How Can a CEO Lead a Company into Technology and Data Revolution - Research Paper Example

Any organization would often have a well-structured system of accountability. The CEO is the single person that is given all the responsibility of running the company. The executive officer gets the power to run the business by the Board. Since the board does not have the capability to run the company, they would often delegate all the authority and accountability to the officer so that they can use the available resources to meet the goals of the board. However, the problem in many organizations is the translation of accountability from the chief executive down to the rest of the organization. The focus of this research is on developing the understanding of the role that the executive officers have in being accountable to the organization. In ideal, the CEO has the responsibility to of being accountable to each member of the organization.

One of the most important responsibilities of any CEO is to create the framework of accountability to the Board and the organization. The officer has to be accountable to the Board. The accountability for the head is rooted to the legal frameworks of the organization (Chen et al., 2017). For a private company the stakeholders come together to elected a board of directors. The board has the responsibility of creating and implementing strategies for getting return on investment. The board has the ability to set the strategy but it does not have the capacity to implement it. The board would thus hire a CEO to carry out the responsibility on their behalf. The CEO should be accountable to ensuring that they carry out the responsibility of the board (Maak et al 2016). In addition, the chief executive should be accountable to the employees. Therefore, the chief executive is supposed to show the aspects of humanity, dedication, vision and hard work. People join the company but in most cases they are motivated to staying in the industry because of top leadership.

The type of CEO accountability

As mentioned there are two types of responsibility that a CEO has. The first type of responsibility is the one to the employer. In this respect the Board or the stakeholders is the employer of the executive officer (Maak et al 2016). The officer thus has the responsibility of implementing the goals of the stakeholders. On the other hand they also have the task to creating an environment of accountably to the employees. In this respect, they should ensure that they are accountable to the needs of individuals working under them (Coule 2015). Their responsibility in this case involves creating an environment of humanity dedication and hard work. Such an environment would ensure that the employees can work to deliver the goals of the stakeholders. In essence, the CEOs are responsible to both the employees and the stakeholders.

The Responsibility of CEO

One of the greatest responsibilities that the Chief executive has is to develop a framework of accountability and authority. Such a framework should be established within all the levels of the organizations. In the same way that the Board does not have the capacity to implement a strategy, the CEO needs a team of specialized individuals to achieve the goals of the board (Maak et al 2016). The first responsibility that the executive officer has is to create a vertical alignment of positions through the business. The framework forms the basis of how work is done. The frame would show the delegation of accountability and authority which show who responds to whom (Hou et al 2017). In addition, the employees would be able to understand what they are accountable for the produces they carry out. The approach taken on decision making is another aspect of how works is done in the organization. Lastly, the framework creates the right support for achieving specific goals.

Additionally, the CEOs should focus on getting rid of steep and rigid hierarchy. One of the indicators of an organization that lacks accountability is the existence of stick and steep hierarchy (Armitage et al., 2017). Such organizations have the culture of following whatever the boss says and thus the only person accountable is the manager. However, modern organizations are recommending the scenario where employees collaborate and work interdependently in the business (Buteau et al., 2017). In such working environments employee can hold their colleagues and the bosses accountable. Such arrangement helps the organization to works towards achieving a similar.

The Chief executive should also come alive to the fact that the lack of accountability in the organization would often repel good talents. People that are used to working hard would often leave when they realize that their efforts are not getting recognized (Buteau et al., 2017). On the other hand underperformers would not also stand in an environment where they are held accountable. The task of creating responsibly in an organization is the greatest responsibility that any executive officer should focus on.

The chief executive should also seek to create the culture of accountability from top to bottom. The accountability should begin with the leaders. The actions that the leaders take should work as a role model for the other employees. The leaders should take a personal initiative of articulating to the rest of the organizations (Buteau et al., 2017). It is important for a leader to develop personal accountability as this helps one to learn who they really are. Such approach helps one to realize their failures and thus work on succeeding the business. The best way to create a culture of accountability is by working as an example (Buteau et al., 2017). The leaders should focus on making the employees know what they expect and also ensure that they know that personally as the leaders one holds the same standards. As a leader one should follow their promises own up to mistake and give feedback when it is needed.

A manager should focus on creating a work environment where people are free to talk about their failures. Such an environment would make it easy for the manager to come and thus provide a guidance and support. The approach should focus on talking and reviewing the failures of the employees in the same way that one reviews their success. In this way one would know that they are doing wrong and thus work to dealing with these issues.

Challenges in CEO accountability

One of the challenges in developing accountability in the organization is being liked. It is often difficult to hold one accountable and still have the employees like you. In most cases, when one tries to hold the employee accountable then they would often fall out with them (Coule 2015). This challenge has often made many CEO to avoid confronting the employees to discuss their failures. Most executive officers would only focus on discussing the success and not the failures often an employee. A manager that can be able to crack this riddle would easily find it easy to create a culture of accountability.

The other challenge that many CEOs mention is the lack of good will among the employees. The attitude that many employees have about accountability is that it is meant to criticize their working. However, some of these attitudes arise from the approaches that leaders take in dealing with failure (Coule 2015). Some CEOs are used to confronting the employees infront of the other and thus making them feeling discouraged. Most employees would rather avoid talking about their mistakes because they think that it is about being criticism. Perhaps the change in attitude should start with the CEOs (Coule 2015). The approach they take in dealing with failure should not focus on showing how one is incapable but rather helping them to avoid the same mistakes.

The other challenge that most CEOs face in developing a culture of accountability is the poor communication structures. Although it is the responsibility of the CEO to develop a clear structure of conveying information, sometimes the employees might fail to adhere to the channels and thus bring about a breakdown in communication. As the challenge to communication interferes with other functions in the organization, the impact is more profound in the development of a good culture of accountability (Coule 2015). The focus of the leaders should be directed towards the development of the good communication.

Accountability is an important aspect in the success of any organization. The role of developing accountability is two way. The CEO should be accountable to the stakeholders, while also trying to be accountable to the employees. The idea of developing accountability to the employees would help the executive to be a role model that the other employees can seek to emulate. The responsibility of creating accountability should thus being from the top leadership of the organization and trickle down to the rest of the team members. Without a good structure at the top, it might not be possible to create a good structure of accountability.

References

Armitage, S., Hou, W., Sarkar, S., & Talaulicar, T. (2017). Corporate governance challenges in emerging economies.

Buteau, E., Chaffin, M., & Gopal, R. (2014). Transparency, Performance Assessment, and Awareness of Nonprofits Challenges: Are Foundations and Nonprofits Seeing Eye to Eye?. The Foundation Review, 6(2), 7.

Chen, J., Cumming, D., Hou, W., & Lee, E. (2016). CEO accountability for corporate fraud: Evidence from the split share structure reform in China. Journal of Business Ethics, 138(4), 787-806.

Coule, T. M. (2015). Nonprofit governance and accountability: Broadening the theoretical perspective. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(1), 75-97.

Coule, T. M. (2015). Nonprofit governance and accountability: Broadening the theoretical perspective. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(1), 75-97.

Hou, W., Priem, R. L., & Goranova, M. (2017). Does One Size Fit All? Investigating PayFuture Performance Relationships Over the Seasons of CEO Tenure. Journal of Management, 43(3), 864-891.

Maak, T., Pless, N. M., & Voegtlin, C. (2016). Business Statesman or Shareholder Advocate? CEO Responsible Leadership Styles and the MicroFoundations of Political CSR. Journal of Management Studies, 53(3), 463-493.