Governance in non-profit organizations: accountability for compliance or legitimacy?

Based on case study research, this paper offers a conceptualization of the relationship between governance and accountability in which issues of power, ideologies and the negotiation of social relations are integral features. Specifically, I argue that principal-agent governance assumptions, based on a central logic of unitarism, can drive narrow compliance-based interpretations of accountability. Such approaches can appear at odds with the values embedded in many non-profits social missions and service delivery in that they prioritize minorities of powerful stakeholders over sustained periods of time. Conversely, a pluralist logic can create space for broad accountability to multiple stakeholders. Organizational actors can view this expressive, or values-based accountability as a source of legitimacy, producing complex relationships that challenge the instrumental orientation to social relations principal-agent theories assume.