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Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 1, 56-87 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0899764004269430

Accountability Myopia: Losing Sight of Organizational Learning

Alnoor Ebrahim

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, aebrahim{at}vt.edu

This article challenges a normative assumption about accountability in organizations: that more accountability is necessarily better. More specifically, it examines two forms of "myopia" that characterize conceptions of accountability among service-oriented nonprofit organizations: (a) accountability as a set of unconnected binary relationships rather than as a system of relations and (b) accountability as short-term and rule-following behavior rather than as a means to longer-term social change. The article explores the effects of these myopias on a central mechanism of accountability in organizations—evaluation—and proposes a broader view of accountability that includes organizational learning. Future directions for research and practice are elaborated.

Key Words: accountability • organizational learning • evaluation • reporting • outcome measurement


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