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When no one is responsible: How leaders can restore accountability in complex organizations
Journal article   Peer reviewed

When no one is responsible: How leaders can restore accountability in complex organizations

Guli-Sanam Karimova and Stephen A. LeMay
Organizational dynamics, Vol.55(3), 101245
09/2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2026.101245
Web of Science ID: WOS:001809265400001

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Abstract

Accountability Algorithmic delegation Organizational design Responsibility Stakeholder integration Structural conditions Management or Commerce Planning or Policy Organizational Theory and Behavior
When major organizational failures occur, responsibility is often attributed to individual leaders. In many cases, however, the problem is structural rather than personal. Modern organizations frequently distribute decision-making across committees, procedures, technologies, and external partners, making it difficult to determine who is accountable for outcomes. This article builds on existing work to articulate the concept of accountability decoupling, a condition in which responsibility for actions is dispersed while accountability for consequences becomes unclear. Drawing on institutional theory, the problem of many hands, research on moral disengagement, and recent work on blame avoidance, normalization of deviance, sensemaking, and algorithmic accountability, the article identifies four common mechanisms that produce this pattern: organized diffusion, procedural shielding, technological delegation, and accountability fatigue. The article presents the Restoring Accountability framework, a practical model for leaders navigating complex systems where no one appears responsible. The framework consists of three linked practices: system mapping, which traces how decisions flow and where accountability disappears; disruptive intervention, which challenges routines that prevent responsibility from being assigned; and stakeholder integration, which reconnects decisions with those affected by them. The contribution is positioned as synthesis and managerial translation rather than conceptual novelty: the article integrates classical and algorithmic accountability literatures into a single managerial vocabulary, names the structural conditions that sustain accountability decoupling, and provides diagnostic and intervention practices that managers can apply within the constraints of their roles. The central argument is that responsible leadership depends not only on individual character but on organizational design. Leaders who want accountability must actively reshape the systems they operate within.

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