FAIRNESS, ACCOUNTABILITY,

TRANSPARENCY AND
STEWARDSHIP IN BUSINESS AND
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
MODULE 3
 Notions of Accountability, Fairness,
and Transparency
◦ Business leadership affects the moral capability and
performance of organizations.
◦ Business leaders influence the scope and character of
formal ethics and programs and the integration of ethics
into everyday organizational life.
◦ However, most practicing business leaders in most
countries most of the time are not held accountable for
dysfunction moral, social and environmental performance
The Four Key Dimensions of
Integrity Capacity
ACCOUNTABILITY

Why is Accountability
important?
◦ Accountability is the obligation of an individual or
organization to account for its activities, accept
responsibility for them, and to disclose the results in a
transparent manner.
◦ Accountability in the context of a business organization
is the obligation to demonstrate that work has been
conducted in compliance with agreed rules and standards
or to report fairly and accurately on performance results
vis-à-vis mandated roles and/or plans
◦A civil society organization without proper
accountability system is fragile and open
to rumors and mismanagement and abuse
of power.
 Accountability: What It Is:
◦ To be accountable is to explain or justify one’s action and
decisions.
◦ Accountability is the process of explanation and justification.
◦ Holding to account is the process of requiring explanation
and, but it is also about testing, forming a judgment, and if
necessary, taking action.
◦ Accountability implies responsibility it is reasonable only to
hold people to account for those things for which they are
responsible
Accountability: What It Is
Not:
◦ It is not synonymous with responsibility.
◦ It does not imply a management relationship.
◦ It is not a “one off” annual event.
◦ It is not the same as appraisal.
◦ It is not about confrontation, “putting someone in his
place” or “giving him a hard time”
 Accountability Structures
◦Accountability is the ability to account for
your actions and performance to your
stakeholders.
◦Accountability includes the fact that
persons (your stakeholders) are willing and
able to hold you accountable.
 FAIRNESS
◦Fairness - in the context of a business of
organization involves balance of the interests
involved in all decision-making including any
decisions related to hiring, firing (including the
investigatory process), and the compensation
and rewards
◦Overall, fairness has to do with justice, which
is to give to another that which is due him/her.
Justice:
◦(1) looks at the balance of benefits and burdens
distributed among members of a group, and/or
◦(2) can result from the application of rules,
policies, or laws that apply to a society or a
group. In general, the just results of actions
override utilitarian results.
 TRANSPARENCY
◦Transparency
-is the extent to which investors have ready access to
required financial information about company, such
as price levels, market depth and audited financial
reports.
-helps reduce price vitality, because all the market
participants can base decisions of value in the same
data.
 TRANSPARENCY
-intrinsic or ethical salience: individual level
-instrumental salience: organizational and
social levels.
◦Transparency is defined as being authentic in
the way an organization message themselves
externally – to stakeholders, to prospective
customers and talent, and within the
community.
◦It allows stakeholders to understand whether
the activities of social institutions provide a
genuine service to civil society and whether
money is used appropriately.
 STEWARDSHIP
◦Stewardship is a practice wherein people
are intrinsically motivated to work for
others or for organizations to accomplish
the tasks and responsibilities with which
they have been entrusted.
◦ In Biblical terms, stewardship is defined as utilizing and
managing all resources God provides for the glory of God
and the betterment of His creation.
◦ That definition plays a critical role in today’s business
landscape. In the context of business organization,
stewardship refers to taking responsibility for the business
and the effects it has on the world around it.
◦ This involves considering more than just the bottom line
and looking at elements such as values, ethics, and morals
THE RELATIONSHIP OF FAIRNESS,
ACCOUNTABILITY,TRANSPARENCY
, STEWARDSHIP, WITH ETHICAL
BUSINESS
◦ Scholars have recently considered ethical leadership from
a new angle by examining servant leadership.
◦ Servant leaders go beyond their own self-interest and
focus on opportunities to help followers grow and
develop.
◦ They do not use power to achieve ends; they emphasize
persuasion.
◦ Characteristics behaviors include listening, emphasizing ,
persuading, accepting stewardship, and actively
developing followers potential.
 What is the relationship between
accountability and stewardship
◦In the context of a company, it means holding
the directors who manage the company
responsible for explaining their actions to the
shareholders who own the company.
◦Stewardship is when a person is responsible
for taking care of something on behalf of
another.