Preserving the past: an accountability study of the annual reporting practices by leading museums in USA, UK and Europe.

Abstract

Museums as custodians of important cultural heritage assets attract significant sponsorship from government and communities and a need exists to understand how the resources made available are being spent, to maintain and increase the value of these assets. The significance placed on museums warrants further investigation into their accountability and the purpose of this paper is to analyse museums reporting practices, as a way to discharge performance accountability. The reporting practices of the world’s leading museums in the USA versus those predominately located in the UK (with a small focus on Europe) were examined, compared and contrasted, in order to suggest better practice for improved accountability in in annual reporting so as assist in improving the governance of museums. To assess the annual reports, a modified version of a research instrument which works in conjunction with the balanced scorecard framework to evaluate performance accountability, namely the Museums’ Performance Accountability Index (MPADI) by Wei, Davey and Coy (2008) has been adopted. Evidence is found that the four perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard were emphasized differently between USA and UK/European institutions. The findings demonstrate areas of strength s but also recommend improved reporting practices for museums. The study draws out a number of detailed observations which offers suggestions for better practice in reporting by museums. Until recently there has been little research on the performance and accountability of this sector. This work assists in addressing this deficiency.