Who Will Guard the Guardians? The Social Responsibility of NGOs

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) comprise the sector of society that attempts to hold business and other institutions accountable for their social responsibility. Yet NGOs rarely have established governance mechanisms whereby their members and supporters can hold them accountable for their activ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2009-04, Vol.87 (Suppl 1), p.147-155
Main Author: Weidenbaum, Murray
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Activism
Automobile safety
Boards of directors
Business and Management
Business correspondence
Business Ethics
Business structures
Civil society
Consumers
Corporate governance
Corporate social responsibility
Corporations
Correspondence study
Councils
Decision making
Education
Ethics
Governance
Interest groups
International governance
Management
multinational corporation
Multinational enterprises
NGOs
Non-governmental organizations
nongovernmental organization
Nongovernmental organizations
Philosophy
Public interest
Public policy
Quality of Life Research
Social responsibility
Stock exchanges
Stockholders
Studies
Transparency
Union leadership
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Summary:Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) comprise the sector of society that attempts to hold business and other institutions accountable for their social responsibility. Yet NGOs rarely have established governance mechanisms whereby their members and supporters can hold them accountable for their activities. In contrast, other major acton in the society -notably governments, corporations, and unions -maintain long established albeit imperfect instruments of governance and responsibility. This article presents a variety of ways in which NGOs could voluntarily strengthen their internal governance and thus become more accountable to their members and supporters as well as society at large. In the process, these important civil society organizations would enhance their effectiveness in achieving improvements in key areas of public policy.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-008-9813-1