The Multiple Models of the Reflective Log - Coursework Example

Reflection forms the central part of the money exchange practice and education and is particularly fundamental for the money exchange workers in the placement settings or the newly qualified money exchange workers. In the simplest forms, reflection offers an opportunity in reviewing the decisions made and the decision-making process. In practice, however, reflection log is a concept that is much more complex. It is very crucial that the workers in the money exchange shops develop the confidence of questioning the institution that they work for, their practice, and even the dominant structures in the community as a whole. In particular, the reflective log that intends to link the practical models and theory with the experience at the time of an external engagement is essential as the workers in a shop money exchange would be required to reconstruct and have consideration for the dominant exchange discourse. Getting engaged in the shop money exchange was vital towards the development of the management career. It formed an essential prerequisite for the development of an understanding of the key management concepts. Undergoing through external engagement was imperative in my learning strategy. Being involved and leading in the external activities was instrumental in developing the aspiration of possessing exemplary management and the leadership skills and even gaining the alternative perspectives. The paper explores reflection experience during engagement or the practice placement at the shop money exchange, providing the detail of the lessons and development skills learned. It will concentrate in outlining the experience of reflection and how the reflective log practice supported me in the application of theory-based practice. Moreover, it will provide a critical dimension of the practice and also outline the things that could have been performed in a different way.

Even though I explored and got engaged in the multiple models of the reflective log during the external engagement, the model of reflection that was quite useful was the Moon’s theory of reflective log. Moon (2013) supported the two types of the reflective log that involved reflecting on an action. The reflection on action means reflecting on an experiential condition that an individual has already gone through or an action that a person has taken and the same time putting into consideration what could have been done in a different way (Moon, 2013). It also includes looking at the positives from this particular kind of condition (Moon, 2013). The other type of reflection is the reflection in action. It involves reflecting on the actions in the process they are being done and putting into consideration some of the issues such as the best practices throughout the activity (Moon, 2013). As a result of the limitation of the current medium, it is of importance to only focus on the reflection on action. However, when presented with the similar situation again, this kind of reflection ought to inform the future engagement and provide encouragement to the contextual reflection in action.

External Engagement Description

External placement or engagement was based on an internship at a money exchange shop, the Travelex, where the activities involved; currency conversion, selling of the currency, making payments of the international travels, offering services of the western union transfer and provision of the insurance services. In particular, the paper reflects me being stationed at the currency conversion department. This department involved the use of the travel rate tracker. In this case, the best travel rates could be checked for a client in his or her foreign currency. When the client’s chosen currency has reached the desired rate, then an alert would be sent to the customer. Using the currency jargon section in the department could assist the client in the ways of converting the different currencies, and this depended on whether the client is selling or buying a given currency.

Identifying External Engagement Activity

The identification process of the external engagement activity was quite demanding and involving. The placement had to get approved after being gotten, and the placement was to cover not less than 220 hours of engagement within the parameters that are mutually developed between the organization and the supervisor of the external engagement. The process involved negotiating for the work placement and got supervised by the coordinator of the course. Also, it involved the allocation of a member of the academic staff to take the role of supervision of the external engagement. In clarifying the obligation of each, a meeting was held that also included the academic supervisor and the workplace supervisor. Even though the finding process was quite demanding and consuming much time, it elicited crucial lessons.

Teamwork

The working together of the three individuals formed collaboration towards the identification of the external engagement activity. The teamwork brought different individuals from various levels of experience in the identification of the engagement activity. As a result, the project of establishing the engagement activity offered an opportunity for development and learning. It was a conscious learning in the meetings which facilitated the growth of skills and capabilities as far as external engagement is concerned, consequently leading to improvement of the attitude and the engagement satisfaction of the identified activity. Moreover, efficient working together in finding the engagement activity could be attributed to teamwork. It was for this reason that the good teamwork created a synergy where the overall result of the team was greater than the total sum of the individual attempts.

Negotiation

Negotiating for the external engagement facilitated the development of the negotiation skills. Negotiation involves at least two people or parties coming together with differing goals and needs to discuss an issue with the aim of finding a mutual solution accepted by both the involved parties. The developed skills in negotiation are significant towards building better relationships and delivering lasting and qualified solutions to a situation. Furthermore, it prevents the occurrence of any future conflicts and problems. In this case, it was noted that negotiation could be learned and radically improved through practice. The negotiation process benefited all the parties present. Through focusing on the needs of other individuals, each party was able to get what it wanted and thus there was a bigger potential pie for each involved.

Interpersonal communication

Communication is vital to the success of any project. The identification process of the external engagement led to the development of the interpersonal communication skills. The teamwork activities of meeting in the finding process brought about the collaboration of information on the project requiring both verbal and written interpersonal communication. Working in this capacity facilitated the development of the communication skills and made the finding process to get completed efficiently. The enhanced interpersonal communication also facilitated an open discussion in which all the members of the team got adequately informed on the project of finding the external engagement activity. Interpersonal skills are also essential towards the development of other vital life skills. Being in a position to communicate well with others was significant as it helped to solve problems that could inevitably occur.

Intercultural Competence

The ability to communicate and behaving appropriately with those individuals who have different culture is an important skill learned in the process of finding an external placement. The intercultural competence is an important skill in the field of management because being sensitive to the cultural diversity of other groups of individuals would lead to an improvement in the working relationships in a given organization. Becoming interculturally competent would facilitate managing the diversity in an organization. The cultural detective offers the process and tool of ensuring that a team or an organization gets the required and due attention.

Conflict Management

The skills of conflict management were also learned through the process of finding the external engagement activity. The situation of conflict is significant in the aspect of working together. It occurs when the interests, values or goals of different individuals or involved parties do not coincide with one another. It is a common phenomenon in a workplace. In most cases, a conflict was arising as a result of different perceptions by the various individuals involved in the identification of the external engagement activity. It got learned that conflict is not necessarily a bad situation. Conflict presented the opportunities and offered room for improvement. Therefore, it was of importance in learning and understanding the various ways of resolving and managing conflict upon its occurrence.

Leadership

The skill of leadership is relevant to the success of workplaces and teams working together. The leadership of well trained and competent leaders is paramount in the provision of a goal for the success of the organization. When it comes to finding an engagement activity, communicating and finding direction strategies, leadership is invaluable. Getting the right skills in leadership is essential in making sure that a particular objective such as finding an external engagement activity would be on the right track. Moreover, the skills learned in leadership can be applied towards promoting harmony and a positive culture among the individuals concerned in a given activity.

Career Development

Career development is the epitome lesson learned from the process of finding the external engagement activity. The career development in the field of management ensures others get aware of the values of another person. Career management is a continuous process that occurs throughout an individual’s life and not just in the discrete times. The development of the career management got to be thought as a set of habits and a philosophy that enables an individual to develop the career resiliency and achieve the objectives of the career.

Analysis of Learning

The clients with whom we worked with had a multitude of presenting problems and concerns, and I got aware from the very first time it was a complicated set up that required money exchange workers to get reflective in their practice so that they could handle the variety of diverse situations. Nevertheless, it soon became apparent that in such a working environment that is fast-paced, paperwork was much promoted than the real practical work and therefore, it implied that even reflection could be potentially ignored as targets and bureaucracy got favored. In the external engagements and when beginning a new role, such kinds of difficulty and uncertainty around reflection are prone to occur.

In making the transition from the university learning to the external engagement placement, the reflection was important. The workers in the money exchange shop got provided with some guidance in supporting this process. The domains of the Practice Competency Framework (PCF) offered the directions on the specific areas that the workers were required to emphasize in the practical placement and what was to get evidenced for one to complete an external engagement successfully. Central to this framework were the values and ethics. Critical reflection also formed part of the framework, which was making the entirety of the framework. However, it is crucial that the money exchange workers do not acquire complacency in their personal reflection, and they cannot fall back on the types of the procedures and guidance acting as a shield against the engagement in reflection on the critical ethical subjects.

Most of the clients that we dealt with had problems of understanding the operation of the money exchange rates. They could consistently come over several times inquiring about the same issue. These clients particularly challenged me as I found their intersecting problems always stretched beyond the understanding of the exchange rates. In this case, the different models of reflection were very instrumental in giving me support throughout the process of reflection. Both the Gibb’s Model of Reflection and Atkin Reflection Model promoted a cyclical kind of an approach whereby the reflection is not just a linear process but an ongoing process (Black & Plowright, 2010). I realized that this was the case since I did not move between the reflection stages one after the other but moved between them, often multiple times returning to my conceptual starting point before settling on an understanding of a particular event, incorporating all the systems influencing that specific scenario. Keeping the thought process and a reflective diary of specific issues provided encouragement in constructing the understanding of the work being done. It also justified the actions to be taken. Support not only from the supervisors but also the colleagues was invaluable in the process. According to Black and Plowright (2010), the models are most useful during the starting out of the reflective process and as a result, a model of reflection that was most appropriate got developed and adapted.

The money exchange business has been practiced traditionally as the professional knowing best, and it still continues in such a way that the manager always holds most of the power. The dynamics of authority were slightly different in the place of the external engagement. However, the momentum of power cannot be ignored in this particular setting. There is an acknowledgment that the inherent power dynamics do exist from the inception of interacting with different clients (Lindon, & Trodd, 2016). There is also the recognition that where there is an existence of unequal power dynamics in a negotiation; then it is usually the counterpart with the most power which benefits from such kind of interaction (Lindon, & Trodd, 2016). It is the reason why it is of importance for the workers in the set up of money exchange department to listen to the people’s perspectives with whom they work with. They should also have the willingness of accepting the different paradigms than their own or even the paradigm that is dominant.

A crucial part of reflection in the activities of money exchange is the consideration and application of theories in practice. The base of theories in the set up of money exchange work is necessary to all the other works being done in practice. Workers in money exchange need to get prepared to reflect critically on the theory that is being brought into practice. There is a notification that the theory base of work of money exchange is euro-centrally dominated meaning that some of the perspectives may be unintentionally excluded (Kolb, 2014). Due to the different cultural background, it was of importance to be particularly careful in applying theory to the work of giving advice to the diverse clients. However, the practice cannot only be based on a routine with no basis of evidence.

The ever increasing influence of the post-modern theory does not favor one paradigm over the other, but it has a focus on the subjective nature of the truth. To some extent, it has helped in alleviating some of the issues in the work of money exchange. Working with the clients over a period of several months provided extensive support in identifying issues quickly. Particularly, when working with the clients having issues of understanding the operation of the currency exchange situations was systems theory, and this theory was important during the reflection. The system theory has been highly influential on the knowledge base of the money exchange work. The incorporation of the specific application of the systems theory was possible for the provision of service to the customers and particularly to those who had difficulty in interpreting the exchange modalities.

According to Moon (2013), reflection occurs within an understanding of an individual and its meaning is attributed to an event but not at the event. Thus, there is a need for the money exchange workers to look at the underlying assumptions as well as the dominant narratives in shaping the holistic understanding of various incidents. Black and Plowright (2010) acknowledged the significance of acquiring new information concerning reflection. It can either be sourced from personal consideration or through a professional support. The newly acquired knowledge can change the narrative an individual is engaged in by completely reconstructing the way an incident or an event is considered (Black & Plowright, 2010). This would be helpful in having reconsideration for an event and determining whether something could have been done, performed better or differently. About working in the shop money exchange, there was much focus on theory when working with the clients. In literature around theory, it has been recognized that focusing overly on theory when working with the service users can in real sense hinder the actual work being done as the user of the service can develop the feeling of depersonalization.

Future Development

In future, it is of importance not only to reflect on the work and the working environment but also the process that is involved in the reflection itself. Reflection is usually not seen as a self-evidently positive mechanism (Lindon & Trodd, 2016). There is a reflection in the way reflection is promoted in the present practice environments. Moon (2013) describes how reflection has been viewed as self-evidently worthwhile without having a significant critique recognizing that concentrating too much on the assessment of the reflection has the consequence of prescriptive approach to uncompromising reflection. At times, this could be the case when the reflections were required certain times and had the reflection supervision in a certain way. Having somebody assessing the reflection made the situation more difficult as reflecting in a way that was personal was not easy. Therefore, in the future, it is important to consider that reflection is something that can be assessed based on the traditional or old reduction-techniques. Also, the experience obtained on reflection from the external engagement is vital towards the improving incorporation of the theory-based techniques with the practical experience from the placement. The theoretical aspect of skills of negotiation, leadership, conflict management, intercultural communication would be enhanced in line with the experience gotten from the external engagement.

The issues that the workers in the shop money exchange are engaged in not only have a reflection on the concerns of the service users but also reflect the issues that are inherent in the wider business society. The reflection lacked in the area of unequal power dynamics and its consequence of concerns on oppression. As a result, the workers need to engage in these consequences not only on the micro-level but also on a macro-level. To some extent, this was the area in which reflection was lacking. However, it was difficult to determine how to address the wider inequality in the management and how best the client’s woes could be handled.