Learning through Knowledge Management - Essay Example

Personal and Professional Development Assignment I. Executive Summary II. Background III. SWOT Analysis IV. Learning Experience IV.i. NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) Theory IV.ii. Communication Skills-Social Learning Theory IV.iii. Team Learning V. Factors Influencing the Learning Exercise VI. Action Plan VII. Change in Perceptions and Actions VIII. Summary IX. Reference I. Executive Summary Today’s business world is very competitive. The competition is increasing day by day. This increases demand of the competitive individuals. Institutes help individuals to develop and serve this competitive market place. My institution has also provided me such kind of platform to develop myself. My initial days in the institution have been very important for me. It has changed the way I perceived myself and my abilities. This paper discusses the same process with the help of NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) learning model. II. Background I had been very good students and rather had not tasted failure in my previous institutes. I was liked by everyone. I was known for my achievements as a best student, good athlete, interpersonal skills and confidence. The competition or environment you have in graduate schools is different from the business school. That too I was coming from interior part of the country not from the fast life of metropolitan cities. This has filled the initial fear within me. The kind of feeling I had here initially was mixture of inferiority and superiority. My initial few days here spent on the fight I had with myself. There was enormous pressure of assignments, performance, competition at each level of my personality from the looks, clothing to the performance in the class. Today I feel confident because I overcame all these with regular self analysis and self improvement goals. No doubt my friends, teachers, room mate and class mates have helped me to develop in many ways. The team which was formed for the first presentation have given a platform to learn to achieve a goal with group efforts. III. SWOT Analysis I did my SWOT1 analysis after my first presentation which is something like this Strength Hard Working Positive Attitude Intelligence Fast Learner Active Listener Weakness Stage Fear Communication Skills in front of large audience Inferiority Complex Opportunity Time and platform to improve Better career opportunity if communication skill is good Demand of marketing professionals in the market. Threats Various marketing students from various institutes. Without good communication skills it is impossible to survive in the job market. Figure 3.1 My SWOT analysis IV. Learning Experience I had been a good student in all my schooling and graduation level. I had scored always well. The perception which I had developed during all my educational life before this college was about being a special, very smart and good person. I have good interpersonal skills and I am always liked by the friends, colleagues and teachers. I learned a lot during my last semester. When I put this learning process in the Model of The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R)2 it gave me a great idea about myself. The NEO PI R is a tool which provides a general description about personality change in the institutional or education situations. Figure 4.1 NEO PI R IV.i.a. Neuroticism Factors: Anxiety, Hostility, Depression, Self-Consciousness, Impulsiveness, Vulnerability3 This is a condition felt by a person in a competitive situation like. Now here till my first presentation I might have been lying to myself about the drawbacks I had. May be I was not able to accept the kind of situation I was in and the kind of achievements I was looking at. My perception about myself was much higher than what I actually was. Our first presentation which was a group effort was the first public failure for me. None of the group had performed well. May be all of them were facing the same problems. Everyone has worked hard to analyse the case and present it well. This lead to depression and I had become very sensitive to small things or issues. IV.i.b. Extraversion Factors: Warmth, Gregariousness, Assertiveness, Activity, Excitement-Seeking, Positive Emotions4 During this period when I was feeling stress, there were few things very good in me. I was very comfortable with those in the class whom I considered either close to my situation or lower than it. I used to talk to them and try to find out whether or not they feel the same thing. If anyone shared his/her feelings with me I used to console the person and this way the positive side of things used to come out. This was the positive part of my personality. I tried to make people feel comfortable around me. There was various ways for that. Listening to them, offering candies, sharing jokes or participating in discussion about companies and case studies. IV.i.c. Openness to Experience Factors: Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas, Values5 As I mentioned I used to speak with other classmates whom I perceived to be in the similar situations. This was the one part of support I was getting. The other was the way I used to look at my team mates and those whom I considered to be better than me. I did a SWOT analysis for myself. Being honest to myself and started appreciating people openly for the things they were good at. People around me were full of talents apart from the studies. The feeling I always get” why I don’t know this”. I welcomed their ideas. I shared feelings with them about the problems I faced and they tried to help me with their suggestions and ideas. IV.i.d. Agreeableness Factors: Trust, Modesty, Compliance, Altruism, Straightforwardness, Tender-Mindedness6 I was straightforward to my group about my opinions. I was always hard working. This was one of the reasons why others wanted me to be in their groups’. It was a fact that my communication skills were not good. They knew that I would analyse any case with full confidence and details. IV.i.e. Conscientiousness Factors: Competence, Self-Discipline, Achievement-Striving, Dutifulness, Order, Deliberation7 I knew my weaknesses and had a bunch of helping people as well. I wanted to change myself. I asked my friends, seniors and faculty. It was family values and discipline which I was following here as well. I was regular in my work and believed in time management. Always read the lesson well in advance. Always I had a very positive attitude towards life. Even in the adverse situation, I thought of brighter sides which helped me to overcome my problems. IV.ii. Learning Experience - Communication Skills I would like to explain my learning experience in communication skill by Social Learning Theory. Individuals can also learn by observing what happens to other people and just being told about something, as well as by direct experiences. So, for example, much of what we have learned comes from watching models- parents, teachers, peers, motion pictures and television performers, bosses and so forth.8 The major problem I was facing was Stage Fear. My communication during stage presentations was pathetic. I had to work on that. I am a student of Marketing Management. Excellent communication skills are one of the basic requirements of this field. I talked to some of my friends, faculties and classmates. I started observing my batch mates and faculties whose presentation skills were good and impressive. In my room I started practising as if I am presenting in front of large audience. I took help of m classmates and requested them to be my audience and listen to me ask as many questions as they can and give honest feedback. All these things helped me a lot. I got rid of my fear. IV.iii. Learning Experience - Team Learning9 Team learning is something which was not a noticeable need. Since I was good at interpersonal skill, I took it for granted that I would be good at team. There were few things different in the team from my previous institutes. These are as follows: Perception of each member about themselves Competitiveness Deep desire to prove themselves First opportunity to make a distinct identity in the class Everyone seeking a special and more important place in the group. Different Personality Types Phase 1: The initial time was spent in understanding each other and creating good image. We divided the responsibility of assignment like who will prepare the PowerPoint presentation, collect information from library or electronic search. Phase 2: We experienced conflicts and difference of opinion during discussion, compilation of data and presentation structure. Our discussion got hot sometimes; we argued and prepared the final structure of presentation. The Group Assignment we had got was developing an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan and presents it to the class brand SIGNAL TOOTHPASTE. Each of us studied the case separately and gave our point of views initially. We discussed various options and counter to those options. It was an exercise where we adopted brainstorming exercise and came out with a proper branding exercise. This was a great experience for us. Phase 3: It was the time when we were presenting in the class. Apart from one member none of us was able to face stage properly. We tried comforting each other. Some of us gave proper feedback to other including myself. We did not have much time for anything else because we have second presentation and few other assignments. Phase 4: We felt a bonding with each other. The member who was able to present well really tried to help others to improve presentation skills by giving tips and strategy adopted. We worked hard and more important we work together. The problem some of us faced was communication problems. After the presentation we realised that and helped each other in overcoming that. Team learning is important because teams, not individuals, are becoming the fundamental unit in modern organizations. When teams really learn, they produce extraordinary results and the members of the team grow more rapidly than otherwise.10 Learning Outcomes: Shared understanding of mission and goals of the team Commitment to the goals Division of roles and responsibilities Time management Information seeking and providing Decision making Evaluating the group performance Motivating, sharing feelings of each other Setting group norms e.g. same case was given to two groups. It was important for us to analyse the case better than the other group. So we set the norm that we will not share anything regarding the case outside the group. V. Factors Influencing The Learning Exercise My first semester was a great learning exercise for myself. I learned to be a good listener. I was listening to others to make myself feel comfortable with their problems. I used to give them suggestions for their problems and in that way I used to find my solutions as well. It gave me an opportunity to reduce the impact of the problem I was facing in my personality. The factors which have influenced my learning exercise are: A. Personal These are my perception, behaviour, values, interpersonal skills, friendly nature and positive attitude. B. Environmental These were various factors in the environment influencing my behaviour. 1. Support and criticism by teachers and faculty 2. Support and criticism by friends and classmates 3. Pressure of performing well 4. Competition in the class 5. My financial condition as compare to others. 6. Learning environment. VI. Action Plan I am good at presentation skills now. I am good at time management, computer skills and love the pressure of work and deadlines. The areas where I feel I need further improvements are communication and updated knowledge of FMCG Industry where I want to start my career. The goal I have is to prepare myself as an updated individual with excellent communication, computers and interpersonal skills for the job market. Time Till July 2006 After July 2006 Learning Goals Improve Communication Skills Try to communicate with different audience group Prepare myself for the new environment of job market. I would keep myself flexible and open to learn new environment of job place. Overall Presentation from clothing to communication Keep myself well informed about the products, competitors, market and various current issues. Keep Updated about the market Try to learn the organisation behaviour and contribute to the organisation’s goals and objective. Action Keep on doing stage presentations more. Participate in various extracurricular activities Constant learning through the material available in the organisation like product brochures, talking to colleagues and seniors. Take help of soft skill development faculty Be active learner in the induction program and training sessions provided by the organisation Read newspaper and business magazines attentively Utilise the sources provided by the organisation to keep myself updated for my profile. VII. Change in Perceptions and Actions The changes in perception occurred in many ways. I was failed to perform well in the first presentation. I had to think again about myself. My perception about myself failed. Initially I was not able to take it that I was a failure but soon I thought I can not remain a failure and changed my perception from being an extraordinary student to a mediocre student. I established benchmarks for myself. All my actions even entertainment was to overcome my stage fear. I kept myself updated with the latest business news and other information. This created an important position in the class. I scored well in the written examinations and my assignments. I did not let myself to avoid stage or situations which made me feel awkward. I faced them. I told my batch mates to help me and they did help me. My actions were targeted to improve my presentation skills. I worked really hard for that. VIII. Summary It has been a great experience in the institute like this. I have overcome my problem of communication skills. The team work has given an opportunity to work towards a common goal with joint efforts. IX. Reference Ahmed Pervaiz K, Lim Kwang Kok and Ann Y E Loh: 2002, ‘Learning Through Knowledge Management’, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Costa Paul T.: 1996, NEO Personality Inventory-Revised retrieved 14 Jan 2006 from http://www.sigmaassessmentsystems.com/assessments/neopir.asp Kotler, P., Marketing Management, Prentice-Hall Inc. New Jersey, 10th Edition, 2000 Robbins, Stephen P.: 1996 Organizational Behavior, 7th Ed., New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. The 16 Personality Types retrieved on 14 Jan 2006 from http://www.wncc.edu/studentservices/counseling/styles_types/2_16_personality_types.html http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/2004/tm/NASA-2004-tm213237.pdf accessed on 14 Jan 2006 http://www.psychologie.hu-berlin.de/per/pdf/germantypes.pdf accessed on 14 Jan 2006. http://www.uclan.ac.uk/learning/files/cif2004qualterFlyingStartReport1.doc accessed on 14 Jan 2006 Goals for Learning Teams retrieved on 14 Jan 2006 from http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/~philocon/tobs.htm accessed on 14 Jan 2006 Read More