Organizational Accountability – Introduction

Accountable organizations are unique creatures; standing out from others because of their superior performance, greater employee loyalty, and higher customer satisfaction. Although the rewards are great, many companies will not embark on the journey to accountability because attaining and maintaining high levels of organizational accountability is extremely difficult.

Organizational accountability exists when all members of the workforce individually and collectively act to consequentially promote the timely accomplishment of the organization’s mission. Examined more closely, this means that:

• all members of the workforce: Includes executives, managers, and individual contributors. Executives and managers are responsible for holding their subordinates accountable for the effective and efficient conduct of activities supporting mission achievement. Subordinates, through their actions, set an example by which positive pressure is applied to their peers and seniors for greater accountability.

• individually act: Enough individuals throughout the organization must act accountably in order to achieve the critical mass necessary for the existence of an accountable organization. Some individuals, such as the chief executive officer, must exhibit and reinforce accountable behaviors for the organization to be truly accountable.

• collectively act: Often, groups of executives, managers, or individual contributors make and execute the organization’s decisions. Under these circumstances, it is critical that the group act in accordance with the organization’s values to accomplish its mission and avoid easy outs and the tendency to fall into a mode of group think.

• consequentially promote: Accountability cannot exist without both positive and negative consequences. To consequentially promote the organization’s mission implies that individuals and groups will not only act in ways that seek to accomplish the mission but will recognize and reward those who do so exceptionally and appropriately act to minimize behaviors less supportive of the organization’s goals.

• timely accomplishment of the organization’s mission: For accountability to exist, one must know what is to be accomplished and within what time frame. No one can be accountable for accomplishing an undetermined goal for there is no basis against which to measure their accomplishments. Likewise, a goal that is not bound by time can never be considered to be incomplete or have insufficient progress because the individual or group working toward such a goal has an infinite amount of time to reach it.

Focus of the Organizational Accountability Topic

Articles in this topic area explore the key attributes of accountable organizations and why many executives and managers intentionally or unconsciously avoid raising their organization’s accountability. We identify the programs, processes, and actions that can be taken to help promote increased accountability. Finally, we’ll examine the many benefits that accompany higher levels of organizational accountability and why accountable organizations realize them while others don’t. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to establishing a highly accountable organizational culture.

Articles

• Pillars of Accountability by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Fundamental Accountability Drivers by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Performance = Results + Behaviors by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Best Practice – Attract the Best with Accountability by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Increase Opportunities with Accountability by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Evaluating Organizational Culture by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Best Practice – Fact-Based Management by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Best Practice – Data Transparency by StrategyDriven Contributors
• Best Practice – Shared Accountability by StrategyDriven Contributors

Resources

Books

• The Accountable Organization by John Marchica
• The Welch Way by Jack and Suzy Welch

Organizational Accountability – Pillars of Accountability

Organizational accountability exists when all members of the workforce individually and collectively act to consequentially promote the timely accomplishment of the organization’s mission.

StrategyDriven Contributors

Building an accountable organization can be a long and arduous task; renovating an entitlement organization even more difficult. During this construction project, many able builders will be lost, the victims of a harsh environment that naturally exists between the competent who seek the rightfully earned rewards of performance-based accountability and the low performers struggling to hold on to their positions of power and the accompanying easy life organizational indifference and years of clock-punching bestowed upon them.

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Organizational Accountability – Fundamental Accountability Drivers

As previously stated, we believe organizations act in accordance with the shared values of the people that comprise them. What an organization values is represented by the rewards sought in return for its products and services, the organizationally defined acceptable methods of reward pursuit, and the manner in which benefits realized are parsed to the organization’s members. Therefore, organizational accountability, the timely and consequential pursuit of mission goals, is driven by the ability of the organization to quantifiably measure earned rewards and the culturally determined method of assessing and recognizing employee performance.

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Organizational Accountability – Performance = Results + Behaviors

Organizational accountability is built on the premise that individuals are equitably rewarded based on their contribution to the accomplishment of the organization’s goals consistent with its ethical values. Performance, therefore, becomes more than just ‘making the numbers.’ Performance in the accountable organization is an assessment of an individual’s achievement against mission-based performance measures while living up to the organization’s values.

Performance = Results + Behaviors

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Organizational Accountability – Increase Opportunities with Accountability

Every day, executives and managers are presented with opportunities to enhance their organization’s success. Frequently, these opportunities go unrecognized, unexplored, or unexploited because the organization is not prepared for them. Certainly, some opportunities are beyond an organization’s reach because of resource limitations. However, ensuring the organization possesses key attributes will better enable it to take advantage of those opportunities for which it has the resources and that are consistent and aligned with its mission. These attributes include:

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