Volume 2 Issue 5

It's All About Responsibility

As managers and supervisors, to whom are we responsible? Senior management, our employees, our customers, the community, shareholders, or ourselves? The answer is all of the above. Our job is to be the catalyst that turns organizational goals and strategies into reality. To do that, we must continuously balance the requirements of each stakeholder.

Accountability To Our Leaders:
Our responsibility to our leaders is to serve as linking pins. Corporate strategies, policies, and procedures set out by senior management flow through each of us. Our responsibilities are to design shorter?term goals, set deadlines, produce schedules, follow procedures, and direct our employees to meet the goals established by our leaders.

Accountability To Our Employees:
Our responsibility to our employees is to provide the necessary resources, training, and leadership, as well as a safe environment in which they may operate. This responsibility is as important as any other, because if the basic needs of our people are not properly addressed, the process fails. Quality may suffer, the job may not be done on time or done incorrectly, costs rise, etc.

Accountability To Our Customers:
Our responsibility to our internal customers ? other departments - is two?fold. First, as it is imperative that processes flow smoothly, every department must meet the needs of other departments so that the strategic plan and schedules can be met. Second, as department heads, we need to understand not only our part and purpose in the overall process, but how departments are interdependent. When we meet those criteria, our responsibility to our external customers is also fulfilled. Remember, our external customers pay our wages and they can be the pickiest of all bosses.

Accountability To Our Labour Unions:
History has demonstrated time and again that the relationship between management and unions has not always been positive. It is, however, our responsibility as managers and supervisors to keep the relationship as affirmative as possible. When unions and management bring themselves to work out their differences through effective communication and rational conflict negotiation, both will eventually reduce the gaps that exist between them. I believe the objectives of unions and management are identical: the survival of the organization and the health and well-being of its workforce.

Accountability To Our Shareholders:
Our responsibility to our shareholders is to keep external customers satisfied and coming back; produce quality products and services at the lowest possible costs; maximize the life of equipment, machinery, and other capital assets; and to ensure that we live up to our responsibilities to all other stakeholders.

Accountability To Our Community:
The community as a stakeholder is unfortunately often overlooked. Our responsibility to our community is to ensure that it benefits from our company's existence. Employing a regional workforce and being a good neighbour by keeping the environment free of contaminants, reducing noise pollution, and contributing to the health and welfare of its inhabitants are all good examples of ways that our business benefits our community.

Accountability To Ourselves:
Finally, our concern for ourselves is not always considered, but it is as important as our other responsibilities. We must regard ourselves as stakeholders. Maintaining good health in mind, spirit, and body will ensure that we can meet the day?to?day challenges with confidence. In this way we gain respect for our abilities to do the job and do it well. Feeling a sense of personal ownership and responsibility when things go wrong, as well as when objectives are met, is fundamental to self?accountability.

Keeping the requirements of all stakeholders top priority and consistently juggling them is a demanding task. The key to this balancing act is to understand that each stakeholder is as important as any other and that all stakeholders' needs are interdependent.

Robert Cotes is a facilitator with The Management Development Group and a regular contributor to In Charge.