Understanding Accountability in Social Enterprise Organisations: A Framework

Purpose: Social enterprise organisations (SEOs) operate across the boundaries of the public, private and not‐for‐profit (NFP) sectors in delivering public services and competing for resources and legitimacy. While there is a rich literature on accountability in the private and public sectors, together with the wider NFP sector, SEOs have received comparatively little attention and remain a relatively under‐researched organisational form. Drawing on accountability, legitimacy and user‐needs theories, the purpose of this paper is to develop a practical framework which can be used to explore how accountability within SEOs is constructed and discharged.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on user‐needs, accountability, legitimacy and impression management theories expounded in relation to the private, public and NFP sectors.

Findings: A framework to better understand how accountability can be discharged by SEOs is developed and discussed.

Research limitations/implications: While a framework for better understanding SEO accountability is presented, it is not empirically tested. However, the framework has the potential to facilitate a deeper appreciation of the theory and practice of accountability within SEOs and, notwithstanding the inherent difficulties in measuring and managing accountability, could be used to stimulate practitioner involvement.

Practical implications
– As little is known about the current extent of SEO information disclosure or accountability relationships, the framework could be used to assess the discharge of accountability by SEOs, with the findings informing future developments. This should provide useful insights into internal processes and organisational views on accountability bases and mechanisms and can then be used to inform the debate on how SEOs can best discharge their duty to account.

Social implications
– Understanding the nature of SEO accountability reporting has important implications for those involved in advancing the SEO agenda. At a time of public sector cutbacks, and with the government searching for new and more effective ways of delivering services, the role of SEOs in this process is likely to receive greater attention and scrutiny.

Originality/value
– SEOs have grown extensively in size and prominence in recent years and policymakers have come to embrace the role that they play in societal development. This paper responds to a gap in the theoretical literature and contributes to the debate by developing a framework which can be empirically tested. Moreover, it can be used to prompt practitioner involvement and facilitate a better understanding of the complex issues surrounding accounting and accountability in this under‐researched area.

Cultured responses: the production of social capital in faith based organisations

The theoretical concept of ‘social capital’ has been increasingly invoked in connection to religion by academics, policy makers, charities and Faith Based Organisations (FBOs). Drawing on the popularisation of the term by Robert Putnam, many in these groups have hailed the religious as one of the most productive generators of social capital in today’s societies. In this article, we examine this claim through ethnographic material relating to Faithworks, a national ‘movement’ of Christians who provide welfare services within their communities. We claim that to apply the term ‘social capital’ in a meaningful sociological manner to FBOs requires a return to Pierre Bourdieu’s use of the term in order to refuse to extricate it from the practices in which it is enmeshed.

The Emergence of Rural Support Organisations in the UK and Canada: Providing Support for Patrilineal Family Farming

A certain type of rural support has emerged since agricultural restructuring of the 1980s. The article draws on research from the UK and Canada to suggest that support in both countries is derived from a patrilineal culture that still dominates family farming in both countries. Such a way of life, it is argued, involves the majority of farming men and women across generations working increasingly hard to ensure farm survival in order to facilitate an overall pattern of farm succession via the male or ‘patrilineal’ line. The article begins by providing a conceptualisation of patrilineal family farming drawing on insights from gender-informed work on farming identities, political-economy approaches from agricultural geography and the cultural turn in rural studies. This section will provide theoretical direction for discussion of the research findings. Here the article presents a discussion of the context to and typologies of organisations that emerged and five key findings derived from research conducted with members of the organisations in the UK and Canada. This assists in developing the argument that the emergent organisations are responding to and supporting this way of life and highlights some of the potential implications of doing so. The article has two aims. Firstly, it suggests that family farming in the UK and Canada continues to be predominantly structured by a way of life transmitted across generations which has the overall prerequisite of maintaining farm survival to enable patrilineal succession. Secondly, it suggests that a particular type of support for farming families emerged as a response to perceived threats to this way of life and provides evidence of its enduring nature.

"Variations on Psycho Killer" - Musical Score. Commissioned by Pauline Kim Harris. A virtuosic set of variations on the famous Talking Heads song for solo violin. General information State: Unpublished Organisations: School of Creative Arts, Sonic Arts, UOA35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts Authors: Lyon, E. Keywords: (Talking Heads, Violin Music) Publication date: 2012

Musical Score. Commissioned by Pauline Kim Harris. A virtuosic set of variations on the famous Talking Heads song for solo violin.

"The End" for piano and computer. Performed by Shiau-uen Ding. Composer's Voice Concert Series: 15 Minutes of Fame. Jan Hus Church, NYC. General information State: Published Organisations: School of Creative Arts, Sonic Arts, UOA35 - Music, Drama, Dance and Performing Arts Authors: Lyon, E.

Performed by Shiau-uen Ding. Composer's Voice Concert Series: 15 Minutes of Fame. Jan Hus Church, NYC.

Protecting the most vulnerable in an economic crisis: a participatory study of civil society organisations in the Republic of Ireland

This paper advances knowledge of how civil society organisations (CSOs) negotiate the shift from boom-time public expenditure to governmental austerity. The study focuses on the Republic of Ireland, where CSOs occupied an important role in providing a voice for ‘vulnerable’citizens in corporatism for over a decade. The global financial crisis and subsequent austerity measures caused the country’s model of corporatist-style ‘social partnership’ to collapse. The article connects CSOs’ adaptation to austerity measures when protecting the ‘people behind the cuts’ to broader questions about co-optation of civil society through state-led policymaking
institutions.

The British are not coming! UK higher education and the nonprofit sector

The rationale for the growth of nonprofit management education in the United States has recently been charted by O'Neill (2005). Ten years previously, the United States and the United Kingdom were at similar levels of development. By 2006 the parallel lines had been broken. Why has nonprofit management education expanded in the United States while provision of graduate education for the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom has stood still? This article explores the factors that have prevented parallel growth in education provision. It argues that the university as an institution, both in terms of its nature and its power structures, is one of those factors. It presents the story of the closing of the world's first voluntary sector course at the London School of Economics and concludes with reflection on the likely future of voluntary sector management education provision in the United Kingdom.

The Management of Long-Term Sickness Absence in Large Public Sector Healthcare Organisations: A Realist Evaluation Using Mixed Methods

Purpose The success of measures to reduce long-term sickness absence (LTSA) in public sector organisations is contingent on organisational context. This realist evaluation investigates how interventions interact with context to influence successful management of LTSA. Methods Multi-method case study in three Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland comprising realist literature review, semi-structured interviews (61 participants), Process-Mapping and feedback meetings (59 participants), observation of training, analysis of documents. Results Important activities included early intervention; workplace-based occupational rehabilitation; robust sickness absence policies with clear trigger points for action. Used appropriately, in a context of good interpersonal and interdepartmental communication and shared goals, these are able to increase the motivation of staff to return to work. Line managers are encouraged to take a proactive approach when senior managers provide support and accountability. Hindering factors: delayed intervention; inconsistent implementation of policy and procedure; lack of resources; organisational complexity; stakeholders misunderstanding each other’s goals and motives. Conclusions Different mechanisms have the potential to encourage common motivations for earlier return from LTSA, such as employees feeling that they have the support of their line manager to return to work and having the confidence to do so. Line managers’ proactively engage when they have confidence in the support of seniors and in their own ability to address LTSA. Fostering these motivations calls for a thoughtful, diagnostic process, taking into account the contextual factors (and whether they can be modified) and considering how a given intervention can be used to trigger the appropriate mechanisms.

Transparency in Reporting on Charities’ Efficiency: A Framework for Analysis

In recent difficult economic times, the efficiency with which a charity spends the funds entrusted to it has become an increasingly important aspect of charitable performance. Transparency on efficiency, including the reporting of relevant measures and information to understand, contextualise and evaluate such measures, is suggested as important to a range of stakeholders. However, using a novel framework for the analysis of efficiency reporting in the context of transparency and stakeholder theory, this research provides evidence that reporting on efficiency in UK (United Kingdom) charities lacks transparency, both in terms of the extent and manner of disclosure. It is argued that efficiency reporting in UK charities is more concerned with legitimising these organisations rather than providing ethically-driven accounts of their efficiency.