Search

Purpose – Focusing on Sanitarium, a commercial-charity operating as a department of a church, the paper aims to use Mashaw's taxonomy to examine this organisation's informal reporting in the context of accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a case study approach and draws on data gathered from primary and secondary archival sources, interviews with key informants, and reports in the public media. Findings – The paper examines Sanitarium, a hybrid organisation that has made informal account giving its primary means of reporting to constituents and the general public. It reveals that while the informal reporting blurs the boundaries of reporting regimes, the informal account always discloses something more, has the spirit of accountability and provides insight into the organisation that otherwise would not be accessible. The paper shows the usefulness of applying Mashaw's framework to examine the accountability practices of organisations in the third sector. Originality/value – The paper extends understanding into the nature of accountability by highlighting the contribution of informal account giving, the role of stakeholder perceptions in determining what counts as accountability, and the benefits of using a framework that can be applied to all commercial organisations, including faith organisations. The paper focuses on an area of study that has been acknowledged as under-researched and contributes to the knowledge of accountability in religious organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore environmental reporting in the Australian Commonwealth public sector through the focus on departments with a primary responsibility for social and environmental issues. Design/methodology/approach – The research moves beyond the existing theorisation for environmental reporting through a legitimacy theory perspective and adopts Bourdieu's theory of practice. The practices of the two selected departments for this study are assessed through interviews and documentary data. Findings – The findings suggest that the practice of environmental reporting in a research context moves beyond legitimacy considerations with the internal context being critical in explaining current practices. It is in this regard that the theoretical perspective provides useful insights in understanding environmental reporting in the Australian commonwealth public sector. Research limitations/implications – The paper calls for further studies that go beyond desk-based analysis of environmental disclosure and utilise field studies and varying theoretical perspectives which focus on the practices that lead to the production of environmental reporting via various media. Practical implications – This paper provides insights into how internal actors influence the practice of public sector environmental reporting which has practical implications for the development and enhancement of environmental reporting in many jurisdictions. Originality/value – The paper develops a theoretical perspective for environmental accounting that provides a comprehensive account of environmental reporting in a specific context. This approach could be utilised in different contexts and contributes towards extending the existing theorisation for environmental reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the circumstances and implications of an episode of accounting change arising from the extended use of accrual accounting within the Australian public sector. The matter under scrutiny is the reporting of the library collections of Australia's public universities as assets in general purpose financial reports. Design/methodology/approach - A survey is undertaken of the annual reports of Australia's 36 public universities for the period 2002 to 2006. The analysis of the findings is informed by new institutional sociology (NIS), with a focus on mimetic processes, and the concept of "accounting's margins". Findings - The survey reveals considerable diversity and subjectivity in the accounting practices adopted, as well as instances of sudden and dramatic changes in carrying values. The financial reporting of library collections is depicted as a "chaotic margin" of accounting, and the technical propriety of attempting to express and account for these non-financial resources in financial terms is rendered problematic. Originality/value - The study questions the reliability and usefulness of the information reported, with implications for the accountability of the institutions surveyed as well as the accounting profession in the comparatively neglected domain of the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this study is to contribute to the understanding of corporate processes for developing a sustainability report, the hurdles faced by organisations and the way in which organisational change towards improved accountability occurs and can lead to changes in sustainability performance. Design/methodology/approach -- This research involves engagement through an action research approach involving the observation of corporate meetings, the provision of feedback on those meetings by the researchers and review of internet and hard copy sustainability reporting. Findings -- The study identified a number of impediments to the development of a sustainability reporting framework and its integration into planning and decision making, as well as forces for change. These were analysed using the organisational literature, particularly Kart Lewin's integrated model of planned change. Differences were observed between the state-owned organisation and prior studies of shareholder owned companies in their motivations for achieving sustainability and greater accountability. Practical implications -- From the organisation's perspective, the study provided immediate feedback which enhanced reporting practices and the incorporation of sustainability issues into decision making. The study has the potential to improve practice in other organizations through the identification of impediments to and forces for change not considered in prior theorising. Originality/value -- The action research approach contributes to knowledge and theorising in a way which could not have been achieved through interviews alone. It assisted change within the organisation in: adopting a sustainability reporting framework; integrating sustainability issues into planning and decision making; and, further embedding sustainability and accountability values. The findings in the state owned organisation contrast recent findings for shareholder-owned companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to determine the appropriateness of a general-purpose financial reporting model derived from a "decision-useful" framework for government departments. Design/methodology/approach - This research in this paper uses a survey methodology to access users of government department general purpose financial reports and is innovative because it has directly studied actual users across the entire public sector. Findings - The findings of this paper indicate that general-purpose financial reports are used to satisfy financial accountability and public accountability rather than decision making - indicative of users having an accountability focus rather than a "decision-useful" focus. This provides systematic empirical evidence against the current financial reporting model used international in the public sector. Research limitations/implications - The paper has important implications for policy makers since the choice of an accounting framework has the capacity to affect the information content of reports - what is reported and how it is measured, and thus have a direct impact on the operations of government. The paper argues that it is crucial that public policy regulators re-examine the financial reports provided to stakeholders. Originality/value - The research in this paper is original in that it has, for the first time, systematically reviewed all of the three elements of the public sector general-purpose financial reporting model as well as directly accessing users. The authors can categorically argue for the abandonment of the model in favour of one, which is better suited to the public sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this research is to illustrate how a change from cash-based accounting to accruals-based accounting in the core public sector of New Zealand occurred. Design/methodology/approach - The grounded theory research strategy is used in a field study setting. Findings - The findings suggest that there were six antecedents of the change - key people, axial principles, communicating ideas, contextual determinants, ethos, and knowledge. All of these converged to create the synergistic process of change that led to policy innovations. In this change process, accounting change was a means to an end, where accrual accounting was introduced in order to achieve ministerial control and measure performance of government entities to provide relevant information for management decision making. Research limitations/implications - Since this is a case study based on a single country, not all analytical categories will be relevant to other contexts/countries. However, the study provides a conceptual framework that identifies constructs that are insightful for other settings. Practical implications - The findings of the study will be useful to researchers and policymakers interested in appreciating the causes and catalysts of major policy shifts in public sector accounting. The findings suggest that there are no general reform formats that can be applied to all countries. Originality/value - The insights were derived from participants who were directly involved in the change. The strength of grounded theory strategy used in this study was that, by not being bound by an a priori theory, one was able to ground one's understanding in the factors surrounding the change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it assesses in detail the extent to which corporate reporting on ethical, social and environmental issues reflects corporate performance in case study company Alpha. This "reporting-performance" portrayal gap is a key measure of the extent to which an organisation is accountable to its stakeholders. Alpha's disclosures concerning its ethical, social and environmental performance for the years 1993 and 1999 were compared with information obtained on Alpha`s performance from other sources. Two different pictures of performance emerged leading to the conclusion that, in the case of Alpha, reports do not demonstrate a high level of accountability to key stakeholder groups on ethical, social and environmental issues. Of particular concern is the lack of "completeness" of reporting. Second, the article assesses the potential of recent standards or guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Institute of Social and Ethical Account Ability (Account Ability) as well as the industry's own "responsible care" initiative to reduce this "reporting-performance" portrayal gap and improve corporate accountability. The conclusions point to the need for other measures to improve accountability including mandatory reporting guidelines, better developed audit guidelines, a mandatory audit requirement for MNCs and a radical overhaul of corporate governance systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]