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Subscribe via EmailAuthor: Miguel dos Santos
Saturday, 7th Jul 2007
The difference between Accountability and Responsibility
Filed under: accountability, reponsibility
You can delegate responsibility, but you can’t delegate accountability to anyone.
If someone gives you a job to do, you can get someone else to do it, but you are still accountable to produce the results. If the job isn’t done right the only person to blame is you, because even though you’ve delegated the responsibility, you are still accountable.
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September 1st, 2008 at 5:21 am
There is a thin line between Accountability and Responsibility which most people (specially senior managers) fail to understand
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October 1st, 2008 at 2:00 am
Perfect answer. Brill!!
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November 10th, 2008 at 2:26 am
You cannot delegate either responsibilty or accountability where the buck stops at you. You can delegate tasks related to the programme or project but both accountability & responsibilty for the overall outcome remains with you. The person/s to whom you delegated a task or tasks is accountable to you for the standard of his work, but it’s your guts that will get kicked in if you made a poor choice of task-ee where the project becomes flawed. Of course, if the project is a resounding success you will receive the honours.
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