Goals, measures, and beyond - In search of accountability in federal HRM

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.