NU #4: Accountable for Accountability by T. N. Gaudi

NU #4

26 January  2013

MBAH 10-B / Entrepreneurship

Accountable for Accountability

(Professionalism)

By T. N. Gaudi

Many organizations or rather cultures do not really take accountability seriously. Work is supposed to be a channel for self-mastery and improvement wherein accountability plays a very important role. A culture which is not conscious of accountability tends to create confusion and discord leaving the organization and more particularly the people within less effective. It is apparent that there is a multitude of factors that would improve the behavior of people when it comes to being accountable for the quality of their work such as organizational structure, leadership and many more. However, one important factor to focus on is personal habit - the habit of always being aware that one is fully accountable to his/her responsibilities. In order to form this habit, it is important to be consistently conscious of one's own accountabilities.

To create change towards creating this habit, appropriate performance indices should be set in alignment with the goals of every personnel and more importantly should be evaluated regularly. It is also important that rewards should be setup in alignment with the achievement of the set performance goals.

The solution that is proposed is a scheduled weekly, monthly, and quarterly performance evaluations. Every personnel should agree to a contract where all responsibilities, accountabilities, objectives and corresponding performance measurements are clearly presented. These contracts are then thoroughly reviewed by each personnel and must agree by signing. However, this system can be further improved by setting up an automated performance evaluation through the company's intrasite or even simply by using email to conduct performance evaluations. Doing this will most likely make people always be aware of their accountabilities. This will also help promote, at the individual level, regular planning, monitoring, and proper organization in the implementation of tasks and activities. This approach would force everyone to be consistently on track and achieve company objectives at a much faster pace.     x