Personal Development and Careers - Assignment Example

?Answer Learning modifies the behaviour through acquiring experience, knowledge or some skill. The process of learning can be associated with four activities; they are feedback, reinforcement, direct experience and observation. Learning is a crucial and decisive component within work and organisations as it can increase performance and efficiency. Organizations are beginning to understand the significance of learning and they seek information to ensure dependable ownership resulting in continuing worth to the company. In today’s information age, learning contributes to an organization’s knowledge capital and intellectual property. Learning can be presented in terms of two theories, cognitive and behavioural. Cognitive behaviour or cognition focuses on a person’s thought processes to determine his or her behaviours and emotions. Behavioural theory is based on the changes, which can be observed in behaviour, and concentrates on a response to some type of stimulus. Other differences between the two theories include the fact that cognition helps to explain how the processes of brain work and store new information, while the behaviourists are involved in applying laboratory outcomes to elucidate the performance of human beings. Cognitive problem solving involves insight and understanding compared to behaviourist’s problem solving method which occurs via trial and error. Learning is frequently defined by the terms cognitive or behavioural. But there are numerous definitions for it. These include definitions such as ‘changes in an individual's behaviour arising from experience’, ‘the cognitive process of acquiring skill or knowledge’, ‘a relatively permanent change in cognition, resulting from experience and directly influencing behaviour’ and ‘changes in a person's behaviour caused by information and experience.’ Although there is no exact definition of the term learning, but the essential premise from the explanations provided above is that of a change or transformation in behaviour through the acquisition of knowledge, some skill or experience. McShane and Travaglione (2003) recognized the process of learning as direct experience, reinforcement, feedback, and observation. Reinforcement is the strengthening of behaviour that is expected to occur in the future. Operant conditioning shows how new behaviours become conventional through association with particular stimulus. Any behaviour that is reinforced or rewarded will tend to be recurring. Operant conditioning or reinforcement considerably improves learning in a work setting. Feedback is defined as any information that people receive about the consequences of their former behaviour. Feedback has an effect on behaviour, hence learning improves performance and enhances the individual’s ability and motivates them. A person can learn a lot about him/her and the organisation through feedback, including his strengths and weaknesses, which may enable him to undertake specific courses (steps) to build knowledge and improve the quality of work.  Observation helps people to learn by observing the behaviours of others, resulting in people modelling the behaviour that leads to a constructive and positive outcome as opposed to a behaviour that will lead to unfavourable results. Observation helps in increasing an individual’s motivation and ability by watching others accomplishing their objectives and identifying themselves within that position. The majority of what is learnt in an organization today occurs through experience. Direct experience is sometimes required to gain understanding and change, refine, or create a mental model. Direct experience provides built-in opportunities for active involvement in a learning environment which determinedly shapes individual’s understandings. These four activities which identify the procedure of learning are further supported by Nonaka’s process. Here the learning process is also divided in four phases: socialization, externalisation, combination and internalisation. Socialisation is where people meet and share their experiences and elaborate on their current knowledge. This results in new ideas and concepts. Externalisation is where existing knowledge or skill is captured to create better understanding by generating purposeful discussion. Then is the step of combining the ideas with existing information and knowledge to make use of previous experiences, and finally internalisation where the knowledge developed is then acted upon and evaluated (Hawryszkiewycz, 2000). The world is progressing from the industrial era to the information era, knowledge capital, intellectual property and its management are critical ingredients in the success of today’s organisation.  A critical component of organisational behaviour is the examination of a person’s emotions and behaviour. Companies are focused on attempting to achieve the mission or strategy through the efficient and effective performance of their workforce. Learning can absolutely and positively influence the employees’ performance and behaviour by increasing their knowledge and teaching them skills to perform tasks more successfully. Learning can illuminate the perceptions about one’s roles, which helps in creating a better understanding of the tasks and ultimately learning facilitates in motivating employees (McShane and Travaglione, 2003). From a perspective of an organization, well learned workforce results in people being more effective and efficient at accomplishing what they want. An individual’s behaviour is made up of learning, communication, perception, personality and motivation (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2001). Any company that wants to compete productively and fruitfully needs to ensure that its workers have the right mix of people, with their experiences and skills in order to fulfil the needs of its business. Learning is a necessary component within work and organisation, and does not only contribute to the success and effectiveness of an organisation through increased performance and efficiency, but in fact it has been identified that investors who take an interest in the longer term are beginning to recognise that learning is a vital constituent for a company to stay in business. Answer 2 Today's business world is exceedingly competitive. The only way to survive and thrive is to reform according to the needs of a rapidly changing world. Resistance or avoidance to change is not only a dead-end street for the organization but also for an individual. Customers, nowadays, not only demand excellent service, they demand for more than that. If a company does not supply it, its competitors surely will. Organizations have to restructure themselves to change swiftly and rapidly in order to meet the requirements of their consumers. As the organization's top management know that they cannot throw money at every problem that occurs, therefore they need extremely committed and flexible workers. As a manager, a person needs to accentuate actions to make the changes as smoothly and quickly as possible. Borg from Star Trek said, “Resistance is futile.” Indeed it really is, as resistance only holds back the progress of an organization. It is only an obstacle on the path of success. During the time span of changes, which is just about all the time for a good and successful organization, managers need to focus on having the employees go from change avoidance to change acceptance. There are five steps which are caused by change: Anger shown by the workers at others for what the company is putting them through. Denial by the employees that they cannot foresee any major changes. Bargaining by the employees to work out solutions without bringing any change, and keeping everyone happy. Depression which results in the question such as: is it worth it? There is doubt in the minds of the employees and they need support. Acceptance of the reality by the workers when at last they understand that there is nothing that can be done accept for accommodating whatever is happening and going along with it. This is why, usually, the worker's first reaction to change is to resist and oppose it. People get used to performing tasks, processes and their jobs in a specific manner. They are so comfortable with it that they cannot imagine doing their jobs in any different manner. This comfort zone also provides them with safety and security that they are the masters of the particular job. At times employees adapt an attitude of avoiding and resisting change because they fear they’d look like a fool if they were not able to adapt to the change and learn the skills required. They dislike disruptions in their lives and anticipate that their jobs might become harder, with a loss of control. The avoidance of the change can be converted into acceptance by the manager’s help by changing the attitudes of the employees. This is mostly best achieved by changing avoidance statements or questions into acceptance statements and questions. When the employees ask “why,” concentrate on the benefits and advantages that the change will provide to the organization as well as to the employees. A manager must not feel uncomfortable if he feels hesitant about the change too as he is also a human. By spelling out the payback, the manager not only comforts the workers, but this helps to convince him too. Problem or an issue is anything that prevents something from getting better. No matter what industry a company competes in, the business environment is always evolving. In order to survive, the business should also evolve. Too often the employees encounter these environmental changes and the response is mostly negative attitude. Poor employee attitudes tend to derail a company’s business efforts. This makes the administration of employee attitudes a crucial management function. If I were a manager, I would communicate often and clearly with the employees. I would not be vague in giving details. I would make sure that my employees are told about the changes in the internal and external business environment and how it might affect the organization, and eventually them. Letting my employees know about the crisis are and how they can contribute and be part of the solution, would be my approach. I would send regular company-wide email updates or get newsletters published that would inform the employees about current events leading to the changes in the firm. I would understand that employees' resistance to change is actually a reaction of being caught off-guard. Informing the staff would help in improving their attitudes as they will not feel left out of the loop or excluded (Lo, 2011). I would also involve my workers in implementation process as well as in planning process when addressing changes in the firm. A fine approach would be to send out employee surveys or hold focus groups to receive feedback about the operations, environment, job satisfaction, or anything that may affect the attitudes of the employees. By finding out what the employees think and what their problems or motivations are, I as a manager would be able to find solutions for those areas. According to Sharrieff (2011), a manager can plan activities for the employees and management to interact with each other. These activities may include hosting a barbecue, joining a softball league etc. Engaging the staff in fun activities helps in creating the atmosphere that erases the impression of management versus labour and replaces this image with one that is inclusive, cooperative and fun. It further helps in making the workers more tolerant to changes and supportive of their manager’s decision. If I were a manager, I would certainly adapt these activities in my approach. Empowering the employees is a very good way of making them less resistant to changes. When they are involved in decision making the workers will tend to work harder and do whatever it takes to achieve goals. A manager must work with the staff to map out career paths within the company and educate them on how their flexible demeanour and supportive attitude in the face change can help them progress and grow along that path. Answer 3 Unfortunately barriers can and do occur often, no matter how good the communication system of an organisation is. These barriers may be caused by a number of factors which can usually be summarised as being result of a system design faults, physical barriers, or attitudinal barriers. Physical barriers are usually caused by the nature of the environment of the workplace. For example; if the staff is located in different buildings or on different sites, surely a communication barrier will exist among the employees. Similarly, outdated and poor equipment, predominantly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may also cause communication problems. A staff shortage is one other factor which commonly results in communication difficulties for an organisation. Distractions like poor lighting, background noise, or an atmosphere which is too cold or hot can affect workers’ concentration and morale, in turn hamper with effective communication. Physical barriers in the workplace include: marked out territories, empires (offices) into which strangers are not allowed barrier screens, closed office doors, separate areas for people of different position huge working areas or working in one unit that is separate from others. Attitudinal barriers come about as a consequence of problems with staff in an organisation. These may be due to factors such as lack of consultation with employees, poor management, personality conflicts which can result in employees delaying or refusing to correspond, the personal attitudes of the workers which may be due to dissatisfaction at work, or lack of motivation brought about by inadequate training to facilitate them to carry out particular jobs, or just resistance and avoidance to change due to entrenched attitudes and ingrained ideas. The problem with communicating with others may also arise due to the fact that we all see the world differently. If it wasn’t so, then there would have been no need to communicate. Thoughts, assumptions, and perceptions shape the attitudes of the individuals and sometimes these differences cause communication gaps. When a person joins a group and wishes to remain its member, sooner or later he or she has to adopt the behaviour patterns and trends of the group. These are the only behaviours that the group acknowledges as signs of belonging. Cultural diversity which is very common nowadays is especially challenging for effective communication. Cultures shape the ways people think, see, hear, and interpret the world. Therefore the same words may have a different meaning for people from different cultures. The behaviour is rewarded by the group through acts of approval, recognition and inclusion. Groups that are happy to accept an individual, and where the individual is happy to conform, there surely is an affinity of interest and a high level of win-win contact. Language that describes what a person wants to say in his terms may present barriers to others who are not familiar with the buzz-words, expressions and jargons. In the global market place the best compliment a person can give to another person is to talk in their language. And if the languages are different, and translation is used to communicate, the possibility for misunderstandings increases. It is essential to cope up and deal with these barriers in order to ensure smooth and effective communication. It is important for a person to make the other person understand what he is saying and convey the right message to avoid misunderstandings. Barriers to effective communication can cause roadblocks in a person’s professional or personal life and it could be one of the major hurdles in the way of achieving professional goals. The layout design of the offices plays an important role in effective communication. An office should be designed in such a way that it increases information sharing, team work, and potentially work enhancing communication. The employees, who have to interact more often, should be placed in proximity (Fardell, 2011). Knowledge is the key to effective cross-cultural communication. To overcome the cross cultural barriers it is essential to understand the potential communication problems that may occur due to cultural diversity, so that a conscious effort can be made to eliminate these problems. It is also important to presume that when making an effort, a person will not necessarily be successful in understanding and adjusting one’s behaviour appropriately (Cross cultural communication, 1998). If any sort of problem arises, the manager must be willing to be forgiving and patient, rather than aggressive and hostile. The employees should be taught to react carefully and slowly in cross-cultural exchanges, they must not jump to conclusions and act as if they know what is being thought and said. Intermediaries that are familiar with both cultures can mostly be useful in cross-cultural communication situations. An intermediary can translate the substance as well as the manner it is being said, and if required the intermediary can tone down strong statements that may be considered inappropriate in the other culture. They can adjust the timing of the things said and done. Some cultures move rapidly to the point while, others talk about other things for a long time to get comfortable and establish a relationship with the other person. A mediator who understands both the cultures can help in making appropriate adjustments. The organization ought to ensure that it is recruiting and hiring the individuals fit for the job. The interviewer is responsible to ensure that the interviewee has command over the spoken and written language. There should be proper introduction program so that the policies of the company could be made clear to all the employees. Proper training sessions must be conducted for required employees. Use of simple and clear words must be emphasized, while, use of ambiguous and vague words and jargons should be avoided. Using body language while communicating with others can also help to make them better understand what a person is trying to convey. Answer 4 Next page. House # Street City/state/country May, 08, 2011, Mr. Thomas Lee, Human Resource Manger Company Name Address. Dear Mr. Lee With reference to your advertisement in The Times Magazine on May 4, 2011, I am writing to apply for the position of Assistant Manager. Currently I am an undergraduate student, doing Bachelors in Business Administration (Honors) with International Marketing as my Majors from ___________ University. I am due to graduate this year in June. As you can see from the enclosed CV, I have an extensive work experience related to the marketing jobs. Apart from the formal training I have obtained from the four year course and also the summer programs, I have had summer jobs and a number of part time jobs which have helped me gain practical experience and skills required for International Marketing. I have frequently participated in workshops, competitions and extra- curricular activities involving the subject and have attended many conferences related to the course, which has allowed me to build up an insight into the area. The professional coaching at the college requires adaptability and creative use of the scarce resources to create new products or improvise the existing ones in such a way that they not only appeal to the existing customers, but also to the consumers across the borders. Working as a student researcher has polished and further expanded my skills to work more effectively as an efficient Marketer, and the group projects have refined my ability to work in teams, which is a must in today’s corporate world. Therefore, I feel that I not only have the experiences you are looking for, but also the invaluable skills essential for the job which would benefit me in this position. I look forward to meet you and having an opportunity to further discuss my application. I am available for interview any time but would appreciate a prior notice. I can be contacted at ____________. Thank you for the consideration. I will be waiting for your reply. Yours sincerely, References: Cross cultural communication, 1998, Conflict research consortium, retrieved on May, 8, 2011, from, http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/xcolcomm.htm Fardell, S, 2011, ‘Office layout types’, ehow.com, retrieved on May, 8, 2011, from http://www.ehow.com/info_8053922_office-layout-types.html Hawryszkiewycz, I. 2000, ‘Supporting Integrated Learning Processes’, Southern Cross University, retrieved on May, 7, 2011, from http://ausweb.scu.edu.au/aw02/papers/refereed/hawryszkiewycz/paper.html Huczynski, A. and Buchanan, D. 2001, Organisational behaviour: an introductory text, 4th edition. Hemel Hempstead UK: Prentice Hall Europe. Lo, R, 2011, ‘How to change employees attitude,’ ehow.com, retrieved on May, 7, 2011, from http://www.ehow.com/how_5071143_change-employee-attitudes.html McShane, S, and Travaglione, T, 2003, Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim, McGraw Hill Australia. Sharrieff, M, 2011, ‘How do I change employee attitude,’ Small business, retrieved on May, 7, 2011, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/change-employee-attitudes-2029.html Read More