Quand le rendu de compte tourne au règlement de comptes. DRH et managers face à l'absentéisme

This article surveys accountability?s methods and limits in the case of actors not bound by direct hierarchical authority. Drawn from an action-research conducted in a French service company?s call centers, it focuses on the absenteeism case. Unlike the panoptic configuration highlighted by Foucault, accountability works both ways. Due to a lack of reliable tools and of precise responsibilities, accountability is likely to turn into settling old scores and, further, to strengthen inaction. Hence, accountability turns out to be counterproductive in case of not well enough defined authority.