Job and Organizational Characteristics, Accountability, and Employee Influence

Accountability is viewed as a fundamental principle of organization theory, yet theoretical and empirical research on this important construct has lagged behind its pivotal role in organizations. The present study tested portions of a model of accountability, examining job and organizational characteristics as predictors and employee influence tactics as outcomes of accountability. Accountability demonstrated significant positive relationships with hierarchical level and employee influence tactics, and a negative relationship with job ambiguity. Furthermore, an accountability X job ambiguity interaction was found on employee influence indicating that under low job ambiguity, increases in accountability are associated with greater use of influence tactics. Implications of the results for researchers and practitioners are discussed, as are direction for future research.