Many thanks for sharing your definitions of and views on ‘Responsibility’ and ‘Accountability’.

In my experience, Chris Avery’s definition and approach in redefining ‘Responsibility’ is enlightened, empowering and effective, for both managers and those who are managed.

The strength in the model comes from leveraging two fundamental beliefs: 1) We can’t change other people, we can only change ourselves; 2) People are responsible for their own behaviour and what they do.

As a management consultant I find it useful to distinguish responsibility as a person’s feeling of obligation from accountability as an aspect of a relationship which is not one sided but is unequal. Surely someone who signs up to be an employee and who expects to receive a regular salary expects some obligation in return; there is no issue of someone’s having something thrust on them that they did not agree to.

What I generally find works best is that in exchange for saalary the employee agrees to work with full commitment on all tasks assigned by their manager and to give their manager their best advice. The manager, in turn, must consider (but not necessarily accept) the employee’s advice, directs and supports the employee and holds the employee accountable for their work. “Holds accountable” means that the manager judges how well the employee works and levies consequences accordingly – anything from a pat on the back to a promotion to taking training or coaching to, ultimately, firing someone who does not do their job well.

I’m not aware of any taboos around responsibility, but accountability is a topic that management literature avoids. There is an assumption that accountability and hierarchy are evil and inhuman, though when executed well they are liberating. Managers get all kinds of advice on how to persuade employees to do things and employees are encouraged to feel responsible but little is written on what the employee owes the organization in exchange for salary and what the manager needs to do when a subordinate is not delivering what they have agreed to.

The workplace is not a democracy unless it happens to be a partnership. Employees are not citizens of the work organization. Managers I have known do not care if their subordinates deny, blame, justify or feel shame, obligation or responsibility. They want them to do their jobs. They make clear what the job is, support the subordinates and hold them accountable. We are so tied up by political correctness – referring to employees as “associates” let alone avoiding the descriptive term “subordinate” that we have stripped managers of the authority they need to get their work done.