Accountability Studies in Religious Non-Profit Organizations: Possible Contextual and Application Gaps

Zubaidah Mohd Ali,Rozaidy Mahadi

doi:10.5296/ajfa.v13i2.18926

Abstract

Having substantial accountability standards and practices is a vital practice to ensure the survival of Religious-Based Non-Profit Organisations (RNPOs). This is because the RNPOs are not only representing the religion’s ideals but at the same time, there are also responsible in disseminating ethical massage and good values in the community. Since the RNPOs played a significant role in society, many studies have highlighted the need to explore more accountability issues involving RNPOs. Hence, this study aims to provide a taxonomical review of literature that examined RNPOs’ accountability practices and subsequently, suggesting plausible contextual and application gaps for future research. In so doing, this study utilised van Helden and Nortcott’s (2010) and Rozaidy, Siti Nabiha, Rasid, and Raman (2017) taxonomical methods in categorising accountability studies in RNPOs. As a result, four main themes have been identified from 60 selected high-impact journal articles. The four themes are 1) examining the outcomes of corporate integrity and accountability practices; 2) evaluating the RNPOs’ internal control practices; 3) identifying financial reporting disclosures practices among RNPOs; and 4) exploring the influence of leadership skills on RNPOs’ accountability practices.

Highlights

Accountability is defined as the internal and external duty that dictates an individual or organisation to be accountable for their activities, accept responsibility, and disclose the results in a transparency manner (Paiva & Carvalho, 2018; Edwards and Hulme, 1996; Roberts and Scapens, 1985)
60 relevant journals articles were reviewed and 68 percent of the articles were published in top-tier international journals, ranging from business, management, and accounting journals, such as Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ); British Accounting Review (BAR); Critical Perspective on Accounting (CPA); Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS); Accounting Historians Journal
Our taxonomical analysis shows that most of the literature on accountability studies in religious-based NGOs is mainly derived from Christian-based institutions, while there is still a lack of studies done from the perspective of other major religions including Islam, Buddhism, and Hindu

Summary

Introduction

Accountability is defined as the internal and external duty that dictates an individual or organisation to be accountable for their activities, accept responsibility, and disclose the results in a transparency manner (Paiva & Carvalho, 2018; Edwards and Hulme, 1996; Roberts and Scapens, 1985). While Buddhist and Hindu societies showed the main mechanisms of accountability is consist of trust, aspiration, and loyalty (Jayasinghe and Soobaroyen, 2009). Over the past decades, incorporating accountability practices (i.e., integrating good governance practices, sound financial management, adhere to high ethical standards) have become an increasingly important element in projecting virtuous images and values, when it involves Religious-Based Non-Profit Organizations (RNPOs) (Fang et al, 2019; Roslan et al, 2017; Atan et al, 2017; Jayasinghe & Soobaroyen, 2009). Since the main objective of a non-profit organisation is neither profit-making nor reaching financial growth, there are many facets of perspectives of accountability practices of RNPOs are left to be explored

Objectives

Methods

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Conclusion