Governance and the quasi-public organization: a case study of social housing

Abstract

The paper describes the results of a 3-year study of a social housing organization in England, tracing its transition from local authority-financed social agency into an ‘independent’ social business financed by lenders and following a merger its further transition into a complex business managing £200 million of assets. The study is concerned with the accountability to and by a quasi-public sector Board and how that Board was (or was not) able to exercise effective governance. It asks: Who is accountable? To whom are they accountable? For what are they accountable? The paper builds on the contrast made by Roberts [Acc. Organ. Society 16 (1991) 355; J. Roberts, From discipline to dialogue: individualizing and socializing forms of accountability, in: R. Munro, J. Mouritsen (Eds.), Accountability: Power, Ethos and the Technologies of Managing, International Thomson Business Press, London, 1996; Hum. Relat. 54 (2001) 1547] between a formal, hierarchical system of accountability based on a calculative accounting, and an informal, socializing form of accountability based on a sense-making narrative. The research identifies the limitations of accounting reports and the inadequacy of the narratives surrounding management/Board interaction. The paper identifies a space between the calculative and the narrative that is vacant and where governance is problematic and which impedes broader social accountabilities.