Understandability and Transparency of the Financial Statements of ...

come about through the mutually simultaneous shaping of the causal links between the
above groups and the resultant effects to the Financial Reporting Act, in relation to
private not-for-profit organisations (Accounting Standards Review Board, 2009;
Ministry of Economic Development, 2009d).
4.3.5 Axiom 5 - The role of values in inquiry
Lincoln & Guba (1985) consider that values could encompass: axioms; theories;
perspectives; social/cultural norms; and personal or individual norms. Values, especially
those of the researcher, are an integral part of a naturalistic inquiry. The real issue is
whether the researcher takes account of their own value system (Lincoln & Guba,
1985).
In this research close attention was given to my values to ensure that they were exposed,
especially in relation to the choice of theory for this research into accountability, and the
values inherent in it. Accountability is the theory used to frame the analysis of the
findings in Chapters Six, Seven and Eight. The value implications of accountability
theory are consistent with the researcher‟s previous work as an auditor, in particular the
need for responsibility to be taken for each action within the financial reporting process
so that accounts are perceived to be true and fair.
The naturalistic enquiry paradigm generally calls for qualitative research methods as
opposed to quantative methods (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This was supported by Patton
(2002) who feels that qualitative designs are naturalistic to the extent that the research
takes place in real-world settings and the researcher does not attempt to manipulate the
phenomenon of interests. Further to this Berry and Otley (2004) feel that the
connectedness of the qualitative phenomena is an important aspect of the naturalistic
paradigm. Thus qualitative data collection methods, both secondary i.e. document
review, and primary i.e. interviews, were used in this research, these will be discussed
next.
4.4 Document review
The current study is intended to explore the reasons why charities utilise the particular
accounting methods in four areas: the choice of accounting basis; the recording of
property, plant and equipment; the recording of funds; and the analysing of expenditure
overheads ratio. To put these methods into context, a review of documents that
impacted on these choices, including appropriate GAAP and the charities sector as a
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