Individual, organizational, and institutional accountability: a systematic literature review in public administration

ABSTRACT

This study reviews accountability’s nature, conceptualization, antecedents, and consequences. It shows that accountability studies in the public administration field are fragmented and incoherent. The results of different studies go in different directions partly because scholars study accountability on different levels: individual, organizational, and institutional/programme. It is suggested that accountability at the individual level, its antecedents and consequences, and the interactivity of human agencies, organizations, and institutions should gain more scholarly attention.

KEYWORDS:

• Accountability
• systematic literature review
• conceptualization
• felt accountability

Acknowledgement

We want to express their thanks to Chengyuan Xie, who has helped us to collect the reviewed articles, and the three reviewers’constructive comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. A detailed summary of the typologies identified by authors is presented in Appendix 1.

2. We conducted our last search through a search engine on October 18, 2021.

3. We have added Appendix 3 to show the definitions of key concepts adopted in this study.

4. We developed Appendix 4 to show the conceptualization approaches used in the reviewed articles.

5. Accountability refers to three dimensions: staffing, compensation, and performance evaluation.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71774023]; Major Programme of Philosophy and Social Science of Chinese Ministry of Education [21JZD034]; The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [DUT22RW309]; The Social Science Foundation of China, grant no: 20BZZ036.

Notes on contributors

Yanwei Li

Yanwei Li is a professor at Shandong University, and his research interests include: governance networks, public service delivery, public innovation, and risk governance. His studies have been widely published in international journals, such as PMR, PA, Policy Sciences, International Public Management Journal, Journal of Public Policy, Journal of Social Policy, Local Government Studies, and Risk Analysis.

Joop Koppenjan

Joop Koppenjan is a visiting professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and his research interests include: governance networks, PPP, public innovation, complexity theory, and public service delivery. His studies have been widely published in international journals, such as JPART, PMR, PA, Governance, and PAR.

Huanming Wang

Huanming Wang is a professor at Dalian University of Technology, and his research interests include: governance networks, PPP, and public service delivery. His studies have been published in international journals, such as PMR, International Public Management Journal, and Administration and Society.