The Personalistic View Of Responsibility: Case Study

Abstract The importance of responsibility in one‘s personal and professional life is undeniable. Employers expect their employees to have a responsible attitude towards their work. „Being responsible“ is seen as one of the necessary characteristics of a professional specialist. But what does „being responsible“ actually mean? What behaviour is expected from a responsible employee? The term responsibility has many different meanings, which may cause problems in communication between employers and their employees setting clear expectations about the results that must be carried out at work. Responding to this problem, the authors of this article have set the goal of presenting the personalistic view of responsibility. Based on the theoretical part, the awareness and attitude of the employees of KMVTC towards the value of responsibility is explored. Research question: what dimensions of the personalistic conception of responsibility show up in KMVTC employees’ attitudes towards responsibility? The survey was conducted by presenting an open-ended questionnaire, designed using the unfinished sentences method. During August, 2014 the questionnaires were distributed among 180 employees. The filled-in questionnaires were returned by 101 employees. The qualitative data analysis applied the qualitative content analysis method. The survey results have shown that the respondents’ statements on their attitude towards responsibility are only partially in line with the dimensions of the personalistic conception of responsibility. While a fair number of respondents identify responsibility with one’s commitment to oneself or others, a number of the survey participants tend to have a legalistic view of responsibility, reducing it to the observance of certain decrees and regulations, making no direct link with the responsibility for another human being or oneself. The survey results indicate that KMVTC employees have quite different interpretations of the value of responsibility, tending to narrow its meaning. This proves the need to foster a deeper understanding of responsibility among employees.