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A critical issue in public accountability is how to reduce chances for dysfunctionalities. This research addresses it by examining both theoretically and empirically how quality reporting may reduc...

While the field of public management has long emphasized the importance of holding public employees accountable for their actions, our understanding of how best to do so has been hindered by a dear...

The external control of public organizations and their members, commonly referred to as accountability, is an enduring theme in public administration. This article shifts attention from a traditional focus on accountability as a macro-institutional matter to the psychology of accountability, that is, whether and how employees internalize accountability systems. The internalization of rules and expectations varies by individual, which, in turn, has significant consequences for accountability outcomes. We theorize that the micro-foundations of employee accountability are affected by five factors: attributability, observability, evaluability, answerability, and consequentiality. These five dimensions are conceptually distinct but interrelated, representing a deeper common psychological construct of employee accountability. Incorporating the psychological approach of accountability advances the potential of public accountability research. We conclude with a discussion of future research and practical implications.

Employee accountability is a phenomenon of central importance to public administration. The volume of empirical research, however, has been modest given the absence of valid measures. This article ...

Accountability mechanisms have been widely applied to public agencies to achieve intended goals since ‘new public management’ paradigm. However, our understanding of the relationship between instit...

This article decouples accountability and performance to highlight the cognitive gap in the ability to discern between accountability and performance at the street level. A qualitative content analysis of interviews from child welfare caseworkers provides several noteworthy findings. While these terms share certain common key themes, they also have different characteristics. Both terms may be understood and used interchangeably in practical applications, including serving (the children and families), responsible action (trust), following rules, completing the task, integrity/ethics, and effectiveness. Aside from the common key themes, accountability was also understood as embodying the key themes of explanation/meeting, expectation, and ownership. Conversely, performance was perceived as representing professionalism, skill, and teamwork. In general, when the frontline workers talk about process and relationships, they reference accountability and when they are discussing outcomes, they reference performance. This study highlights common and disparate characteristics associated with accountability and performance that explain why they are pursued simultaneously and why enhancing accountability sometimes does not lead to improving performance and vice versa.

Subnational fiscal performance has been receiving a lot of attention from researchers in various disciplines. However, there is very little published on the impact of citizen involvement on fiscal performance. This paper shows that a lack of citizen involvement in the electoral process was associated with fiscal performance in all 807 city-level Japanese municipalities from 2006 to 2012.

This study proposes that Public Service Motivation (PSM) can be changeable by unique characteristics of public organization. The proposition is applied for the integration between PSM theory and goal-setting theory that is inevitable to better understand the motivation phenomena for the organization. The integration model consists of two sub-mechanisms: 1) the moderating role of goal characteristics on the relationship between Public Service Motivation and work motivation, and 2) the mediating role of PSM on the relationship between goal characteristics and performance. The model suggests empirically testable five theoretical propositions with methodological strategies. Finally, theoretical implications and future study are discussed.

It is often assumed that a greater level of accountability will positively affect the performance of public organizations; however, this relationship has not been studied extensively in public administration. This study provides quantitative evidence regarding the impact of accountability on organizational performance in the U.S. federal government. Specifically, we examine the association between the levels of organizational performance and accountability in three functions of human resource management (HRM)—staffing, performance evaluation, and compensation—as perceived by employees of public organizations. Further, we test whether the level of autonomy perceived by the employees influences the association between accountability and performance. The findings suggest that the levels of accountability manifested in staffing, performance evaluation, and compensation all positively and significantly affect organizational performance. Moreover, employee autonomy tends to amplify the positive impact of accountability on performance in two HRM functions—staffing and compensation.

Transparency has been assumed to enhance government accountability. Recent studies, however, have suggested complex relationships between transparency and various accountability mechanisms. By cond...

While the field of public management has long emphasized the importance of holding public employees accountable for their actions, our understanding of how best to do so has been hindered by a dear...

Holding public employees to feel accountable for their actions has been emphasized as it can significantly affect work outcomes for public organizations. However, compared to theoretical arguments,...

Employee accountability is a phenomenon of central importance to public administration. The volume of empirical research, however, has been modest given the absence of valid measures. This article ...

Public employees are required to manage multiple accountability requirements by investing in the relationship with those who demand accountability, making a commitment to the given tasks and anticipating what might happen. The purpose of the study is to explore how social caseworkers manage multiple accountability requirements compared to public managers. The analysis from child welfare caseworkers' interview data highlights a number of ways on how social caseworkers respond to multiple accountabilities. Although most of acts from caseworkers are exposed within the public managers' strategies, talking or discussing with coworkers and supervisors seems the caseworkers' contextual and endemic response. Discussions followed.

Accountability is one of the foundations of democratic governance, but noticeably little is known of how it works in practice. Empirical studies of Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) as a major ...

This research aims to advance public accountability research in terms of theory and measurement. Since advent of New Public Management (NPM), there has been only assumption that performance account...