It is difficult to determine who is responsible for a corporate decision when authority is dispersed throughout an organization, which means that no one can be held personally accountable for violations.
A string of recent cases involving large banks, like the Justice Department’s settlement last week with Citigroup that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said involved “misconduct that was egregious,” have not included charges against any individuals for violating the law.
General Motors seems to have elevated the inability to hold senior officials accountable for corporate misdeeds to an art form.
via The Difficulty in Holding Executives Accountable – NYTimes.com.
