Ethics is Grounded in the Notion of Accountability

People seek accountability. They want to know who is responsible and accountable for certain actions and the consequences of those actions. Responsibility refers to “a sphere of duty or obligation” assigned to a person by the nature of that person’s position, function, or work. Responsibility refers to the multiple facets of both processes and outcomes. Moral responsibility lets an individual to take rational decisions, which in turn justifies holding moral agents accountable for their actions.

Accountability is the readiness or preparedness to give an explanation for one’s judgments, acts and intentions. It is also willingness to judge one’s actions by others and accept responsibility for others errors, when necessary. It is an alertness to correct in the light of improved thoughts gained from others.

The person can be held accountable if

• The person is functionally and/or morally responsible for an action.
• Some harm occurred due to that action.
• The responsible person had no legitimate excuse for the action.

Ideally, the assumption would then be to hold a person who is responsible for an action also accountable for the results of that action.

Unaccountable people give excuses and blame others, and act helpless. Unaccountable people complain quickly and act slowly. In organizations, Unaccountability is a highly contagious disease.

• Although the various roles of public relations have different sets of obligations, the overriding obligation is to perform an accepted moral framework. That framework may be professional standards or a corporate code or personal ethical standards. They all play a part in creating the moral ground from which a true professional makes decisions.
• Responsibility and accountability are two terms with hidden ethical and moral values which is focused on actions around which the strongest commitments form.
• Presuppositions, expectations, and faith are important ethical engines in taking responsibility and being accountable especially when an individual is confident.
• People know best that to who they are accountable, but not because they knew it and then became accountable but because their actions makes them to, and also they are responsible for an action because it makes them responsible.

Organizations are not monoliths. Instead, they are loosely coupled fragments means that macro perspectives like responsibility and accountability are hollow unless linked with micro dynamics like moral values.