The Conundrum of Accountability in Organisations: The Need for Dialogue

Mathieu Detchessahar ()
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Mathieu Detchessahar: LEMNA - Laboratoire d'économie et de management de Nantes Atlantique - IEMN-IAE Nantes - Institut d'Économie et de Management de Nantes - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Nantes - UN - Université de Nantes

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Abstract: A number of recent organisational innovations suggest breaking with bureaucracy-inspired organ- isational models. They advocate new forms of management based on autonomy and the reinforce- ment of worker accountability. However, the concept of accountability is very difficult to use in organisational contexts. Organisations are spaces of collective action and multiple interdependen- cies between participants, which make attributing an action to an author very tricky. This explains why the pursuit of accountability often generates tensions, as individuals see it as an attempt to assign to them alone responsibilities that are more widely shared. Does this mean that we should stop using the vocabulary of accountability in organisations? This paper shows that it is only through regular dialogue about their professional activities that workers can take ownership of their work and accept accountability. Dialogue is therefore a precondition of accountability.

Keywords: Travail; Autonomie; Responsabilité; Innovation organisationnelle et managériale; Dialogue sur le travail Work; Autonomy; Accountability; Organisational Innovation; Work Discussion Spaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06-01
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Published in Sociologie du Travail, 2019, 61, ⟨10.4000/sdt.17693⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04504567

DOI: 10.4000/sdt.17693

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