Philosophic Insight into Freedom and Accountability at Work - Book Report/Review Example

? Freedom and Accountability at Work Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real world Grade (9th, May. Freedom and Accountability at Work Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real world Summary of text Modern organizations are entities that are mostly interested in controlling the behavior of their workers, more than making attempts to understand and create insights into the behaviors of their employees (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). Thus, the organizations have a perspective that the freedom of employees is an aspect that ought to be limited and further managed, as opposed to allowing the concept of freedom to prevail within the organization. Freedom is the recipe for creativity and innovation, while being the necessary platform for triggering the growth and development of the workforce, considering that with freedom, employees can try different angles of addressing an organizational problem, and eventually chart a new way of tackling the issues in the future (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). However, instead of organizations embracing and nurturing the culture of the freedom of their employees, they have been engaged in making all attempts to ensure that the workforce sticks to certain organizational guidelines, adheres to the bureaucracy of the organizational hierarchy, while also observing the reporting and feedback rules, which limits the freedom of an employee to try and do things in a different way. Therefore, instead of managing their workforce on the basis of humaneness, organizations have adopted an approach that stifles the humane relationship between the management and the workforce. Nevertheless, it is only through the deeper understanding of humaneness, that leaders who discover and create meaning can be created, who are then able to manage any form of organization, no matter its nature or the nature of its workforce (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). Therefore, the success of effective leadership is obtained through taking leadership as a challenge that seeks to get an insight into the behavior of the workforce, as opposed to the ability to manage the behaviors of the workforce to achieve success (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). Human emotions are tools that can be applied towards the success of an organization, not through managing them and ensuring that they do not get exhibited at the workplace, but through understanding their cause and creating an insight into how they can be harnessed to the benefit of the employee development, as opposed to their suppression inside the employee. Whenever emotions such as anger, anxiety, and guilt are understood, not through the management lens but through the humane lens, it becomes possible to address them effectively, through creating motivational factors that will enable the employee to comfortably dessert the emotions, and in their place adopt the most productive and positive attitudes (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). This in turn serves to create a productive employee, whose performance translates into the success of the organization. Thus, the most fundamental aspect of the effective leadership is the adoption of a humane philosophy while addressing the workforce, since such a philosophy makes it possible for the leader to tap the subjective emotions and insights from an employee, into allies and sources of strength of the employee (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The ability to view the most difficult human emotions from a philosophical perspective defines the effectiveness of an organizational leader. The technology culture is the most dominant in the modern organizational operations. With the changes and advancement that has occurred in the field of technology, making it possible for organizations to access customized technological applications for their different functionalities, which has made the culture of technology adoption the most dominant for the modern organizations (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). However, while the culture of technology is beneficial for an organization, owing to its efficiency capability and the ability to enhance the organizational cost reductions, it might be detrimental to some aspects of the organizational management, especially regarding employee management, motivation and satisfaction. The technology culture within an organization serves to create helplessness and isolation for the workforce, since it limits the interaction of the employees, through making the implementation of the activities that would previously require one-on-one human interaction, achievable through technological sharing of files, documents and information (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). This way, the employee remains in an isolated and helpless situation, where they cannot share their concerns, feelings and emotions with their colleagues. This in turn serves to accumulate the negative impulses within the employees, thus making it difficult for the motivation and satisfaction to be accomplished. Therefore, the humane philosophical approach into the technology culture of an organization is fundamental, since it helps in the creation of deep insights into the relationship between the technological use and the benefit to the employee, not only in terms of cost reductions and efficiency, but also in terms of employee motivation, satisfaction and productivity (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). Therefore, the most significant aspect of employee productivity, effective management and organizational success is the adoption of the philosophical approach that values what it means to be a human being, and thus allow the employees to bring their authentic selves to the work force (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The management concept of employee behavior serves to stifle the essence of being a human being, through creating the notion that it is through the management of the behavior of the employees, as opposed to allowing them to operate within a natural and free environment that enhances the success of an organization. The secret of effective and successful workforce management is the dominance of the free will and accountability of the workforce (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The freedom of employees to exercise their talents, innovation and creativity charts the new path for creating employee satisfaction in the workplace, considering that human beings are naturally productive when co-existing in a free environment, as opposed to an environment where their behavior is monitored and managed (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The management of human behavior, while meant to shape the employees towards adhering and pursuing the organizational goals and objectives, serves to enhance the development of anxiety, dissatisfaction and uncertainty, which in turn affects the ability of the employee to deliver. The concept of philosophical insight must therefore replace the concept of organizational behavior management, so that organizations become fully human entities, which then generates productivity and success through creating a natural environment where the employees’ free will and responsibility defines their capacity, as opposed to sticking to the organizational rules and regulations (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The key to a productive employee is the maintenance of the employee’s authentic human nature. Strengths of text The strength of the book lies in the creation of an insight into the need for adapting philosophical approach at the work place, which in turn helps to enable the workforce and the management understand fully, and thus answer the questions regarding what is the real purpose of work, and what is the essence of authentic human beings at the work place (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The book gets into the core of leadership, through evaluating what makes effective organizational leadership, and what contributes to bad leadership that manages the behavior of the workforce to achieve success, as opposed to allowing the free will and responsibility of the employees to prevail, which in turn creates a favorable environment for innovation and creativity application by the employees (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The book’s strength also lies in the assertion of the principle of freedom and accountability, which is a rare and unexpected combination, whenever it comes to issues of management. The concept of management has always placed the role of managing the employees squarely on the leaders of an organization. However, this book tends to depart from this traditional perspective, through charting a new path, where the leaders of organizations are no longer managers, but learners who delve deeply into understanding the emotions, the feelings and the behaviors of the employees, and in turn harness them towards becoming the source of strength of such employees (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). In fact, the book presents a new approach to leadership within organizations, where the leadership should not be based on targeting the success goals and objectives of an organization, but on nurturing the authenticity of human beings working within the organization. The fundamental basis for this being that; the ability to allow the employees to bring their authentic selves into the organization is the major achievement for an organization, since it serves to effectively deal with the negative and subjective emotional impulses such as uncertainty, anger, anxiety and dissatisfaction, while nurturing positive attitude, talent development, creativity and innovation of the workforce, which in itself is a sure path for organizational success (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). Therefore, the call of the book for the creation of a humane and natural environment in the modern workplace, while supporting the existence of negative emotions, through asserting that such negative emotions as anxiety makes us feel alive thus enabling us to chart a way for positive resolution remains a major strength of this book. The book emphasizes on embracing both spiritual and ethical values in the workplace, which are essential aspects of enhancing humaneness, while also charting the new way for forging employee loyalty, through granting the employees a sense of accountability and freedom (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). Weaknesses of text The major Weakness of the book is that it is fairly complex for everyone to understand. The book is pitched on the philosophical concept, making the ideas discussed to be refurbished in a philosophical perspective that is not common to all readers. For example, the assertion that negative emotion within an employee such as anxiety is indeed a strength that can be harnessed by an organizational leader towards the success of both the employee and the organization is a confusing idea. The idea only becomes conceivable, after it is further discussed to the effect that the reader now understands the relationship between anxiety and success, in that the people without anxiety are either not doing anything important, while those experiencing anxiety are exercising their free will, thus taking risks (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The other weakness associated with the book is its advocacy for absolute freedom and accountability of the workforce, at the expense of the rules and regulations that manages an organizational behavior (Koestenbaum& Block, 2001). The problem with this advocacy is the fact that absolute freedom of the workforce may conflict with the interests of the organizational. The uncontrolled workforce freedom may result to the negation of organizational goals, in pursuit of the employee goals of creativity and innovation, considering that the employees may exercise the uncontrolled freedom to chart their own path of goal attainment, at the expense of the organizational path, which may create conflict of interests. Conclusion The book Freedom and Accountability at Work Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real world is a managerial and leadership evaluation book that creates deep insights into how the modern workplace can be made effective and productive through the adoption of freedom and accountability of the workforce. Through allowing the workforce to exercise their free will, it is possible to nurture creativity and innovation, while also enhancing employee loyalty, which in turn translates to the productivity of the organization. The major strength of the book is that it emphasizes on embracing the authentic self of the employees and its introduction to the workforce, through the adoption of philosophical approach of humaneness. The need to introduce and embrace spirituality and ethics in the workplace, which translates to humaneness of the organization, forms the basis of the books advocacy. However, the weaknesses associated with the book is that it is fairly complicated due to the application of the philosophical approach in discussing its ideas, while the advocacy of absolute and uncontrolled freedom for the workforce may result to the negation of organizational goals, in pursuit of the employee goals of creativity and innovation. References Koestenbaum, P., & Block, P. (2001). Freedom and accountability at work: Applying philosophical insight to the real world. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Pfeiffer. Read More