Workplace Experience at Vital Supermarket as an Accountant - Essay Example

? Reflective Learning Report Workplace experience at Vital Supermarket as an accountant Working as the senior accountant of Vital Supermarket was a learning experience for me. Though I experienced a lot of different challenges, I ended up learning a lot from them. Since Vital Supermarket is a large retail store which serves a multitude of customers, the accounts involve large figures too. Therefore, a lot of keenness and accuracy was required to ensure that mistakes were limited. As the senior accountant, I ensured that all the accounting statements were well drawn and in accordance with the figures from the sales and purchases department. I also ensured that I led the accounting department as a team. Team work certainly helped us since; we could generate ideas more quickly and also come up with solutions to various problems faced in the course of work. This had a lot of impact on the people I was working with since; they also learnt to be hard working and relate well with their colleagues. The impact on the outcome of work was also positive since, through my department, the organization made investments that were successful and profitable. The learning model that was hugely beneficial in my work is the experimental psychology model (Knowles, 2012, 9). I had drawn down the model and purposed to follow it step by step in order to achieve my desired objectives. I was self-motivated and was also motivated by the goals and objectives that I had set for myself and the company. My fellow colleagues also motivated me to work harder in order to achieve the set goals. My perception also profoundly affected my way of work since; at times I perceived things different from the rest of the employees and thus ended up making mistakes. I also purposed to acquire all the necessary skills for my work in order to achieve my set goals. I then assessed my performance through analyzing the improvements of the company. This way, I would know that I had made an impact on the workplace and other people too. Substantive Topic Applied: Team Work Team and group work immensely assisted in the success of work at Vital Company. This is because; with the accounts of the company being so vast, we had to divide ourselves into different groups in order to meet the time limit of preparing the financial statements. Members decided to form groups consisting of ten members each in order to accommodate all the members. Each group had a leader to coordinate it and a secretary to take notes. Each group would then set its own goals which it wanted to achieve at the end of the financial period. However, all groups agreed to be meeting at the same time in order to ensure that each group met. After a certain period, each group analyzed its performance and development through analyzing its forming, storming, norming and performing areas (Belbin, 2012, 65). Team work also assisted in the success of the company since; there was a better decision making, and coverage of large quantity of work within a short period (Maddux & Wingfield, 2003, 11). Cooperation among the group members also promoted colleague relations thus, leading to high quality work. My punctuality and social skills also increased and I learnt how to present ideas to a multitude of people. I also learnt on how to handle disagreements among a large group of people. There was also effective problem solving in the groups. Team work also made the performance feedback more meaningful because; everyone understood what was expected and could monitor the performance against the expectations. In addition, group discussions encouraged members to test their abilities and try out new ideas. This stimulated individuals to become stronger performers. In the future, one thing that I would change is the way of handling conflicts in the groups; I would ensure that conflict resolution is done by the members themselves and not by the leaders or some of the members (Cohen & Bailey, 1997, 249). I would also ensure that there is the sense of commitment in groups such that; there will be extremely limited absenteeism during the group meetings. In future, I will also ensure that I do not set over ambitious goals for myself so as to avoid disappointments and discouragements. I would also prefer the groups to have common goals and objectives in order to ensure that there are limited conflicts. In addition, common goals would also give the group members sense of direction since all groups are working on the same thing. I will also ensure that the team members are motivated to achieve the set goals. Workplace experience at Cadbury Chocolates Company as the manager As the manager of Cadbury Chocolates, I was dealing with many people of different characters. The company was large with many levels of operation such as the production department, the sales department and the accounts department. Therefore, as the manager, I had to coordinate all of these departments and ensure that they were all working and in operation. In addition, I also had to coordinate the rest of staffs such as the security people, the catering staff and the cleaning staff. With all these demanding responsibilities, I had to be disciplined in my work in order to ensure that all employees are well coordinated and directed. I had to be punctual at work so as to ensure I set a good example to the rest of employees. Therefore, there were remarkably few late comers, and also, absenteeism was much reduced. I had to know how to address the employees and hence, I had to sharpen my communication skills. This helped me to phrase my words before communicating them to the employees. I needed to have influence in directing and coordinating goals. I also needed to have influence in achieving the outcomes. In order to get things done the way I wanted without forcing or harassing the employees, I also had to be assertive and friendly (Knippenberg & Hogg, 2004, 48). The experiential theory played a crucial role in helping me achieve my goals as a leader. I applied the experimental psychology model in order to create a flow in the process of achieving my objectives. I learnt to acquire the right resources, to organize the employees and be motivated by the goals. I examined and assessed my performance and noted the areas that required polishing. This way, I was able to deal with failures in the right manner without getting discouraged or losing hope. I also learnt that my attitude was of key importance to the success of the company; Therefore, I had to have the right attitude in order to achieve set goals. As a leader, I also ensured that my learning process was not affected by personal emotions or external emotions. I learnt to control my emotions even when dealing with employees or clients of the company (Knowles, 2012, 9). Substantive Topic Applied: Leadership As the manager of Cadbury Chocolates, I was actually a leader in the company. Therefore, I had to learn to be independent, and be involved in both management and leadership. As a manager, I had to plan, organize, direct and control. On the other hand, as a leader in the company, I had to be engaged with activities such as establishing direction for the other employees, formulating a vision and getting the other employees to follow it, and motivating and inspiring the rest of the employees. As a leader, I applied the leadership approach given by House’s Path-Goal Theory. This theory states that a leader should be directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented. Therefore, I had to embrace strategies that would help me to be directive, and goal oriented. I also ensured that I supported the employees I led without condemning their failures. In addition, I ensured that I participated in all the activities of the departments. This would help me to oversee the activities of each department and ensure that they all ran smoothly (Whitney, 2007, 16). In future, I would ensure that as a leader, I develop my coordination and motivation skills. I would also ensure that I handle conflicts in the organization in a better way than I used to do previously. I will also ensure that I apply the 4P strategies of leadership which include; push, pull, persuasion, preventive and preparatory. For the push strategy, I will ensure that I do not give up easily when faced with challenges. I will also ensure that I persist even when I obtain negative results in my struggle. Under the pull strategy, I would ensure that I pull all the available resources in order to achieve the set goals. For the persuasion strategy, I would persuade the employees to work harder in order to obtain better results. On the other hand, the preventive strategy will help me to prevent poor decision making in the company. In future, I will also use the preparatory strategy to ensure planning in advance and ensure that the company is not caught off-guard by risks (Lucia & Achua, 2009, 5). References Belbin, R. M. 2012, Management teams, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann Cohen, S. G., & Bailey, D. E. 1997, What Makes Teams Work, Group Effectiveness Research from the shop floor of the executive suite, Journal of Management, 23(3), 239-290 Knippenberg, D., & Hogg, M. A. 2004, Leadership and power: Identity processes in groups and organizations, London, SAGE Knowles, D. 2012, Learning, Management and Organizations, 1(1), 1-25 Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. 2012, Leadership: Theory, application & skill development. Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning Maddux, R. B., & Crisp Publications, Inc. 2003, Team building. Los Altos, CA, Crisp Publications Whitney, C. M. 2007, The Application of Path Goal Theory of Leadership to Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance: An Investigation Within Small Public Corporations, NY, ProQuest . Read More