Reflection as a Core Process in Organisational Learning - Essay Example

The Reflective Manager Introduction As a future manager, I would like my organization to attain a high degree of effectiveness. If my organization will become that effective, then profits could be maximized with least cost. There are several ways and resources to do this. One of those things that could be used is reflection. Reflection in its barest sense means introspection. At the level of individuals and groups, this definition should be expanded. "Reflection is a mental activity aimed at investigating one's own action in a certain situation and involving a review of the experience, an analysis of causes and effects, and the drawing of conclusions concerning future action (Woerkom, 2003, p. 40 as cited in Hoyrup, 2004). " Hence, reflection in its broadest sense is active and not passive. Reflection is a conscious decision to be aware of everything that needs to be done in order to accomplish a long-term goal, even if the insight gained might not be favourable. Come to think of it, when someone or an organisation commits a mistake, should that person or institution just go on with their lives They should and ought to find out what went wrong. They must identify the causes which produced a negative outcome than what was originally planned. Hence, at this stage, reflection is a very important step for them to learn. Otherwise, they will commit the same or even worse mistake, resulting to possible losses of money or even life. In this paper, I shall try to present the broad use of reflection in organizations based on the finding of the research literature. It is my hope that managers will utilize reflection in their work place. Instruments for Reflection On my part, reflection should be included as standard operating procedure. In other words, after a certain period has elapsed, employees and managers should reflect on their progress as members of an organization and that they should evaluate the progress of the project they are engaged with. Essentially, it is better to use reflection when things are doing well, or at least nothing disastrous has happened, or is about to happen. This is like the mistake of many in praying for God's protection and delivery after everything went wrong, when people if they believe in a Divine Being, ought to pray beforehand. There are many instruments for reflection. Let us start with the personal learning journal. This could take the form of the traditional paper and pen. If an employee is web-savvy, he or she could use a personal blog for this. A personal learning journal is a diary, journal, or log where a person can write about his or her experiences doing an activity. This could also include learning about complex concepts, or simply by working. I found this useful since research shows that students using a personal learning journal develop reflective skills. These skills make them more likely to learn and appreciate a subject than their non-reflective counterparts. Lyons (1999, p. 33, as cited in Loo & Thorpe, 2002) opined: "[D]eveloping reflective skills made students more confident in their learning, fostered responsibility and accountability and assisted in integration of theory and practice." In making a personal learning journal, the following questions could be asked and used as starting points (Scanlon and Chernomas, 1997 as cited in Loo & Thorpe, 2002): (1) What was that event or concept that made me learn (2) What are the things I learned and in what way did I learn them (3) How do I feel about that which I learned If good, what are they If bad, what are they (4) Is there a way by which on the next try I could learn more effectively and efficiently (5) If so, what prevented me from learning effectively and efficiently in the first try On the level of the individual employee, such reflection will help him or her. But further step must be done. Once a group has agreed that its members will write a personal learning journal, the members of that group should schedule a special meeting where each could share the insights gained. Based on the learning from such meeting, the group could then review and revise its targets. It shall be able to identify as early as possible pitfalls on the present approach. To end this section, I thing proper application of the recommendations by Loo & Thorpe (2002) on the use of personal learning journals should really be emphasised. For managers: Provide participants with clear, specific journaling objectives. The questions above should serve as guide in making specific objectives. Facilitate journaling by periodically reminding participants to do their journaling and underscoring the benefits of journaling to them. At first, many might resist this idea. Managers should repeatedly emphasise the usefulness of writing such journals until it has become habitual Provide personalized and detailed feedback for each completed journal. As suggested earlier, regular meetings should be conducted to profit from each employee's insight. This could also provide needed feedback for one to further improve. Do a journal yourself before having others journal. In other words, practice first what you preach. This is also essential so that the manager will be able to guide those under him, rather than join the many in groping. For team members: Learning is an active, not a passive process. Participant as adults should have realized by this time that they should be responsible for what they learn. They should not just rely on the facilitator since passive learning will give little or no results. Journaling can be an important tool to help participants identify training and development needs and then focus on specific skills and knowledge that need to be developed for their future effectiveness. An old maxim says, "Man, know thyself." Sometimes, an employee might become more effective if proper skills training could be obtained. Such activity is a safe and less stressful way of learning one's deficiency rather than let it out in the field. Experiences in Reflection In real-life situations, I have noticed that few people have exercises such critical reflection. If they really do it as their mouth professes to, then workplace politics would be lessened. In addition, not everyone is really ambitious to rise in the corporate ladder. A great number would just do anything that their boss tells them, because they really think and feel that it is their job. After all, they think, it is best not to lose one's job by getting the ire of his or her boss. As a result of all of these, workers and organizations are not really functioning at their best. Add this to the fact that not all of them has heard about the value of reflection and if I may add critical thinking in the broad sense of the word reflection. Thus, as a result of the ideas in the research literature and what is actually happening, those entering a company should be trained to have reflective skills, and those existing employees and offices should periodically attend such training. Assessing Reflection Now that I have shown the importance of reflection, I shall now discuss my criteria of valuable reflection. Reflection should be the expression of critical thinking. Woerkom, M., Nijhof, W., & Nieuwenhuis, L. (2002) set forth the following operational definition of critical reflective behaviour, which I think is the good form of reflection: "Critical reflective working behaviour seems to be a construct consisting of six dimensions, namely reflection on oneself in relation to the job, critical vision sharing, challenging group-- think, asking for feedback, experimentation and awareness of employability." Therefore, if reflection will be critical, reflective activities must contain those six criteria. Come to think of it, those people who possess all of them are potential leaders. Hence, they are the once that should be nurtured to be their very best. In short, reflection is as good as the person, group, or organisation practicing it. It is not in itself good or bad. It is evaluated by how it was used and the results that ensued. If a project failed, then reflection failed a group. The group did not reflect on the possible consequences, and so it must reap the fruits of its disaster. On the other hand, some reflective people might succeed and they are reflective. By being reflective, a person, group, or organization is trying to increase the possibility of success. Conclusion In this paper, reflection has been shown to have a significant role in the success or failure of an individual, group, or organisation. It follows that proper reflection should be incorporated in the day-to-day activities of an organisation. Critical reflective skills should be fostered and encouraged in the workplace. Emphasising the long-term gains of the organisation by having critical thinkers at its disposal is paramount. Finally, continued research should be done so that the teaching and payout of reflective practices could be improved. I believe as time goes on, more and more organizations will include reflective practices. Future research will tell whether this will help them or not. Otherwise, useful alternatives could be proposed. References Hoyrup, S. (2004). Reflection as a core process in organisational learning. The Journal of Workplace Learning, 16 (8) pp. 442-454. Loo, R. & Thorpe, K. (2002).Using reflective learning journals to improve individual and team performance. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 8 (5/6) pp.134- 139. Lyons, J. (1999). Reflective education for professional practice: discovering knowledge from experience. Nurse Education Today, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 29-34. Scanlon, J.M. and Chemomas, W.M. (1997). Developing the reflective teacher. Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 1138-43. Woerkom, M. (2003), "Critical reflection at work. Bridging individual and organisational learning", PhD thesis, Twente University, Enschede/Print Partners, Ppskamp. Woerkom, M., Nijhof, W., & Nieuwenhuis, L. (2002) Critical reflective behaviour: a survey research, Journal of European Industrial Training, 26 (8) pp. 375-383. Read More