Individual accountability is a ubiquitous phenomenon
that connects persons to their social context and
enables coordination between multiple actors in
organizations. This book discusses the
components of accountability: those related to task
characteristics (responsibility and clarity), social
context (evaluators and feedback) and personality
attributes. A number of outcomes of accountability
are discussed. Results show that accountability
works differently for people with different
motivational orientation: performance oriented
individuals seem to profit more from it than mastery
oriented individuals. An important implication for
the goal-setting theory is that when goal setting
elements (task clarity and feedback) are taken in
the context of accountability, their motivational
properties become contingent on the social context
variables and personal goal orientation. The way the
accountability factors work together implies that
the phenomenon of accountability is generally a
potent tool if all its elements are fine-tuned to
the specific situation in which this tool is applied.
that connects persons to their social context and
enables coordination between multiple actors in
organizations. This book discusses the
components of accountability: those related to task
characteristics (responsibility and clarity), social
context (evaluators and feedback) and personality
attributes. A number of outcomes of accountability
are discussed. Results show that accountability
works differently for people with different
motivational orientation: performance oriented
individuals seem to profit more from it than mastery
oriented individuals. An important implication for
the goal-setting theory is that when goal setting
elements (task clarity and feedback) are taken in
the context of accountability, their motivational
properties become contingent on the social context
variables and personal goal orientation. The way the
accountability factors work together implies that
the phenomenon of accountability is generally a
potent tool if all its elements are fine-tuned to
the specific situation in which this tool is applied.