Paper 8

Submitted By nsullesta
Words: 721
Pages: 3

Reading the article, “Accountability,” it made reflect on the first time that I was reprimanded by supervisor during my career as a transportation broker. It was within the first month of employment at my company. I made a very bad decision regarding a very hot shipment for a customer. Basically, I assigned a carrier who had a single driver, but the load required team service as it had to be at a customer’s plant the following morning. Due to transportation rules regarding a driver’s hours of service, delivery the following morning with a single driver was impossible. I happened to convince the transportation company I used to convince the driver to deliver straight through to my customer’s plant, with no regard for his logbook.
When my manager found out about my decision, he was furious. Not only had I made the incorrect decision, I put the company’s reputation on the line. What would happen if the driver got into an accident? What would happen if the driver didn’t arrive the following morning on time? A production line would be down and thousands of dollars would be lost on an hourly basis due to the production line not running. Furthermore, I took a huge risk in using a single driver. If he had fallen asleep on the way to the destination and got into an accident, our company would be liable for the driver’s actions. My manager wrote me up and made me sign a formal reprimand which was put in my file.
That was the first and only time I was written up. That was my first lesson in accountability. After reading the article, I can see his reasoning on why he no choice but to formally reprimand me. It was for my own good. After this incident, I did develop my own self-accountability. My work improved after this incident. I took greater care on procedures. I volunteered for more projects and lend a helping hand when a co-worker needed assistance. I guess that the fear of getting reprimanded motivated me and helped me improve as a worker.
After reading “A Cure For The Common Corporation,” I can’t help but observe how much the modern corporation has changed in terms of the development of its style of governance, culture, and leadership. I would describe working at third party logistics firm as a “informed acquiescene” corporation, with clear-cut rules and policies, well-established procedures, and performance-based rewards and punishments. However, my manager did incorporate elements of self-governance. Working in a division I was given a very large degree of autonomy. I was given a lot of latitude regarding decisions on customer rates, carrier rates, and so-on. I appreciated the amount of