Researching the lived experience of corporate governance

Ahrens, Thomas; Khalifa, Rihab

doi:10.1108/11766091311316176

Cited by 34 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…We preferred this analysis to a formal bottom up/grounded theory coding process because we had, through our extensive prior discussions and readings, already a fairly developed idea of what we were looking for. Our data suggested that in the experience of the actors in Newcastle the budgeting developments were caught up in a larger narrative of fairness and politics (Ahrens and Khalifa, 2013), suggesting the significance of budgeting for the shaping of new accountability relationships.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 76%

Newcastle City Council and the grassroots: accountability and budgeting under austerity

Ahrens

Ferry

2015

Acc Auditing Accountability J

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on new accountability relationships between Newcastle City Council (NCC) and its citizens and stakeholders in the wake of the British government's austerity politics and its budget cuts for local authorities. It seeks to show some of the ways in which various kinds of budgeting, for example, for alternative sources of funding, the use of volunteers for service provision, resource sharing, and asset transfers, as well as a diverse set of accounts of the social implications of resource diversions and service cuts, have been implicated in those changes.Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a qualitative field study of some of the uses of budgets in the shaping of accountability relationships through interviews with Council officers, conversations with activists and citizens, analysis of Council and other documents, and observation of public meetings and demonstrations. Our approach focused on the relationship between the city's political grassroots and the NCC leadership and administration. Findings:We find that NCC's senior politicians and officers co-opted the city's political grassroots and managed to reconstitute local political accountability to citizenry and stakeholders as a choice between the cessation of different types of local government services, by combining appeals to the legal framework of English local authorities, the unfairness of national politics, and the fairness of local government service provision. Local government blamed the funding cuts and the resulting resource shortages on the central government. It sought to push responsibility for cuts to the local citizenry whilst reserving for itself the role of mediator and adjudicator who makes the final decisions about the portfolio of causes that will be funded.Originality/value: This is the first study to offer detailed insight into the effects of the British government's austerity budget cuts of local authority grants on the politics of accountability in a local authority.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 76%

Newcastle City Council and the grassroots: accountability and budgeting under austerity

Ahrens

Ferry

2015

Acc Auditing Accountability J

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“…But to properly research the lived experience of corporate governance, Ahrens and Khalifa (2013) advocate deep ethnographic descriptions.…”

Section: Future Research On Praxismentioning

confidence: 99%

Audit committees: practices, practitioners and praxis of governance

Brennan

Kirwan

2015

Accounting, Auditing &Amp; Accountability Journal

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review and critique prior research on audit committees using a practice-theory lens. Research on audit committees has followed the same trajectory as early research on boards of directors, which has been criticised for its singular theoretical perspectives and methodologies that do not capture the complexity of real-world experiences/behaviours. Design/methodology/approach – The authors devise an analytical framework based on practice theory to conduct the review. The authors examine what audit committees should do (i.e. best practice) vs what audit committees actually do (i.e. actual activities in practice – praxis). Attributes of audit committee members, and the relationship dynamics relevant to their role execution (i.e. practitioners), are considered. Findings – Research on boards has found that over-emphasis on agency theory’s monitoring role negatively impacts boards’ effectiveness. The authors invoke other theories in examining what audit committees do in practice. The authors characterise the role of audit committees as oversight not monitoring. The authors question whether, similar to auditing, audit committees are blamist tools or are genuinely orientated towards supporting improvements in organisational management systems. The authors unpack the ritualistic ceremonial behaviours and symbolic endeavours vs substantive engagement by audit committees. The analytical framework also considers the “guardianship circle” around audit committees in the form of the key practitioners and their relationships: audit committee members, auditors and managers. Originality/value – Drawing on the analytical framework, the authors provide directions for further opportunities for research of audit committees.

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“…Interview topics included the politics of planning, budgeting, reporting, and control practices. The purpose was to enable us to get a sense of the interviewees' lived experience of the local authority governance context (Ahrens and Khalifa, 2013). Moreover, contemporary and historical NCC governance, budgeting and performance management documentation was analysed.…”

Section: Research Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

The hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control

Ahrens

Ferry

Khalifa

2018

QRAM

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This article is c Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here http://dro.dur.ac.uk/23928. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Structured abstractPurpose -This paper traces the hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the contexts that gave rise to hybridisation than do previous accountability research frameworks.Design/methodology/approach -Using practice theory this paper interprets findings from a field study of Newcastle City Council and a review of relevant local authority regulation for England, stretching back to the 1980s.Findings -The hybridisation of financial and service expertise has entailed major changes to the practices on which local authority management depends, fuelled by a changing societal role of local authorities. Frequently, local authorities are no longer providers of public services but enablers who purchase services and manage arms-length contracts. This paper identifies some of the ways in which three structural elements that underpin local authority management practices have evolved to give rise to novel practices.Research implications/limitations -Even though this paper's research into changing regulatory frameworks, rules, and evolving local authority financial practices is based on institutional changes in England since the 1980s, the fieldwork element which fleshes out certain implications for local authority practices has focused on Newcastle City Council. Future research could fruitfully examine these issues in other local authorities.Practical implications -The hybridisation of financial and service expertise has contributed to reshaping local government beyond the rules that are put in place for regulating the sector by giving rise to new practices. Recent key developments include new service delivery arrangements, for example, through council-owned subsidiaries or third sector organisations. It is important that, in an austerity context, new risks to 'off the books' service quality is matched by new control and audit arrangements. Moreover, the professional bodies that service local government should recognise the new forms of hybridisation of finance and service expertise, and ensure arrangements for the changing skill sets of those...

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Researching the lived experience of corporate governance

Cited by 34 publications

References 65 publications

Newcastle City Council and the grassroots: accountability and budgeting under austerity

Newcastle City Council and the grassroots: accountability and budgeting under austerity

Audit committees: practices, practitioners and praxis of governance

The hybridising of financial and service expertise in English local authority budget control

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