Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/189304

Title

Accountability and information in local government

Author(s)

Tippet, John;  Kluvers, Ron

Abstract

Whilst information cannot be equated with accountability it is an essential ingredient and the raw material of the accountability relationship. This study explores the understanding of the link between information and accountability, as revealed by Victorian local government managers and elected councillors in a New Public Management (NPM) environment. Associations between the proposition that access to information by all stakeholders is essential for accountability and mechanisms to provide information were investigated. Participation in decision making and compulsory reporting were seen by councillors and managers to be important to accountability. A key finding is that whilst councillors and managers consider information to be an essential ingredient of accountability, this information is considered by them to be an intra-organisational matter, and not an issue of vital importance to stakeholders outside the council. Thus, the information councillors and managers use and value is appropriate for managerial accountability, not political accountability.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Business and Enterprise

Source

World Journal of Management, Vol. 2, no. 3 (Sep 2010), pp. 22-33

Publication year

2010

FOR Code(s)

150102 Auditing and Accountability;  150303 Corporate Governance and Stakeholder Engagement;  150310 Organisation and Management Theory

Keyword(s)

Accountability;  Accounting;  Auditing;  Business;  Local government;  Management

Publisher

World Business Institute

ISSN

1836-070X

Publisher URL

http://www.wbiaus.org/contents_current%20october_WJM.htm

Copyright

Copyright © 2010. This journal is published by the World Business Institute, Australia.

Peer reviewed