Bovens (2005) highlights a number of types of accountability that public and nonprofit sector employees may face, including:

• Organizational accountability: Accountability to superiors in hierarchical structures
• Political accountability: Accountability to elected representatives and political parties
• Legal accountability: Accountability to the courts (and laws, rules, policies, or procedures)
• Administrative: Accountability to auditors, inspectors, and controllers with formal oversight
• Professional accountability: Accountability to professional standards

Of these, which is the most dominant in your current line of work, or in a field in which you want to work? Do those same pressures exist in other countries when considering those same functions? (Bonus: Find an example of that same type of accountability mechanism or relationship from a different country, and note any interesting qualities or characteristics).

 

Q2: Accountability is particularly important in the public and nonprofit sectors, and two international trends make those processes more complex - privatization and results orientation (that is a focus on efficiency and outcomes to the detriment of processes). Thinking about your current line of work (or an aspirational area of work), could your function (or those of your unit) be privatized while still effectively maintaining genuine accountability? What challenges exist in either that privatization process or may emerge from a focus on results (ends) rather than processes (means)?