Role Of Public Interest Research Articles

Interpreting the Public Interest: A Survey of Professional Accountants

The accounting profession, like all professions, has a commitment to advance the interests of the general community, as well as those they are contractually bound to serve. Providing services altruistically, at times without compensation, is a salient feature of the public interest ideal. A review of the literature indicates that the profession has abandoned its public interest role so that serving self‐interest now appears to have primacy ( Bédard 2001 ; Canning and O'Dwyer 2001 ; Parker 1994 ; Saravanamuthu 2004 ). The aim of this paper is to examine members' interpretation of the public interest ideal and to elicit their perceptions on issues arising from the literature. The results of a survey to members of CPA Australia indicate that members can iterate the formal definition of the public interest, but their application of the public interest in conflict of interest situations is inconsistent with this definition.

The Media, the News, and Democracy: Revisiting the Dewey-Lippman Debate

(2006). The Media, the News, and Democracy: Revisiting the Dewey-Lippman Debate. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 135-152.

Public sector reforms and the public interest

PurposeAims to examine the changes to budgetary control and performance monitoring in the context of a series of World Bank sponsored public sector reforms.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a longitudinal study of a state enterprise (the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation (GFDC)) in which the World Bank‐sponsored reforms were imposed. This paper especially draws on the dialectic of control from structuration theory.FindingsThe paper shows that budgetary practices at the GFDC did not change substantially, with the exception of the reporting practices. Budgeting remained politicised, delayed, directionless and ineffective. Reporting to the monitoring agency did not make any positive changes to accountability and performance and was thereby unable to serve public interests.Research limitations/implicationsWith hindsight, the authors wished they had undertaken more in‐depth investigations of workers' and farmers' roles in whole performance contracting scenarios and public sector reforms at the GFDC. The failure so to do was mainly because of a shortage of time and the difficulty of obtaining relevant data.Practical implicationsThis paper has raised a number of important but neglected issues concerning the public sector reforms in less developed countries (LDCs) for aid agencies and policy makers.Originality/valueThis paper demonstrates the usefulness of Giddens' idea of the dialectic of control in the contextual study of management controls, including budgeting and performance in the public sector in LDCs. Also, the paper makes an important contribution highlighting the public interest role of management controls especially in the context of public sector reforms.

Gold-collarism in the Academy: the dilemma in transforming bean-counters into knowledge consultants

Kelley (1985) coins the term “gold-collar” to signify the end of knowledge workers’ struggle for control over the labour process. He argues that their ability to turn knowledge into profits make them crucial for the survival of the firm in the Information Age. Kelley’s win–win outcome (making the world a better place) is dependent on the formulation of new rules of engagement and accountability to harness gold-collar knowledge and creativity. By definition, gold-collarism includes accountants and it draws attention to the “ethics versus profits” dilemma the profession is embroiled in. The (gold-collared) profession appears to have abandoned its public interest role for a more lucrative one of consulting-partner to the business community despite its presumed impartiality in transforming management’s rules of engagement (with multiple stakeholders). Further, its pronouncements on future directions seek to commodify accounting education to produce compliant hegemonic technicians. It should instead seek to formulate ethical accountability by enabling a healthy struggle over ideologies. This paper applies Gramsci’s (1971, 1995) dialectic of formative-instructive education to argue that it is an opportune moment for critical accounting to raise awareness of the politics behind these rules of engagement—as a precursor to innovating sustainable business practices for the 21st century.

Appropriating Liberation

AbstractMedia and nonhuman animal liberation is an under-researched area in the United Kingdom. If the most appropriate metaphor describing the media/social movement relationship is "dance," then largely the media and animal liberation are dancing in the dark of neglect. Drawing upon different approaches to media and offering some notes toward animal liberation media studies, this article explores how, by engaging with the "established terms of the problematic at play," animal liberationists and their claims are appropriated by speciesist ideology through exclusion and confusing and redefining maneuvers. A contextual analysis of its typical texts raises questions of the public interest role, due impartiality of media and, implicitly, of movement strategy.

In/forming education policy

Policy makers in a variety of sites are embracing initiatives that attempt to tighten the links between school and work. A reinvented human capital discourse argues that more highly skilled workers are required to meet the demands of the ‘knowledge economy’. This paper explores the new vocationalism as it is promoted within the Framework for Enhancing Business Involvement, a policy report produced in 1996 in Alberta, Canada. Using a critical policy approach, this paper focuses on the process of developing this document with attention to the policy context, influences on the process, ideological assumptions and the impact of the document since its release. Analysis suggests that questions of representation in policy processes, accountability for outcomes and the role of public interests in multi-stakeholder consultation are critical in this era of new public management practices. Further, despite the impression of unity and consensus suggested by policy documents, there are tensions in vocational education and policy that must be addressed if they are also to promote equity.

The role of government in IT standards

Government involvement in the IT standards process often includes funding, regulatory, and legislative mandates; trade and procurement policies; and sometimes outright control. Examples of all these exist in various countries, jurisdictions, and technical areas around the world. However, governments also play a major role as IT consumers. The specifications adopted by a government as a consumer facilitate widespread use in industry. Therefore, governments are in a unique position to participate in the standards process in a way that not only reflects a public interest role but also considers consumer concerns. Just as industry cannot operate without government as a partner in defining priorities and ensuring satisfactory results, governments cannot effectively represent their constituents by taking unilateral action in establishing standards. The government must appreciate the role it plays as an informed consumer with a potential for applying life cycle planning.