words interchangeably. For this particular model the following distinction will be made:
A person may be delegated the responsibility for a task by the boss, the organization, or by virtue of position. Accountability, however, refers to an acknowledgement and internalization of a sense of ownership for a task and the willingness to face the consequences that come with success or failure.
In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies, including administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain, and be answerable for resulting consequences.
The challenge with accountability is that it is intrinsic, just like engagement and empowerment. An environment or culture that promotes accountability can be fostered, but the end result is totally dependent on the individual’s—or sometimes, as we will see later in this guidebook, the team’s—choice to act with greater accountability.
Much of the accountability literature attempts to make a distinction between people who act with great accountability and people who act as victims of circumstances and who are not willing to own the outcomes and ultimately the consequences of failed actions. The issue, however, may be less about victims and accountable people and more about creating the correct structures, systems, and support that will foster a culture of accountability—conditions that encourage people to fully own their decisions.
To be sure, most people seem to be more than willing to own success. But that is the crux of the problem: people will attempt to attach themselves to success, but if they are not just as willing to own their mistakes, organizational performance and learning will come to a standstill. Organizations will argue that their accountability issues arise only when people are unwilling to take ownership of failure.
Levels of Commitment
The first thing to understand about the feelings and beliefs concerning accountability is that they are intrinsic in nature. In other words, we can create the conditions to maximize feelings and beliefs of accountability in others, but for the link to work those others must have a sense of accountability within themselves.
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