Accountability

Accountability is the obligation to another party for fulfilling a responsibility. It includes informing and explaining how that responsibility was discharged, with enforceable consequences where it was not. Accountability is not the same as performing the operational work.

Use the term when roles, delegation, decision authority and answerability must be separated clearly so that decisions do not disappear between teams or committees.

Accountability is spread ambiguously across several people or used as blame only after a failure. Without matching authority, information and escalation routes, it exists in name only.