Job Experience Scenario - Essay Example

CAREER PORTFOLIO 3 Name of Student Institution affiliation CAREER PORTFOLIO 3 JOB EXPERIENCE SCENARIO AND QUESTIONS During my first day at work as a payroll accountant, I was given the psychological contract form to take home and review for a period of four days before signing them and eventually bringing them back to the organization’s Human Resource office. The human resource manager who gave these papers specifically emphasized that I should take time to review the forms conclusively before committing myself by signing them. These psychological contracts were quite sensitive in my line of work. It took me four days to go through them before eventually signing and returning them to the Human Resource office as earlier instructed. From the psychological contract it was apparent that after six months of working I could be considered for a promotion in the organization. Six months down the line I dedicated myself to working diligently and extremely hard drawing my motivation from the promise made in the psychology contract on getting a promotion after successfully working for six months. In this case, I ensured that I carried out my allocated tasks perfectly and also ensured that these tasks were completed on time. On the other hand, I was keen on the company’s code of ethics and the ground rules in the company which I was extremely keen to follow. After six months there was a performance appraisal carried out in the workplace thus the performance of all the employees in the organization were being reviewed. The performance appraisal activity would then determine the employees who were qualified for a promotion. I was one of the employees reviewed in the performance review process and having worked diligently I was shortlisted for a job promotion. However, when the promotion process began I fell short and never got the promised promotion. I was dumbfounded considering the organization had promised to give me a promotion at the end of a six-month period. On the other hand, I had also worked hard and positioned myself for the promotion by striving to achieve utmost success in the tasks that I was carrying out and working hard to ensure that my output met the required standards. On seeing that I had not received a promotion as earlier promised, I approached the Human Resource manager to inquire if there could have been some error in the promotion process. However, he informed me that there was no error in the allocation of promotions; rather promotion positions were minimal to cater for everyone. He further claimed that those who missed a promotion opportunity would be the first to be considered in case an opportunity arose in the future. I, therefore, took up a legal action against the organization for breach of the psychological contract; in this case, I accused the organization of not fulfilling its promises as stipulated in the psychological contract. The organization in defense argued that this was a case of a wrong perception in regards to the breach of the psychological contract; they further blamed this situation on incongruence thus, claiming that it was not in their intention not to award me the promotion opportunity. After battling the organization legally for two months, I was able to accept what had happened having that I was not the only one who was promised a promotion only not to get one when the time came. However, I was not entirely over the situation. I was in most cases aloof and harbored resentment over my colleagues who managed to secure a promotion. I felt deceived and cheated, nonetheless; I was forced to live with it since my chances of getting another job opportunity elsewhere would be quite slim, and I had a couple of bills to pay. I felt that the senior management in the workplace harbored a grudge against me. In fact, my supervisor once accused me of causing tantrums when something did not go as I intended. My relationship with the other managers was also not as cordial as it was earlier. Truthfully, I felt that my efforts in the organization since the scenario of the promotion opportunity were not being recognized. In one instance I was preparing for a usual brainstorming meeting I spent most time of the previous night coming up with points that I would raise concerning the improvements on an ongoing project. I was aware that everyone was given a chance to put across his ideas or opinions. The brainstorming meeting came I was one of the first people in the board room where the meeting was to be held. I was ready to turn a new leaf after what had happened some time back. I was keen to maintain a professional attitude in front of all of my colleagues but judging by their responses and moods I was able to note that they still harbored some resentment against me. When it came to the meeting everyone was given a chance to put across their opinions and thoughts on the ongoing project, however; I was not called upon to give mine. Charlie chairing the meeting claimed that the scheduled time was over, and the two remaining employees who were yet to give their opinions should write them down and pin them on the organization’s noticeboard. I felt that this was a retaliatory attack against me for my reaction when I was not awarded a promotion as earlier promised. I, therefore, wrote down my opinions in point form and the next day pinned them on the notice board next to those of Janet, my other colleague who was not able to give her presentation during the meeting. I went back to the notice board to seen whether there were any responses to my pinned opinions surprising my post had already been pulled down probably by my fellow employees. On the contrary, my colleague's post had a couple of responses. Out rightly I knew someone had unpinned the post due to the resentment harbored against me. That night I went home wondering if I would have misled the scenario of the breach of the psychological contract and whether the already broken relationships with my colleagues could be mended?, Should I have just resigned from my post to avoid further discontent? REFLECTIVE RESPONSE TO 360 DEGREE PERFORMANCE FEEDBACKS Lessons learnt about myself In line with my 360 peer evaluation form and performance evaluation form I learned that there are significant performance gap in relation to leadership skills, one of the most significant gap in relation to this strength is that despite me being good with people the diligent working attribute is not consistent in my all-round leadership strength (Sorenson, 2014). On the other hand, I also learnt that there is also a significant gap with my strength in leading people; In this case I have not really grasped the attribute motivating people and how to encourage them to coexist when working on a specific task. Notably there are significant inconsistencies in working diligently knowing how to motivate people. These inconsistencies have drugged my leadership strength to a relatively low level therefore in the future I intend to improve these inconsistencies and improve my strengths level (Abel, J., Gabe, &Stolarick, n.d). In this case, I also learnt that there is a significant performance gap in relation to my personality; in this case, I do not really know how to stamp my authority while leading people. Therefore I am in most cases inclined to be quite lenient rather than making difficult decisions. I also learnt a significant performance gaps in relation to my problem solving skills, I learnt that while under pressure (Giang, 2016). I am not quite calm. In this case, the current level of my problem solving strength is relatively low; therefore, I intend to work on these notated inconsistences and improve to match the skills of my peer. Root causes of the performance gaps It’s evident that there are significant performance gaps existing in this case. One root cause of these performance gaps is lack of effective formal training. It is notable that there is a knowledge deficit this can be blamed on the technical misjudgments and other faults that align with professional technicality (Leaman, 2015). Hence, this can be blamed on lack of brainstorming or in-house development project which is meant to foster the practice of these key skills. Additionally, lack of motivation among the workforce leads to performance gap. In this case, the workforce has adopted the perception that work is a form of punishment. Hence, the workforce also has the perception that only their duties and responsibilities matter thus; there is no need to go an extra mile. However, this performance gap can be blamed on the organization management which is not keen to motivate employees who go an extra mile in their performance (Abel, J., Gabe, &Stolarick, n.d). The other root cause of performance gaps in the organization is system barriers; this is the lack of a properly articulated system standard which is readily available and complete for the organization workforce (De Bruecke et al., n.d). On the other hand, lack of available standard results to disorganization and lack of a plan for the organization workforce. The other root cause for the significant performance gaps in the organization is lack of available resources. In this case, this root cause causes some limitations to the organization workforce resulting to them not being able to maximize their full potential. Specific areas for development One notable area that needs development is continuous Learning. This is a personal attribute that fosters success in other areas in a person’s life. This area of development ensures that one embraces change in their life and adopt a positive attitude in regards to change. One’s ability to embrace change also enables them to be a leader in this line of work and a good role model. Continuous learning as an area of personal development and can be fostered through the flexibility of an individual to change. In line with this one must also be able to adapt to the constantly changing situation in life in this area of personal development (Dr. Sullivan, 2010). Through continuous learning, an organization will be able to get rid of the performance gaps present in their workforce operations. This works best if the organization collectively works towards improving its workforce continuous learning by individually striving towards this goal (Informationweek, 2016). The other area for development is my leadership skills, thus, I should develop enthusiasm and a sense of urgency this will be beneficial for my influence as a leader and ability to impact more into others and improve their performance. Developing enthusiasm also, in this case, will rub off on the other organization employees and enable them to have the nick to carry out their tasks remarkably even under pressure. On the other hand, the other area that I need to develop is creativity. This aspect will enable me to look for more effective ways for the organization workforce to carry out their tasks. This will also enable the workforce to work in a more effective ways that save both time and energy. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT ANALYSIS Lessons learnt about my learning orientation I learnt that I am always practical and extremely careful with details and facts this is evident from my high scores in the cognitive affective axis. In this case I also learn that I seek learning from an emotional perspective therefore making me highly people oriented. I also learnt that I am quite organized, and I rarely make rational decisions, everything that I do I try to come up with a clearly executed plan in the beginning before going ahead and carrying it out (Sorenson, 2014). This can be drawn from my thinking planner domain which I seem to fall into in respect to the provided scores. I am also a confident person who entirely trusts my guts, however, this has prevented me from being over ambitious or to try out new things due to fear of failure. On the other hand, I have also learnt that I am in most cases rigid to change. In this case, I also learnt that I am more inclined to try out methods and ways that are proven and tested in order to minimize the risk, an aspect that can be drawn from my conservativeness nature. I also noted that I am a character who will first think through an issue before acting out. This also results in the other notable issues where I noticed that I am an analytical thinker. I am inclined to think of the occurrence of a plan or situation considering both the positive and negative occurrence of this situation before going ahead and pursuing it (Leaman, 2015). This also enabled me to learn that I am a person who sets clear goals which are achievable this can be drawn from my reasonability attribute. Specific performance improvement goals Specific Continuous Learning and creativity in line with the leadership skills are specific notable area that needs changes. These two areas can be blamed on an evident limit in knowledge and skills awareness in the organisation workforce. Measurable In this case it is notable that my ability to try to learn is limited. This is due to the limited knowledge and skill capacity that I possess. I noted the specific areas which are in dire need of continuous learning. For creativity i also noted the specific areas that needs some revamp in creativity. Achievable In this case i took up achievable measures which includes; downloading some recommended online tutorials relating to my workforce skills this would help with learning all the information around my workforce skills, enabling me to know how to take up this particular skills and use them effectively. The other achievable measure I took up was attending a workshop and seminar that taught on how to take up these particular skills relating to creativity. I was able to learn about the essence of these skills and the best way to take them up and use them in my workforce performance. Realistic After carrying out the stipulated actions I had realistic plan on how to adopt the learnt issues. In this case I was able to boost my continuous learning skill levels through adopting the nudge to continuously seek personal improvement through learning new things in line with my workforce skills and performance. Time bound I planned that the time period for adopting these skill and knowledge would range from three months to six months roughly. And must be achieved through this timeframe. Development activities for performance improvement goals For the development of creativity one personal development activity that one needs to take up is doing brain workouts. In this case, the muscle constantly needs to stretch and relax in order to be able to think more effectively. Creativity is required for the brain to be able to think clearly; therefore, brain workouts are essential in ensuring that the brain is relaxed and relieved from any form of pressure (Giang, 2016). Some activity that fosters this personal development activity includes; intellectual games or taking naps. This will ensure that the brain is able to relax therefore it will be able to work perfectly during brainstorming activities. The other personal development activity that should be taken up in order to improve one’s continuous learning is spending some quality time alone. This will enable one to get enough time to focus on their strengths and weaknesses and develop a clear plan on how to improve their strengths while working on the weaknesses (informationweek, 2016). The other problem development activity one needs to take up in line with problem solving is critical thinking. In this case one has to embrace situation analysis, thus, one has to be able to note something or analyze a situation critically how it works and understand it intensively before making any decision References Abel, J., Gabe, T., &Stolarick, K. Workforce Skills across the Urban-Rural Hierarchy.SSRN Electronic Journal.http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2010646 De Bruecker, P., Van den Bergh, J., Beli n, J., &Demeulemeester, E. Workforce Planning Incorporating Skills: State of the Art. SSRN Electronic Journal.http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2437372 Dr. Sullivan,. (2010). Why You Need Workforce Planning - Workforce Magazine. Workforce Magazine. Retrieved 27 September 2016, from http://www.workforce.com/2002/10/24/why-you-need-workforce-planning/ Sorenson susan (2014). How Employees' Strengths Make Your Company Stronger. Gallup.com. Retrieved 27 September 2016, from http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/167462/employees-strengths-company-stronger.aspx Ganellen, R. (2007). Assessing Normal and Abnormal Personality Functioning: Strengths and Weaknesses of Self-Report, Observer, and Performance-Based Methods. Journal Of Personality Assessment, 89(1), 30-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223890701356987 Giang, V. (2016). Here Are The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Millennials, Gen X, And Boomers. Business Insider. Retrieved 27 September 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/how-millennials-gen-x-and-boomers-shape-the-workplace-2013-9 Goodman, F., Disabato, D., Kashdan, T., & Machell, K. (2016). Personality strengths as resilience: A one-year multiwave study. J Pers, n/a-n/a. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12250 informationweek,. (2016). Workforce Performance Management: Efficiency and Effectiveness - InformationWeek. InformationWeek. Retrieved 27 September 2016, from http://www.informationweek.com/software/information-management/workforce-performance-management-efficiency-and-effectiveness/d/d-id/1028711? Leaman, C. (2015). Bridging the Gap Between Training and Job Performance by Carol Leaman : Learning Solutions Magazine. Learning Solutions Magazine. Retrieved 27 September 2016, from http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1715/bridging-the-gap-between-training-and-job-performance Read More