Application Form: Experiences during the Study of Introduction to Management - Assignment Example

Application Form (A separate word template is posted on the Moodle site) I.D This form contains two sections. Please answer all questions in both sections. Section 1 Personal Competencies Please use this section to outline particular experiences or activities during your study of Introduction to Management that you feel show your aptitude and strengths in being considered for an internship. The information you provide will be the basis for short listing. 1) Provide an example of where you overcame a problem. Given the chance, what would you do differently? (300 words) Answer: Arranging time for meetings with my project mates. For any group arranging time when to have meetings can be challenging. This was the case with my group discussion meeting. We were all undertaking management as a common course and the problem on when to meet and where to meet came up. As a group leader I had to deal with the problem so that we do not compromise on our project quality and time. Since we had tight schedule on our school program, the class and tutorial lectures took so much of our day in school and during the weekend we had difficulties meeting since we all came from different towns each one of us wanted the meeting to be held in their town. Being the group leader, I decided that the best venue was to have the meetings in school. The school timetable gives us a lunch break of one and half hours we would take our lunch within one hour and spare thirty minutes each day. During this time, we meet briefly and discuss on the progress of our project. Due to the short sessions of the meetings I decided that we set goals for what to achieve for each session that we meet. I made a suggestion that we take ten minutes giving our views while the rest we used for discussion and evaluating the different ideas. This would ensure that each one of us enjoys the meetings and contributed to success of our project. I convinced all members to take different tasks of the project and during the meetings; we only presented our work for discussion, comments and improvement by the members. By doing this, I ensured that each member of the group was satisfied while meeting the deadlines and requirements of the project. Given a chance I would recommend to the school management to set aside one to two hours in a particular day for students to carry out group discussions as this helps to promote responsibility, hardwork and project accomplishment. 2) Tell us about a time when you were part of a team and there was a difference of opinion. What happened and what did you do? What was the outcome? (300 words) Answer: It was during a school project that we were to work on a project with a team of five members and we were given four weeks allowance to come up with a plan on how to go about the project. The difference arose when it came to deciding how we go about the project and how much time we would take on researching. Some were for the idea that we spend one week while others wanted the research to take two weeks then we hold discussions and come up with conclusion. The difference in time taken for research would affect us since it affects the overall time for completing the project which was strictly four weeks. Being the group leader I was faced with the challenge of having all the members agree on time factor from the two groups, I therefore decided that hold a meeting with all members and make all understand the importance that the project had on our studies. We discussed that for each one of us needs to take a participatory role and we should all take one week and do thorough readings and research on the project title. We delegated tasks to each member of the group and gave ourselves a deadline. We also ensured we met regularly and discussed the progress made by each members of the group. After one week, we all met with all the materials we had gathered and went through them in a one week discussion. We then compiled all the materials that each one of us came up with after a careful analysis. The outcome of the decision was that we were able to write our project within the given period. Due to the consultations, delegation of duties, motivation and recognition of each member’s contribution through discussions, we all understood the points of the project and we ended up emerging with the best project and scored a distinction. This was very encouraging to us and we appreciated the need to solve any differences that occur in working as a team and learned how to consult and respect each other’s opinion. 3) Imagine that you had agreed to an international assignment of longer than six months. What would you see as your greatest strength in achieving success in that context? (300 words) Answer: My greatest strength is adaptability and flexibility to new challenges in international assignments. International assignments come with exposure to new culture, language and news ways of carrying out assignments. Through skills and capabilities acquired from job training success in the assignment will be the ultimate goal. The ability to recognize that in new environment, new ideas and approaches are needed will help me achieve the goals of this assignment. Effective approach to understanding cultural adjustment because international assignment poses challenges in areas of language and cultural environment such as dressing, food and customs. Different countries use different languages and therefore since am multilingual this will help me adapt easily to the new environment since language is the most important form of communication. Without communication working becomes very difficult or impossible. Being flexible in my duties and times because some countries would be different from my country in time region. Flexibility will also ensure that I do not suffer culture shock which can be a setback in achieving the goals of my assignment. It will also ensure that new duties and responsibilities are easy to handle. Adaptability will ensure that frustration does not affect performance of the assignment this frustration can be due to new ways of carrying out tasks or new responsibilities. It also helps to let go assumption with ease as well as make one open to innovations. The optimistic attitude to achieving the best result will help ease anxiety and fear in carrying out the assignment. Working and living in new environment is challenging and therefore my individual ability to adapt quickly and easily will be a great asset. There is also need to undertake some training to improve on what I already have in order be well aware of the specific environment for instance on a country legislation on labour and working conditions. Training in international business has also acquainted me with diverse knowledge to manage performance and training management in the context of foreign nation. Section 2 General questions In this section please tell us about the guiding principles behind your ambitions and career development plans. 4) If you could have any person (alive or dead) to be your management consultant who would you choose and why? What was most significant about their contribution to your understanding of management? (300 words) Answer: Peter Drucker- a professor of management who died in 2005. His works have exemplary helped me in understand management as a social function shaped by human beings. He advocated for federalism as well (Rudani, 71). He is regarded as the founder of management. He has written books, articles, journals etc which have lessons on how to bring out the best from people in an organization as well as how society in modern times are organized around institutions. He taught that management is a liberal art and that used interdisciplinary lessons to give management advice (Rudani, 70). He gave advice to many companies such as General Motors, IBM and Sears on how to promote investments and avoid bureaucratic structure (Raju & Parthasarathy, 25). He made major contributions in setting management as a discipline and as a profession too. In words of some scholars such as Tom Peters’ no true management discipline existed before Peter Druckers. He developed the 5 basic principles that are used today in management. He put these basics as setting objectives, establishing performance measurement, motivating and communication, development of people as well as organizing of resources (Greenwood, 226). His contribution has enabled businesses to appreciate entrepreneurial activities as well as promoted new paradigms in management but challenging ethics in business and authority. Through his works we appreciate that entrepreneurship and management go hand in hand (Rudani, 70). He wrote that business is about behaviour powered by humans. His thoughts were meaningful in creation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and training of leaders on management theories as well as practises. He main works on management has helped in understanding that it cannot function or exist on itself and other institution help in its existence. He suggests that it should not be bureaucratic and sees that changes should be taken as challenges for bettering society. 5) What do you consider your most important development need and why? How will you go about achieving improvement? Outline an action plan. (300 words) Answer: Training in management skills on project and report writing as this will help improve on my professional work. Being in management I need to have these skills as they are essential in everyday life of a management consultant. Writing project for companies as the manager and writing report on the progress, monitoring and evaluation, appraisal reports and other periodic reports for the top management of our organization require extra knowledge and skills. Acquiring knowledge and training in these areas will help me in improving efficiency and competency in service delivery to the organisation and other clientele. I will therefore undertake a thorough training in both areas to acquire the required knowledge and skills. It’s only through undertaking training that I can improve on project management and report writing skills. For this training I will draw up an action plan on how to go about it. My action plan outlines specific actions I need to achieve and improve on communication and reporting as follows; First I need to define what I want to achieve and establish how to go about achieving it. In this respect, I will choose a management college offering short training specifically on reporting as well as the cost. This will help me pursue the course. Secondly I have to plan on the objectives and goals that are going to guide me in the improvement process during and after training. What do I want to achieve? Thirdly I have to establish my own timelines that I want to guide me in achieving this improvement, this helps in gauging whether am going to meet my own deadline. This ensures that I do not spend too much time in one area while forgetting the other areas. Lastly, after implementing my action plan, I will develop an evaluation method that will help me gauge on my improvement. That is evaluate the skills and knowledge that I have gained. I will be looking at what I planned to do, How I did it, What went wrong/good and how can plan to improve in the future. This is important for my continual improvement as a management professional. When you have completed this form please submit to Brookes Virtual on or before the deadline. References Greenwood, RC 1981, Management by Objectives: As Developed by Peter Drucker, Assisted by Harold Smiddy, Academy Of Management Review, 6, 2, pp. 225-230 Raju Satya R., Parthasarathy A., 2009, Management: Text and Cases, 2nd Edition, New Delhi: PHI Learning Private Limited. Rudani Ramesh B., 2013, Principles of Management, New Delhi: McGraw Hill Education (India) Private Limited. Read More