Five Common Accountability Cultures

Fortune magazine’s annual listing of the world’s most accountable corporations is a valuable resource, but, for us, it doesn’t go far enough. By focusing only on the quality of a company’s commitment to social and environmental goals, “accountability” is defined far too narrowly. Accountability, or a lack of it, touches every single aspect of an organization’s management and work environment, ranging from their outward social and environmental responsibilities to their internal management process and employee development and engagement practices.

A culture that embraces full accountability is created when people—on a team, in a department, in a division, or in an entire company—take accountability to think and act in a manner necessary to achieve desired organizational results, all in a context of long-term ethical responsibilities. In such cultures, accountability permeates every relationship, process, structure, and strategy in a positive, principled way that consistently produces results, motivates people, and creates personal ownership for achieving results throughout the workplace. Take a minute to consider which of the following common cultures—Culture of Accountability, Culture of Complacency, Culture of Confusion, Culture of Intimidation, or Culture of Abdication—best describes the culture in which you currently work.

A Culture of Accountability: Accountability is implemented through individual choice at all organizational levels. Distinguishing characteristic—people willingly taking personal accountability for both their successes and failures.
A Culture of Complacency: Accountability is applied through selective compliance. Distinguishing characteristic—people assume accountability only for their jobs, which they define as narrowly as possible.
A Culture of Confusion: Accountability is employed by surprise. Distinguishing characteristic—people feel unsure about what they will be held accountable for, so they make their best guesses and hope they are right.
A Culture of Intimidation: Accountability is carried out by force of personality. Distinguishing characteristic—people take accountability for the things they feel forced to own, worrying more about who they are accountable to, rather than what they are accountable to achieve.
A Culture of Abdication: Accountability is implemented by omission. Distinguishing characteristic—people go to great lengths to avoid taking accountability for anything, including their own jobs.

The manner in which you go about achieving accountability in your organization, as laid out above in the Five Common Accountability Cultures, can provide a useful typology that suggests exactly where to begin to improve. Anything short of a culture based on a correct understanding of accountability will produce a negative impact on morale and employee involvement. It will also add a measure of stress to the job that can be overwhelming and, most importantly, entirely unnecessary. Understanding the “accountability” culture your organization has developed, calling it what it really is and then making the needed shifts to develop a culture based on the kind of accountability that produces results, builds morale and engages people at every level of the organization are the needed steps to creating a Culture of Accountability.