Stakeholder salience and accounting practices in Tanzanian NGOs
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Date
2010
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Abstract
This paper uses stakeholder theory to explore the nature and behaviour of different
stakeholders in NGOs. The paper also explores the use of a stakeholder analysis to
understand accounting practices within these organisations. Empirical literature on non
governmental organisations is sparse within accounting and management disciplines. The
paper presents an analysis of the interactions between organisational actors and
stakeholders in two case studies. It gives an account of events and analyses the
implications of stakeholder salience on accounting practices and processes in the
organisations. A substantial literature exists which addresses the question 'who are
stakeholders?' and a number of typologies have been suggested. However, the empirical
descriptive component of stakeholder theory, that is the description and explanation of 'to
what’ and ‘how' managers pay attention in stakeholder interactions (Jones, 1995;
Donaldson and Preston, 1995; Mitchell et al., 1997; Frooman, 1999) has not received
much attention. This paper is a contribution to that research.
Description
Purpose-This paper seeks to investigate the influence of stakeholders on accountability
relationships and the development of accounting practices and processes within two
Tanzanian non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Design/methodology/approach-
Stakeholder analysis is employed to evaluate the positions of stakeholder groups in terms of Mitchell et al.'s attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. Data analysis was undertaken using a grounded theory approach. Findings-The research found that overseas donors
Keywords
Non‐governmental organizations, NGOs, Stakeholder analysis, Accounting, Tanzania
Citation
Mussa J. Assad, Andrew R. Goddard, (2010) "Stakeholder salience and accounting practices in Tanzanian NGOs", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 23 Iss: 3, pp.276 - 299