Empowerment and accountability will bring more flexibility into our organizations

The number of times I have heard statements like "I wasn't aware I was supposed to think of that", or "I knew about that problem, but it's not my job to deal with it", is staggering. We definitely need more empowerment and accountability in our organizations. Whenever possible, employees should be allowed to make informed decisions related to their job in order to meet the deadlines and objectives. Of course, in these cases, they should be held accountable for the results. But what does that actually mean? In the words of Zweifel and Borey: "Being accountable is akin to being pregnant: you are either 100 percent accountable or you are not. There is no such thing as 50 percent or 90 percent accountability... As the word says, when you are accountable, you can be counted on to do whatever it takes to produce the results." I am certain that empowerment and accountability will bring more flexibility into our organizations, which is much needed in order to survive today's pace of competition and increased complexity. 

Reference: 

Zweifel, T. D. & Borey, E. J. (2014). Strategy in Action: Marrying Planning, People, and Performance. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.