Rights-based accountability in aged care organisations: The roles of beliefs and boundary controls

Addressing the urgent need for aged care providers in Australia to enhance their accountability, this study examines whether and how downward accountability (to clients) and lateral accountability (to employees) in aged care organisations are affected by beliefs and boundary controls exercised by the organisations’ management. Analyses were performed on survey data collected from 228 not-for-profit aged care providers across Australia. The analyses show that beliefs control positively affects both downward and lateral accountability, whereas boundary control positively affects downward accountability. Further, boundary control marginally moderates the relation between beliefs control and lateral accountability. The study contributes to both not-for-profit accountability and management control literatures. Its findings have implications for aged care providers, which are experiencing significant reforms that aim to improve accountability to senior Australians and employees in the organisations.