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This study aims to investigate the impact on organizational members of team marks and peer feedback in a classroom as an organizational setting, where equals were engaged in a hierarchical form of accountability. It uses Roberts’s framework of hierarchical, socializing, and intelligent forms of accountability and discusses the viability of intelligent accountability in higher education, given the accountability structure for academics.

Autoethnography based on excerpts from the lecturer’s diary.

The blurred boundaries of hierarchical and socializing forms of accountability create both tensions and kinships for students, and these two forms of accountability constantly impact on each other. Although the accounting tools have an individualizing effect on some students, several examples of intelligent accountability are uncovered. It is concluded that academia’s audit culture, which focuses on immediate outcomes, and academics’ ever-increasing workloads make successful innovations less likely.

This study contributes to the accountability literature in revealing a constant dynamic between hierarchical and socializing forms of accountability through examination of a unique setting in which the boundaries between the two are completely blurred. By empirically examining how accounting individualizes and how intelligent accountability emerges, this study contributes to the limited empirical literature on the impact of accountability on individuals, and particularly to studies of classrooms as organizations, with implications for education policies.

During choir rehearsals, a conductor continuously holds choir members accountable for what they do and how they sing. Hence, members are held accountable through action. This allows a conductor to emphasize his/her expertise and underline his/her authority. Choir members typically respond in certain ways when this is done, for instance by commenting on the feedback they receive or by trying to improve their singing. The interplay between these accounts, how they develop over time, and what they (do not) accomplish in terms of human relatedness are the focus of this study. We use Bauman's (1993) conceptualization of social space to investigate these issues.

By providing reasons for their conduct and behaving in a certain way, a conductor and choir members, but also a choir's management, can alter their position in social space. Thereby, they solidify or change how they relate to other individuals in the choir. Bauman assumes that processes of social spacing require so-called “misunderstandings”. We examine seven misunderstandings that occurred in a particular rehearsal of a top-level amateur choir, analyzing their impact on human relatedness. Video analysis methods, interviews and photo-elicitation are the main research methods used.

We find both short-term and long-term effects of misunderstandings on human relatedness, and offer two extensions of Bauman's (1993) conception of social space. Firstly, we assert that there is a reflective side to processes of social spacing that needs to be taken into account when changes in human relatedness are discussed. Secondly, we find that the emotional impact of accountability on how individuals behave ought not to be underestimated, as this can have lasting effects on how people relate to one another.

This research makes two contributions to the extant literature. It is shown how accountability through action unfolds when people engage in leisurely activity, and how this affects the way they relate to one another – in sometimes unintentional and unpredictable ways. It also extends a well-known theoretical framework on social space that has seen little application in the accounting literature. This framework is adapted so that it may be used more fruitfully in future accounting studies.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of university tradition, justice perceptions and quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) on the faculty members’ tendency to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) from the perspective of social exchange theory (SET). Attention is drawn to the need to contextualize the established relationships between OCB and its antecedents, as direction and strength of relationships may vary in different contexts.

The study uses a sequential mixed method design comprising a survey of 203 faculty members, and 15 semi-structured interviews both undertaken in several universities in Turkey. Hierarchical regression and discriminant analyses were used for the quantitative phase, followed by the qualitative phase that includes compiled quotes and content analysis.

Analyses provide strong support for the impacts of university tradition and LMX on OCB. The compiled quotes largely support the quantitative findings. Additionally, content analysis reveals sources and consequences of injustice and mechanisms to cope with it among academics.

The findings have implications for university administrators who are looking for ways to increase OCB and enhance justice perception. LMX emerges as a significant factor in encouraging OCB regardless of university tradition. In order to enhance justice perceptions, Continental European-modeled universities should allocate workload and resources in a fair manner, while American-modeled universities should apply procedures consistently across people and time.

The inclusion of university tradition as an independent variable is a contribution as it contextualizes the relationship between OCB and its antecedents, verifying SET for both contexts. Using a mixed method design, the study provides an enriched understanding of OCB.