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Public Professional Accountability: A Conditional Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Dirk Vriens

    (Radboud University Nijmegen)

  • Ed Vosselman

    (Radboud University Nijmegen)

  • Claudia Groß

    (Radboud University Nijmegen)

Abstract

In the past decades, profession(al)s have increasingly been called to account. Several authors have reported that this increased public professional accountability, in the form of showing that professional conduct meets predefined standards or rules, has had severe negative consequences for professionals, their clients and society, and call for ‘intelligent’ forms of accountability; forms of accountability that may inform a wider public about professional conduct but do not harm it. In this paper, we propose a form of ‘intelligent’ public professional accountability. Taking Freidson’s (Professionalism. The third logic, Polity Press, Cambridge, 2001) notion of institutional ethics as a point of departure, we develop a form of accountability that seeks to account for the conditions required for professional conduct. The paper first discusses the current ‘dilemma of professional accountability,’ describes ‘ideal-type professional conduct’ and goes into the conditions it requires. Next, it shows what accounting for these conditions entails and that this form of accountability fits the criteria for intelligent accountability, as set by O’Neill (in: Morris and Vines (eds.) Capital failure: rebuilding trust in financial services, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014).

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk Vriens & Ed Vosselman & Claudia Groß, 2018. "Public Professional Accountability: A Conditional Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1179-1196, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:153:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3345-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3345-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Roberts, John, 2009. "No one is perfect: The limits of transparency and an ethic for 'intelligent' accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 957-970, November.
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    3. Crawford Spence & Chris Carter, 2014. "An exploration of the professional habitus in the Big 4 accounting firms," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 28(6), pages 946-962, December.
    4. Shearer, Teri, 2002. "Ethics and accountability: from the for-itself to the for-the-other," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 541-573, August.
    5. Daniel Muzio & David M. Brock & Roy Suddaby, 2013. "Professions and Institutional Change: Towards an Institutionalist Sociology of the Professions," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 699-721, July.
    6. Messner, Martin, 2009. "The limits of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 918-938, November.
    7. Roberts, John, 1991. "The possibilities of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 355-368.
    8. Suddaby, Roy & Gendron, Yves & Lam, Helen, 2009. "The organizational context of professionalism in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 409-427, April.
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