On The Role Of Accountability And Incentives In Obtaining Quality Process Documentation

Abstract

The importance of managing process knowledge in complex activities such as information product development is well recognized in recent research. However, successful implementation of a traceability scheme(that provides the ability to follow the life of artifacts created during systems development)  to manage process knowledge requires the development of appropriate incentives to knowledge workers. Based on a review of accounting and economic literature on managerial incentives and  accountability as well as empirical studies of nearly thirty organizations, we propose a series of hypotheses that predict the influence of an organizational culture of accountability and presence of financial and other incentives on obtaining quality process documentation in organizations.