Responsibility

The organizational responsibility competency can be defined as "context-specific organizational actions and policies that take into account stakeholders' expectations and the triple bottom line of economic, social, and environmental performance" (Aguinas, 2011, p.855). The responsibility competency can be applied to many different areas of your organization such as business ethics, corporate social responsibility and economic responsibility. Organizational responsibility also creates a culture of accountability throughout your organization. We must promote responsibility and accountability throughout our organizations because people that consistently practice responsibility are more honest, trustworthy, and respectful than people who are not conscious of responsibility. 

Responsibility in Leadership

The responsibility competency has directly impacted my leadership by making me a more accountable and trustworthy leader. When I see something that does not align with my values or the values and expectations of the organization, I believe reporting it is the correct thing to do. I am a firm believer in leading by example and the "see something, say something" phrase. Unfortunately the occasional occurrences of unethical actions, unfulfilled tasks, and poor communication are probably not going to disappear any time soon, but that is why it is so important to be responsible and hold yourself and the people around you accountable for their actions. Responsibility and accountability also greatly impact a team and organizations ability to work on and complete projects as a group. When there are gaps in communication and accountability, you may notice that projects are unorganized and missing pieces that are supposed to be there. Responsibility, accountability, and a willingness to fix mistakes will also help improve collaboration efforts within groups. As a leader I must also recognize that occasionally responsibility means accepting the consequences for one more of your actions that did not go as well as you planned or hoped. What I have learned from this competency is that being a responsible leader implies that I can hold myself and my team accountable for our actions. 

Artifact

The artifact that I have chosen is the rough draft of my teams final project in OGL 355: Leading Organizational Innovation and Change. I chose to display this artifact, not because it is perfect and displays a multitude of skills that I have developed, but rather because it shows the difficulties that my team and I experienced with claiming responsibility for task completion, communication, and delegation. Throughout this presentation you see different fonts and color schemes, fluctuation between slides that are packed full and slides that are practically empty, and references put in incorrect places in fonts that you can barely see. Throughout this presentation you will notice areas where we failed to communicate a standard and areas where we failed to claim responsibility for a task like making sure the whole presentation is uniform. We lacked the accountability and responsibility that it takes to create change and produce a finished product. Had we delegated and communicated properly in the beginning, we would have been more clear on our roles and responsibilities and we would have been able to confidently take responsibility for our tasks and would likely have left our presentation with fewer flaws.  

Reflection

Responsibility and Organizational Leadership

I think that the responsibility competency is beneficial to Organizational Leadership because it requires leaders to learn how to hold themselves and others accountable to their actions. Through this program I have had the opportunity to practice responsibility in many group settings. I have learned the importance of fulfilling your assigned responsibilities and holding others accountable to their own. I believe that responsibility is a competency that is present in organizations and many other areas of life. As leaders, we must learn how to promote a culture that values accountability, responsibility, open communication and trust. 

Personal Growth & Development

Learning about responsibility has made me a more effective leader because it has taught me how to hold myself and others accountable to the standards and expectations of an organization. I have always viewed myself as someone who leads by example, but that is not the only part of responsible leadership. A responsible leader recognizes and points out issues within the organization that do not meet ethical, economic, or social responsibility standards. Through responsibility I have learned when and how to hold corresponding parties accountable for their achieved or incomplete results. 
References: ​
​Aguinis, H. (2011). Organizational responsibility: Doing good and doing well. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Vol. 3. Maintaining, expanding, and contracting the organization (pp. 855–879). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/12171-024