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Abstract
This article suggests that the current preoccupation with increasing organizational accountability with local stakeholders introduces a tyranny of accountability. Drawing upon qualitative data collected from an international nongovernmental organization, this study introduces the concept of “bounded voice” as a tactic for managing competing demands for accountability. Bounded voice describes a dynamic organizational process in which opportunities for voice are strategically and provisionally limited to particular forums. In addition to highlighting the potential of bounded voice for empowerment efforts, the paper illustrates: (1) how problems related to voice and accountability are magnified within globalized contexts requiring governance from afar, and (2) how the ambiguity of the grassroots complicates the process of inventing and monitoring modes of accountability.
Preliminary findings of the study were presented at the 2006 meeting of the National Communication Association (NCA) Convention.
Preliminary findings of the study were presented at the 2006 meeting of the National Communication Association (NCA) Convention.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Stanley Deetz, who guided the larger dissertation project upon which the study derives. The author would also like to thank Kristi Gibson, Erin Foley-Reynolds, Timothy Kuhn, and Alan Sillars, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on previous versions of the manuscript.
Notes
Preliminary findings of the study were presented at the 2006 meeting of the National Communication Association (NCA) Convention.
