Reflection Issues on Management Education - Assignment Example

Reflective practice and Reflective assignment Describe in some detail an idea or theory introduced in the lectures that particularly caught your imagination. What was it about the idea and your own personality, preferences or background that may have generated your interest in it? What does this example teach you about your own past and how it influences your understanding of what life is like in organizations During the course in one of the lectures we were taught about motivators specifically the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Intrinsic motivators are the motivations one seeks from within them while the extrinsic motivators are those provided by others such as employers. We learnt how people are not keen on intrinsic motivators and how majority of the people are not even aware that they can motivate themselves without waiting for others to motivate them (Frey and Osterloh 27). This got me thinking about myself and how I have no intrinsic motivation. In fact before the lesson I had no idea motivation could be generated by an individual and not provided by others. I have always waited for others to give me motivation no matter how major or minor it is and for practically everything. I get motivation majorly from my parents and the rest of the family as well as from friends and teachers and lately from colleagues in the workplace. Thinking about the issue in discussion, I have discovered that the cause of the problem may be because of my personality. I am an extrovert and hence I do not have time for myself or to even have self-reflections. This is probably the reason I am unaware about the fact that I can generate my own motivators instead of waiting on others to do it for me. The fact that I integrate with a lot of people fuels my extrinsic motivation and I do not lack motivation at any one point even if it is from strangers. I blame not only my personality in this case but my past as well. My parents have always showered me with immense love and extraordinary protection. I have never lacked in affection and neither have I found myself in a situation where I am required to use my own skills and mind to solve the problem. My family has always made me dependent on them and hence has always been my motivators. This past is what has affected my present and makes me shocked at the fact that I can motivate myself. The intrinsic motivations to me can be equated to being independent and not having to rely on others to always shoulder me. I have learnt that in order to succeed even in organizations, one must have intrinsic motivators in as much as there are extrinsic motivators being provided. This is because the intrinsic motivators are regular and can be trusted while the extrinsic ones are irregularly provided and may not always be present when one needs motivation to perform work or tackle challenges. More emphasis should be made on intrinsic motivation be it in school or workplaces and people should be encouraged to use them constantly. What have you noticed about the quality and focus of your reflective note-taking as the course has progressed? What have been the challenges for you in the reflection process and how have you handled these? At the beginning of the course, my reflective note taking was not only sparse but highly irregular. I kept on omitting parts which later on I would learn were important and should have been noted. I had to therefore keep on going back and forth to link the notes as well as ask my classmates for their reflective notes for comparison (Assenmacher 156). I have to confess the quality was very poor. This was caused by several reasons such as my inexperience in reflective note taking or even reflective thinking. I had no idea what to write and what not to write or how to write and still remain on topic and not irrelevant (Gray 498). The other cause was from lack of concentration. In the past I have had a problem with my attention span which has been very short. I therefore concentrate for approximately twenty minutes and then zone out and start day dreaming. The day dreaming time means that I have not only lost focus but I am not listening to what is being taught. In return, my reflection notes had huge gaps an indication of the number of times I stopped paying attention. The worst thing is the fact that I have always refused to admit I have a smaller attention span than most people and this has led me to having huge gaps to fill in my learning. I finally admitted my problem (which was not an easy thing to do) when I borrowed reflection notes of a colleague and found a lot of things I was unaware of even though I never missed any class. Admittance of a problem is the first step to healing and taking back control of ones’ life and the moment I admitted out loud my problem, I started improving. Since that time, I have found out that my reflection note taking has improved immensely. My notes are similar in length and content with those of my classmates something that has never happened and I am able to pay attention in class until it is almost over. The content of my reflection notes has become richer and I can be able to understand them without having to seek books for clarification afterwards (Bolton 78). As mentioned above, I have encountered many challenges during my reflection process. The first one has been the lack of paying attention leading to lack of material to reflect about. The other challenge has been to concentrate on what is being taught while at the same time jotting down reflection notes according to my understanding. I have not always been a fast writer and this has led to me missing a lot in my reflective notes about what was said and have to rewrite the notes once again later on (Hanson, 86). In order to solve these problems and make the steps I have so far made, I have had to carry out a lot of practice writing fast as well as listen and write at the same time. I have also done mental exercises to increase my attention span and all these measures and efforts have borne fruit. What do you feel is the value (or otherwise) of reflection to working in organizations? Note: the term organization is defined here as any group organizing something. Knowing your own strengths and current perceived limitations, how do you think reflection and reflexivity can help you personally to develop management skills in the future? Reflection offers assistance to individuals to understand in depth about the organization, their requirements and rules. This is because reflection is a personal interpretation of what has been written or stated (Bolton 116). If individuals in an organization are able to interpret according to their own understanding the rules of the organization as well as their work responsibilities, then they will be able to perform way better. What hinders most employees in any organization and especially the lower level employees and the newly hired ones from performing excellently is the lack of understanding of the procedures and well as their work responsibilities. This leads to time wastage that translates to lost opportunities or resources in the organization. If these employees however use reflection, they will be able to interpret the work to their own understanding and perform excellently. Managers have a lot of work and seemingly little time to carry it all out. This is in addition to performing a supervisory role to ensure everything at the lower level is working accordingly. They have a lot of meetings to attend, partnerships and social networking to engage in all of which is too much for the brain of one person. Reflective thinking simplifies all these chores and responsibilities for the manager (Sen 80). By keeping reflective notes which are shortened versions and highlight the major points the manager has to tackle in each of his responsibilities, he can be able to carry out all his functions and meet all his deadlines without much stress on his part (Solansky 7). The reflection notes may also be passed down to a predecessor as a way to make understanding of the organizational duties quickly and at first glance. Personally, I understand that I have minimal patience and hence cannot withstand to sit still for long hours poring over the organizational roles and responsibilities expected of a manager. I am also aware that I am an overachiever and would like to excel the organization under my management. In order to ensure that my strengths and weaknesses are of assistance to my management skills, I will use reflection and reflexivity to understand the roles and expectations (Hibbert 816). With these in mind, I will therefore use the dame reflection to formulate a managerial plan that will ensure the success of the organization with minimal effort on everyone’s part. The reflection will enable me find quicker and more efficient ways to manage time, motivate employees as well as solve conflicts while still maintaining proper work ethics and organizational culture (Nesbit 205). All that is needed id for me to concentrate when making the reflection notes and go over them to ensure nothing has been omitted. Work Cited Assenmacher, Katja. Reflective Writing. New York: GRIN Verlag, 2011. Print. Bolton, Gillie. Reflective practice: Writing and professional development. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2010. Print. Bolton, Gillie. Write Yourself: Creative Writing and Personal Development. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011. Print. Frey, Bruno and Margit Osterloh. Successful Management by Motivation: Balancing Intrinsic and Extrinsic Incentives. New York: Springer Science & Business Media, 2002. Print. Gray, David. Facilitating Management Learning: Developing Critical Reflection through Reflective Tools. Management Learning, November 2007; 38(5), 495-517. Hanson, Cindy. Exploring Dimensions of Critical Reflection in Activist–Facilitator Practice. Journal of Transformative Education, January 2013; 11(1), 70-89. Hibbert, Paul. Approaching Reflexivity through Reflection Issues for Critical Management Education. Journal of Management Education, December 2013; 37(6), 803-827. Nesbit, Paul. The Role of Self-Reflection, Emotional Management of feedback, and Self- Regulation Processes in Self-Directed Leadership Development. Human Resource Development Review, June 2012; 11(2), 203-226. Sen, Barbara. Reflective writing: a management skill. Library Management, 2010; 31(1/2), pp.79 – 93. Solansky, Stephanie. Self-determination and leader development. Management Learning, September 2014. Doi: 10.1177/1350507614549118 Read More