Self Reflection Assignment Sample
Here’s the best sample of Self Reflection Assignment, written by the expert.
Introduction
Self-reflection is necessary to be undertaken so that it could help in analysing the areas which are required to be developed so that I could move ahead in the right manner. It will help in evaluating the skills which are required to be improved so that growth could take place, and I could work effectively in future. The focus will be given on managing multicultural teams as this goes with the work which I have undertaken with my group.
Managing multicultural teams
Group work is significant in working life; it can be shown to improve collaborative learning, promote teamwork skills that employers’ demand, and encourage life-long learning (Galton, 1996). Moreover, the group work develops generic skill and group work management process (Natoli, Jackling and Seelanatha, 2014). During my experience, I learned about the different culture, which affects teamwork as my team members are from different places such as India, Portuguese, Sudan and Vietnam. I realised the difference between culture affects bonding and coordination, which is required for completing the tasks or project with the allotted time.
In the beginning, although there are specific tasks in the module handbook, it seems quite hard to share these tasks because the tasks were not as equally challenging. Therefore, I felt like sharing out these tasks amongst members of my team for making the relationship between my group members was at risk because of the unfairness. I took such decision for sharing the tasks to each team member so that they could have their opinion for completing the tasks on time. It was also meant for sharing different culture and develop a sense of understanding. I found that I have excellent communication skills which are required for manging with different cultured people. This attribute of mine helped me in developing coordination and stability among the team members.
During this, I found that due to the different culture of team members, conflicting opinions and misunderstanding was at peak during the work. This affected our work and performance as we were required to complete it on time. For solving such problem, I applied the Soft approach to human resources management theories to management teamwork which has been equated with the concept of a “High commitment work system” (Walton, 1985b). Soft approaches lead to managing a team with effective communication and reaching to them timely. However, the soft approach based on a high level of trust (Wood, 1996, p. 41) what we lacked in our first time working together, so the soft approach seems like not working well at our circumstance. Our group cannot work efficiently, and they seem to like being a free rider though I try to be the first one doing something in our group work. The different culture and nationality of people in team has led to language barrier, poor communication and lack of understanding among each other. Therefore. I decided to change to the hard approach which is focused on strategy, and working stick to the policies linked with the strategic objectives of an organisation and members are more cohesive (Baird and Meshoulam, 1988). It made me realise that I have excellent decision-making skills and time management skills which will help in solving such a problem in future efficiently and effectively.
During the work to have a solution to every problem, I decided to have a leader for the teamwork so that it could be done as per some guideline. It was meant for completing the work on time. But the conflicting opinion was the problem for deciding and choosing the right leader for the team. Under this, I found my convincing skills are useful as I convinced all the team members for appointing me as a leader so that I could help in completing this on time. Moreover, I found that being a leader was also not an option as it requires proper participation of team and management of culture in the work procedure. I was not able to set the KPIs or new method in marking in this group work because of the method in marking is fixed, and it seems like “Equal team bonus” that everyone got the same mark (Clark, 2003). Therefore, I decided to apply the “social engagement” theory to engage our group members working more motivated; we applied it by actively taking opportunities to share opinions related to work to improve our self and others (Alfes et al., 2010).
Future orientation
According to these experience in the group work with multi-cultured members, If I will be a line manager or a leader in future, the first thing I would consider is a strategy for my team in the organisation, because the strategy may support the group to stick with the organisation goal and influence the organisation performance (Kale and Arditi, 2002, 2003). I always wanted to become a great leader in future thus contributed to learning different skills and attributes from time to time. The second important thing is the members’ characteristic because the organisation’s strategic objective could be built based on their characteristic to fit with members to sustained competitive advantage (Tan et al., 2012). Managing group performance should be closed to KPIs or specific task to maintain the performance of the group in both the soft approach and hard approach in human resources management. The last is a group should have a leader who can understand and lead its members to the goal.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many theories that I could apply to manage the group performance and motivate members in a group or organisation. However, the same as my problem when I applied the soft approach to my group without known well about it, the group or organisation need a leader and strategy to reach the goal. The strategy should detail task and deadline for each task. Moreover, the leader should be the one who connects and maintain membership. To save time, all members should talk about their strength and background; it will help the leader can develop the strategy for the group. The strategy could be more developed by rewarding more correctly to encourage the member to work more efficiency. Everyone can develop the strategy for the group based on their experience, so social engagement to share our idea about work will make a group or organisation can gain more competitive advantage.
References
Natoli, R., Jackling, B. and Seelanatha, L., 2014. The impact of instructor’s group management strategies on students’ attitudes to group work and generic skill development. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 9(2), pp.116-132.
Larsson, J., Eriksson, P. and Pesämaa, O., 2018. The importance of hard project management and team motivation for construction project performance. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 11(2), pp.275-288.
WOOD, S. (1996). `High commitment management and unionisation in the UK’. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 7, 1, 41±58.
BAIRD, L. and MESHOULAM, I. (1988). `Managing two ®ts of strategic human resource management’. Academy of Management Review, 13, 1, 116±28.
Clark, R.E. (2003), “Fostering the work motivation of individuals and teams”, Performance Improvement, Vol. 42 No. 3, pp. 21-29.
Alfes, K. Truss, C. Soane, E. Rees, C, Gatenby, M. (2010) Creating an Engaged Workforce. London: CIPD
Kale, S. and Arditi, D. (2002), “Competitive positioning in United States construction industry”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 128 No. 3, pp. 238-247.
Tan, Y., Shen, L. and Langston, C. (2012), “Competition Environment, Strategy, and Performance in the Hong Kong Construction Industry”, Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 138 No. 3, pp. 352-360.
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