Stewart Lawrence

Social and environmental reporting at the VRA: institutionalised legitimacy or legitimation crisis?

Abstract Literature on social and environmental disclosure has sought to provide explanations for corporate decisions to disclose information in annual reports. This paper uses a combination of institutional theory and Habermas’ legitimation theory to explain social and environmental reporting at a Ghanaian public sector organisation, the Volta River Authority (VRA). In the case of the VRA a major influence on environmental reporting is the constant pressure to comply with the requirements of funding agencies, such as the World Bank, in order to provide institutional legitimation. The same sources of pressure which encourage the reporting of physical environmental impacts, lead to undesirable outcomes for the local population. Institutionalised practices lead to prices beyond the reach of local people and work against the original developmental goal of the VRA project. Such effects are invisible and remain so in accounting systems designed to meet the requirements of international institutional legitimisation. The result of institutionalised reporting procedures is not legitimacy, but a crisis of legitimation.

Health management performance

A bewildering variety of performance measures and indicators in health management is evident in the literature and in practice. Reviews measures useful for health management performance accountability, and expands on the traditional notion of health performance measures to incorporate nominal and ordinal measures. The research is performed in the interest of stimulating discussion in the public domain and with the intent of expanding current notions of the term “performance indicator”. Develops a comprehensive framework from measurement and accountability theory, and the medical management, accounting and accountability literatures are reviewed. Highlights the importance of using non‐ratio measures to capture outcomes, structure and processes influenced by management; and suggests that disclosures which include measures from all elements of the framework would most closely account for management activity.

A negotiated order perspective on public sector accounting and financial control

Just over two decades ago, Hopwood criticised accounting researchers for how little they knew of the actual functioning of accounting in organisational contexts. Recently, Parker and Roffey reminded us that this is still the case. A new wave of critical and interpretive researchers have not been able to ground their theorising in the actual practice of accounting. This paper attempts to explicate the negotiated order perspective as a social theory that may help to better understand accounting in its organisational context. The paper not only presents the theoretical constructs of the negotiated order perspective but also a case (Volta River Authority) illustration of how the perspective could help in appreciating accounting practice within organisations and society.

The Great Experiment: Financial Management Reform in the NZ Health Sector

Examines the move towards a commercialized, economically driven, health sector in New Zealand. Reforms involve extensive organizational rearrangements and the creation of profit‐driven businesses in place of public hospitals. These institutional rearrangements involve the fabrication of new ways of accounting. Attempts to understand the processes involved in the development of information technologies before they become accepted “facts” of organizational life. The fabrication of new technologies cannot be understood as an autonomous sphere of activity, but has to be understood as part of a complex series of political, economic and organizational contexts. Accountants are viewed not as mere technicians reporting on what is, but as active agents contributing to change. Accounting often acts as an arbiter in social conflict. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way it is being called upon to assist in the implementation of clause 25 of the Health and Disability Services Bill, which requires hospitals in ...

Accounting systems and systems of accountability in the New Zealand health sector

Studies the transformation of social systems in health organizations in New Zealand and the way in which accounting systems are an integral part of the challenge to extant structures of signification, legitimation and domination. By categorizing various modes or types of social change, and providing analytical means of clarifying social systems, Giddens’s structuration theory is enabling of empirical study. Accounting systems contribute to the binding of time and space in some circumstances, yet can play a part in major discontinuities and disruptions to institutionalized procedures and practices in other circumstances.

Accounting for economic development in the context of post-colonialism: the Fijian experience

This paper presents a study of change in the operations and accounting practices within the Fijian Development Bank (FDB). These changes in practices cannot be understood outside the complex historically constituted contradictions and related tensions in Fijian society. The Bank is faced with the (impossible) task of reconciling a history of colonisation and racial discrimination with the forces of globalisation and drive for economic development. The establishment of profit-centres at Branch level and insistence on profit-driven, commercialised loan and repayment policies contrast with the communal culture of its indigenous people. The contradictions and tensions outside the Bank are evident within. The analysis attempts to make explicit the socio-historic specificity of the contradictions and raises questions about the meaning of development and the nature of development banks.

Global remedies for local needs: Corporate governance and public sector reforms in Fiji

Purpose – This paper aims to extend the literature on public sector reforms in less‐developed countries in the Pacific. It seeks to examine the roles of accounting and control systems in the reforming of two public sector organisations in Fiji: a process that was demanded by international financial agencies. The impacts of the reforms on the local population are also considered.Design/methodology/approach – The case study method is employed. The empirical evidence is interpreted using Laughlins, and Greenwood and Hiningss frameworks. The empirics are used to flesh out the skeletal model with specific cultural and political issues particular to Fiji.Findings – Empirical evidence from two public sector organisations in Fiji that underwent structural reforms is used to illustrate the difficulties of transformation; and how the Fijian peoples needs were not met for the purpose for which the organisations were established.Research limitations/implications – Although this study is limited to two public secto...

Social capital and accountability in grass‐roots NGOs: The case of the Ugandan community‐led HIV/AIDS initiative

Purpose - This paper aims to examine how small, grass-roots non-governmental organisations (NGOs) account for their actions and expenditures and how this accountability is discharged to, and benefits, the citizens they serve. Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on social capital theory to inform an interpretive analysis of documentary and interview evidence. The empirical material is derived from CHAI policy and project documents, coupled with interviews with 75 participants at the national, district and community levels of the CHAI programme. An illustrative case study is presented of an NGO that delivers welfare services to a Ugandan community affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Findings - The research finds that, by harnessing the attributes of social capital, grass-roots NGOs can supplement formal accountability obligations to funders with effective “bottom-up” accountability to an often overlooked NGO stakeholder group – the service beneficiaries, with positive outcomes for social services delivery. Research limitations/implications - The research examines a single community-led public welfare initiative (the Ugandan CHAI), with a particular focus on one illustrative grass-roots NGO within that programme. Nevertheless, it offers insights into how accountability mechanisms can be reconceptualised to suit the context of developing countries where smaller NGOs increasingly operate. Practical implications - The potential for less formal, “bottom-up” accountability mechanisms is illustrated using the case of the Ugandan community-led HIV/AIDS initiative (CHAI), a programme for delivering social services to communities ravaged by the effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Originality/value - This research addresses the lack of empirical studies of smaller, grass-roots NGOs in the accounting literature. It also contributes to the under-researched area of how NGOs can appropriately discharge their accountability obligations to beneficiaries. The use of social capital theory to inform the study is also a novel contribution of this paper.

Does accounting construct the identity of firms as purely self-interested or as socially responsible?

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is time for change in the way the paper teach, theories and practice accounting. Traditional accounting practice constructs the identity of the accountable entity as purely self-interested. Yet, there is evidence that firms do engage in broader activities. This paper aims to explain and illustrate that there are groups of firms that engage in socially responsible activities, yet their accounting systems still assume autopoietic behavior. Accounting should resonate with social expectations, but at present it does not. Design/methodology/approach - – Literature concerning theories of biological autopoiesis and social equivalents are reviewed. They are related to accounting practices, and to concepts of open and closed systems. The theories are related to survey results of socially responsible activities practiced by firms. National surveys undertaken in New Zealand at three-year intervals are the basis of the empirical content of the paper. Findings - – There is evidence that firms behave socially and environmentally responsibly. Yet accounting practice does not encourage such behaviour. Accounting practice has to be able to construct the identity of the accountable entity so that it pursues more than its own self-interest, and resonate with societal expectations. Research limitations/implications - – The paper is unconventional. It challenges extant practice. Its theoretical content may not appeal to many traditional accountants. Originality/value - – The theory and empirics are original. The theory of autopoiesis is illustrated through survey evidence of business practices.

Community‐led initiatives: reforms for better accountability?

Purpose – This paper sets out to contrast the ubiquitous, globalizing influence of new public management (NPM) with an alternative approach more attuned to the local needs of communities, especially those with health and economic problems in less‐developed countries. The Ugandan Community‐led HIV/AIDS Initiative is drawn on to contrast the operation of “bottom‐up” accountability – whereby the deliverers of public services are accountable primarily to the communities they serve – with the usual expectations of an NPM model, which instead focuses on holding public sector managers accountable to their political masters.Design/methodology/approach – A hermeneutics approach is adopted to interpret evidence from: government policy documents; interactions and interviews with public sector actors at national, district and community levels; and one authors own pre‐understanding from his role with the Uganda AIDS Commission.Findings – This Ugandan illustration suggests potential benefits from importing workable as...