Compliance vs responsibility

Compliance, “the state or act of complying with a fixed standard, regulation, or requirement with
or agreeing to do something” versus responsibility, “the state, fact, or position of being accountable to somebody or for something”.

I have been thinking about this for a while now, especially with respect to how I work.

Do I work because I have to comply to the rules set in the organisation, or do I work because I make it my personal responsibility to fulfill the obligations the organisation has placed on me?

Do I work so that I do not receive a “show cause why” letter? Do I work because of the consequences of breaking the rules and not meeting the requirements? Or do I work because I understand what I do and why I do it?

What kind of person am I, if I work towards compliance? What kind of organisation do I work for, if they accept that I work towards fulfilling only standards and requirements?

The characteristics of a person who works for the sake of compliance, is mindless obedience, doing what they are told, not questioning any order and an inability to take any decision or make a stand. Is this the person I want to be? A Nazi-like prole?

The characteristics of a person who is responsible are competence, honesty, loyalty, hard work, dependability and one who takes pride in what they achieve. Is this the person I want to be?

How I work is who I am. That is why I ask “Is this the person I want to be..”. I believe that my every action, be it accidental has an impact on the person I am. They say that when I repeat the action, it is a coincidence, and when it happens yet again, it turns into a habit. My habits are me. They are my acquired behaviour, that becomes me. They are my attitudes, the way I conduct myself, my established disposition, the character of my thoughts and feelings.

So, if I am compliant based individual at work, repeating this conformity over and over again, I become a drony kind of person. If I am a responsible person, geared towards taking control over my work, who can take a stand and make decisions, whilst seeking to improve my circumstances, then that is the kind of person I want to be. I want responsibility. I want to be free to grow in my work life and as a person.

Harry Brown says that that freedom and responsibility are not interconnected things. They are the same thing. Freedom is responsibility. Responsibility is experiencing the consequences of your actions, not the consequences of others’ act or making others pay for what you do. He states further that responsibility and freedom are inseparably linked – not because they should be, but because they are (emphasis is his). Responsibility accompanies freedom whether or not you want it to. So the only way to induce people to be more responsible he says, is to set them free.

For an organisations perspective – which person would I rather have on my staff? The drone or the freedom seeking responsible person? Compliance seeking organisations condition their staff like The Party in George Owell’s 1984, by using whatever methods necessary. They create irresponsible people. Irresponsible people, who fail in their jobs, fail their teams, fail to grow as individuals. Responsibility seeking organisations on the other hand free their people to do their work and grow in value. And as the people grow themselves, they build value for the organisation.

Can I be truly free and responsible? Am I am mix of compliance and responsibility? Is this good for me? Or bad for me?

image;www.jamesnava.com

References:

Harry Brown, WND, 02/21/2002 at 1:00 AM, How to make people more responsible, http://www.wnd.com/2002/02/12867/

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