Authority, Accountability and Accounting

Abstract

A central role of accounting has been and is to support the processes of accountability, whether of individuals, groups or organisations. This idea of accountability is normally embedded in relationships where the person of lower status is accountable to the person of higher status. Mutual or reciprocal accountability does not get much attention, in the literature of management control or, indeed, in the literature of organisations. Such Accountability, from one level to another, is a characteristic of hierarchies.

Unless we have some clear notions about authority we have little or no basis for accountability to others and hence no basis for accounting. Here accountability is viewed as the process through which delegated or granted authority is exercised and hence is a process of control.

In the first section of this chapter, Weber's ideal types of authority are used as a basis for understanding the prevalence of hierarchy as a structure of authority. The second section moves on to a consideration of alternatives to hierarchy in organisations. The conclusion is an argument for a radical rethinking of authority, accountability and control in organisations along the notions of the regulation of the boundaries of self-managing groups.