ABSTRACT
Board performance rarely reflects the rhetoric implicit in regulatory and legislative requirements. There are competing and at times contradictory expectations and demands. This chapter aims to explore the paradoxes of accountability. Accountability requirements often have a negative impact on organisations and the people who work in them. Public organisations are established for social purposes to deliver benefits to their end users, yet they often seem to be focusing their energies on meeting the demands of other external stakeholders. Regulators and funders have clear powers to demand accountability via legal sanctions or withholding funding. Charities will have differing exposures to risk arising from their activities and will have different capacities to tolerate or absorb risk.
