Managing and Leading Institutions in a Complex World - Report Example

An individual SWOT analysis and reflection

Nowadays, the world has faced the digital progress and rapid development in the vast majority of fields. This tendency provides young graduating students with a generous amount of professional opportunities. Nevertheless, the progress caused fierce competition on the labour market of the developed world. The reason is the high level of education, as well as a significant influx of trainees from emerging markets. Hence, students should be aware of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in order to be able to cope with the potential obstacles to employment. In addition, it is necessary for young graduates to set clear goals with respect to the future sector of employment so as to be capable of enhancing relevant personal and professional skills. Thus, this paper is aimed at carrying out of SWOT analysis of my personality, as well as writing a personal reflection on our group work, from an employability perspective in order to identify my qualities and abilities that will be beneficial to a future employer.

Primarily, it would be appropriate to identify and evaluate my Strengths that can be beneficial to my future employer. According to the analysis of my professional experience and past teamwork, I can define my strengths as the following.

• Outstanding managerial abilities, leadership and teamwork skills. Referring to my experience, it is necessary to say that I have been in charge of many projects of diverse complexity. I have managed to successfully accomplish many referral tasks and resolve problems when I had been working as a branch manager in a busy high street store called JAY. Previously, I had successfully managed a team of translators during my job as a volunteer of LiaoNing International Summer sports meet. In addition, I managed to lead seven people in a project of creating a business plan for a new restaurant. We effectively cooperated in the accomplishing our goals due to the proper management and responsiveness of my team.
• Comprehensive knowledge of finance, accounting and business management. I have got a bachelor degree in accounting and business management at Keele University. I have learnt a lot about the entrepreneurship, media, business and human resource management. Nowadays, I am getting a degree Manchester University. There I am comprehending the subtleties of business analysis, employability and personal development, financial theory, and performance measurement. Undoubtedly, this knowledge would be extremely beneficial for my future employer.
• Communication and presentation skills. During my education, I have been involved in different projects that required perfect presentation and communications skills. Hence, I had to learn how to communicate and present projects and relevant information effectively. For instance, I had been working as a substitute teacher in LiaoNing university. I had to prepare event materials for every student and create a short and creative presentation. The main aim was to convey to students the information by the most effectively way. Eventually, the freshmen obtained a preliminary understanding of the university, as well as a considerable portion of motivation. In addition, I have learnt how to mix well with each team member in order to ensure the success of my projects.
• My hobbies are closely linked to my professional sphere. From the beginning of my education, I became highly interested in finance, business, and economics. It signifies that, at my leisure, I tend to read relevant magazines such as “The Economist”, “Journal of Finance”, 'The Wall Street Journal" and the like. Furthermore, I listen a Chinese business radio called CNR, which spotlights recent economic situation. It would be extremely beneficial for my future employer as my hobbies ensure a constant development of my personal and professional development.

However, like everyone else, I have Weaknesses that can provide me with some obstacles in the future. Thus, it would be proper to determine these qualities in order to develop them further.

• Exceeding attention to details. It is necessary to notice that I am a perfectionist to some extent due to my aspiration to perform my duties properly and qualitatively. Nonetheless, it can provide a negative impact on my future work in some ways. The reason is that, from time to time, managers should make a proper decision in tight deadlines. Thus, my commitment to excellence may lead to losses of an immensely valuable resource such as time.
• Occasionally, I find myself extremely controlling. Perhaps, it can be caused by my excellence commitment. Primarily, it is a positive quality for a manager as controlling, along with planning, organizing, staffing, and coordinating, is the essential function of management (Dittmer, 2009, pp. 64). Nevertheless, in practice, managing of people is a more comprehensive process. A perfect manager should find golden mean in order to reach a success and be an outstanding leader who can inspire and lead from the front his or her followers. I need to find a golden mean in order not to face obstacles in teamwork.
• Persistence. I am a persistent individual. In general, it is a positive quality as I can pursue an objective of organisation and my team. Moreover, the most genius ideas of the world got a success due to this quality. For example, Steve Jobs, who was told that perfectionism in design, along with the high expenditures connected with innovations, was a wrong way for his organisation (Isaacson, 2011, pp. 134). Jobs stood his ground, and eventually, his company became a market leader. Nevertheless, this quality can become a problem in teamwork as for successful synergy, people should listen, support and inspire each other. A starting point for working with any team is to understand the individuals that work in the team. If Steve Jobs had not been so persistent and stubborn, he would not have been fired from Apple, and company would not have lost the leading positions on the market, in 1985 (Isaacson, 2011, pp. 356).

There are many external factors that can help me to reach success or hinder me achieving my desired career. These factors are provided by the environment and can vary due to different changes. They are called Opportunities and Threats.

Opportunities:

• Student society can benefit me. Primarily, I have had an opportunity to strike up an acquaintance with a huge amount of people due to the active involvement in campus life and various events. At this point, my engagement as Student Union propagandist can benefit me by means of a maintenance and assistance from my colleagues. It means that one of them can launch own business and hire me. In addition, they can put me in touch with a potential employer or even recommend me. Students always have many career prospect due to different internship programs and the like.
• The rapid development of the world. The progress of humanity and the process of Globalization would provide me with a great number of career opportunities. The reason is that today, my specialization is in demand as well-established companies, as well as new businesses, always need young, fresh and perspective professionals, especially in management area (Folkman, 2015). Moreover, due to the growth of the world’s business sector, there would be more and more possible positions for versatile professionals in the field of management.
• A rapid growth of emerging markets. Nowadays, the countries such as India, China, and various African countries have experienced a significant economic growth. It signifies that in future, there would be many prospective businesses. Undoubtedly, an experienced and well-educated western specialist would be a perfect match to the newcomers to the international market. Moreover, one of my hobbies is independent traveling, which means that I have perfect time management and planning skills. It allows me to learn different culture and helpful for my future work when we traveling in different countries. Thus, I can launch own travel agency in one of this countries or organise hiking tours to such countries. It would be interesting to the target audience as the vast majority of people prefer traveling to developed world. The essential part of success in this field is to add my creative approach, as well as the expertise in this field, to traveling in order to provide customers with the exciting and spectacular pastime.

Threats:

• Other graduates that have similar specialization and skills. The growing demand for education caused fierce competition on the labour market. It signifies that there are many competent, well-educated, ambitious and relatively experienced young professionals that search for a job. Under such conditions, it can be sufficiently challenging for me to go through all stages of the interview, win all competitions and obtain employment in a promising organisation.
• Economic downturn. In spite of the constant development of the world, there are a generous amount of concerns with regard to the economic downturn. Primarily, the experience of the last recession taught people that the world economy is sufficiently shaky. Hence, economic collapse on the one side of the world will provide the rest countries with negative consequences. Nowadays, there is anxiety state with respect to Chinese economy, which represented a significant slowdown in economic growth. According to John Tobey, “the Chinese leaders’ policies and actions are intensifying and prolonging the country’s economic and financial problems. Moreover, the fallout extends well into the rest of the world, adversely affecting both emerging and developed countries” (Tobey, 2015). Besides, a future referendum regarding a secession of the United Kingdom from the European Union, unconditionally, would negatively influence on the economic well-being of the country, at the first terms (Fidler, 2016). Therefore, it can lead to a considerable reduction of jobs and career opportunities.

Furthermore, it is necessary to analyse how my group worked together in order to understand my ability to work in a team. During this course, my group had to accomplish a coursework with regard to a company merger. Primarily, it would be proper to mention that all members of the group related decently to one another. The reason was that each of us understood that a success of our work directly depended on the effectiveness of our cooperation. In turn, the group members had to take well to each other, as well as express mutual respect in order to ensure active cooperation. Thus, the group members, as future professionals, did their best in order to listen and build on one another’s idea. The vast majority of the students suggested various ideas in relation to the assignment. The other part of the group tried to process these ideas by the most effective way, as well as in the shortest periods. To sum up, it would be proper to notice that, in the most, the working process went smoothly. In addition, we had a set of required tasks; therefore, we had to segregate the responsibilities among the members properly. In duties segregation, we took into consideration the different and specific skills and knowledge of each member. For example, we sought to commission individuals whose field of expertise and hobbies were more related to Human Resource management and Manufacturing for identifying the problems and opportunities in these areas. Hence, all students contributed to the accomplishment of the assignment relatively equally.

However, there were a few people who contributed marginally larger as they were in charge of the organisation, control and motivation of the other members regardless of their initial duties. It is obvious that the team faced some obstacles, especially in terms of time framework. In spite of the fact that we perfectly planned the work, we encountered some obstacles. In the first terms, our group did not manage to follow the initial timeframes. Nevertheless, after a few time management failures in particular areas, we jointly decided to try harder and help students who run out of time. In general, we always sought to make decisions jointly. If someone could not be present at the team meeting, we suggested this person to use different applications in order to be in touch online. Besides, we had a general chat room where we represented last updates and occurred problems with respect to the project. This move supported us to make major decisions taking into account each opinion.

Primarily, when things did not go so smoothly, we jointly assessed the extent of a problem. Then, we collectively discussed with regard to the necessary measures. For example, if an individual had not done his or her best in order to accomplish the duties in time or in line with expectations, we jointly considered the possible outcomes, as well as steps that could be taken in order to avoid negative consequences. Time framework was a weakness of our group as, previously, we had not had the similar experience of the collaborative work. It means that each member of the working team was responsible for others and conversely. Thus, some parts of the work were sufficiently easier than others. Also, some members coped better than others that led us to missing deadlines.

In my opinion, I contributed a lot to the successful accomplishment of the course work. The reason is that I always tried to do my best in order to resolve various unexpected problems. Moreover, I sought to apply all my theoretical and practical knowledge in IT, the manufacturing processes, Human Resources, marketing and sales, sustainability and the environment. Besides, my perfectionism served good. Even despite the fact that my exceeding attention to details could slow down my progress, there always were people who effectively accelerated me in order the project to meet the deadlines. Eventually, I tried to support and motivate people who did not cope with their duties effectively as I was encouraged by the joint responsibility for the grade. I said them that efforts they made in these period of time would definitely provide all of us with incredible results in the future. Unconditionally, it is necessary to mention that during this project, I could have done a few things differently. Firstly, I should have got across to each member of working team. It would have provided me with understanding with regard to which way of motivation and control each member would perceive better. As a result, it would have brought to naught all possible misunderstandings and conflicts. Secondly, I would have applied different approach to the timing.

I am deeply convinced that group work is one of my personal strengths. First of all, I enjoyed to be committed to such a significant project, which could not be successfully completed by one person. I felt as a part of something important and great. Second of all, I have enjoyed all kinds of group interaction including mutual support, control and motivation. In addition, it is sufficiently easier to come up with something creative, as well as to consider the problem from different points of view, by means of group brainstorming session. Therefore, I am going to improve my ability to work in team insofar as possible.

According to my performance during the group project, I decided to develop my knowledge of psychology and learn new techniques of time management. To be more specific, if I had been aware of special effective time management techniques, we would have met all deadlines directly from the beginning of our collaborative work. Therefore, I am going to search for some easy to applying but effective time management techniques that help experienced professionals to manage their time efficiently. In addition, if I had been able to determine psychological types of all team members, I would have had a clear understanding with respect to how to interact with these people beneficially. To clarify, I would be able to organise, motivate and control them properly, thereby, facilitating our progress. Eventually, due to the course work, I understood that students need more joint practical tasks in order to comprehend their ability to work with each other.

Conclusion

The paper represented SWOT analysis of my personal and professional skills from an employability perspective. In addition, there was written my personal reflection on the group project with respect to the merger of Speedy Soles and Flexi-feet Ltd. As a result, there were identified my professional strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Thus, it can be concluded that my skills are in demand on the current labour market. Nevertheless, there are some external factors that can cause some obstacles for my future employment. The reflection contributed a lot to the assessment of my ability to work in a team. To sum up, it would be appropriate to say that I can successfully operate in a team; however, there are some areas of my performance that I decided to improve. Drawing on the analysis and reflection, I suppose that I have a profound knowledge of business and management. Hence, my skills would be a perfect match to my future company.