An Accountability Matrix for Organizational Change: Navigating Transitions from Individual Blame to Organizational Learning in the Swedish Police

Accountability plays a central yet underexamined role in organizational change. While accountability systems are intended to promote responsibility and legitimacy, they may also reinforce blame-oriented responses that constrain learning and impede reform. To integrate these insights, the paper develops an accountability matrix structured around two dimensions: temporal orientation (backward- versus forward-looking) and locus of accountability (individual versus systemic). The framework is informed by research on misconduct handling in the Swedish Police Authority, which illustrates the conceptual argument.The matrix offers a heuristic for examining how accountability practices shape trust, organizational climate, knowledge sharing, and learning. By integrating temporal and systemic dimensions of accountability, the framework extends discussions of blame, responsibility, and organizational learning. The analysis suggests that accountability orientations centred on retrospective blame and individual fault attribution may constrain learning and reinforce defensive responses, whereas more forward-looking and systemically oriented approaches create conditions for learning and adaptation.The paper contributes to change management research by conceptualizing accountability as a mechanism that shapes conditions for organizational change and by offering a framework for understanding transitions from individual blame toward learning-oriented organizational responses.MAD statementThis article advances accountability research by showing that organizational responses to misconduct are shaped by different accountability logics that vary in their focus on individuals or systems and on retrospective blame or prospective learning. I develop a matrix of accountability that explains why organizations often struggle to move from punitive responses to organizational learning. Drawing on policing examples, I demonstrate how accountability processes can unintentionally constrain change by individualizing responsibility and narrowing inquiry. The framework offers scholars and practitioners a tool for understanding and navigating accountability as a central challenge of organizational change.