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Copyright © 2012–2026 PM World Inc. – All rights reserved · ISSN 2330-4480
THE GROWTH OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
COMMENTARY
By Harold Kerzner, Ph.D. and Al Zeitoun, Ph.D.
California & Maryland, USA
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY CHALLENGE ___________________
We all use words and expressions to say things that are important to us and have a specific meaning to us as we use them. Unfortunately, the same words and expressions can be interpreted differently by others that hear the words and expressions. A classic example is when the word “accountability” is used in a project management environment. Accountability in project management has undergone several meaning changes over the past several decades and eventually helped generate significant improvements that are now used in project management practices.
This challenge is also seen in the potential missed opportunity when not comprehending the difference between accountability and responsibility. This is coupled with the complexity in how these two words are used across global languages. Another word that might have to be considered in the mix is the word “ownership.”
BACKGROUND TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTABILITY _______________
Most definitions of accountability include wording such as “a willingness to accept responsibility for one’s performance.” Responsibility is the major component of accountability. You cannot have accountability without responsibility, but you can have responsibility without accountability.
In the early years of project management, especially for contractors that relied upon competitive bidding success on government contracts to support their organizations, accountability was non-existent. Salespeople believed that they had exclusive rights to handle all communications with clients. Salespeople measured project success by the size of the bonuses they received for work they brought into the firm, even if the client was unhappy with the deliverables. Almost all project managers were engineers who defined success in technical terms only, regardless of the number of often unnecessary scope changes and final project costs that elongated the schedules and increased the budgets by several hundred percent. Salespeople refused to allow project managers to communicate with clients for fear of having to share bonuses with them. Project managers were not allowed to make business-related decisions. Sponsors were assigned from the senior levels of management to make business-related decisions. Sponsors defined success as not being personally blamed for any project that may have been unsuccessful.
When projects got into trouble, salespeople blamed the project managers who then blamed the functional managers for assigning the wrong workers. Executives were also criticized for not being more involved in projects and possibly making the wrong decisions. Finger-pointing for transferring blame to others appeared everywhere. Simply stated, accountability was nonexistent.
Senior management tried to enforce a policy where everyone maintained some degree of responsibility. Unfortunately, workers felt the pressure of responsibility but at the same time did not believe they were accountable. The resistance to acceptance of accountability resulted in more damage than cost overruns, schedule slippages, and loss of business. Everyone felt responsibility but not accountability. As referenced in Figure 1, the result was finger-pointing and placing blame on others for being lazy or incompetent. This dilutes accountability and sets an unhealthy culture for the program and project teams that directly affects the potential of success.
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How to cite this article: Kerzner, H., Zeitoun, A. (2026). The Growth of Project Management Accountability, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue IV, April. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/pmwj163-Apr2026-Kerzner-Zeitoun-Growth-of-PM-Accountability.pdf
About the Authors
Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., MS, M.B.A
Senior Executive Director for Project Management
International Institute of Learning
New York & California, USA
Dr. Harold Kerzner is Senior Executive Director for Project Management for the International Institute for Learning (IIL). He has an MS and Ph.D. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Utah State University. He is a prior Air Force Officer and spent several years at Morton-Thiokol in project management. He taught engineering at the University of Illinois and business administration at Utah State University, and for 38 years taught project management at Baldwin-Wallace University. He has published or presented numerous engineering and business papers and has had published more than 60 college textbooks/workbooks on project management, including later editions. Some of his books are (1) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling; (2) Project Management Metrics, KPIs and Dashboards, (3) Project Management Case Studies, (4) Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence, (5) PM 2.0: The Future of Project Management, (6) Using the Project Management Maturity Model, and (7) Innovation Project Management.
He is a charter member of the Northeast Ohio PMI Chapter.
Dr. Kerzner has traveled around the world conducting project management lectures for PMI Chapters and companies in Japan, China, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, Korea, South Africa, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Mexico, Trinidad, Barbados, The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Venezuela, Columbia, United Arab Emirates, France, Italy, England, and Switzerland. He delivered a keynote speech at a PMI Global Congress on the future of project management.
His recognitions include:
Dr. Harold Kerzner can be contacted at hkerzner@hotmail.com
Dr. Al Zeitoun, PgMP, PMI Fellow
System Thinker & Transformation Advisor
Maryland USA
Dr. Al Zeitoun is a Future of Work, business optimization, and operational performance excellence thought leader with global experiences in strategy execution. His experiences encompass leading organizations; delivering their Enterprise Digital and Business Transformation; guiding fitting frameworks implementations; and using his empathy, engineering insights, and collaboration strengths to successfully envision new business models and execute complex missions across diverse cultures globally.
In his recent role with Siemens, he was a Senior Director of Strategy responsible for driving the global program management practices, Master Plan governance, and enabling the Strategy Transformation processes and priorities.
In his position, as the Executive Director for Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, Abu Dhabi, UAE, he was responsible for creating the strategy execution framework, achieving transformation benefits, governance excellence, and creating the data analytics discipline necessary for delivering on the $40B complex country energy mission roadmap.
At the McLean, USA HQ of Booz Allen Hamilton, Dr. Zeitoun strategically envisioned and customized digitally enabled EPMO advisory, mapped playbooks, and capability development for clients’ Billions of Dollars strategic initiatives. Furthermore, he led the firm’s Middle East North Africa Portfolio Management and Agile Governance Solutions.
With the International Institute of Learning, Dr. Zeitoun played a senior leader and global trainer and coach. He was instrumental in driving its global expansions, thought leadership, and operational excellence methodology to sense and shape dynamic ways of working across organizations worldwide. He speaks English, Arabic, and German and enjoys good food, travel, and volunteering. Dr. Al Zeitoun can be contacted at zeitounstrategy@gmail.com
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