Engaging stakeholders towards greater accountability in the art and cultural settings: the case of Herculaneum

Culture is an essential part of human life, and since the second half of the last century, it has also become relevant from an economic point of view, as it offers a considerable level of employment and manages large amounts of financial resources. As a consequence, over the last decades accounting tools and techniques have gained a predominant role in governing such settings, as they allow a better evaluation of the performance of the organizations to satisfy the enlarged demand for accountability by a broad range of stakeholders. In particular, the adoption of performance management systems (PMSs) has gained increasing attention both in public and non-profit institutions and several studies have been devoted to the discussion of the use of PMS (Smith, 1990; Norman, 2002) and the existing obstacles to implementation (Broadbent and Laughlin, 2009), its concrete ability to support decision process (Julnes and Holzer, 2001), the usefulness of PMS for budgeting (Jordan and Hackbart, 1999), the differences between measurement for improvement and learning and measurement for accountability purposes (van Dooren, 2004, Ammon and Rivenbark, 2008). Nevertheless, the issues relating to the crucial role played by accounting, above all from an accountability perspective, should be regarded by taking into account the peculiar characteristics of Arts and Culture. Indeed, a major element of complexity is that a simplistic adaptation of management accounting tools conceived for private-sector is not adequate, since control models need to encompass the contextual features that characterize cultural organizations. Furthermore, another criticism pointed out by scholars is the tendency to focus only on some specific aspects of PMS rather than using a comprehensive approach (Chenhall, 2003; Covaleski et al., 2003). Besides, the introduction of control tools in complex and multifaceted settings needs to be considered by taking into account possible elements of resistance that are likely to lead to PMS that are irrelevant or even a threat to the organisation (Jacobs et al., 2004; Kurunmaki, 2004). Indeed, cultural organisations are characterised by the presence of multiple stakeholders with contrasting logics and different rationalities (Anthony and Young, 1988; Hopwood, 1978) that are not keen to negotiate their positions. Hence, in these settings a proper involvement of such stakeholders becomes paramount to ensure the effectiveness of any actions undertaken. On this basis, the purpose of the paper is to understand which are the main conditions that may favour the realization of a PMS, capable to assess effectiveness and efficiency of cultural performance, by encompassing both the cultural and economic perspectives towards enhanced accountability. More specifically, for the purpose of this study we examine the case of Herculaneum – a well-known example of excellence in the cultural. The archaeological area of Herculaneum has been a UNESCO world heritage since 1997, alongside the Pompeii Excavation sites and the Oplontis villas. To preserve and conserve this site, in 2001 the Superintendence, the Packard Humanities Institute (an American philanthropic foundation that provides financial support for the project), and the British School at Rome created the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP), a programme of conservation, research and enhancement of the site. To date, this project is one of the biggest and most innovative collaborative ventures between public and private partners, working for the preservation of the Italian archaeological heritage. The case study employs documentary sources and interviews to highlight the way through which the engagement of the various local stakeholders has fostered the adoption of an effective PMS, which benefits from a mixed formal and informal approach and has sensibly enhanced the performance of the site and its accountability to the territory of reference and the cultural community in general.