 RESEARCH AT CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
RESEARCH SUMMARY
INDIVIDUAL CIVIL SERVANTS' CONCEPTIONS OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Dr Jonathan Lupson
Lecturer, Project and Programme Management
This study investigated how civil servants in the United Kingdom understand accountability and
revealed five attributes of accountability.
Accountability is a perennial issue for civil
servants. Recent debates in the House of
Lords have focused on how well senior civil
servants are held to account. The issue of
civil servant accountability has often arisen as
part of Parliaments’ scrutiny of key crises such
as the data processing delays at the Home
Office (2006) and the loss of data at HMRC
(2007). Lord Browne, the former chief
executive of BP, has recently stated that civil
servant accountability needs to change, as it
was developed for the much smaller and less
complex public sector of the 19th century. But
how do civil servants understand
accountability in today’s fast-moving, complex
and challenging public sector?
This article presents a preliminary study of
how civil servants in the United Kingdom
understand accountability. Using the
interpretive approach known as
phenomenography, Lupson and Parrington
interviewed ten civil servants who, as Senior
Responsible Owners (SROs), were
accountable for the delivery of significant IT
enabled business change programmes.
The results show that the accountability is not
experienced by SROs as a unitary
phenomenon. The data depicts a much richer
picture.
Lupson and Partington’s analysis revealed five
attributes of accountability: the subject of
accountability, to whom they are accountable,
how they fulfil their accountability, when they
are accountable and what a SRO understands
to be the consequences of being accountable.
Each of these attributes was conceived in
three qualitatively different ways; each with a
distinct focus suggesting three levels in a
hierarchy of increasing richness and
complexity. The data showed that the three
different understandings overlapped, but only
in one direction.
The first level focused on accountability for the
particular programme within the SRO’s own
organisation; the second level also included
accountability for the programme to external
stakeholders within government. The third
level encompassed both these levels and
added accountability to the public. Those
RESEARCH AT CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
SROs who expressed the latter exhibited the
widest understanding of accountability. At this
level, SROs are balancing bureaucratic
accountability for performance (Level One),
with professional and parliamentary
accountability (Level Two) and political
accountability (Level Three).
Accountability for achievement of programme
performance targets would now appear to be
the most basic level of accountability in the
British civil service. It has replaced the more
traditional notions of accountability for fairness
and finance which were meant to assure
citizens, legislatures and governments that
public resources are used in accordance with
the law and public policy. This newer form also
contrasts with the traditional ethos of the
British civil service and its concerns for the
public interest. Only those SROs who
expressed level three were aware of how their
programme might impact or benefit the public.
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The implications of the results imply that these
three levels of conception offer some potential
for selecting and developing SROs to ensure
‘fit’ between the SRO, their level of
understanding of accountability and the
programme they were accountable for.
Lupson, J. & Partington, D. 2011, 'Individual
civil servants' conceptions of accountability:
A preliminary study', Public Management
Review, vol.13, no.7, pp. 895-918.
For further details on this research paper
please contact:
jonathan.lupson@cranfield.ac.uk
Management Theme: Programme
and Project Management
MANAGEMENT THEMES AT CRANFIELD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
 Business Economics and Finance
 Business Performance Management
 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability
 Entrepreneurship and Business Growth
 General Management
 Information Systems
 Innovation and Operations Management
 Leadership
 Managing People and Global Careers
 Marketing, Sales and Client Relationships
 Programme and Project Management
 Strategy, Complexity and Change Management
 Supply Chain and Logistics Management