Hybrid organizations and an ethic of accountability: the role of accountability systems in constructing responsible hybridity
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 9 October 2020
Issue publication date: 9 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Building on the research program of Dillard and Brown (2015) and Dillard and Vinnari (2019), specifically related to an “ethic of accountability,” this paper recognizes accountability systems as key to how organizations conceptualize their responsibility to society. The objective is to explore how managers of hybrid organizations conceptualize responsibility and the role of accountability systems in their conceptualization.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies hybrid organizations that are for-profit entities with explicitly recognized non-economic imperatives. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with managers of organizations that pursue certification as a B-Corporation, often in conjunction with a legal designation as a benefit corporation.
Findings
Managers of the hybrid organizations evidenced a broader responsibility logic that extends beyond responsibility to shareholders. This pluralistic orientation and broader set of objectives are expressed in a set of certification standards that represent an accountability system that both enables and constrains the way responsibility is understood. The accountability system reflects a “felt” accountability to the “other” manifested, for example, as generational accountability, with the other (re)created relative to the certification standards.
Research limitations/implications
Certifications and standards represent accounting-based accountability systems that produce a type of accountability in which the certification becomes the overall objective nudging out efforts to take accountability-based accounting seriously (Dillard and Vinnari, 2019). At the same time, the hybrids under study, while not perfect exemplars, incline toward an ethic of accountability (Dillard and Brown, 2014) that moves them closer to accountability-based accounting.
Originality/value
The findings reveal perspectives of managers embedded in hybrid organizations, illustrating their experiences of responsibility and accountability systems in practice (Grossi et al., 2019). The insights can be extended to other hybrid contexts where accountability systems may be used to demonstrate multiple performance objectives. We also recognize the irony in the need for an organization to be required to attain a special license to operate in a more responsible manner.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The authors also thank participants at the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Accounting Conference (2018) and the Mid-Year Meeting of the Public Interest Section of the American Accounting Association (2019). This paper greatly benefited from the comments and suggestions of the guest editors and two anonymous reviewers. Finally, the authors thank interview participants for their time and insight into the functioning of hybrid organizations.
Citation
Baudot, L., Dillard, J. and Pencle, N. (2022), "Hybrid organizations and an ethic of accountability: the role of accountability systems in constructing responsible hybridity", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 598-626. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-11-2019-4287
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited