Accountability Sinks
8 days ago
- #accountability
- #organizational behavior
- #decision-making
- Dan Davies introduces the concept of 'accountability sinks' in organizations, where structures absorb or obscure decision consequences, making accountability difficult.
- Examples include corporate decisions affecting customers without direct feedback loops, such as reduced cleaning staff leading to unprepared hotel rooms.
- Accountability sinks break the link between decision-makers and those affected, preventing feedback from influencing the system.
- Instances of accountability sinks are widespread, from health insurance denials to airline cancellations and government benefit ineligibility.
- Decisions can cascade and lose their origins, as seen in Fox News spreading false election stories without explicit decisions to lie.
- Davies defines accountability as the ability to change a decision, linking power over decisions directly to accountability.
- Sidney Dekker's view adds that accountability involves understanding and narrating the decision-making process and conditions.
- Combining both frameworks, accountability requires both the power to change decisions and a narrative of how that power is used.
- AI and algorithms are modern accountability sinks, but organizations have long been adept at creating such structures.
- Holding algorithms accountable may require new strategies, as traditional methods fail even against corporate accountability sinks.