TY - JOUR
T1 - Marching with the volunteers
T2 - Their role and impact on beneficiary accountability in an Indonesian NGO
AU - Dewi, Miranti Kartika
AU - Manochin, Melina
AU - Belal, Ataur
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge cooperation extended by the participants of this study and the funding provided for this study by the Directorate General of Resources for Science, Technology, and Higher Education, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education of Indonesia. Earlier versions of the paper were presented at the CSEAR, UK Conference, Royal Holloway, August 2015, and APIRA Conference, Melbourne, July 2016. Thanks to the participants for their comments on the paper. The authors are grateful to Deryl Northcott, Carolyn Cordery and two anonymous reviewers for their encouragement and extensive written comments on the paper.
Funding Information:
Ataur Belal is Professor of Accounting at Sheffield University Management School, The University of Sheffield, UK. Formerly, he was Professor and Head of the Accounting Department at Aston Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. Formerly, he was Joint Editor of Advances in Environmental Accounting and Management and, currently, Associate Editor of Accounting Forum. Ataur obtained his PhD from the University of Sheffield, UK. His work has appeared in the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Accounting Forum, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Journal of Business Ethics and Work, Employment and Society. He has presented his research in many international conferences around the world and obtained funding from the British Academy, CIMA and the British Council. Ataur Belal is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: a.r.belal@sheffield.ac.uk
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2019/6/20
Y1 - 2019/6/20
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of volunteers and its impact on related accountability practices towards beneficiaries by a large humanitarian non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a qualitative case study design. The empirical evidence comes from rich fieldwork carried out in an Indonesian NGO. The authors collected the evidence mainly via 46 interviews and five focus groups. Findings: The authors found that the case NGO drew heavily on the social and cultural capitals of volunteers in the process of serving its beneficiaries, which, in turn, facilitated the enhancement of its accountability to the beneficiaries. The authors also found that volunteers play a bridging role to reduce the distance between NGOs and beneficiaries. Research limitations/implications: For NGO managers, this study provides necessary empirical evidence on the positive role played by the volunteers in the development and operationalisation of accountability to the beneficiaries. In the authors’ case, beneficiary accountability is enhanced by the social conduct and practices performed by the NGO’s numerous volunteers. Beneficiary accountability is of significant concern to the policy makers too. This study shows that volunteers and NGO can work in a reciprocal relationship where social and cultural capital can be mobilised to each other’s advantage. To facilitate beneficiary accountability, NGOs can draw on the socio-cultural capitals held by the volunteers who appear to share the same norms and expectations with the beneficiaries. This process can also lead to the building of social and cultural capital by the volunteers themselves as they achieve great satisfaction and gain valuable experience in this process that could lead to greater satisfaction in their spiritual and material lives. Originality/value: The authors extend the previous literature on beneficiary accountability by highlighting the under-researched role of volunteers in such accountability practices. In this paper, the authors first discuss the facilitating role of volunteers in enhancing NGOs’ accountability towards beneficiaries. Then, this is illustrated empirically. In addition, the authors argue that although Bourdieusian concepts like field and capital have been widely used in the analysis of various organisational practices the concept of habitus received limited attention particularly from the context of developing countries. The authors undertake an examination of the habitus of volunteers in the Indonesian case organisation and explore their linkages with the field and associated capitals.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of volunteers and its impact on related accountability practices towards beneficiaries by a large humanitarian non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopted a qualitative case study design. The empirical evidence comes from rich fieldwork carried out in an Indonesian NGO. The authors collected the evidence mainly via 46 interviews and five focus groups. Findings: The authors found that the case NGO drew heavily on the social and cultural capitals of volunteers in the process of serving its beneficiaries, which, in turn, facilitated the enhancement of its accountability to the beneficiaries. The authors also found that volunteers play a bridging role to reduce the distance between NGOs and beneficiaries. Research limitations/implications: For NGO managers, this study provides necessary empirical evidence on the positive role played by the volunteers in the development and operationalisation of accountability to the beneficiaries. In the authors’ case, beneficiary accountability is enhanced by the social conduct and practices performed by the NGO’s numerous volunteers. Beneficiary accountability is of significant concern to the policy makers too. This study shows that volunteers and NGO can work in a reciprocal relationship where social and cultural capital can be mobilised to each other’s advantage. To facilitate beneficiary accountability, NGOs can draw on the socio-cultural capitals held by the volunteers who appear to share the same norms and expectations with the beneficiaries. This process can also lead to the building of social and cultural capital by the volunteers themselves as they achieve great satisfaction and gain valuable experience in this process that could lead to greater satisfaction in their spiritual and material lives. Originality/value: The authors extend the previous literature on beneficiary accountability by highlighting the under-researched role of volunteers in such accountability practices. In this paper, the authors first discuss the facilitating role of volunteers in enhancing NGOs’ accountability towards beneficiaries. Then, this is illustrated empirically. In addition, the authors argue that although Bourdieusian concepts like field and capital have been widely used in the analysis of various organisational practices the concept of habitus received limited attention particularly from the context of developing countries. The authors undertake an examination of the habitus of volunteers in the Indonesian case organisation and explore their linkages with the field and associated capitals.
KW - Indonesia
KW - Social capital
KW - Volunteers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065654381&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/AAAJ-10-2016-2727
DO - 10.1108/AAAJ-10-2016-2727
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065654381
VL - 32
SP - 1117
EP - 1145
JO - Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
JF - Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
SN - 0951-3574
IS - 4
ER -