Stakeholder salience and accounting practices in Tanzanian NGOs

摘要

Purpose - This paper seeks to investigate the influence of stakeholders on accountabilityrnrelationships and the development of accounting practices and processes within two Tanzanianrnnon-governmental organisations (NGOs).rnDesign/methodology/approach - Stakeholder analysis is employed to evaluate the positions ofrnstakeholder groups in terms of Mitchell et al's attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency. Datarnanalysis was undertaken using a grounded theory approach.rnFindings - The research found that overseas donors were the stakeholders with the highest saliencernas a result of which they significantly influenced accountability relationships and accountingrnprocesses and practices within NGOs. Despite the often proclaimed NGOs' objective of improvingrnwelfare of beneficiary groups there appeared to be little accountability by NGOs to beneficiaries.rnDifferences in the accounting functions in the NGOs were explained by the influence of dominantrnstakeholders, the credibility of the organisation and its managers and the varied ways through whichrnthe organisations negotiated and accounted for funding. Moreover, accounting was virtuallyrnunemployed in internal decision-making processes indicating that it was largely a tool for satisfyingrnclaims of the highly salient stakeholders.rnResearch limitations/implications - This paper makes a contribution to the literatures of bothrnstakeholder theory and NGO accounting. From the grounded theory analysis it is suggested that thernstakeholder framework of Mitchell et al. could be usefully extended in the three areas of powerrnasymmetries of definitive stakeholders, stakeholder salience asymmetries across organisationalrnphenomena and asymmetries across time.rnOriginality/value - The paper contributes to the empirical accounting literature by seeking a deeperrnunderstanding of how and why accounting and accountability relationships develop within NGOs. Itrnsheds light on a type of organisation that has not been extensively studied in the public sectorrnmanagement literature.