Importance of Accountability and Communication

Categories: Accountability Communication

Essay, Pages 8 (1838 words)

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The importance of accountability and communication in the Military is so each and every personal is all on the same page. Also so our organization runs smooth. Communication is the heart of what makes the United States Army what it is today. Without communication vital information would not be passed down from the Chief of Command to a chain of Non Commissioned Officers to the soldiers. Not to mention, innocent lives would be in jeopardy, missions would be misconstrued, and simple information from NCO to soldier would be conflicted.

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The smallest amount of information is always imperative. For example, if a soldier goes out over the weekend and doesn’t inform anyone of he or she whereabouts and something crucial happens to him or her no one would never know because that soldier failed to communicated with his/her battle buddy more importantly their NCO. When others know about one’s location it is easier to maneuver to find them if anything should ever go wrong.

No one wants to become a victim if something should ever go not according to plan; and that’s why it is critical to notify someone whenever going out.

Communication in a military organization is a mandatory thing, especially in war. With the effective communication of a war that can be planned and implemented successfully. Therefore, it is important to all members of the organization to create and cultivate an effective communication system that connects to each other either at the top and lower levels.

I believe good communication is the key to a good relationship. If we communicate well with the people in our lives, we are able to better understand what the people around us want, need, expect of us, and what they are able to do and likewise, they will understand what we want, need, etc. This includes not just the people we live with, but our co-workers. Being responsible in the US Army has got to be of the utmost importance in my opinion. Throughout the past few months I have been dealing with many problems physically and mentally, and I strongly believe that this has, in part, to blame for my lack of responsibility.

Even so, this is really no reason at all to slack on any part of being a responsible Private E-2. Soldiers must be and act responsibly in every situation they may find themselves in, whether it’s in or out of uniform. Responsibility increases when soldiers believe that they have personal control over their mission performance, performing out of desire to do well instead of just following orders. There have been many studies that have suggested that when a Soldier feels that they have personal control over work performance the result is that the Soldier has a better task performance, better problem solving, a higher persistence in accomplishing the task, more positive emotions and even better psychological and physical health. Responsibility and accountability are two of the main factors in being a successful Soldier in today’s U.S. Army.

You must be a responsible soldier if you want to make it through deployment alive. Or even worse, if you fail to be responsible you could risk someone else’s life or your entire squad’s lives. Accountability is not only for keeping track of other people it can also be for keeping track of money, gear, legal documents, and many other things. The reason you would want to keep track of money is so if there is ever a time where a lot of money goes missing you would be able to look at the accounts transactions. Ways you can help improve accountability is have every person’s phone number. You can also make a log book so whenever anyone goes somewhere they would have to sign out of that log book. And also the buddy system is a good way to find out where someone would be. I think the whole reason for having accountability is so we get to work on time, so we stay safe and if we were to get into trouble someone could come get us. It is also helpful to have a cell phone so you can always be reached.

That’s where communication plays a huge part. When you are accountable of doing something you need to do whatever you are accountable for. If you always have a hundred percent accountability you will never have any problems like wondering where someone is or like wondering why something missing. If you ever have a problem like that then it is because you are not doing a very good job at keeping track of anything. If someone like that were to be in charge of a large group of people and not know if someone could be missing is not a good way to be leader. That’s why being disciplined on it early in your career is important. I understand. One example of being responsible would be to remember to properly PMCS you’re vehicle prior to taking it on mission. The responsible thing to do would be to go through every aspect of the PMCS and not taking any shortcuts. If your vehicle were to fail on you while you were outside the wire you could potentially endanger everyone’s lives on the entire convoy.

As said before responsibility must be used in every part of being a Soldier in the U.S. Army, not just PMCSing a vehicle, responsibility falls under just about every topic such as, waking up with enough time to prepare for your first formation, or mission, being in the proper uniform, and having all of the inspect able items without having to be reminded or helped in any way. Accountability is: the obligation imposed by law or lawful order or regulation on an officer or other person for keeping accurate record of property, documents, or funds. There many reasons why accountability is an important part of business. Showing up on time is a very important thing when it comes to work because if you ever show up late that would be time lost from the work day or the time you lost you could have been working on something but because you showed up late that task was never completed on time as needed. When something is not done it affects everything in the organization.

If one thing isn’t completed it affects all the other missions like a chain reaction. Another reason accountability is needed is so you know where weapons are located. In leadership roles, accountability is the acknowledgment of responsibility for actions, decisions, and resulting consequences. Some of those consequences can be loss of pay, loss of rank, or loss of job. When you say you are going to get something done you are accountable of getting it done no matter what because you gave your word that you were going to get it done. Whenever you don’t keep your word it makes everyone think you are not reliable. Then none of your peers nor leaders will come to you for help because you will not be able to complete the task. Consequences when you do something wrong could mean that you can lose your job or just get a warning. Whenever you do something wrong it is possible to correct your mistake if it is possible to make a correction.

The ways you can make a mistake when getting accountability is by not having an up to date muster sheet or (chit) whichever you prefer. Other ways is by not having a set time on where everyone should muster at. If there is a problem when mustering at the usual muster spot you must always have a secondary muster spot. It would also be helpful if you had a couple of people to help you keep accountability so you do not stress about finding every single person. Ways you can make sure everyone knows when to muster is by calling, putting up a schedule, passing word the previous day, or by text message. When you are mustering it is best if you have everyone in a formation and organuzed. It is also necessary that everyone remain quiet so you and the person being called hear it. It is also helpful that you have everyone in a organized manner so you can see the persons face so if anyone was to cover for someone else you would be able to catch them and deal with them accordingly.

When you are about to let everyone leave you should always tell them anything that comes up so they always know where and when they are supposed to be the next day. Organizations like the Marine Corps, The Navy, The Army, And the air force need to keep good accountability because it is necessary to know where their tools, weapons gear, and troops are at all times so they can react to anything quickly and efficiently. The better accountability and communication has the better the organization can operate. Throughout my short experience in my career in the United States Army I have learned the importance that accountability and communication has in my professional and personal life. Accountability is much more than just being dependable it also implies being responsible for one’s actions, knowing that when serving my country is important for others to know that I am a soldier they can count on and know that I am dependable and responsible.

We as soldiers based our lives on the importance of accountability, when working with other soldiers in one or more units it is important to know that the soldier next to you is accountable, responsible and someone I can depend on and trust and know that we can work as a unit. To sum it up, accountability means more to us soldiers than anyone else because we go through experiences that many people do not go through. We are responsible for lives and the freedom of our country. We based our lives in protecting those we love and care about. We are accountable for showing our country that we are strong and responsible enough to protect them.

Therefore I am very thankful for the experiences I have had and the ones that will come throughout my career and my life in the Unites States Army. I know that I am never going to stop learning but when it comes to learning Every aspect of accountability I learned in the Army and that is the most important value aman can have Now in conclusion I have verified that the importance of accountability and communication can determine how efficiently an organization runs. If you lack the ability to handle it all by yourself you can always ask for help. You must match a name to a face for one hundred percent accountability and to test everyone’s integrity. There can be consequences to not having good enough accountability in the organization. That having good accountability can keep everyone safe.