Saturday, January 22, 2005

Take responsibility!

David Broder wrote a column in the Washington Post a couple of years ago, which begins thusly:

"Even in this democratic age, some organizations have clung to the hierarchical principle -- and been admired for it....."

"But organizations with clear chains of command risk their reputations when those in charge refuse to accept responsibility for things that go wrong...."

Broder's column is about the Roman Catholic Church, and about how the top level bishops refuse to take responsibility for the actions of those below them. But when I read this today I was reminded of Jews for Jesus. David Brickner, in the JFJ newsletter and in personal correspondence to some ex-staff who have written him complaining of abuses in the organization, has refused to accept blame or responsibility for anything that anyone under him has done. His constant message: "Take up your complaint with the person who offended you. I didn't personally hurt you, so I can't do anything about it."

On one level this is correct. Both the Bible and modern psychology extol the merits of going to the person who offended us instead of "triangling in" others.

But it is, in my opinion, an abdication of responsibility for the "top man" in any organization to say that nothing that was done on his watch is his responsibility if he had nothing personally to do with it.

It is refreshing to see someone like Harry Truman say "The buck stops here." It is refreshing to hear about heads of organizations who take personal responsibility for the actions of those they were in charge of, those who were in their employ or under their supervision.

It would be a big step in the right direction if David Brickner were to say, publicly or privately, that Jews for Jesus unconditionally rejects the abuse of employees and takes responsibility for any abuse that ever occurred in the organization. It would be heartwarming if David Brickner were to try to contact past employees that were shunned or otherwise treated unfairly, whether by individual supervisors or (in the case of shunning) by the entire organization, and if he were to say, "Please forgive us for these wrong actions. What can we do to make it up to you?"

But if David Brickner is continuing to run JFJ in the same way that Moishe Rosen did, then his denial of past abuse and his refusal to take responsibility for the current actions of his branch leaders or team leaders would make perfect sense.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to comment on the following part of your post:

'It would be heartwarming if David Brickner were to try to contact past employees that were shunned or otherwise treated unfairly, whether by individual supervisors or (in the case of shunning) by the entire organization, and if he were to say, "Please forgive us for these wrong actions. What can we do to make it up to you?" '

I was contacted by David Brickner and I apologized to for a past serious wrong done by JFJ. I was told JFJ was sorry. Then, Moishe Rosen told me he was NOT sorry about the same wrong. So...JFJ under David Brickner is sorry...and JFJ under Moishe Rosen is not sorry. Talk about confusing! And...now that David has told me he is sorry, I'm supposed to forgive and forget and "move on." I don't get it. It doesn't seem like JFJ made it up to me at all, but a nice band-aid was applied and then the band-aid fell off.

Anonymous said...

All the "I'm sorry" doesn't mean a thing if the underlying culture remains the same.

Susan Perlman has a legacy of chewing up and spitting out adminstative assistants, for example. To apologize to one (I have no indication this ever happened), but continue the abuse remedies nothing.

A true solution would be to inform her that if THIS administrative assistant quits, it will be your last.

Hence you have an attempt to change the culture, consequences for continued abuse and a true gesture of respect for the "little people"

Anonymous said...

David Brickner is famously known for making "promises" to people, and then changing his mind. Only when he changes his mind and you go back to him and say, "you promised me that thus and such would happen" he says, "I never said the words, 'I PROMISE.'