Accountability

Running head: ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ACCOUNTABILITY
What is accountability?
Accountability mean differently to different people. Accountability is a management-
controlled process where responses are given for the action of the people. These responses
are either negative or positive. The actions are corrected according to the responses. In other
words, accountability implies to responsibility of every individual for his or her work
performed. Accountability is used as the synonym of various words like equity, good
governance, democracy, responsiveness, efficiency, blameworthiness and liability. In respect
to governance, accountability deals with the issues in the public, corporate and non-profit
sectors. In the role of leadership, accountability is the assumption and acknowledgement of
responsibility for products, decisions, actions and policies, which includes governance,
administration and implementation (Hextall and Mahony 2013). Accountability encompasses
the obligation to explain report and answer for the consequences. Accountability has an
ethical component in it as leaders take decisions keeping in mind the far-reaching outcomes.
In various organizations, accountability has very strong connections to the various
expectations. Employees who have not completed their task according to the instruction of
the supervisor are held responsible for their poor performance and must convey the reason for
their incapability.
Importance of Accountability:
Accountability ensures high performance in the organization. Accountability ensures and
builds trust, which is important for any relationship in the organization. Accountability
implies that someone is willing to make commitments and be responsible for their actions.
This automatically grows trust between two people in the organization and outside. In case of
a contract, one is entrusted to protect something. That person is accountable to this trust as

2ACCOUNTABILITY
the person promises to amend when the trust is broken. Accountability also eliminates effort
and time on the that is spent on the distracting activities and unproductive behavior. Many
people engage in ineffective behavior (Dekker 2016). Without any sense of accountability,
the mistakes can only be caught but the concerned person won’t be held accountable for such
an irresponsible behavior which made the company incur a huge loss. In order to overcome
such miserable situations in the organization, building a culture of accountability is essential.
Accountability also promotes ownership. When people are held accountable for their work, it
clearly implies that it is teaching them to value their work. Through various corrective actions
and feedbacks, employees learn the importance of their actions and behaviors that affect the
team. Every employee has some significant roles to play and is not just floating members of
the organization. Once the sense of responsibility and accountability grows, employees work
harder. Employees learn the sense of ownership in whatever they do. When a task is done
successfully, accountability enhances the confidence and skills of the team members. Leaders
in the organization and outside should have the highest level of accountability.
Types of Accountability:
Accountability is seen as a virtue, which is a positive quality of officials or
organizations. Thus, accountability mainly focuses on normative issues and active behaviors
of various public agents. In broader idea, accountability is considered as an organizational
virtue or personal virtue. Whereas a narrower concept defines accountability as a social
mechanism or relation. Both the forms of accountability are different from each other in
many ways as they address different issues and implies different sorts of frameworks and
standards and analytical dimensions.