Sustainability and Accountability in Public Sector: A Legitimacy Perspective

For most nations, the public sector (in contrast to private and third sectors) has an enormous impact on the economy, society, and environment (CIPFA, 2021). It is widely acknowledged that public sector organisations (PSOs) have the responsibility and potential to advance sustainable development given the dual role of the public sector (as both a public service provider and a regulator) and the urgency of global environmental and social challenges. The landscape of sustainability integration, performance management, and disclosure in the public sector has attracted the attention of academics, policymakers, and practitioners worldwide, in recognising that PSOs need to be publicly accountable to a wide range of stakeholders. Moreover, legitimacy theory has long been applied within the sustainability and accountability literature to explain organisations’ motivations for sustainability strategies and accountability disclosures. Legitimacy is viewed as a resource necessary to the survival of an organisation (Deegan, 2014), which generates pressures regarding expected organisational behaviour (Connolly and Kelly, 2020). Further, this