Goals,Measures,and beyond

Abstract

Accountability has become a hot topic in federal HRM. The authors describe how downsized, reinvented Government places a great demand on line managers both to comply with personnel laws and to achieve excellent results from their management of people. Yet, the task of identifying a viable approach to HRM accountability has not been easy. There has been no common understanding of what accountability is, let alone any clear idea of how to measure it. Indeed, the bewildering array of results measurement models that seem to promise “The Answer” often only end up confusing managers and HR professionals alike. To help Federal managers and HR professionals make sense of this situation, the authors offer the HRM Accountability System Development Guide, the product of an interagency task force of which both were members. The Guide provides a clear depiction of accountability as applying to both legal compliance and HR program results, and examples of how each can be measured in the federal context. While acknowledging that there is no one answer or set of answers in HRM accountability, the authors advocate the Guide as an invaluable framework that can show the way to any and all federal agencies as they set out to achieve accountability.