Responsibility For Accountability

Did you know that in some countries there is no direct translation for accountability. This includes Spain, Italian, Portuguese, Indonesia and even my home Malaysia. Accountability is either referred to responsibility or directly translated by replacing some letters, as in “akauntabiliti”.

Both responsibility and accountability occupy a significant influence to management thinking and leadership behavior. We often hear of it mentioned in job descriptions, contract agreements and speeches, but do people really adopt it in practice. I find people are more receptive to the call of responsibility but, not accountability. Why is it so?. 

What’s the difference between responsibility and accountability?. Why do people forsake the latter?. Let’s start with some definition to explain the distinction and why people treat it almost indifferently.    

  

One version http://www.thefreedictionary.com/responsible on responsibility says, 

1. Liable to be required to give account, as of one's actions or of the 
discharge of a duty or trust: Who is responsible while their parents are away?    
2. Required to render account; answerable: The cabinet is responsible to the  parliament

 

Here, the word account is used to explain responsible. Now, should it be accountable or responsible?. If we replace responsible with accountable, would it mean different?. Revisit this later to answer it yourself.

 

 Merriam Webster says,
 1. "responsible" implies holding a specific office, duty, or trust;               

2. "accountable" suggests imminence of retribution for unfilled trust or violated obligation.

 

Does accountable carry a negative connotation of culpability?. And, can you distinguish responsibility from accountability by mere selection of verbs?.  

 

Another,  http://www.diffen.com/difference/Accountability_vs_Responsibility states the main difference between responsibility and accountability is that “responsibility can be shared while accountability cannot.” 

 

If accountability can’t be shared, does that mean teams can’t be held collectively answerable for their work?.

 

If you want more reference go to the answer or many more answers.

 

This is the problem. Far too many people lend injustice to using these words loosely and interchangeably to the point it becomes insignificant and confusing to management application and life experiences.    

 

My take on this is simple. Responsibility deals with doing whereas accountability deals with answering. Both requires ownership for action. You are Responsible for the action (duties, tasks, process and resources entrusted to you in performing your role/job). And, you are Accountable for the Action (decisions, outcome and consequences), resulting from performing your role/job. In other words, responsibility is carrying out the job and accountability is answering to the people who entrusted you with the authority and responsibility. People can be your boss, subordinate or yourself. That’s why they say, you can delegate responsibility, but not accountability. 

   

As you can see to appreciate at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ClR8rvUsA&list=PLTIQYp46ac08dT1bGmvvYtwapm-v1WKN_, accountability embodies to deliver a powerful message. So, how can it be downplayed by professionals, managers and leaders?. Ever wondered why intentional execution and change, be it strategic or tactical, suffers failure. To claim accountability for success is easy but not failure?. When leaders do not hold people accountable for their failure, worst still, repeatedly, it sets a bad precedence and signals weak enforcement. We see happening at our workplace. Execution failures due to defiance, negligence, abuse, non-compliance, substandard delivery, compromise and other dysfunctional behaviours. In most cases, it’s brushed off conveniently as office politics or being ‘irresponsible’. To ignore accountability is to encourage workplace mediocrity and entropy.

   

According to Gallup study only one in 10 people have the talent to manage. http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/182378/one-people-possess-talent-manage.aspx. Leadership should pay heed as to why accountability must be taken seriously. Accountability is cited as one of the 5 dimensions of a high talent manager and key predictor of performance across different industries and types of role.

 

Let me share a few examples to accentuate the critical value of accountability.

 

Heard of stockbroker "Bernie" Madoff? He was held responsible by investors to manage their money (65 billion USD). When his Ponzi scam was exposed in 2008, he was held accountable by the law for fraudulent practice. There is a difference between functional responsibility and moral accountability. That's why Bernie is serving prison for 150 years.

 

A corporate example would be, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel who resigned in the wake of massive data breach that left personal information of it's customers open to hackers. Gregg, in his letter to the board, said, "held himself personally accountable"

 

Let’s rationalize the function of accountability with a hypothetical example much closer to home, i.e garbage disposal. In my housing area, the responsibility to collect garbage has been delegated to an independent contractor engaged by the government appointed private company named Alam Flora. So, whenever there is a complaint on garbage disposal, to whom do we go - those responsible or accountable?. In this case, is it the Independent contractor, Alam Flora, local government, Minister or Prime Minister (PM)?.Where does the buck stop?. The way I see it, we go the Independent contractor held responsible for the job and if we do not get a satisfactorily response or remedy, then we escalate it all the way  to the Prime Minister (PM). Don’t agree?. Tell me why?.

 

I say the PM because he is at the top of the supply value chain. He appointed the Minister and delegated the responsibility to the Minister to provide public services, in return for collected tax. We can argue and even agree that the PM does not have the time to entertain or look into every citizen’s complaint. But, that does not absolve him of accountability because he is responsible for placing the right people to manage the government machinery. Remember, I said accountability concerns with action (decisions, outcome and consequences), resulting from executing or failure to carry out one’s role/job. Now, who is the top most person accountable in the government?. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_ministerial_responsibility

 

This is the predicament and challenge we face in corporate governance. Taking responsibility for accountability. I do not believe we don’t know or comprehend the semantics between responsibility and accountability. It’s just that we are comfortable in dealing with the operational dynamics of responsibility and authority, but not accountability. We either pretend to be ignorant or not willing to risk being answerable for actions or outcomes that are influenced by factors beyond our control. Shifting blame is far easier and safer than self-blame. That’s why the notion that accountability can’t be delegated does not sit well with many managers.      

 

Finally, let me share my own experience. Many months ago, I complained via phone and email to the local agency against illegal dumping of construction waste at the edge of football field in my housing area. When I did not get any response after a month, I escalated it to online complaint with Public Complaints Bureau, http://www.pcb.gov.my/bm, under the PM’s Dept. When nothing moved, I personally dropped an email to the top management and c.c. to the PM’s Secretary and Chief Secretary of Civil Service. All I invoked was their accountability to the client charter - Manage and resolve public complaints against government agencies within 15 days.

 

Within 3 days, the waste was cleared and a signage erected. I even got a personal call from one of the Bureau’s Director that they would came back and landscape the area. That they did.

Nothing in life comes easy. Integrity and ethics is about behavior in holding people accountable for decisions, actions and consequences? Talk is cheap. We preach “be the change we want to see” yet are we committed to enforcing accountability for change ?. Alas, commitment is another loosely exaggerated word. I guess I have my next topic.