A Thematic Review on Accountability Index Publications

Abstract

The Accountability Index is typically used to scrutinise and assess the organisational accountability level. Accordingly, this study explored the various contexts of the accountability index and investigated its function in controlling organisational behaviour towards good governance related to management and reporting. Hence, this study adopted a thematic review based on searches of past publications on the accountability index in Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), and Mendeley Web databases using specific keywords. A total of 203 published articles were identified in the first step, but only 29 papers were thoroughly reviewed upon screening the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results from the code-to-document reports using ATLAS.ti 9 software revealed patterns, trends, and mapping of the accountability index contexts in various forms of study. This study employed descriptive and thematic analysis. The descriptive analysis discusses the source title, research countries, research setting, and methodology. Throughthematic analysis, this study highlighted the following themes: index development, index elements, and evaluation. These themes are interrelated, which enables monitoring of the strengthening of accountability in organisations. As a result of this thematic analysis, practitioners and academics can use it as a guideline to draw up an accountability index to assess the level of accountability in the scrutinised context. This study also highlighted academic information gaps for future research directions.

Keywords: Accountability index; accountability level; thematic review; themes; ATLAS.ti