Aspects of responsibility: how we handle actions and consequences

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss aspects of responsibility in relation to organizational contexts, the main focus being responsibility for consequences we cannot reach. Responsibility is a major underpinning of business administration and management and also an aspect of everyday life. Responsibility is about responding, to act as an answer to previous action/s, but we never know all consequences of our actions.Design/methodology/approachLiterature from management, HRM studies and from philosophy scholars is used to discover different perspectives of responsibility and a typology of responsibility handling is developed.FindingsIn total, three types of responsibility are suggested and discussed in relation to managerial and organizational practices. The main contribution is the typology of responsibility combined with the relational focus of managerial and organisational processes. Imagining, fantasy and care are shown as important for the developing of responsibility.Research limitations/implicationsThe suggested typology is theoretically developed without empirical studies behind.Practical implicationsA conclusion is that valuing of long‐term survival of humanity and nature must be built into our judgments and our assessments processes in everyday organizational life, if we should be able to act responsibly.Originality/valueThe concept of responsibility is currently intensively discussed, because of successes and disappointments of the CSR movements, because of global economy, and because of climate changes, etc. The suggestion of three types of responsibility in this paper can contribute to sorting out theoretical and practical possibilities in different contexts.