Graduate Admissions Statement of Goals - Admission/Application Essay Example

ment of Goals Over the years, I have been very concerned with my career path progression and this has caused me to do extensive readings and research about my best interest on the job market. Basically, throughout my higher education, I have attained my best grades in courses that required human relations and I think that a life spent in such a field will not be a wasted one. I have also discovered that in the world today, three things form the foundation of the best businesses around the globe. They are Technology, People and Finance. With these three things well combined, a business is destined to attain success and remain successful. After a lot of inquiry and observance of trends and figures, I notice that People is the most important of the three components of modern business. This is because it is people who create, generate and ensure the attainment of the three foundations of the best businesses around the world. It is therefore my dream and vision to master the ability to co-ordinate and encourage effectiveness and efficiency of the human resource base of any entity that I will come in contact with. Basically, after the review of various human resource management books and journals, I find that there are three things I will want to master in order to build a career that will enable me to enhance the human capital base of any entity I will come onto contact with. They are general business management competencies, human psychological abilities and interpersonal skills. The three foundations of modern business, Technology, People and Finance are put together through management science. It appears that management science emerged as a means of identifying the best systems and methods for the enhancement of production and attainment of best results in businesses. Since people form the basis of management and the bringing together various factors of production is the employee, management are strongly linked to human resource programs. With a background steeped in law and the liberal arts, I see the opportunity to study for a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management as my outlet to the attainment of knowledge in management science. This is because management will enable me to build the fundamentals of the growth of capital and the combination of factors of production. At this point, it is clear that I will build a career as a Legal Professional. However, as I proceed I will prefer to take up an executive position and this will require some important management skills and techniques. Most of my colleagues are pursuing various Masters in Business Administration courses to attain this end. However, I think it will be much better to get more familiar with management science and from there, build on to study specific techniques and skills. I therefore expect that the Human Resource Management Masters Degree at Temple University will give me the first principles I need to understand management and its various components so I build a strong conception of how wealth is created and regenerated. Although a lot of people might not notice it, I have discovered that the postgraduate course that prepares a person best for a career as manager is a human resource management course. And as I aspire to take up an executive role and also become an investor and business owner, I will really appreciate a subtle approach to management through an outlet that studies the most important component of management. Secondly, I hope to build the necessary skills that I need to understand the make-up of an individual. This is because I find that a major practical component of human resource management is the study of the human psychology. I am therefore looking forward to learning about ways through which the average worker can be motivated and kept efficient in the work place. It is my expectation that the masters degree in Human Resource Management at Temple University will provide a very practical approach through which I will be able to understand why things happen and why people take certain decisions. Through this, I hope to become a very strong and influential person who can read, understand and identify the best ways of working with people to give off their best. I will also want to master strong principles in human psychology from professionals, teachers and my colleagues in an environment of practical activities so that I can have a fulfilling work life as an individual. Since I have been involved in recruitment and selection, I have realized that it is very important to understand the personality of an individual. This is because the make-up of an individual is the best way of making predictions and selecting the best individuals. However, it is my desire to get the most scientific tools and techniques that have been practiced for years in human resource management over the years. Additionally, I will want to learn more about interpersonal skills that will help to enhance my emotional intelligence. As an individual who seeks to become a top-level executive and also take up leadership roles in other companies, I will really seek to sharpen my leadership, communication and negotiation skills. This, I believe can be attained through a framework of studying the best tools, techniques and models of the field with a view of getting to know more. As I seek to rise through the ranks as a leader and spearhead, I therefore hope that the experiences I have acquired in the past in these areas and the academic knowledge I have acquired in the past will all culminate in a framework that will enable me to grasp the basics of human resource management. As I interact with my colleagues and lecturers in the course, I hope to build a strong network of peers and mentors that will help me to build strong people skills which I will invoke in the work place. I also believe that the knowledge I will acquire at Temple University will grant me lifelong rewards and benefits that will help me and support me to interact not only in the work place but in social situations like my family and other settings. Additionally, I have followed Temple University closely and I find it to be a very good university with strong structures and traditions. The achievements of the university really inspires me to join that wonderful family of scholars who pass out of the university each year with competitive opportunities awaiting them. As I live in such an environment and interact with other students, I hope to build strong links and get enough exposition that will help me in my life after graduation. Finally, I hope that the international reputation of your university helps me in also building an individual reputation as I seek to build a portfolio for myself. I hope that my association with Temple University will open up doors for me, not only in North America, but around the world to enable me to achieve my aims and objectives. In conclusion, I hope that the Masters in Human Resource Management at Temple University enables me to build strong management skills as foundations for a career that would launch me out of the legal career into a business oriented field. I also hope to learn more about human psychology and personality make ups to enable me to get the best from everyone I get in contact with. Thirdly, I hope to build strong interpersonal skills by studying human resources. Finally, I hope to be part of the family of Temple University graduates, which comes with strong experiences and an international reputation. Leadership Situation and What Leadership means to Me. From my experiences, I have come to believe that the situational approach to leadership defines what leadership means better than any other. This is because in many instances, people hardly prepare themselves to become leaders but circumstances cause them to assume leadership responsibilities. With this approach, I believe it is much better to capture the essence of leadership in a more efficient manner than the traditional approach of examining it from an institutional framework. In discussing my leadership situation, I will want to zoom in on my life at Student Homestay Services. It is a job which made me act as a leader each and every day. Although the company is not extremely large by international standards, I got a feel of the various forms of leadership. First of all, I dealt directly with the top-level management in handling the major planning and administrative work. I had to provide advice and analysis to the people tasked with governance and render various forms of activities that was required by them. It really gave me a strong sense of connection with the people at the top tier and really led me to discharge very high levels of responsibility and courtesy. In each situation, I learnt more about leadership and I had to act as a leader to move on with my superiors on spearheading operations of the business. The main challenge at this level was that it was a budding company and as a contributor to the management structure, I felt a strong sense of belonging to the company and always look back at my achievement with so much pride. Secondly, I had to discharge several independent activities as a middle-ranked manager. This included interacting with business partners and co-ordination of activities in Canada. There were also times I had to make international connections in cases where international students were involved. This required a high degree of leadership skills and the display of leadership potentials. Thirdly, I had to supervise and play leadership roles to people below me on the corporate ladder. I took part in various recruitment and selection activities which saw the ushering in of newly hired employees. As a senior figure in the organization, I had to mentor and coach most of these subordinates and help them to get an understanding of the vision, values and strategy of Student Home Stay Services. Again, there were very high expectations from my superiors and the newly trained persons and I had to exhibit high levels of leadership skills and tendencies. The leadership skills that I identified in each of the three situations that I have outlined above are subtle. Although they never came as obvious situations and requirements, I became more sensitive to important situations and conditions that define leadership. Working with my superiors and handling situations pertaining to the Board of Directors and other corporate entities around the world, I have learnt a number of skills that are crucial to me as a leader. First of all, I notice that all the major external holders of the Student Homestay Services have different interests. I have learnt that as a leader, I will always have to be sensitive to all those interests and views. However, in satisfying each interest group, I notice that there are legal constraints and diversity issues that I will need to be concerned with as a leader. What makes this situation complicated is the fact that there are emergent issues that come up each and every period which requires a leader to remain current and always look out for risks and find solutions to them. Secondly, in working with my superiors, I notice that no matter how high a leader might be, there are some people that will be above him or her. Therefore, I perceive leadership to be about knowing your responsibilities and being sensitive to them. In Student Homestay Services, I noticed that my superiors required timeliness, accuracy, strong communication skills, compliance and to an extent independence and above all willingness to learn. Again, my superiors came with various personality types and mood swings. I have therefore learnt to adjust to such changes to be able to deal with each and every supervisor I worked with. People who were parallel to me like my colleagues always wanted to be treated with some degree of respect. As a leader, I built the ability to always understand their needs, subjugate my needs where necessary and cooperate with them. Under me, there were new hires and recruits who I had to mentor and supervise. Like every other group, they came with various degrees of cultural diversity. However, I always respected each of them and analyzed each and every individual to identify the potentials and talents in him or her. This worked and earned me a lot of respect from my superiors and subordinates alike. However, I think that the personal vision of a leader is much more important. I believe that a person is the master of his or her own circumstances. I believe that people are responsible for whatever happens to them. As a leader, one must always bear responsibilities not only for personal occurrences but for the entire group. I therefore believe that the best things a leader can do or have emanates from within. I have therefore come to understand that the most important tools at a leaders disposal are his or her vision, principles and self confidence. Personally, I have a very strong vision about what I am and where I want to be in the near and distant future. I have therefore drawn clear and definite plans and I always make an effort to monitor my progress as I proceed through my professional career. Secondly, I believe that a life without ethics is a life that is ready to explode into serious crises. I therefore live according to the highest ethical principles and I always ensure that they guide me. Leaders who fail to identify a body of ethics and hold on closely to them end up failing. I therefore think that leadership is a strong function of the ethics that one subscribes to. Additionally, I believe in building self-confidence. As a person of Asian origins, I have a strong conception that we do not exist alone in the world. We are representation of generations of labor and hard work by our predecessors. I therefore believe that I have to always work hard to preserve the dignity of my people and every group I belong to. That, to me is a major ideal towards good and positive leadership. This is because it is very difficult to sacrifice for a group of people or an entity when you know that the entity cannot survive and be passed on to the next generation. I therefore do my best to incorporate continuity in everything I do as an individual and as a leader. In summary I believe that leadership has several connotations and components which each and every leader needs to be sensitive to and try to work within in order to attain the best results. First of all, leadership is about satisfying different stakeholders with different views. Once a person is sensitive to all stakeholder needs, leadership can yield excellent results. Secondly, I believe there are constraints in every group or institution. Leaders should also be aware of the constraints from different angles ranging from legal to resource constraints. Thirdly, a good leader must have strong communication skills. A leader must identify a body of ethics and be prepared to set up an ethical framework and ensure compliance. Also, leadership involves sensitivity to emergent issues and risks. Leadership is not only about bossing over people, it is also about respect for subordinates. And as a leader gets his skills and abilities right, he needs to improve them by doing more analysis in relation to relevant situations and factors. Read More