Accountability - What Does It Mean
One of the most bandied about terms you'll hear, particularly in politics, is "accountability". As such, I pose a simple pair of questions; what is accountability, and do we need to rethink what we consider accountability to be?
I understand why accountability is important. I think we can all understand why accountability is important. The individuals who are in position of authority have the responsibility that goes along with that position. That means doing whatever they can to ensure those in their service meet their obligations and do their job right. The auspice of repercussions for impropriety is one of the ways society retains order and inspires hard work. Let's face it, to a very significant degree the good acts by many people are an effort to avoid scrutiny.
I submit, however, that we as a people, as a nation, as a species, are too ready to blame and impart half-measures of accountability. In general the ones who should be held responsible are not, in favor of simply pinning the blame on the person with the biggest name, the most visibility, the most to lose. The punishment is commonly to drag that person down from their throne, from that place of power, and that's it.
In government this tends to be a matter of chasing down chief administrators and organization heads. Sometimes the most unscrupulous expression even calls on ousting chief executives (mayors, governors, presidents). As it would happen, the opposite tends to happen more often than not in private industry, wherein higher-ups push the blame down the chain onto their subordinates, leaving those subordinates to suffer the consequences.
The perception tends to be reversed; we assume this action of evasion of responsibility taking place more often in the public sector than the private. My contention is that it doesn't much matter where it takes place more, that the fact that such a system takes place at all is itself is the crux of the problem.
To me accountability starts first with placing the blame where it belongs, not just on whoever you can pin it to. That is critically important, perhaps the most important factor in the entire scheme of things. Often times people get fed up with the pursuit of placing blame and are quick to either say "it's everyone's fault" much like is done all the time with political issues, or zero in on the biggest target they can pick up. However, if you're focused more on simply pinning the blame on whoever, it makes the next step, fixing the problem, more difficult. If person A is the one who gets blamed, but person B is the one who really was responsible, then person B gets to continue doing whatever it is they've been doing until now, the efforts to fix the issues miss the mark, and you've more than likely dismissed someone who, at the very least, played by the rules all along.
The second step, is fixing the problem. Accountability is often regarded as merely finding someone to fire. That is usually how it's handled; "here is who we're blaming, now we're kicking them out of their job". Again, I don't think that's the right way. Yes, there is a punishment that must be meted out for those who fail at their work or do the wrong thing. But simply sending them on their way is not the universal answer. They must be made to fix what they broke. Some may doubt anyone who couldn't do the right thing in the first place could be asked to fix what they messed up, but they understand better than anyone what it was they did. Take away some of their power, impose a financial penalty, and make them fix it. Simply telling them to go on and walk away is too easy. They were more than likely prepared to be kicked out long before they were ever caught.
Finally, implement countermeasures. Finding the person responsible, punishing and firing the one who messed up, is only the first half of the matter. If you don't go back and figure out how the person was able to get away with what they've done, how to prevent others from repeating the same patterns, then you're ultimately setting things up for a repeat performance down the line.
We have to become better at assigning responsibility and accountability. It's not as simple as throwing whoever we don't like, or whoever is easiest to target, or whoever is highest up the chain we can grab, under a bus and moving on. It's more complicated than that, and not realizing as much will continue to hold us back.
I understand why accountability is important. I think we can all understand why accountability is important. The individuals who are in position of authority have the responsibility that goes along with that position. That means doing whatever they can to ensure those in their service meet their obligations and do their job right. The auspice of repercussions for impropriety is one of the ways society retains order and inspires hard work. Let's face it, to a very significant degree the good acts by many people are an effort to avoid scrutiny.
I submit, however, that we as a people, as a nation, as a species, are too ready to blame and impart half-measures of accountability. In general the ones who should be held responsible are not, in favor of simply pinning the blame on the person with the biggest name, the most visibility, the most to lose. The punishment is commonly to drag that person down from their throne, from that place of power, and that's it.
In government this tends to be a matter of chasing down chief administrators and organization heads. Sometimes the most unscrupulous expression even calls on ousting chief executives (mayors, governors, presidents). As it would happen, the opposite tends to happen more often than not in private industry, wherein higher-ups push the blame down the chain onto their subordinates, leaving those subordinates to suffer the consequences.
The perception tends to be reversed; we assume this action of evasion of responsibility taking place more often in the public sector than the private. My contention is that it doesn't much matter where it takes place more, that the fact that such a system takes place at all is itself is the crux of the problem.
To me accountability starts first with placing the blame where it belongs, not just on whoever you can pin it to. That is critically important, perhaps the most important factor in the entire scheme of things. Often times people get fed up with the pursuit of placing blame and are quick to either say "it's everyone's fault" much like is done all the time with political issues, or zero in on the biggest target they can pick up. However, if you're focused more on simply pinning the blame on whoever, it makes the next step, fixing the problem, more difficult. If person A is the one who gets blamed, but person B is the one who really was responsible, then person B gets to continue doing whatever it is they've been doing until now, the efforts to fix the issues miss the mark, and you've more than likely dismissed someone who, at the very least, played by the rules all along.
The second step, is fixing the problem. Accountability is often regarded as merely finding someone to fire. That is usually how it's handled; "here is who we're blaming, now we're kicking them out of their job". Again, I don't think that's the right way. Yes, there is a punishment that must be meted out for those who fail at their work or do the wrong thing. But simply sending them on their way is not the universal answer. They must be made to fix what they broke. Some may doubt anyone who couldn't do the right thing in the first place could be asked to fix what they messed up, but they understand better than anyone what it was they did. Take away some of their power, impose a financial penalty, and make them fix it. Simply telling them to go on and walk away is too easy. They were more than likely prepared to be kicked out long before they were ever caught.
Finally, implement countermeasures. Finding the person responsible, punishing and firing the one who messed up, is only the first half of the matter. If you don't go back and figure out how the person was able to get away with what they've done, how to prevent others from repeating the same patterns, then you're ultimately setting things up for a repeat performance down the line.
We have to become better at assigning responsibility and accountability. It's not as simple as throwing whoever we don't like, or whoever is easiest to target, or whoever is highest up the chain we can grab, under a bus and moving on. It's more complicated than that, and not realizing as much will continue to hold us back.
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