| Abstract: | Accountability is examined in the light of an emerging commercial agenda. Specific to this agenda are new business strategies which involve a loosening of accounting controls. It is this loosening of accounting controls which presages some shift away from hierarchical accountability and opens up the opportunity for lateral accountability. However, the authors show how hierarchical accountability orientates managers towards surveillance of "decisions" within a dyadic structure of superior-subordinates. It is argued that, given this orientation, managers are likely to subvert practices which develop in the name of lateral accountability into acting as a "supplement" for more intensive surveillance. To guard against this danger the authors explore an "image" of business drawn from concepts of community, affiliation and self-audit to replace the prevailing "stakeholder-decisions" model. |
