Unpacking the accountability cube and its relationship with blame avoidance

Notwithstanding the voluminous studies of accountability, little is known about its internal mechanism and its controversial relationship with blame avoidance. Based on the ‘accountability cube’ model, this study identifies four essential components of accountability: monitoring intensity, discussion quality, reward-based consequences, and punishment-based consequences. It explores the impacts of the four elements and their diverse configurations on bureaucrats’ blame avoidance. Drawing on survey data from Chinese civil servants, this study suggests that sanction-based accountability comprising stringent monitoring and punishment may trigger blame avoidance. Trust-based accountability, which includes high discussion quality and potential rewarding consequences, is more beneficial in containing blame avoidance.