Personal responsibility, as we traditionally understand it in organizations, often focuses on the conscientious fulfillment of assigned tasks within defined boundaries. It stems from a rather mechanistic view of organizations, where people are primarily seen as role-bearers. This perspective increasingly reaches its limits in our complex present.

Joana Breidenbach and Bettina Rollow compellingly demonstrate in New Work Needs Inner Work that true organizational transformation is inseparable from inner development. This is where self-responsibility comes into play: it is rooted in the authentic need for self-actualization and aligned with the well-being of the entire system. People who act with self-responsibility do not wait for instructions but take initiative on their own accord. Self-responsibility can lead to a constructive search for solutions and offer opportunities for learning — this is how I have experienced it myself over the last 16 years in my own professional development.

The transformation toward greater self-responsibility requires both personal and organizational development. It is about cultivating self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and systemic thinking. At the same time, organizations must evolve from cultures of control to cultures of trust, something I have repeatedly experienced firsthand.

In an environment that fosters self-responsibility, people can unfold their potential, as Carl Rogers described in A Way of Being (characterized by attention, empathy, and congruence). The shift from personal to self-responsibility requires courage, patience, and the willingness to question ingrained thought patterns. Organizations that take this path create spaces for potentially greater development.

Possible interventions to facilitate the transition from personal to self-responsibility from a systemic organizational development perspective are diverse… focusing on potential rather than problems, collecting stories of successful self-responsibility, fostering peer learning, distributed authority/responsibility, and regular reflection loops… these are a few approaches.