Customer Reviews

Responsibility at Work: How Leading Professionals Act (or Don't Act) Responsibly

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Any book that includes contributions from Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikzentmyhalyi, and William Damon is bound to be outstanding given their impressive talents. Their past works on changing minds, optimal experience and building character, respectively, had a considerable effect on the Connection Culture theory my colleagues and I developed in our recently-published book entitled Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team's Passion, Creativity, and Productivity.

Responsibility at Work is an important new contribution to understanding what leads to ethical behavior in the workplace. The book is a product of the GoodWork Project that began as a collaboration of the three aforementioned thought leaders in 1994. Since that time, a significant amount of research has been conducted to understand which factors affect responsible behavior in the workplace and how to foster habits of acting responsibly.

For me, what emerged from reading this book was a more nuanced understanding of the mindset and experiences of the people who act responsibly at work. A few of the findings about people who act responsibly that stood out to me were as follows:

* morality is important to their identities,
* they have a sense of purpose in their work,
* they feel a responsibility to connect with the people in their lives and with their community,
* they have an understanding and appreciation for the past (history) and a sense of obligation to future generations,
* they integrate their personal and professional lives (rather than compartmentalize them like the fictional character Tony Soprano, for example),
* they value excellence in work,
* they resist the temptation to compromise (that stems from time or competitive pressures) and try to be efficient as a means to fulfill their responsibilities to people and to do excellent work,
* they work in a culture (profession and/or workplace) that embraces their values that support acting responsibly,
* the mentors they had in life influenced their values to act responsibly
* as leaders they tend to be similar to the "servant leaders" described by Simon Greenleaf in his classic book,
* as they grow older, they tend to promote responsible behavior in their professions and mentor younger people to behave responsibly, and
* although not a guarantee, spirituality does help people take responsibility for their actions.

Responsibility at Work will help organizations develop a better feel for hiring and promoting employees who act responsibly. It will also help organizations thrive for sustained periods of time because, as my colleagues and I argue in our book, individuals who act responsibly also tend to help organizations develop the elements in a culture that unite employees and motivate them to acheive a common purpose. This book also supports the importance for leaders to be intentional about nurturing an environment at work that values responsible behavior.

Responsibility at Work is a must read for anyone who wants to develop an in-depth understanding of how to create a healthy workplace. Congratulations to all of the contributors for their work on this fine book.

We selected this book for a work-based book discussion group. I would have given it five stars, but I think I may have been the only one in the room who had actually finished it. The rest of the group would have benefitted from doing so.

I have been a big fan of Howard Gardner's prior books. So when this one came out I was looking forward to reading it. I was extremely disappointed. Howard's prior books had new frameworks and concepts that provided insights into leadership, personal development, etc. They were well written and enjoyable to read. This book is none of that. It is an academic treatise by a collection of authors that is weighty to read without any substantial new insights on responsibility at work. So it you are an executive like me looking for new thinking, you won't find it here.