The governance of UK arts organisations: implications for accountability

Aminah Abdullah and Iqbal Khadaroo

Accounting Research Journal, 2025, vol. 38, issue 5-6, 726-740

Abstract: PurposeThis paper aims to contribute to the governance and accountability literature, by examining how governance processes influence accountability objectives in the context of UK arts organisations.Design/methodology/approachIt uses empirical data from interviews and secondary sources to examine the governance mechanisms used by government to direct and control arts organisations, and the perceptions regarding their effectiveness in achieving accountability objectives.FindingsThe findings show that the government’s value for money rhetoric used to govern art organisations had the unintended consequence of diverting resources away from sociocultural objectives, and reprioritising politico-economic objectives. Arts organisations were pressured to think like businesses to raise funding, cut costs and scale down their sociocultural activities. Interviewees from arts organisations attempted to unshackle from government rules by portraying themselves as champions and protector of arts and culture.Originality/valueDespite the unbalanced power relationship, arts organisations countered the value for money discourse of government by showing their uniqueness and how they contribute to the realms of arts and culture.

Keywords: Governance; Accountability; UK; Arts organisations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/arj/article/38/5-6/726/130 ... K-arts-organisations (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/arj/article-pdf/38/5-6/726 ... j-03-2025-0082en.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:arjpps:arj-03-2025-0082

DOI: 10.1108/ARJ-03-2025-0082

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting Research Journal is currently edited by Yaowen Shan and DaiFei "Troy" Yao

More articles in Accounting Research Journal from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().