Stewardship Essay

2788 Words6 Pages

This essay is about demonstrating appropriate examples of how stewardship changed into accountability throughout history of accounting. According to STEWARDSHIP Definition. (n.d.), Stewardship is an obligation for taking good maintenance of resources delegated to one individuals or group of individuals. For example, boards of directors must display good stewardship towards the company for which they are a board member. The notion of stewardship can be applied to the economics, environment, health and information. Accountability is an obligation of an individual or organization to account for its actions, bear responsibility for them, and to reveal the outcomes in a transparent way. Furthermore, it also includes the obligation for money or other delegated estate. The conversion from an oral custom of stewardship to accountability is one of the key developments in accounting. This essay will cover the conversion from oral tradition of stewardship to accountability by using historic examples. The Concept of Stewardship The transformation from oral tradition of stewardship to accountability was commenced in medieval England according to Davey, Hay, Hooper and John (1999). Many stewards took the responsibility for estate supervision and maintenance also perceived as proxy of the ruler. This significant role has often been given to aspiring clergy or law graduates and they were members of lord central council claimed by Davey et al. (1999). The role of stewardship was further assigned in each manor to a reeve who was perceived as a type of under steward, the subject of the yearly autumn audit. The written accounts and knowledge of standards levels of achievement started become more popular in mid fourteen century and a result of the ... ... middle of paper ... ... will enhance accountability to all stakeholders: the funding bodies, the professional associations, and the service users. Furthermore, key performance indicators go further in fulfilling the requirements for accountability to several types of stakeholders. In modern society, the annual reports and key performance indicators which are produced by organization and companies can be used to improve relations between companies and stakeholders since are being accountable of themselves. This is relevant because accountability is becoming more developed and it is slowly replacing older concept of stewardship. In conclusion, there are various examples throughout history that there has been shift from stewardship to accountability. The modern society is becoming reliant on companies and organisation being accountable so they can have better relations with stakeholders.

Open Document