Role of Personal Consumption in My Life, Career Workbook Activities - Coursework Example

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Subject Code and Name Date Submitted Reflective journal: Business and Society Introduction The purpose of business is to make money. Businesses make money for the shareholders, its workers and people distributing their products. In fact, effective businesses also make money for the consumer; by providing essential goods and services at a reasonable cost, therefore saving them money. In short, businesses create wealth to the society. The relationship of business and society is supposed to be mutually beneficial. Most of responsible businesses today have principles that are towards the betterment of the society. These principles are usually evaluated at the end of the year alongside financial reports and are often titled as social or sustainability reports. This voluntary commitment of businesses to manage its activities in a sustainable way is commonly referred to as corporate social responsibility. This reflective journal will reflect on the role of personal consumption in my life, career workbook activities and my emergent views on professionalism. It will then link the three in relation to society and business in the conclusion. Personal consumption role in my life Personal consumption is the actual and imputed spending (expenditure) on goods and services. Imputed expenditure implies implicated spending in the case of transactions that cannot be measured directly in money terms, for example hand made gifts. Personal consumption expenditure (PCE) is synonymous to Consumer price index and also consumption. It is important to note that consumption is a generic (general) term while PCE is the official term used by Government and includes all the consumption. It is essentially a measure of goods and services bought from the gross domestic product (GDP) and utilized to satisfy citizens needs and wants. It is the largest of the four expenditures since it involves all households. The other three expenditures include investment expenditure, government purchases and net export. My personal consumption has influence to the economy. As I purchase durable goods (those that last more than a year), non-durable goods (like food, which last less than a year) and services, the economy grows. This is because by buying, I am providing markets for the goods and services and ultimately contributing to job creation. Therefore the more individuals consume, the more the economy grows. When I do not spend, then I do save. Savings does increase my income, and when I do save in a bank, the money is borrowed by other people for spending or to finance capital investment. In a nutshell, I contribute to macroeconomic growth whether I spend or save. I understand that my personal consumption influences the society and every individual in the world should take notice of that. The fundamental question that has puzzled mankind for decades is what is the carrying capacity of the world? Or, how many people can the earth sustain without its resources being constraint? Many figures suggest that it is 12 billion people. But that is beside the point; I believe responsible consumption as an individual is critical in quest for earth’s sustainability. This is because modern society are definitely consuming more goods and producing more wastes than any society in mankind history, more so in the industrialized countries. I need basic needs of food, clothing and shelter in my life. I also have wants that include education, entertainment and so on. I have the responsibility of being ethical in fulfilling both my basic needs and wants because I understand my consumption has an impact to the society and the environment at large. And I want this impact to be a positive one as much as possible. My decision to consume is basically informed; I usually do some background check of the products that I use. For example the food I consume has to come from companies that are known to have high standards of environment protection. I cannot buy anything from companies that are known to treat their labour force badly or have no regard to the immediate society and environment. The role of my personal consumption is to satisfy my needs and wants while considering the implications of my needs and wants to the economy, society and the environment at large. Career workbook activities Careers are occupations taken by individuals for a period of time and usually with opportunity to progress. Careers are important in society as it provides businesses with workforce to produce essential products to satisfy a plethora of human needs and wants. It is therefore paramount for individuals to choose careers according to desire and abilities. UNISA Career workbook provides an individual with well rounded approach to career planning. It basically deals with three exercises that include values, interests and skills to help an individual shape his or her future. These three exercises form a base in which a checklist is formed and worksheet filled. Under the values inventory, one lists the values ranging from ‘often values’ through to ‘never values’ with intermediates in between. The values to be judged include things like advancement, adventure, aesthetics, challenging work, work alone, creativity, leadership, competition, flexibility, helping society and so on. Interests’ values include social, realistic, investigative, artistic, enterprising and conventional. Skills can be with people, data and information, leadership, things or creative skills. People with social interest will want to be with people and choose careers like teachers and doctors. Realistic people are doers and like to work with things. Investigative people like to work with ideas and things while artistic work with people and ideas. Enterprising people work with data and people while conventional people are interested in data. After ranking ones values, one checklists his/her interest under the headings described above for example under artistic one can choose from composing music, writing articles, creating artwork, work independently, playing instruments and so on. The top three interests are used to choose three occupations. The three occupations, top five values, top five interest and top ten skills are entered in career assessment worksheet. The values, interest and skill are rated as ‘+’, ‘-‘, ‘0’ and ‘?’. It is ‘+’ if the occupation uses the value, interest or skill more than 50%, ‘-‘ if it uses less, ‘0’ if it does not use it or ‘?’ if one does not know. Lastly, one reviews the worksheet, the more positive reviews; the better the chances that one will be satisfied with that particular career. The activities in the career work book aim at identifying what one is good at or where one is talented in, questions ones desires and inquires one to search deep to find his/her true value or character. It then analyses these components to come up with a possible career that befits a person based on his/her talent, desire and character. I believe the workbook is a very useful tool for individuals to identify their careers. Choosing a career early will make one train in what he loves and this will encourage professionalism later on in life. I do not have major improvements for the worksheet per se. I can only wish for the worksheet to be simplified if that is still possible and request that it should be encouraged for people to start using it as early as possible. I mean it should be encouraged more for people in high schools and young teenagers so as to have focus early in their lives. Professionalism A professional is an individual with inner character strength and values directed towards high quality service to others. Business and Society course has taught me that a professional is more than the physical appearance that include neatness and the like or a person with a technical skill- as there are a number of people with ‘professional’ appearance and lots of technical skills but are not professionals. In essence, professionals see their jobs as service to others and not just another source of getting money to spend. Further characteristics of professionals include personal commitment to excellent performance, aim at improving other peoples lives, approach problems optimistically, have high respect for other people, distant themselves from gossip and do the best they can with what they have. Professionals conduct themselves in a ‘classy’ manner even when not in their jobs, still upholding the mentioned characteristics. Professionals have the insatiable desire to learn new techniques to perfect their job skills primarily and not merely for economic gains. They act decisively, are confident in their abilities and are reliant to work independently without supervision. They accept responsibilities for their actions and will not trade blame unnecessarily to others or waste time on pointing fingers, in fact they will spend that time in trying to find solutions to the problem. Professionals do not abuse the office and take advantage of things such as sick off. These descriptions of a professional does not only apply to individuals but also to businesses, corporations and organizations. Companies should strive to using education; training and experience to problem solve and make decisions. It should be distinguished with commercialism where organizations use marketing and advertising to sell products to consumers without caring about them. In commercialism, the drive to make more money overrides the need to satisfy consumers while it should be the other way round. Professional organizations and businesses have high regard of their immediate society and environment. They would involve themselves in activities that are not harmful to the society and will encourage community development by creating jobs and protecting the environment. Employers have moral responsibilities to their employees outside the civil and state laws, these responsibilities can be referred to as incentives. Professional companies are involved in viable and productive corporate social responsibility programs that are generated within themselves without pressure from the immediate society or laws. Professionalism makes an individual or company to get good business reputation and enables one to earn respect from his peers. Generally, I can say that professionals, both individuals and companies, strive to maintain a ‘professional image’ in their appearance and behavior. They will dress smartly, use appropriate language (avoid cursing) and above other things work passionately primarily for a perfect job, product or service for the satisfaction of the recipient. Professional companies and organizations will follow regulations, produce quality products and protect their immediate environment. In other words, financial gain is not their primary concern in their jobs. I have also come to learn that professionalism does not necessarily come with experience but rather with attitude, respect for others and a person’s work. Conclusions Business and society course is essential to impart to the future managers the principles of sustainable management of business. The entries discussed in this reflective journal are intertwined in that individuals choose careers that they study, the careers enable individual to produce goods and services to the society. In return, individuals get returns from their products that enable them to consume (personal consumption) other goods and services that they cannot produce, since no one can be completely self sufficient more so in the contemporary world. Individuals who chose their careers carefully and with passion are able to do them with diligence and passion hence they are professionals. Professional individuals working and running an organization will bring professionalism to the business. The relationship can be described in a cycle as professionals might need to add to their technical know how and choose new careers and the cycle goes on and on. The society is the producers and consumers of goods and services. Individuals in the society ought to investigate into the production process of the products they consume and challenge the businesses producing them if the business does its production by harming individuals, society or the environment. Governments and other law making institution should formulate and implement laws that safeguard the businesses and society. The individuals in society must also carefully consider the careers they choose to match ones ability and desires. If one is not sure of his/her own career path, he can use other tools to help in choosing, and an example of an effective tool of doing that is a career workbook. Carefully chosen careers make individuals, society and businesses become professionals and productive. However, it is unfortunate that some companies undertake their production in unsustainable manner to both the environment and society. Another problem is where individuals do not choose careers carefully but rather go for what their peers are going for or what they think is ‘marketable’. Such mindsets hardly make professionals in the long run. It is also tragic that many individuals and businesses favor commercialism to professionalism. To tackle the challenges mentioned above, consumers should shun products from business run in unsustainable and unprofessional manner, individuals ought to choose their careers carefully and do what they desire and have the ability to do, and businesses should be run with professional individuals who will definitely value corporate social responsibility. Work cited Svendsen, L Work, Acumen, Stocksfield UK. 2008, Print Assessment feedback BUSS 1057 Business and Society Assignment 3 : Reflection Journal Student’s name ID number Key Assignment criteria Performance on this component Comment Very Poor Poor Fair Good Excell-ent Body of knowledge: 5 marks Understanding of course content that is used as the basis for reflection Capacity to reflect 20 marks Extent to which Journal contains reflective writing Depth of reflection Extent to which reflection is directed toward a purpose (not empty day-dreaming) Reflection on personal change during the journal writing activity and the being professional segment Academic literacy 5 marks Conveying in the journal a sense of the personal reflection which took place Providing sources where they are needed Summary comment Assignment grade/mark GQ2:life-long learning GQ5: are committed to ethical action and social responsibility this table indicates how the performance on criteria is assessed criterion, element very poor poor fair good excellent Understanding of the reflection topic missing muddled view of concepts able to describe main elements uses concepts to enhance analysis broad conceptual understanding Extent to which Journal contains reflective writing No reflective writing Entries are mainly descriptive, with little reflection Some reflective writing Each entry has reflective elements Each entry is predominantly reflective Depth of reflection Solely descriptive writing events, outrage or adulation but no reflection mainly descriptive reflection Mainly dialogic reflection Consistently applies critical reflection Extent to which reflection is directed toward a purpose not covered mentions a purpose, but not linked to reflection Link is articulated stepping back from events, taking stock Reflection has clear outcome, and achieves it Reflection on personal change not covered Describes personal events Describes personal values Describes personal change Reviews personal change Academic literacy missing sources comprehension difficult hard to follow, some sources incomplete readable , sources NA or OK easy to read, depth obvious, correct sources joy and enlightenment for reader Read More