Authorising an agent to transact on your behalf brings with it the risk of loss. Suffering a loss through neglect by an agent is your loss. You may have recourse against the agent, but you bear the initial loss.

A manager delegating responsibility to a subordinate who then poorly performs such responsibilities, has to accept personal ownership of the poor results and deal with it. Blaming the employee and claiming to be the victim unfortunately brings no absolution! It merely exposes the manager as unfit to manage.

Accountability is not always an absolute. Stating that accountability should be non-negotiable must, however, not be misconstrued as declaring accountability always to be absolute, implying a come hell or high water insistence at all times.

Accountability should be considered in terms of what is practicable.

The test for practicability, is to decide whether an equally competent person, under the same circumstances, would have been able to achieve the responsibility outcomes according to stated expectations. If the answer is unequivocally affirmative, then accountability was practicable and it is fair to have expected it.

In such a case it can be considered to be absolute. If the answer is negative, then demanding absolute accountability is unfair. Is accountability not over- emphasised?

Is enforcing accountability and its implied personal loss not a bit harsh in today’s corporate world where people management and employee wellbeing are high on the agenda?

Shouldn’t managers simply look the other way and accept poor or mediocre performance coupled with an apology as adequate for the sake of avoiding conflict and maintaining work place harmony?

If blame can be assigned somewhere else and the employee claims victim status, isn’t that a fair excuse not to take any further action? The answer to the above and similar questions lie in asking oneself how much you are personally prepared to lose owing to someone else’s lack of accountability. No sane person will stand by idly and watch him- or herself suffering personal loss without trying to prevent it.

Preventing personal loss is a powerful motivator and if that means enforcing accountability, very few will consider it to be over- emphasised. Accountability is therefore certainly not over- emphasised when it comes to performing assigned responsibilities and having to meet expectations.