Editing Accountability (section)

== Organizational ==
===Ethical===
{{See also|Social accounting|Environmental accounting}}

Within an organization, the principles and practices of ethical accountability aim to improve both the internal standard of individual and group conduct as well as external factors, such as sustainable economic and ecologic strategies. Also, ethical accountability plays an important role in academic fields, such as laboratory experiments and field research. Debates around the practice of ethical accountability on the part of researchers in {{vague|text=the social field|date=July 2023}} – whether professional or others – were explored by Norma R.A. Romm in her work on ''Accountability in Social Research'',<ref name=romm>{{cite book|last=Romm|first=Norma R.A.|title=Accountability in Social Research|year=2001|publisher=Klower Academic|location=New York|isbn=978-0-306-46564-2|url=https://www.springer.com/social+sciences/book/978-0-306-46564-2?detailsPage=reviews}}</ref> and elsewhere.<ref name=truman>{{cite web|last=Truman|first=Carole|title=Review of New Racism: Revisiting Researcher Accountabilities|url=http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/2/reviews/3.html|publisher=Sociological Research Online|access-date=27 August 2012|year=2010}}</ref> Researcher accountability implies that researchers are cognizant of, and take some responsibility for, the potential impact of their ways of doing research – and of writing it up – on the social fields of which the research is part. Accountability is linked to considering carefully, and being open to challenge in relation to, one's choices concerning how research agendas are framed and the styles in which research results are written.

=== Security ===
{{Anchor|Security accountability}}The traceability of actions performed on a system to a specific system entity (user, process, device) also affects accountability. For example, the use of unique [[user ID|user identification]] and [[password|authentication]] supports accountability, and the use of shared user IDs and passwords degrades accountability.

===Individuals within organizations===
Because many individuals in large organizations contribute in many ways to decisions and policies, it is difficult even in principle to identify who should be accountable for the results. This is what is known, following [[Dennis F. Thompson]], as "the problem of many hands".<ref>{{cite book | last=Thompson | first=Dennis F. | chapter=The Problem of Many Hands| title=Restoring Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business and Healthcare | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=2005 | isbn=978-0-521-54722-2 | pages=33–49}}</ref> It creates a dilemma for accountability. If individuals are held accountable or responsible, individuals who could not have prevented the results are either unfairly punished, or they "take responsibility" in a symbolic ritual without suffering any consequences. If only organizations are held accountable, then all individuals in the organization are equally blameworthy or all are excused.

Various solutions have been proposed. One is to broaden the criteria for individual responsibility so that individuals are held accountable for not anticipating failures in the organization. Another solution, recently proposed by Thompson, is to hold individuals accountable for the design of the organization, both retrospectively and prospectively.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Thompson | first=Dennis F. | title=Responsibility for Failures of Government: The Problem of Many Hands | journal=The American Review of Public Administration | publisher=SAGE Publications | volume=44 | issue=3 | date=9 March 2014 | issn=0275-0740 | doi=10.1177/0275074014524013 | pages=259–273| s2cid=154304430 | url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:12172792 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Accountability is an element of a [[responsibility assignment matrix]] which indicates who is ultimately answerable for the correct and thorough completion of a deliverable or task, as well as the delegation of the work to those responsible.

===Public and private overlap===
With the increase in public service provided by private entities, especially in Britain and the United States, some have called for increased political accountability mechanisms for otherwise non-political entities. Legal scholar Anne Davies, for instance, argues that the line between public institutions and private entities like corporations is becoming blurred in certain areas of public service in the United Kingdom, and that this can compromise political accountability in those areas. She and others argue that some administrative law reform is necessary to address this accountability gap.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

With respect to the public/private overlap in the United States, public concern over the contracting of government services (including military) and the resulting accountability gap was highlighted following the [[Nisour Square massacre]] perpetrated by the Blackwater security firm in Iraq.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ed_harriman/2007/09/blackwater_poisons_the_well.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080412224819/http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ed_harriman/2007/09/blackwater_poisons_the_well.html|archive-date=2008-04-12 |title=Blackwater poisons the well |publisher=Guardian |date=28 September 2007 |access-date=26 August 2009 | location=London | first=Ed | last=Harriman}}</ref>