Internship Reflection - Admission/Application Essay Example

Internship Final Reflection My internship involved working as a marketing assistant at the study abroad program within the university. We reviewed students’ applications to study abroad and developed marketing materials for the program. The program was under one of the university department in which my major assignment was to ensure all students’ applications contained all the details required, ranging from personal details and other extra information that was required. In addition, sometimes I was assigned the role of going round the nation or even abroad to market the university’s courses on offer. This was meant to attract student enrolling for the same. I learnt from the organization communication skills, file management, and computer skills in marketing. These skills enabled me to add to my qualities of a leader like including all workers in decision making and listening to worker views and opinions during problem solving within the organization. I encountered challenges during the internship period such as cultural differences and language barriers because we dealt with people from different cultures. My expectations were to leave the organization a skilled person in various areas of organizational learning. By the time I was leaving the organisation I could disseminate insights and know how organizations can improve performances. I am also aware of the common barriers to knowledge sharing across universities and their networks as well as ways and means of overcoming them. this is important for me because today, many organizations are struggling to implement organizational learning to make it a priority in their businesses and I will be required to fill such gaps in my future working place. Disseminating insights and know-how across any organization is critical to improving performance, but universities and other institutions of higher learning struggle to implement organizational learning and make it a priority (Bontis 442). A brief overview of the organization’s mission or work was to provide education services for the advancement of humanity. My project in this organization contributed to this mission through the development of organizational knowledge and integration of knowledge into everyday practice (Bontis 455). The internship was a useful tool for revealing the achievement of the organization over time. Some of my lessons acquired are that higher institutions of learning do not have to develop so much or stayed for a long time to meet its benefits from clearly laid objectives and incentives as well as processes for organizational learning. In addition, I learnt that a well trained staff with effective circulating meeting minutes tend to reveal programmatic best practices shared across organizations to measure the advancement of there programs. Basically, one of the trickiest characteristic of organizational learning is the issue of learning related activities in different ways and the ability for one to work in various parts of an organization comfortably. In some organizations, staff training outdoes other activities while in others, other activities like performance management is the locus of the organization. The crucial feature here is to notice wherever learning is placed in the management of an organization and connect its importance in meeting the mission and impact of the organization. Something else I learnt from the internship is that leaders need to adopt a culture of continuous improvement to uphold the values of organizational learning (Argote 147). The culture strengthens learning through the provision of incentives for learning behaviors and by measuring and communicating results of learning. It is essential that any organization defines its learning goals, to specify to people who are accountable for the capturing, distilling, applying and sharing knowledge (Argote 154). The structure should incorporate networks and coordination strategies, which will help information to flow among people who need it and when they require it. Finally I learnt that any successful organization must design intuitive knowledge processes that support how people work (Argote 156). These processes give the definition of staff members of a learning agenda and how they capture, distill and apply knowledge. Among these processes are technological systems for exchanging knowledge, which will need to keep interactions from one person to the other and at the heart of them (Argote 161). As leaders, we need to be pioneers in organizational learning. We need to demonstrate our commitment by setting a vision and goals for learning which will be connected to furthering the mission of the organization. We must also act as role models through participation in learning activities. The ethical considerations I learnt from this organization are that; first, value and morality in the workplace are dilemmas which can be difficult to handle once the workers predetermine their own principles (Bontis 463). Despite this fact, employers focused in forward thinking and who have the best interest of the organization in their hearts, and are responsible in implementing workplace ethics policies are expected to adequately prepare for the potential conflicts of interest that arise due to the diversity of views from employees, culture and values in the workplace (Bontis 462). However, handling ethical issues in the workplace requires a firm and cautious approach to illegal and potentially dangerous matters. First step is to place policy based on the company’s philosophy, mission statement, and code of conduct. Next is the incorporation of the policy into one’s performance management program to hold employees’ seniors supervisors (Bontis 469). Next is the revision of the employee handbook to include the policy and provide copies of the revised handbook to them. Ensure as a leader, you give them signed acknowledgement forms from employees that indicate they received and understood the workplace ethics policy (Senge 334). The second step is the provision of workplace ethics training to workers. Use various instructional strategies to engage workers in learning how to address and resolve ethical dilemmas. Experiential learning is an effective way of facilitating organizational ethics training. Some of the workplace ethics are misappropriating company funds and failing to comply with organizational regulatory controls (Bontis 467). The third step is to appoint someone in charge of handling employees’ informal concerns pertaining to workplace ethics. It is also important to consider the need for organizational ethics hotline; this is a confidential service when employees want to contact management whenever they encounter workplace dilemmas that put them into uncomfortable situations. Confidential hotlines ensure employees’ anonymity, and this is a concern for employees whose alerts are considered spies (Dupee 129). The fifth step is to investigate about federal and state employment laws pertaining to whistle-blowing (Senge 229). Do not make employment decisions, like terminating or suspending an employee in connection with whistle-blowing or an employee’s right to protect an activity under whistle-blowing laws or public policy. Seek out legal advice for employee reports of workplace ethics issues which will improve your organization’s legalization under federal and state employment law (Nonaka 28). The final step is to apply the workplace policy consistently when addressing workplace issues and employee concerns about workplace ethics. The same business principles should be used in every circumstance, regardless of the perceived seriousness or the level of employees involved (Nonaka 28). Communicate the same expectations for all employees whether your juniors or seniors. The relationship of this internship to my academic literature is that organization learning is an area of knowledge within organizational theory which studies models and theories on how organizations learn and adapt (Nonaka 22). I discovered from internship that organizational development is an adaptive characteristic of the organization. The organization where I was based was able to sense changes in signals from its environment that is both internal and external and adapt accordingly (Kim 41). Some of the knowledge I learnt in this course termed as technical knowledge is exactly what I witnessed in this organization. I familiarized myself with technical words and phrases by being able to read and make sense out of the data as well as being able to act on the basis of generalizations (Nonaka 27). In contrast to the scientific knowledge, which guides scientists, I learnt that managers are informed by different type knowledge. This is what is referred to as experiential knowledge that comes from experience and resides in stories and narratives of how real people in the real world deal with real life problems and more especially at work place (Nonaka 34). I used the knowledge taught in this course during my internship to deal with awkward situations like when a student applying for a scholarship failed to include all required personal details. My colleagues and I sought stories of other people in the organization who are experienced than ourselves and tried to learn from them. At class level, it was theoretical and mass learning, but at the internship, it was an individual learning experience. I was trained; I increased my learning skills as well as work experience and formal education (Nonaka 39). Given from the theoretical perspective in class that success of any organization is founded on the knowledge of the people who work for it, these activities indeed have continued to be revealed in my life even after leaving the program. It is no wonder; individual learning is a prerequisite to organizational learning. The world is dynamic than that of ancient generations (Dupee 131). Waves of change are crashing on us and we have to take change as a norm instead of an exception (Nonaka 41). Continuous learning from class work to internships is essential in remaining relevant at workplaces. A learning organization does not rely on passive process in the hope that organizational learning will take place through serendipity or as a by-product of normal work (Nonaka 39). A learning organization actively promotes, facilitates, and rewards collective learning. According to organizational learning, monitoring individual’s learning is the first step of making a useful organization. There are various methods for capturing knowledge and experience like publishing, activity reports, lessons learnt, presentations and interviews among others (Senge 220). Capturing organizational knowledge will entirely depend on how peoples evaluate the organisation they work for. I realized this during my marketing missions. Different structures facilitate searches regardless of the user’s perspective like when, who, what, why and how (Kim 39). Capturing also includes storage in repositories, databases, or libraries to ensure that the knowledge will be available when and as needed (Kim 47). Organizational learning is a social process, involving interactions among individuals from different cultures leading to well-informed decision making (Nonaka 35). This is because above all, a culture that learns and adapts as part of everyday working practices is essential. Works Cited Argote, Linda. Organizational learning: Creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. Norwell, MA, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999. Print. Bontis Nick, "Managing an Organizational Learning System by Aligning Stocks and Flows". Journal of Management Studies. 39 .4, (2002): 437–469. Kim, Dennis, H. The link between individual and organizational learning. Sloan Management Review, fall, (1993): 37-49. http://hcs.science.uva.nl/kennisenleren/cursus0203/kim.pdf Nonaka, Ikujiro. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science. Pg.14-36. http://www1.unihamburg.de/ami/lehre/Veranstaltungen/WS_0607/Innomarketing/Rueckschau/Nonaka_OS_1994.pdf Dupee, Leonard, Barton, Gavin and Barton, Michelle. Make Yourself an Expert: How to pull knowledge from the smartest people around you. Harvard Business Review, (2013):127-132. https://st.fl.ru/users/JoySky/upload/f_73752c81b432b06c.pdf Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York, Doubleday, 1990. Print. Read More