Day 9 - Accountability vs Responsibility
There is a lot of ambiguity in the way that the words accountability and responsibility are used in organisations, but in schools ‘responsibility’ is often taken to be a positive characteristic (e.g. the student takes responsibility for their learning) implying an internal drive, whereas 'accountability' often refers to performing to satisfy someone else (such as school inspection).
Due to the crucial work of the profession some accountability is of course necessary.
As Head of a school I was seduced into thinking that increasing accountability would automatically improve performance, whereas actually once you hit a certain point, performance levels off and all you do is create extra stress. Too many schools use the threat of accountability, without realising that if they valued responsibility instead, through for example promoting professional autonomy and collaboration, this may well lead to better (and more enjoyable) results.
Andy Hargreaves says, “Accountability should be the tiny remainder that is left once responsibility has been subtracted,” suggesting that if accountability increases, then responsibility decreases, as the external pressure replaces the internal drive. In many organisations sadly, accountability has grown far beyond being a ‘tiny remainder’.
