Responsibility vs. Accountability

Putting it All Together

Typically, we think of responsibility as before an action; accountability comes after. But that's not the case! Both are continuous and require planning and attention. Hopefully you've learned what positive actions can be taken and knowledge gained by understanding who is responsible and who is accountable in your organization.

With neither can you have total control or expect perfection. Let's briefly summarize what you should know for both, and then give a few final words on nonprofit organizations.

Responsibility

As long as you attend to your duties, make conscientious decisions, and admit where your skills may be overmatched by your assignments, then you can always claim to have met your responsibilities even when things go wrong.

Commitment to competence, whether or not your responsibility is a leadership position, is a critical component of responsibility. This is the personal obligation to your responsibilities that others incorrectly call "accountability".

Also, know that when someone else is responsible for tasks and reports to you, you're responsible for their performance, and you must monitor the work and make decisions depending on what you observe. Responsibility cannot be shifted left or right, or blamed on tools. Here's a brief example.

Think back to the vignette about the incorrect project estimates. As a responsible manager, you will tell the project manager that the estimates need to be redone. Maybe the estimates were wrong because a contractor lied to you—you get credit for catching it, but blame for not catching it earlier. Or, maybe you messed up some cells in a spreadsheet, so it's all your fault. You might blame the software, but if you chose the software, then it's on you. Because who else can you blame? Even if the company ordered you to use that software application, it was then on you to make it work, or recommend different software if you thought you might be prone to make mistakes with it. That's the conscientious attention to your duties that is part of responsibility, before, during, and after the job.

Regardless, now that the estimates must be redone, your responsibility includes addressing the causes of the errors going forward, not just blaming anything but yourself and moving on having learned nothing. Whether or not you get fired or reassigned is not up to you, but demonstrating you understand how responsibility works can only help your company's confidence in you.

Accountability

As for accountability, understanding when you're accountable in a given arrangement will prevent unpleasant surprises when you find out those you thought were accountable are not. If you apply the J.D. Fox Exec definition to any organization you might be involved in, then you will certainly gain clarity.

Nonprofits

We've covered commercial enterprises quite a bit throughout this article, and responsibility and accountability should be pretty clear on those. Here are some final words on two common but quite distinct forms of nonprofit organizations: homeowners associations and charitable nonprofit corporations.

Homeowners Associations

In a homeowners association, the board is ultimately responsible for its mission, which is to maintain the property and amenities, repair damage, and establish rules to keep the community charming and livable. The association president is ultimately responsible for daily operations in pursuit of the mission. The president, in most cases a volunteer, obviously doesn't do the work, as routine tasks are delegated to the management company, maintenance employees, and contractors such as plumbers and electricians. If any of them are not doing the job, the president answers for the failed tasks to the board, and the board can decide whether to accept recommendations by the president to replace any of the delegates, allocate more money, establish new procedures, etc. If the board thinks the problem is with the president and how he oversees the work of his delegates, they can replace the president.

Owners in the HOA are accountable for all costs and for appreciation or depreciation of the property value, whether related to maintenance or how pleasant or unpleasant the community is given the behavior of its residents. This is why the owners must pay dues, and they have the right to elect members of the board, or take a seat themselves, to guide the management.

Responsibility for the property is on the board, but of course there are individual members on the board, who are each responsible to the board. If someone joins the board but then doesn't attend meetings, or he comes to meetings unprepared to participate in discussions meaningfully and contribute to sound decision-making, the board may be able to kick him out depending on what the HOA's by-laws say.

As for accountability for unexpected losses, all board members are potentially liable in cases, as we've discussed, of willful misconduct. An individual board member who voted against unconscionable or illegal plans that were approved at a board meeting may later point to the minutes showing he voted or argued against it, to avoid being voted out by the owners or held accountable for losses when the issue comes to a head. See how this is important to know? If you're on a board, and you fear retribution for a decision that may lead to personal accountability, now you know to ask the HOA's secretary to put down in the minutes that you objected to the decision, if the secretary already doesn't record exactly who votes on what. And if the secretary is not accommodating, writing a letter explaining your objections would also an option.

Charitable Nonprofit Corporation

In a charitable nonprofit corporation that exists to collect money and then give it away for a given cause, responsibility and accountability are bit different from what we've discussed. The directors and officers are responsible for getting donations and ensuring they're spent efficiently for the charity's mission. If the directors do a poor job, there isn't typically a broader membership that can vote them off. The directors will have the right and responsibility to vote off the poor performing ones and elect replacements.

The assets and bank accounts are not owned by anyone other than the charity itself, so no individual is personally accountable for its financial performance. Your donation to the charity isn't an investment and you don't own shares; the money now belongs to the charity. Even the founder doesn't own it if it's a properly registered tax-exempt nonprofit corporation. In some states, all directors, including the founder, have term limits, meaning after so many years the entire board of directors will be new people. In states without term limits, the founder could still be voted off the board by other directors, or fired if he were the executive director (sort the equivalent to CEO for a typical charity).

If the charity decides to shut down, after settling any debts, it is required by law to give its remaining assets to another nonprofit.

Accountability still exists, though. The funds legally must be used for the mission—if they are misappropriated or otherwise grossly mismanaged, whoever has conducted or enabled the mishandling may be held accountable and forced to pay it back. Typically this would be accomplished through civil or criminal courts. Such an action could be initiated by other directors or officers, by a government agency that monitors nonprofit charities (typically the state attorney general), or possibly a large donor.

Your Call to Action

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