Accountability to and with in fiduciary and mutual relationships

Accountability is the ability to give an accounting of the choices which are shaping the relationship. As we have two fundamentally different forms of relationship--fiduciary and mutual--we have two very different forms of accountability.

In a fiduciary relationship (or in a reciprocal relationship which is essentially a bilaterally balanced fiduciary relationship) the right that one has to make a decision rests on the capacity one has to be responsible to the other. Thus accountability is the ability to give an account of ones responsibility to the other. At Henry's job at Universal Widget where Frank is his boss, Henry is accountable to Frank when he gives an account of his hours by filling out the time sheet, when he gives an account of how the widget machine is working by making an equipment report, and by telling him how many widgets he made on a given shift. Frank, in return, is accountable to Henry by giving him a paycheck and a performance review. They are each accountable to the other.

By contrast in a mutual relationship we are not accountable to each other, but accountable with each other.

In Jane and Joe's marriage, as they have decided to have a mutual relationship, neither has the right to make a decision unilaterally except as they have decided together that the other will take on that responsibility. Thus Jane pays the bills because Joe and Jane have decided that they don't both want to have that responsibility and Jane is better with details than is Joe. Still, they are both earning income and both making financial choices. Jane doesn't have to clear it with Joe when she buys shoes and Joe doesn't have to clear it with Jane when he buys a new tool.

But when Joe pulls into the driveway towing a boat, Jane is outraged. This is not something they had discussed. This was not a mutual decision.

Joe responds, "But you don't have to get my permission to buy all of your shoes. What makes you think I should have to get your permission to buy something? I thought we had a mutual relationship."

Joe is confusing mutual with equal. Just because the structure of the relationship is mutual doesn't mean that all choices we make are equal. The dollar difference between shoes and a boat puts this decision into a different class. And the issue here is not whether either needs the other's permission to act. Clearly Joe was able to buy the boat without consulting Jane.

The issue has to do with the degree to which they are each acting in accord with an agreement made with the other. When Jane buys shoes or Joe buys a shovel they are acting within the parameters of an agreement they have made with each other. Jane thinks buying a boat is outside the scope of their agreement. She wished that she had been consulted before Joe made this purchase. It is her sense that he is not being accountable with her as he did not take into account how his decision was likely to affect her.

In a fiduciary relationship we are accountable when we give an account to the other. In a mutual relationship we are accountable when we take into account two things: how our choices affect the other and how the other's choices affect us.