Modelling Accountability: A Thick Interactive Approach to Transparency and Participation in Voluntary Organisations
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis offers a systematic study of accountability in the voluntary sector. Existing studies of accountability tend to veer towards normative and prescriptive analyses, which fail effectively to model accountability mechanisms. They do not test the relationships between the diverse variables that can explain practices of accountability in voluntary organisations. Equally, they typically promote what I term ‘thin’ conceptualisations of accountability, either privileging the dimension of transparency or that of stakeholder engagement. Adding to such studies, this thesis develops a ‘thick’ account of accountability practices which brings together these two privileged dimensions, transparency and stakeholder engagement, in a hybrid model that breakdowns stages, levels, and mechanisms of stakeholder engagement. In so doing, it not only tests the validity of this innovative model of accountability across the voluntary sector, but also enables lessons to be drawn as to the significance of different practices of transparency and stakeholder engagement, how these dimensions interact, and the impact of variables such as organisational size, affiliation, levels and sources of income and policies and practice guidelines on accountability. Through the quantitative analysis of an original survey of voluntary organisations in England and Wales prior to austerity, the thesis draws attention to the inconsistent practices of transparency and stakeholder engagement across the sector. In so doing, it throws doubt on the narrative of organisational fixes, suggesting that there is no identifiable nor significant trend in the relationship between organisational affiliation, age, and size and practices of accountability. More importantly, the study foregrounds the complex interactions of policy and practice, shedding doubt on whether policies or the existence of a formal policy actually matters in terms of explaining practices of accountability. It reveals the complexity surrounding p…
abstract: This thesis offers a systematic study of accountability in the voluntary sector. Existing studies of accountability tend to veer towards normative and prescriptive analyses, which fail effectively to model accountability mechanisms. They do not test the relationships between the diverse variables that can explain practices of accountability in voluntary organisations. Equally, they typically promote what I term ‘thin’ conceptualisations of accountability, either privileging the dimension of transparency or that of stakeholder engagement. Adding to such studies, this thesis develops a ‘thick’ account of accountability practices which brings together these two privileged dimensions, transparency and stakeholder engagement, in a hybrid model that breakdowns stages, levels, and mechanisms of stakeholder engagement. In so doing, it not only tests the validity of this innovative model of accountability across the voluntary sector, but also enables lessons to be drawn as to the significance of different practices of transparency and stakeholder engagement, how these dimensions interact, and the impact of variables such as organisational size, affiliation, levels and sources of income and policies and practice guidelines on accountability. Through the quantitative analysis of an original survey of voluntary organisations in England and Wales prior to austerity, the thesis draws attention to the inconsistent practices of transparency and stakeholder engagement across the sector. In so doing, it throws doubt on the narrative of organisational fixes, suggesting that there is no identifiable nor significant trend in the relationship between organisational affiliation, age, and size and practices of accountability. More importantly, the study foregrounds the complex interactions of policy and practice, shedding doubt on whether policies or the existence of a formal policy actually matters in terms of explaining practices of accountability. It reveals the complexity surrounding p…
author: Kayyali, Osama
license: https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/99577b17-bdd2-4759-a6d9-1bec225801f4/download
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:18:31Z
provider: De Montfort University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: De Montfort University