The Reflective Manager - Personal Statement Example

? The Reflective Manager By of 2458 Words Introduction A general overview of the of effectiveleaders or managers reveals that their traits encompass a wide range of fields or professions. Generally, among the qualities of good leaders include the ability to communicate and share vision, confidence, exhibition of a can-do attitude and the ability to facilitate and compromise. Others are flexibility, adaptive, attentive, good listener, good motivational, and support and encouragement skills. In addition, a good leader shares achievements, sets clear objectives and goals and trusts his/her subordinates. From these leadership traits, it is apparent that one leads or manages by interactions, relationships, treatment of others, resolution of conflicts, and the provision of feedbacks and their experiences (Keeling & Somerville, 2004). Despite the fact that management and leadership effectiveness is defined and evaluated on the basis of quantitative results, it is a manager’s ability to reflect and maximize relationships with organisations and workers that makes objectives and goals achievable (Keeling & Somerville, 2004). That is, it is the skills a manger has in connecting with, mentoring and guiding others that results in organisational and individual professional and personal growth. Therefore, an organisation’s accomplishments are a reflection of its healthy internal and external relationships. Effective management and leadership thus thrive in the context of relationships, and quality relationships that are crucial for outcomes. In any organisational setting, managements and leaders should hope and strive that their operations and policies be based on relationships that are charactrised by virtues such as trust, support and growth with employees and clients (York-Barr et al., 2005). In fact, these relationships should be the basis of all the operations and policies of an organisation. The three major pillars of reflective leadership that would result in a relationship-based organisation are careful observation, self-awareness and flexible response. The principle of self-awareness implies leaders’ capacity and ability to understand their strengths and weaknesses, thereby committing to examine their own reactions, feelings and thoughts about duties and responsibilities (York-Barr et al., 2005). On the other hand, careful observation covers the skillfulness of leaders at creating meanings out of their experiences by seeing and hearing. Finally, flexible response is the requirement that leaders know their subordinates, their lifestyles, best working conditions and motivators. The principle of reflective leadership therefore requires that leaders/managers approach each employee in a manner that appeals to his/her strengths, weaknesses, needs and developmental stage and needs (York-Barr et al., 2005). Although quite basic, flexible responses are perhaps the most difficult way express mutual respect in workplace, more so between managers and their subordinates. Reflective Leadership and Personal Growth Reflective leadership has not only been found to result in organisational growth and development but also translates into personal growth of managers and subordinates. Reflective leadership and leadership knowledge can therefore be effectively applied to improve one’s work performance on leadership (Downey et al., 2009). Although it might take a lot of time, weeks or even months for a reflective manager to enter the minds of his/her employees in motivating them to share his/her vision, practicing one’s reflective skills, reflecting and learning could be helpful in making a manger skilled in inculcating a culture of rapid change in an organisation (Downey et al., 2009). A quick succession of rapid culture change however occurs only in organisations in which series of small changes consistent with organisational and business priorities are implemented. There are certain circumstances or times during which it is best to be reflective including after a management task, while walking around. Importantly, reflecting on a management task, action or decision should be done on the same day the task has been performed (Downey et al., 2009). The reflection may be about the goal that was set out to be achieved and how the same goal was achieved. The plan by which the goals were achieved should also be compared with the theories on reflective leadership and the necessary changes or improvements executed. Although many managers and leaders ignore them, theories are tools of great importance as far as management and leadership is concerned. These theories should be put to practice by setting some time away from the work to think about what has been achieved at the floor, taking into account what went well and wrong. In addition, a manager should take this time to overview own perceptions and reactions and those of other employees. There are certain vital points that a manager or leader should note while walking around the work floor reflecting on his activities of the day. These points include the fact that such reflective walks as important floodgates for all the pent up issues encountered at the floor such as employee complaints and frustrations (Downey et al., 2009). Reflective Practice in Organisational Management Successful business and non-business organisations have certain characteristics upon which their performance is based. One among these characteristics is the approach with which their managements handle their operations, employees and other organisational or personal issues. On the other hand, certain organisations are quite unprofessional and unfocused in their manner of management and resolution issues. One effective approach to management that characterizes successful organisations is reflective management or the incorporation of reflective practices in the operations, strategies and policies of an organisation (Fien & Rawling, 1996). In other words, reflective managers are often better placed to foresee and tackle any emerging organisational issues more amicably than the non-reflective types. Reflective practice is thus a strength that an organisation should embrace in its entirety. In simple terms, reflective practice refers to the ability and capacity of an organisation’s employees and management to reflect on their actions with the aim of learning more from their actions and those of others (Fien & Rawling, 1996). In fact, this continuous organisation learning has been described by many scholars as the hallmark of professional practice in management. Core to reflective management and practice is the ability to focus on the practical implications and values on which one’s routine actions are based (Fien & Rawling, 1996). Furthermore, it is important to pay similar attention to the theories that one’s actions rely on or borrow from. That is, a manger needs to reflexively and reflectively examine his/her actions to acquire developmental insight. The main advantage of reflective practice and management is that an individual learns from own experiences. This situation is quite unlike the other approaches to management in which people only learn and develop professionally from knowledge transfer or formal teaching in educational institutions. Because it applies to almost all professions, and due to its professional development and improvement effects, reflective practice has been widely received in a number of professions namely education, healthcare and business/project management among others. The reason being, the main concept presented by reflective practice, which is learning from experience, applies and is relevant to any organisation that promotes organisational learning and professional development. Theories and Concepts Underlying Reflective Practice Despite the fact that the idea of reflective management and practice came into prominence with the works of authors such as Donald Schon in early 1980s, the underlying theories and concepts of reflection in management are much older. The early scholars and professionals to delve deep into the subject of reflective practice particularly explored the interconnectivity among reflection, interaction and experiences (Schon, 1983). In addition, other prominent scholars who contributed to reflective practice such as Carl Jung and Jean Piaget were simply studying human development and learning in general. Despite the different areas of specialization by these early scholars and professionals, the core element of reflective practice for all these scholars was the need to integrate the established theories and the actual practice of reflection in learning and managing people and organisations. Also important in the early development of the theories of reflective practice was the cyclic patterns of experience and the conscious application of these learning experiences (Schon, 1983). On a rather positive note for managers and like-minded organisations, more literary works on reflective practice, experiential learning, development and the applicability of reflection in management have been forthcoming in recent times. In the years following the 1980s, a lot of new concepts were introduced in reflective practice. These concepts include ‘reflection on action’ and ‘reflection in-action’, which emphasize the need of professionals, particularly managers to tackle professional challenges through creativity and improvisation acquired from practice and experience. Consequently, reflective practice has realized increased application not only in organisations but also by individuals and networks for developmental practices. The increased applicability of reflective practice in the wide contexts above stems from the fact that it is a human activity that allows one to recapture his/her experience, mull over it and evaluate it (Schon, 1983). In fact, reflective practice has not only been embraced in business environment but also in teaching and learning scenarios. Moreover, the recent advance in communication technology has seen the concept of reflective practice spread even into online social sites through blogging. There are thus numerous avenues through which the emerging models of reflective practice may be put into practice by organisations and individuals alike. Models of Reflective Practice Reflective practice theories and models, although quite many, are based on the ideology of life-long learning in which people assess, analyse and learn from their experiences thus encouraging independence in professionals. This independence is vital in enabling professionals to continuously and actively engage in situational reflection in their professions. To draw lessons and knowledge from work and life-long experiences, a number of models/theories have been established over the years. The Single and Double Loop Learning Model The single and double loop model of reflective practice, built around the need to recognise and amend an alleged mistake/fault, was pioneered by Donald Schon and Chris Argyris in 1978. Single loop learning refers to situations in which an organisation or its employees insist on using the immediate strategies or policies even when such strategies have been shown to be prone to errors (Schon, 1983). Interestingly, the insistence on the immediate strategies, policies and techniques occurs even after the necessary corrections have been implemented and a similar scenario presents itself. On the other hand, the double loop learning entails the changing of one’s objectives, policies and strategies to achieve the effective application of a new intervention in case similar situations or problems present themselves. In later years, Schon would introduce the concepts of ‘Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action’. While reflection in-action refers to the capacity to think and act on one’s feet, reflection on-action refers to the ability to analyse the kind of actions with which an individual reacted to a situation be they physical activities, feelings/emotions or experiences. (Schon, 1983). These reactions are analysed by exploring the reasoning behind them and their consequences The other prominent theory of reflective practice was developed by Kolb, after being influenced by the 1970’s researches of Dewey and Piaget. Kolb’s model of reflective practice emphasizes experimental learning and the changing of information into knowledge. According to Kolb, this transformation always occurs immediately a situation presents itself and a practitioner is forced to reflect on current and past experiences (Freshwater et al., 2005). This reflection particularly helps in the understanding of any concepts that may have been encountered in the past and ideas about the immediate situation. In this manner therefore, it is possible to apply and reapply knowledge gained from one situation, borrowing from one’s experiences and expanded knowledge base (Freshwater et al., 2005). Improving on Kolb’s theory of reflective practice, Graham Gibbs included the concept of structured debriefing in the facilitation of reflective practices such as experiential learning cycle. According to Gibbs, the structured debriefing entails the stages of description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusions, and action plan. The first stage, which is the description analyses what happened and discourages one from making judgments or conclusions yet. Second, the stage of feelings requires one to analyse his/her reactions followed by the third stage of the evaluation of what was good or bad about one’s experiences and making of value judgments. The analysis stage requires a professional or practitioner to make sense out of a given situation and to incorporate outside ideas and experiences to assist in tackling the immediate situation. The conclusion stage requires a practitioner to make a general sense from the experiences and analyses done. In a more specific sense, the conclusion stage may entail a practitioner identifying his/her unique, specific and personal way of addressing work situations. The final stage, the personal action plan, involves a practitioner outlining what he/she would have done differently from others in the immediate situation should it occur another time. Application of Reflective Practice The number of models and theories of reflective practice makes it an unstructured management and leadership approach that promotes understanding and learning in various disciplines and professions. The professions in which reflective practice has been expansively used include health, education, business, government agencies and industrial organisations. In all these professions among others, reflective practice enables professionals to communicate and make balanced and evidence-based decisions relating to the provision of goods and services to their clients (Hartman, 2001). In educational settings, reflective practices equip educators with the skills to study and analyse their own methods of teaching, in the process determining what best serve the interest of the students (Hartman, 2001). Since teaching is such a wide and complex discipline, there is not single approach to meeting the needs of the diverse students, prompting teachers to consider different approaches and versions of handling students, borrowing from their current and past experiences. Importantly, reflective practices also help teachers and other education professionals to consider the ethical issues surrounding their profession and the consequence of breaching the relevant ethical standards (Larrivee, 2000). The health industry and the organisations therein are the other professions in which reflective practices are quite essential. In fact, doctors, nurses, physicians and other health professionals have most of their work associated with experience. An important strategy for health professionals is thus to embrace the practice and strategy of lifelong learning. In addition, the recent increase in demand for healthcare expertise has left health workers with no option but to ensure they learn from their current and past practices. Importantly, with the ever-increasing complex health environment, health workers could really benefit from reflective practice programs. Conclusion Reflective practice is one of the management and leadership approach currently used in a number of organisations to improve work performance. Reflective practice refers to management that emphasizes careful observation, self-awareness and flexible response. Education, health, industries and government agencies are among the sectors in which reflective practice has been extensively applied. To effectively implement reflective practices, it is necessary that a manager gets conversant with the various models and theories of reflective practice and management. Among these models are the Kolb’s model and the single and double loop learning model of Donald Schon and Chris Argyris , References Downey, C. J., Steffy, B. E., Poston, W. K., and English, W. F. (2009) Advancing the three-minute walk-through: mastering reflective practice. Corwin Press. Fien, J., and Rawling, R. (1996) Reflective Practice: A Case Study of Professional Development for Environmental Education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 27(3), 11. Freshwater, D., Horton-Deutsch, S., Sherwood, G., and Taylor, B. (2005) Resource paper: the scholarship of reflective practice. The Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Hartman, H. J. (2001) Teaching meta-cognitively: in meta-cognition in learning and instruction. Dordrecht: Springer. Keeling, J., and Somerville, D. (2004) A Practical Approach to Promote Reflective Practice within Nursing. Nursing Times, 100(12), 42. Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming Teaching Practice: Becoming the Critically Reflective Teacher. Reflective Practice 1 (3): 293. Schon, D. (1983) The reflective practitioner, how professionals think in action. Basic Books. York-Barr, J., Sommers, W. A., Ghere, G. S., and Montie, J. K. (2005) Reflective practice to improve schools: an action guide for educators, second edition. Corwin Press. Read More