The Accountability Conversation Is Missing Something: Agency

The Connection Between Agency and Accountability

Ask someone about a time in their career when they felt truly at their best. Not just successful or productive, but genuinely energised by the work they were doing. Chances are, when they look beneath the surface, it was not only because they enjoyed the role, the organisation or even the work itself. It was because they felt trusted, capable and like their contribution mattered.

They had agency.

Yet many organisations are searching for accountability without examining whether people experience the agency required to practise it.

Organisations often seek people who take ownership, think proactively, challenge existing ways of working and contribute ideas. But there is an important question we need to ask. Can we truly expect people to take ownership if they don’t believe they have influence?

Because accountability without agency creates a contradiction. We are asking people to be responsible for outcomes they may feel they have little ability to shape.

Understanding Agency

Agency is not simply freedom, autonomy or the ability to make decisions without boundaries. It is the belief that our actions matter. That through our choices, behaviours and contributions, we have the capacity to influence what happens next.

Psychologist Albert Bandura explored this through the concept of self-efficacy, the belief we have in our ability to influence situations and create outcomes. His work challenged the idea that humans are simply shaped by their environment. Instead, he highlighted the relationship between people and the systems they exist within.

Our environment shapes us, but we also shape our environment. Culture influences people, but people can also influence culture.

That relationship matters because the environments we create are constantly teaching people something about their level of influence. Over time, people learn where their voice carries weight, whether challenging ideas creates progress or resistance, and whether mistakes become opportunities for growth or reasons to avoid risk.

When Control Is Mistaken for Accountability

This is where accountability becomes complex. Because sometimes the very systems designed to strengthen accountability can unintentionally weaken the agency required to practise it.

Control often comes from a genuine place of responsibility. Organisations need structure. They need standards, processes and expectations as a way to manage risk and create consistency. The challenge is not the existence of control but when control becomes a substitute for trust.

The contradiction is that many organisations want people who think critically, solve problems and take ownership, but those capabilities are developed through practice.

People build judgement by having opportunities to use judgement without fear of reprisal. They develop confidence by navigating decisions and strengthen accountability by experiencing ownership.

If we remove every opportunity for people to practise agency, we cannot be surprised when they become hesitant to use it. The outcome is often a culture where people become highly skilled at following expectations, but less confident challenging, questioning or improving them.

And then we wonder why ownership disappears.

When People Stop Believing They Can Influence Change

The loss of agency does not usually happen overnight. It happens gradually through repeated experiences that shape how people see themselves and their ability to contribute.

Sometimes what looks like disengagement is not actually a lack of care. It can be the result of someone slowly disconnecting their effort from the belief that it will create change.

People who once brought ideas, challenged thinking or looked for opportunities to improve may slowly begin to step back. Not because their capability disappeared or because they stopped caring about the outcome, but because experience has taught them where their influence begins and ends.

Humans adapt.

Over time, if people start to believe their effort, expertise or contribution has little influence, they naturally begin to protect their energy. Not because they stopped caring, but because they stopped believing what they do will make a difference.

Unlocking Capability

This is why agency is so closely connected to motivation, creativity and performance.

When people experience agency, their capability does not suddenly appear. It was already there. Agency creates the conditions for it to emerge.

Because human potential is not only shaped by knowledge, skills or experience. It is also shaped by whether people have the opportunity, trust and environment to use them.

Capability develops when people are given opportunities to practise, explore and learn through experience. Confidence grows when people see their contribution has value, and judgement strengthens when they are trusted to navigate decisions rather than simply follow direction.

Ownership builds through having something meaningful to own.

Agency is not about unlocking something new in people. It is about creating the conditions where what already exists has the opportunity to grow.

Agency Requires Balance

This is where the conversation requires balance.

Agency is not about removing responsibility from individuals and placing it entirely onto organisations or leaders. It is also not about expecting people to overcome environments that consistently limit their ability to contribute.

The relationship moves both ways.

Organisations create the conditions that influence behaviour, but individuals still have a role in how they respond, participate and contribute within those environments. Agency is not the absence of accountability. It is what allows meaningful accountability to exist.

Because true ownership requires more than responsibility. It requires influence.

We cannot ask people to own outcomes while removing their ability to shape them. But we also cannot create environments of support without recognising the individual responsibility required to step forward, engage and act.

Because when people believe their actions matter, they do not simply complete the work in front of them. They become active participants in shaping what comes next.