The iWAM and Accountability

Recently, a vice president who uses the Inventory for Work Attitude and Motivation (iWAM) for leadership development in his organization, asked if there was a scale in the iWAM that assessed a manager's tendency to hold people accountable.

The official answer is "no".

At the same time, the publisher (jobEQ) and professionals who use the tool have discovered that two or more scales interacting with each other might provide some insight into more complex aspects of motivation.

What might be motivational indicators of wanting to hold people accountable?

Shelle Rose Charvet introduced people to the guess-and-test method of interpreting the LAB Profile (an interview companion created by the original developer of the iWAM). The guess-and-test is an approach that presumes not smart enough to understand completely what's going on with complex human beings, so we take our best guess and test it to see if it works.

That's what I'm doing here. The following are some best guesses regarding patterns that might contribute to someone wanting to hold others accountable.

Individual Motives (Internal Reference): Someone who scores high on this scale wants to make the decisions. This pattern could contribute to an individual who is motivated to hold others accountable.

Procedures (mid- to high): A stronger Procedures pattern indicates that the individual has a certain (right) way of doing things.

Power (mid- to high): The power score is an indicator of the extent to which the individual wants to control people and resources in a context.

Achievement (high): We've found that individuals who score high on Achievement may be demotivated by situations and people who get in the way of their being successful.

Assertiveness (high) & Tolerance (low): Both scales are part of a set of patterns that provide an indication of how one relates to norms or "rules". A high score on Assertiveness is an indication of the extent to which the individual thinks others should follow his or her rules. Tolerance is a measure of the extent to which an individual is motivated to work with, that is tolerate, individuals with different rules than they have.

The Right Answer?

There isn't one. At the same time, we have examples of individuals who score mid-range to high on a number of these patterns and who do hold people accountable.

Our primary goal in presenting this information is to provide iWAM professionals a framework for analyzing their work with clients and determining the extent to which a combination of patterns contributes to your understanding of an individual's motivation to hold others accountable.

If you have experiences or recommendations on this subject, please share them by writing to carl@iWAMinstitute.com.