Management Papers
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of this Version
2014
Publication Source
The Oxford Handbook of Public Accountability
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199641253.013.0002
Abstract
Private- and public-sector managers face a recurring organizational-design dilemma: the relative emphasis to place on process-versus-outcome accountability in evaluating employee performance. This chapter reviews experimental-psychological research that emphasizes the benefits of process accountability and then notes blind spots in that literature, especially the insensitivity to the relational signals that accountability manipulations convey about how evaluators view the evaluated. The chapter also examines real-world ideologically-driven debates over accountability design in which partisans tend to favor no-excuses forms of outcome accountability for those deemed untrustworthy and uncertainty-buffering forms of process accountability for the trustworthy. Finally, an integrative framework is proposed that examines how managers can balance the inevitable tradeoffs between decision-making control enhanced under process accountability and innovation fostered under outcome accountability, and sheds light on how agent empowerment can compensate for the deficiencies of both systems.
Copyright/Permission Statement
This work has been reproduced with the permission of Oxford University Press.
Keywords
accountability, process, outcome, ideology, empowerment, trustworthiness
Recommended Citation
Patil, S.V., Vieider, F. & Tetlock, P.E. (2014). Process Versus Outcome Accountability. In M. Bovens, R.E. Goodin & T. Schillemans (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Public Accountability. New York: Oxford University Press. [doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199641253.013.0002]
Date Posted: 19 February 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.