Toward a Public Administration Theory of Felt Accountability

• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Author: Sjors Overman,Thomas Schillemans
• Date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13417

Research Article

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Abstract: The literature on public accountability is extensive but overwhelmingly focuses on accountability of

organizations. Yet, accountability mechanisms can function properly only when individuals believe that they will be

held accountable in the future. This article bridges that gap by translating and extending the psychological concept

of “felt accountability” to the public administration scholarship. The particular context of accountability in public

organizations requires us to integrate knowledge about (1) the diverse professional roles of public sector employees,

(2) the saliency and authority of various and multiple account holders, and (3) the substance of the accountability

demands. The current article integrates this contextual knowledge with an individual perspective on accountability.

This effort represents an important contribution to public accountability literature, as it allows scholars to properly

understand the consequences of psychological insights about accountability for the public sector, and to adequately

translate psychological insights and recommendations to a public accountability context.

Evidence for Practice

• The impact of accountability mechanisms on individual behavior is predicated on the individuals’ acceptance

of the account holder’s authority. Individuals will change their behavior as a result of such mechanisms only

when they anticipate future accountability to a salient account holder.

• Adequate accountability mechanisms acknowledge the beliefs of account givers about their own professional

role, about the perceived authority of the account holders, and about the contents of the accountability

demand.

• The perceptions of future accountability that account givers hold are the result of internalizations of (in)

formal norms. Socialization is key in shaping the effectiveness of accountability mechanisms.

Accountability mechanisms are important

tools of governance to evaluate and, when

necessary, sanction behavior (Bovens 2007).

These tools of governance include not only a variety

of formal mechanisms such as elections, audits, and

performance reporting (Peters 2014) but also informal

processes of accountability (Benjamin and Posner

2018; Romzek, LeRoux, and Blackmar 2012). What

they have in common is that the implementation of

all of these accountability mechanisms is generally

aimed at monitoring the execution of public policies,

at improving organizational outcomes, and at

foregoing undesirable behavior by public managers

(Day and Klein 1987; McCubbins, Noll, and

Weingast 1987). As such, accountability mechanisms

have an important function in securing democratic

and constitutional control.

In the current empirical accountability research in

public administration, a focus on public organizations

predominates (Olsen 2013; Schillemans 2016).

Accountability mechanisms aim at accountable

organizations; yet, these can be effective only

when people in those organizations perceive these

mechanisms to exist and, consequently, adjust

their behavior in the desired direction. It is, thus,

the individual perception of the accountability

mechanism that triggers actions in a public sector

employee. The individual actions, in turn, should

lead to improved, more accountable organizational

performance as the aggregated effects of individual

responses to an organizations’ accountability

environment (Coleman 1990). In other words,

the effective implementation of accountability

mechanisms in the public sector on the meso-level

presumes that micro-level decision makers adapt

their behavior in the presence of such mechanisms

(Jilke et al. 2019). Only when agents have a mental

imprint of (future) accountability, they are able to

anticipate appropriately toward the accountability

mechanism. Therefore, it is imperative to study

accountability at the actor level in order to assess

its effects on decisions and behaviors in public

administration. Scholars, such as Barbara Romzek

Sjors Overman

Thomas Schillemans

Utrecht University, School of Governance

Toward a Public Administration Theory of Felt Accountability

Thomas Schillemans is a professor of

accountability, behavior and governance at

Utrecht University, School of Governance.

His research focuses on the interactions

of public sector organizations with

various relevant stakeholders from their

environment. He specializes in public

accountability, public sector governance,

trust and control, and the role of the media

in policy implementation.

Email: t.schillemans@uu.nl

Sjors Overman is an assistant professor of

public administration at Utrecht University,

School of Governance. He studies public

accountability and the governance of

public sector organizations and leads a

project investigating the influence of felt

accountability on emotions. His recent work

covers accountability, survey methodology,

and bureaucratic reputation.

Email: s.p.overman@uu.nl

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 1, pp. 12–22. © 2021 The

Authors. Public Administration Review

published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on

behalf of American Society for Public

Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13417.