The first step in determining accountabilities is to collect information about the job. The primary source is, of course, the job description that has resulted from the work analysis and a consideration of unit-and organization-level strategic priorities.

The job description provides information on the tasks performed. Tasks included in the job description can be grouped into clusters, based on their degree of relatedness. Each of these task clusters is a broad area for which the employee is responsible for producing results.

After the accountabilities have been identified, we need to determine their relative degree of importance. Although determining accountabilities may seem like a daunting task at first, it is not that difficult.