<![CDATA[This study examines the effect of behavioral leadership accountability on public service outcomes in municipal governments in Gorontalo Province during the 2022–2024 governance reform period. While accountability reforms have traditionally emphasized structural compliance and performance reporting, emerging perspectives in Behavioral Public Administration suggest that leadership behavior plays a decisive role in shaping administrative outcomes. This research tests a behavioral–performance model linking multidimensional psychological accountability constructs to measurable municipal service indicators. A quantitative explanatory design with a longitudinal time-lagged panel structure was employed. Data were collected from 162 municipal leaders and mid-level managers using a validated five-point Likert-scale instrument measuring ethical commitment, responsiveness to citizens, feedback sensitivity, and intrinsic public service motivation. Secondary data were obtained from official municipal performance reports, including service quality, citizen satisfaction, administrative efficiency, and public trust indicators. Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares was used to analyze direct and mediated relationships. The results indicate that behavioral leadership accountability has a significant positive effect on public service outcomes (β = 0.61, p < 0.001), explaining 58% of performance variance. Employee engagement and public trust partially mediate this relationship, suggesting that accountability operates through both internal organizational alignment and external legitimacy mechanisms. The findings indicate that behavioral accountability constitutes a substantively meaningful determinant of municipal service performance. Integrating behavioral leadership development into accountability reforms may therefore strengthen governance effectiveness beyond procedural compliance frameworks]]>
