Freedom and Accountability at Work wants to change the way managers and employees approach today’s work environment. The days of organizational leadership simply using lists and numbered objectives are passing. This book gives new insight to the thought of accountability and freedom in the workplace. Freedom for someone to control how management is perceived. Freedom does however come with inherent consequences. We all suffer from anxiety, guilt, and evil. It are these consequences that should not be circumvented, after all without them our lives would not have the same meaning. It are these freedoms and consequences that shape who we become. Freedom precipitates accountability. Accountability, personal or professional, can only be …show more content…
There are many different shades that intermingle to paint a more complete suggestion to our current issues. It does not give into the overused analogy that there is just grey. The authors use a full palette of colors to present answers to matters that creep into our everyday personal and professional lives. Freedom and Accountability at Work acts as an instructional manual for taking accountability for one’s own actions. The book does more than suggest that freedom will come as a consequence of accountability. With these freedoms you have choices to make. You can either continue blindly merely surviving or choose to see the workplace in a different light. By seeing everything in a different way, you are now free of everything that is fundamentally meaningless. The book is also useful in facilitating the reader’s ability to change their perceptions of normally negative aspects of life. Freedom and Accountability stretches the reader’s imagination when dealing with death, anxiety, management, and determinism. The text explains that these are factors in life that we all face. None of us are immune to the realities of everyday life. The reader is given a guide to understanding how to productively handle each of these seemingly adverse situations. We are prepared to positively encounter situations in life when equipped with the evidence needed to accurately assess our …show more content…
The body of the book does not follow the standard textbook formulas. The style of writing found within its pages are akin to that of a self-help book. Finding that the writing style had more suggestions than actual answers made the understanding of Freedom and Accountability feel like reading a book penned by Tony Robbins. The existential atmosphere of the text seemed to give a similar feeling to wanting to Kumbaya around a campfire. Without providing solid responses to many of the questions it presents, an air of obligatory internal reflection is required. Although the information is clearly delivered to the reader, it is up to the student to apply the material in a trial and error method. Without a strong step by step instructional method, it may be difficult for the pupil to receive the full reward of the information provided by Koestenbaum and Block. There is almost certainly to be some that will surrender to imperative undertaking to handle the message
• Accountability: We don’t say, “It’s not my fault” or “It’s not my job.” We take responsibility for meeting our commitments – our personal ones as well as those of the entire organization. We take ownership of the
Introduction Based on data compiled over a five-year period, Bustin (2014) discovered that the greatest threat that businesses faced in trying to accomplish and maintain a high level of performance, was the lack of accountability. This information he was able to glean from his interviews with over 3500 executives worldwide. He concluded that most businesses were not operating effectively, because of accountability issues. Accountability therefore, is a critical component in the efficient operation of a business, and therefore the leadership of every business needs to develop a culture of accountability within the organization. In order to facilitate this process, Bustin (2014) compiled the principles and practices that he gleaned from the executives he interviewed, and from those evolved his Seven Pillars of Accountability.
The Question Behind the Question is a book that begs the question of personal accountability. Too often we go through life without power because when things happen we look to point the finger. This book empowers the individual by seeking to change the way that we respond. When we take matters into our own hands we can determine our own reality.
Through a foundation of strong public organizations, government can aspire to fulfill societal demands. However, the strength of any organization is dependent on the strength and capabilities of a leader. With a consideration of increasing demands of a more effective and efficient government, accountability is distributed through foundational ethics and ideologies of individual administrators including leaders. This moralistic accountability can be understood through various, differing lenses—and each leader is different in emphasizing each perspective.
Wallace, David. “Real Freedom?” Humanity.org. The Humanity Initiative. 21 May 2005. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
When observing words considered synonymous with freedom, such as liberty, right, ability, privilege, unrestraint, and so forth, it can quickly be discovered that such words describe types of freedom. A person viewed as unrestrained, or having little or no constraints, could be considered free or having the most possible freedom. However, consider the following: if someone went out to vote for a particular political figure and a man put a gun to their head, telling them to vote for that same person, they are limited in your choices. Despite not being allowed to vote for any others, they retain freedom in the sense that they are allowed to carry out their initial intentions. Someone who is anomic, or whose wants are in a constant state of flux, is typically able to carry out whatever they want to do. Such a person, who has no control of their impulses, could be considered as having less freedom due to such circumstances. Based on this idea, it could be argued that someone with little to no constrai...
Throughout life people are required to make choices, however sometimes they are left thinking if the choices made were right. As individuals in society the choices a person make influence their entire lives and who they become as is the case in Chuang Tzu's “Independence” and Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law”. Sometimes people get caught up in whether or not the decisions made were right, so much so that it causes anxiety and for many to overthink. Life is not perfect and more often than not, people make the wrong choice, although in the end it should be for themselves and no one else. People tend to let the actions and thoughts of others control them.
Pink would at least partially agree that much of the value from work comes internally rather externally. This conflicts, he would also argue, with the age-old idea that employers often find purpose for the average worker to be "a perfectly nice accessory, so long as it didn't get in the way” of making a profit.[2] Both Pink and Zweig attempt with their insights to explain the American cultural norms of individualism and the desire of every worker for fulfilling,
For centuries, subordinate individuals have been burdened by the abuse of power and loss of freedom. Abusive authority figures limited the power of subordinate individuals by enslaving them and taking their freedom away.
Accountability is the power that goes through every section of an organization and every functioning relationship of each colleague of the company. If accountability is not working within your organization then every effort toward performance improvement will be nearly impossible. Depending on the scenario accountability can also be defined as helping others achieve their goals through meaningful and maintainable actions; it can also be defined as responding to or accepting responsibility for your actions and consequences, or allowing your actions to rise above your excuses. Many describe accountability in terms of “the means in which individuals and organizations report to a recognized authority (or authorities) and are held
This essay will explain the definition of bureaucratic control and some changes that have happened to it as management techniques alter. We will firstly illustrate how control changes as management moves towards human relation management. Then, the changes in control when empowerment is imposed on management and workers become self-managed. However, no matter how bureaucratic controls have changed, the controls or the rules always exist. I will start with the definition of bureaucratic control from Weber’s bureaucracy organization.
I elicit much of my satisfaction from work, from the feeling of control over my functions and independent decision-making skills. However, recently my manager has approached many of the employee relations situations by allowing me little to no range with workplace issues. There is a gap between what I want and what I am expected to say and do, and it is causing a lot of disappointment and frustration. With that being said, I have previously worked for employers who support an increasing amount autonomy and independence, which offers me a feeling of encouragement and job satisfaction. Those employers who provide their employees with a sufficient amount of opportunities for training and development improve their employee’s opportunities to exercise discretion and autonomy in the workplace (Eaton-Walley, Lowe).
Unfortunately more often than not, stories punctuated by the line “I hate my job” have reached my ears. The reality of mankind’s tendency to be lazy and despise hard labor stands in complete opposition to the basic truth of the universe: we must work to survive and thrive. Luckily, in the economic system in place across nearly the entire globe, the jobs we assume not only provide us with a means of self-sufficiency, but a path to better ourselves. Each and every experience in our lives provides an opportunity for growth and advancement, a fact that is usually preached in a cliche “learn from your mistakes” or “get better every day” speech.
(De Dreu & West, 2001; Gilson & Shalley, 2004, Hackman & Oldham, 1980). Mastekassa (2011) have pointed out that the need for autonomy is felt more in professional samples than in non-professional ones. Perrow (1983) too have suggested that autonomy is necessary for the effective functioning of the organization since the loss of autonomy would lower their morale, increase the chances of error. Spector (1986) findings suggested that participative approaches play a major role in having a positive sense of rapport building in employees i.e. they help them in improving their sense of personal control. The results showed that the employees who had higher levels of control at work were more committed, loyal, motivated and satisfied towards their work.
Then there are three principals of accountability which I am to look at, which are fallacy, assumption and trust. Fallacy, is when people fall pray into fallacy accountability, meaning they not only assume others are flawed, but that they can do nothing to change those flaws except to punish people when they make mistakes or failure to deliver (partners in leadership, 2009. Accountability). Then there is accountability assumption which speaks of an individual assuming that their partners or people in general are doing their level best to fulfil their expectations. And lastly there is accountability trust, and this involves an individual looking at oneself and hold his/herself accountable when things go wrong, there must be something that “I” as an individual am doing wrong.