Crucial Ingredients to the Culture of Trust: Accountability & Transparency
The prompt for this round of the FEDforum is Accountability & Transparency: What does it mean to your organization. This week, hear from the Professional Managers Association (PMA).
Accountability and transparency are essential to building a culture within agencies that is successful, inclusive, and efficient. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires transparent communication among levels of staff and employee organizations to help avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, and resentment that can damage morale and productivity. Further, when employees are accountable for their successes and failures, leads to a general increase in employee commitment and morale because it strengthens the employee’s engagement with their work. Public service is more than a job. It is a commitment to effectively serving the American people, and transparency and accountability reinforce that commitment.
When an organization communicates transparently with their employees, it demonstrates that the organization values the employee’s input, feedback, and contributions. To be truly effective, it is critical this transparency is maintained across levels of employees and employee organizations.
Front line employees, first rung managers, higher level supervisors, and executive level leadership all have a unique perspective on the issues facing the IRS. It is critical that decision makers engage in open dialogues with each of these levels to get a true picture of what must be done to improve operations.
Open and transparent communication also mitigates misinformation that spreads when employees lack a clear understanding of rules and responsibilities. It starts at the top. When new information, projects, or programs are available, employees will inevitably come to their manager with questions. It is imperative that management have more detailed information so they can be transparent with their employees. This eliminates confusion, assumptions, and frustration. It also sends a clear message to the workforce that the IRS is united at all levels in whatever effort is being undertaken.
This transparency does not end with employees. It must continue with employee organizations such as NTEU and PMA. The Service must provide both organizations–and all other employee organizations–the same level of open, honest, and transparent information.
Each organization is dedicated to supporting the IRS mission and improving service delivery. When organizations receive inconsistent or different information, it obstructs their ability to support the Service in its efforts. Many employees also feel more comfortable going to their professional organization with questions rather than the Service, and when the organization cannot provide information back to the employee, it frustrates the employee, the organization’s mission, and ultimately, the IRS’s effectiveness.
Similarly, a strong culture of accountability is critical to the IRS’s success and workplace culture. Employees must be accountable to high standards that reinforce the importance of public service. Often, accountability can be framed as a negative, requiring discipline against poor performers. But accountability also means rewarding employees who excel and surpass expectations. Ultimately, employees must be accountable for the highs and the lows–only this system of performance management can encourage positive performance and improve poor performance.
As with workplace transparency, accountability leads to a general increase in employee commitment and morale. When employees are more engaged with their work, the result will be higher performance rates.
Additionally, leaders must also be accountable for the decisions they make. When blame consistently shifts to the lower career workforce, it creates a culture of fear and hesitation. But when executive leaders take accountability for high-level decisions, the workforce garners trust and respect for the leaders.
Transparency and accountability work cooperatively to improve a organization’s overall performance. When an organization has transparency and accountability, it establishes trust among its employees, leaders, and stakeholders. Organizations that value transparency and accountability encourage their employees to share their feedback on key issues and provide safe spaces for dialogue, discussions, and even sharing concerns anonymously. Transparent leaders are willing to listen with an open ear, accept critical comments and be accountable for their decisions. Therefore, organization leaders should routinely solicit input from their employees and managers at all levels of the organization and include the corresponding employee organizations.
Organizations should also recognize and reward those who demonstrate transparency and accountability and provide coaching and support to those who need to improve. This will help create and maintain a culture of trust where everyone, including employee organizations, feels comfortable sharing their successes, failures, learnings, and feedback.
The column from Professional Managers Association is part of the FEDforum, an initiative to unite voices across the federal community. The FEDforum is a space for federal employee groups to share their organizations’ initiatives and activities with the FEDmanager audience.
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