Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce and cordially invite you to participate in the AIM Departmental Seminar “Accountability – Roots, Branches and Limits” to be held on 07 April 2025, 14:30-16:00 at E22-G008. Please also encourage your PhD students to attend. Thank you for your attention.

Faculty of Business Administration

AIM Departmental Seminar
Accountability – Roots, Branches and Limits

Given by Prof. Gabriel Donleavy
Date: 7th April 2025, Monday
Time: 14:30-16:00
Venue: E22-G008

Abstract:

The presentation is based on a paper seeks to clarify the concept of accountability. It distinguishes hard accountability from soft accountability and focuses on the former. It explores the roots of accountability in ethics, the major world religions, and on the subset of biology called neuroscience. It considers what factors make accountability effectively enforced in practice. In considering that, it frames the analysis in stages three and four of the Kohlberg paradigm of ethical development. Several barriers to progressing from stage three to four are considered with particular focus on tribalism and familism. Lastly, it considers the limits of accountability, and argued that time, foreseeability, capacity and interpersonal closeness play major parts in establishing those limits.

Short bio:

Prof. Gabriel Donleavy obtained his PhD in Accounting from the University of Glasgow in 1991, was Dean of FBA here 2005 to 2007, and is now Professor of Accounting at the University of New England  Over his career, he has produced 51 refereed articles, including six in A and A* journals, eight books, and around 200 other pieces, such as opinion pieces for China Daily and the UK Guardian. He has presented at quinquennial meetings of the World Congress of Accounting Education three times, the American Accounting Association twice and have edited and reviewed for established journals in accounting, business ethics and higher education management. His research interest includes cash flow statements, academic governance, the origins of fair value accounting, criticisms of stakeholder theory, evolving a general theory of accountability, and teaching critcal thinking..

https://www.une.edu.au/staff-profiles/business/gabriel-donleavy