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 t
heir management of people. Yet, the task of identifying a viable approach t
o HRM accountability has not been easy. There has been no common understand
ing of what accountability is, let alone any clear idea of how to measure i
t. Indeed, the bewildering array of results measurement models that seem to
promise "The Answer" often only end up confusing managers and HR professio
nals alike. To help Federal managers and HR professionals make sense of thi
s situation, the authors offer the HRM Accountability System Development Gu
ide. the product of an interagency task force of which both were members. T
he Guide provides a clear depiction of accountability as applying to both l
egal compliance and HR program results, and examples of how each can be mea
sured in the federal context. While acknowledging that there is no one answ
er 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 age
ncies as they set out to achieve accountability.