer tourism (VT) experiences of three stakeholder groups in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The guiding research question is: how does VT influence…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine volunteer tourism (VT) experiences of three stakeholder groups in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The guiding research question is: how does VT influence marginalized communities from the perspectives of different stakeholders? This study was developed to address a need for further research that critically looks at the social impacts of VT in vulnerable communities and analyze the nature of VT by reviewing concepts related to sustainable tourism and social representation theory (SRT).

Design/methodology/approach

Using a phenomenological approach, this study is founded on SRT to understand the lived experiences of VT and the perceptions of its impacts on favela (slum) communities. This paper describes and interprets these meanings with a high degree of depth and richness using interviews, observation and document analysis. The experiences of community residents, voluntourists and non-governmental organization (NGO) staff are considered.

Findings

Study findings indicate that the different groups expressed several benefits and obstacles to VT. Voluntourists had a difficult time interpreting what influences VT has in general for the community focusing more inwardly on their personal experiences. Community residents experienced VT differently than the other groups. They identified the most benefits from VT and felt that they had the ability to create representations of themselves and of their community overall. NGOs expressed positive aspects of VT such as more community participation but noted concerns with voluntourists’ commitment.

Originality/value

This study is one of few to consider and compare the VT perceptions of three different stakeholder groups in vulnerable communities.

Details

International Journal of Tourism Cities, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-5607

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 May 2024

Paul J. Thambar, Aldónio Ferreira and Prabanga Thoradeniya

This study aims to examine the role of performance management systems (PMSs) in enabling logic blending to manage institutional complexity and tensions arising from coexisting…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the role of performance management systems (PMSs) in enabling logic blending to manage institutional complexity and tensions arising from coexisting institutional logics.

Design/methodology/approach

This research uses a case study of an Australian non-government organisation (NGO) operating in an institutional field dominated by the state government, in which policy reform jolted the balance between institutional logics. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, archival documents and observations.

Findings

We find the policy reform required the NGO to transform from a wholly care focus to accommodate a more balanced approach with a focus on care coupled with efficiency, outcome delivery and performance measurement. The NGO responded by revising its purpose, strategy and operational model and by seeking to address the imperatives of two dominant and often competing care and managerial logics. We find this was achieved through logic blending, in which PMSs played a pivotal role, with the formalisation and collaboration processes mobilising different elements of PMSs, mobilising some elements differently or not mobilising some elements at all.

Originality/value

This study highlights the central role of PMSs in managing tensions between and the complexity arising from coexisting institutional logics through logic blending, a form of enduring compromise. This study extends the accounting logics and performance management literature by developing the understanding of what constitutes logic blending and how it is distinct from other forms of compromise.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2023

Shobod Deba Nath, Gabriel Eweje and Suborna Barua

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why multi-tier apparel suppliers integrate social sustainability practices into their supply chains and what barriers these suppliers…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why multi-tier apparel suppliers integrate social sustainability practices into their supply chains and what barriers these suppliers encounter while embedding social sustainability practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employs a qualitative research design, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 46 owners and managers from 33 multi-tier apparel suppliers in Bangladesh, an important outsourcing hub for the global apparel industry. To corroborate research findings, the views of owners and managers were triangulated by further interviewing 11 key representatives of institutional actors such as third-party auditors, a donor agency, industry associations, regulatory agencies and a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Findings

The authors' findings suggest a range of divergent institutional drivers and barriers – coercive, mimetic and normative – that determine the implementation of multi-tier suppliers' social sustainability practices. The key reported drivers were buyers' requirements, external stakeholders' expectations, top management commitment and competition. Conversely, cost and resource concerns and gaps in the regulatory framework were identified as key social sustainability implementation barriers. In particular, owners and managers of second-tier and third-tier supplier firms experienced more internal barriers such as cost and resource concerns than external barriers such as gaps in values, learning and commitment (i.e. compromise for mutual benefit and non-disclosure of non-compliance) that impeded effective social sustainability implementation.

Research limitations/implications

Social sustainability in supply chain management has received significant attention from academics, business practitioners, governments, NGOs and supranational organisations. However, limited attention has been paid to investigating the drivers and barriers for social sustainability implementation from a developing country's multi-tier supplier perspective. The authors' research has addressed this knowledge gap.

Practical implications

The evidence from the authors' study provides robust support for key assumptions of institutional theory and has useful implications for both managers and policy-makers.

Originality/value

The authors' study contributes to the embryonic research stream of socially sustainable multi-tier supply chain management by connecting it to the application of institutional theory in a challenging institutional context.

Details

The International Journal of Logistics Management, vol. 35 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-4093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 April 2024

Md. Saiful Alam and Dewan Mahboob Hossain

The purpose of this research is to investigate how different accountability practices might be observed in the annual reports of non-government organisations (NGOs) in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to investigate how different accountability practices might be observed in the annual reports of non-government organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh. The study further aims to understand whether such accountability disclosures support NGO legitimacy in Bangladesh and if so, in what form.

Design/methodology/approach

To fulfil this objective, a content analysis was conducted on the annual reports of 24 selected leading NGOs operating in Bangladesh. The data were then analysed through the not-for-profit accountability framework of Dhanani and Connolly (2012). Theoretical constructs of legitimacy were further mobilised to corroborate the evidence.

Findings

It was found that NGOs operating in Bangladesh discharged all four types of accountability, i.e., strategic, fiduciary, financial and procedural (Dhanani and Connolly, 2012) through annual reports. The findings further suggested that carrying out these accountabilities supported the legitimation process of NGOs. Moreover, we found that NGOs took care of the needs of both primary and secondary stakeholders although they widely used self-laudatory positively charged words to disclose information about their accountabilities.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the limited accounting research on the public disclosures of NGOs and not-for-profit firms particularly in emerging economy settings. Also, we contribute to the limited research on the accountability-legitimacy link of NGOs evident in public disclosures like annual reports.

Details

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-1168

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 October 2023

Sisi Zou and Catriona Paisey

The purpose of this paper is to examine the alternative accounts produced by Green Earth Volunteers (GEV), a Chinese environmental non-governmental organisation, over a 10-year…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the alternative accounts produced by Green Earth Volunteers (GEV), a Chinese environmental non-governmental organisation, over a 10-year period in the context of their campaign to create visibilities about hydroelectric dam projects along the Chang Jiang.

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing on conceptions of the human–nature relationship, including those evident in ancient Chinese philosophy and mythology, and the Chinese way of viewing and resolving conflict, this paper offers an interpretive analysis of the alternative accounts of GEV in terms of their form and content.

Findings

In terms of their content, the alternative accounts reflect elements of interrelated thinking, being underpinned by a recognition of the relationship between humans and nature, which is evident in Confucianism, Taoism and ancient Chinese mythology. The strategies adopted by GEV are a non-confrontational but feasible way to promote their ecological beliefs in the Chinese context.

Practical implications

The study suggests that social and environmental accounting (SEA) in developing countries is steeped in local cultural and philosophical traditions that need to be considered and incorporated into the design of alternative accounts.

Originality/value

The study contributes to the very limited literature that offers qualitative analyses of SEA in developing countries.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

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