Professional Placement Reflections - Report Example

Professional Placement Report Executive summary The aim of the report is to indicate the experiences I came across in a 6 week placement as a marketing assistant. The opportunity to undertake the placement at the chambers of commerce in Leeds comes with great experience in understanding the marketing role. The skills involved in communicating with other people on a marketing level including reflecting on a previous placement I had undertaken previously. In the previous placement, I set six employable criteria, which is management upon which I elevated the study on the current placement. I will display the organizational structure of the chambers of e-commerce Leeds in 3 departmental levels, company levels and individual levels. I will be completing a 6 based professional development based on the identification of goals completed during the placement. Career planning refers to the analysis of a given area of interest. In the six week placement periods, I have learned how non-profit organisations communicate and build relationships with staff/ members through the use of e-communication tool – E-zines. Introduction Chambers of commerce, Leeds area is a voluntary organisation run by funds generated by the members. The organisation designs to meet the needs of the community and business. The organisation provides information bureau that works with the business community and the city government. The report indicates a 6 week placement period in the chambers of commerce Leeds and marketing analysis. The professional development that started on the 7th January 2012 to the 15th of February 2013 indicated a series of marketing growth. The company specialises in providing information to the public. It works as a combination of the city government and the business community to provide a virtual, unlimited source of information to the changing needs of the community. As a marketing assistant, I had the responsibility of providing the various departments with the current methods of relying information to the public. My roles taken up as the marketing assistant includes managing advertising, public relations and communicating to the individuals at the core. Organisational review Company level The chamber of commerce is an organization which works to provide a voice of business. The company provides extraordinary number of small to medium to large members. They have a high loyalty status. The demographics of chamber of commerce indicate a diverse population of various individuals. The chamber offers a variety of information in support of the services they have to offer. While undertaking the six week placement, I noticed the company had aims that were discussed in meetings. Currently, the Company is trying to reach the targets and previous targets. Targets are below and new targets have been made to release its workforce. Organizational aims are stated below to be more structured and balanced. The aims were finalized by Kalpna Katy and mark Organizational structure Head of business representation and policy manger The head of the department is Mark Goldstone. He is responsible for representing business issues to policy makers. He remains responsible for promoting what the chambers does to wider audiences. This provides function in the communications supporter by getting a customer insight from chamber and environment. Mark collects comments and turns into content putting it into perspective for members. He manages Katey and Kalpana. He is very passionate about his job very good knowledge. He undertakes meetings with staff catch-up meetings, project meetings, e-communication meetings, press release meetings, and participates in the news by giving comments on behalf of chamber of commerce as they are the “voice of businesses”. Marketing Manager: Responsible for communication for the Chamber Kalpna Mistry is the head of this department and is responsible for providing reports to Mark Goldstone. His main role indicates the significant impact on the Chamber as the better communications the organization has the more people will see what we they have to offer, use the services and join the Chamber. Mistry ensures the updates content and developing the current website. He writes and distributes e press releases. The responsibility comes with creating e-zines and sending them to members. He is in charge of managing tariffing and social media including twitter and LinkedIn feeds. Patrons Policy Marketing (PPM Department) The departments work together to ensure they provide representation. Mark Goldstone is the policy representation manger hence takes care of all representation and lobbying with patrons. He looks after some patrons within this department (bigger patrons who pay more to join the company are tend to be more interested with the policy side of services and lobbying. At this point, he links with Kalpna to make organizations marketing communications successful. This also developed skills of graphic designer as she does all e zines and e shots, produces characteristic forms of e-bulletins. Katey who is the account manager works together with mark and Kalpna as she looks after the “corporate members” booking events and collecting invoices. This also involves making the first point of contact for members. They all work together to create a long term member relationship through e-communication, events and advertising events. What is the specific type of productive activity undertaken by the company and how is it organised? Corporate culture is a strategic investment that ensures well driven business activities. As for diamond marketing institution, the need to create success in the economy that comes with corporate change is extensive. Approaching a change requires putting into consideration the important cultural themes that ensure expression in an organization without any neglect (Benedict‏, 2005). The cultural web is a tool designed to help managers with the challenge that comes with cultural change. Originated by Belch (2008), the tool is applied by many companies including KPMG, Shell and Castrol. The web is designed to compare to a spider’s web where the center is the paradigm or main idea for the organization, acting as a centrifugal force aimed at weaving cultural themes together. The cultural web brings out the concept of change where most employees feel comfortable with the normal happenings (Belch, 2008). Expressions can be considered cultural to an organization after cultural artifacts have been performed. Selecting a process includes incorporating the aspects that require change. It is important to facilitate a clear understanding of the analytical process with which members of the organization can relate to once the culture has been incorporated. The cultural web is a device that ensures a practical aspect of the themes with aspects placed on anthropology. Department level Chambers of e-commerce Leeds uses a result-oriented culture aimed at providing its employees with the factors they can make sense of both internally and externally. It is important for the company as first, it makes complex situations understandable and second, it creates basis on the success of the company through providing a competitive advantage since one’s culture is difficult to imitate (Grensing-Pophal, 2000). It is also difficult for the company as new ideas may disrupt with the success of the organization. The aim to have a clear corporate strategy for the marketing institution ensures a clear and precise need to ensure it reaches and surpasses it goals (Grensing-Pophal, 2000). Mapping the culture into the organization comes as an advantage in that bringing out factors taken for granted can be an important approach for the marketing institution to determine the rarely questioned aspects. If the marketing institution discovers that no one is interested in the aspects taken for granted, then changing this might just be difficult (Haviland, Prins, McBride, & Walrath, 2010). Mapping cultural aspects enables the marketing institution to see where barriers to change exist and how it will affect their overall strategy. A map in place ensures basic examinations on the changes that need to occur to deliver a strategy and how the management can manage the ideas to development. The chamber uses the cultural web with the aim to generate managers’ perceptions. The setting varies but the approach is done in groups, usually of managers from different departments. The groups go ahead to determine the strategic issues facing the marketing institution. It is important for the participants to understand the basis of the cultural web and how it will aid in implementing the strategies. The sessions start with reviews of concepts and how they link with the strategy of the organization. The marketing institution then goes to details to explain elements of the culture which include stories, symbols, rituals & routines, paradigm, power structures, control systems and organizational structures. A paradigm in the cultural web refers to assumptions about the organization taken for granted. Routine is the day-to-day running of the organization in the line of conducting business and the way they do things. Rituals in relation to the organization refer to programs that have to be undertaken such as training, promotion and assessment or evaluation. Stories include information told to each other as members to new employees and even outsiders. Symbolic aspects include logos, titles, offices and cars. This may also involve the language used in the organization. Control systems refer to the important activities that bring recognition such as the reward systems and measurements. Power structure will outline the managerial approach of the company and its relevance in maintaining good culture. In the meantime, members are asked to note down examples of each aspect relevant in their organization. This comes as easy as they can easily identify situations relating to symbols, routines and stories. Paradigm for the marketing institution is a difficult concept to grasp as it is an assumption and not considered a problem. Group work applies for the marketing institution as it brings out individual views where managers summarize and discuss the degree to which this information is relevant to the objective changes. Similarities occur, meaning that managers may be using the same method to ensure the running of information in their departments. The main aim in this segregation is usually to come up with aspects of the organization that are important and not please everyone. As managers of diamond marketing institution , the aim is to have what is important take the front row in coming up with solutions. Chambers of e-commerce Leeds is well informed that paradigm is a difficult task and ensures that managers do not substitute any notion of strategy for paradigm. It is normal for managers to discuss what the organization should take for granted. It is important to note that understanding the difference between these elements is really important. Listing values rather than the assumptions often occurs. The management of Chambers of e-commerce Leeds takes note that what is taken for granted may be simple and straight forward. For instance, the marketing institution tends to take for granted the importance of professional business service provision, and this is not a surprise. The main point is that the management may be much embedded and they should be as it is extremely difficult to apply change. Hence, it is important for the management to look for obvious information that would rarely touch their eyes. Dealing with the issue of paradigm, the marketing institution ensures that the catalogue of constructs is made. This is helpful as the catalogue may reveal very few constructions that are taken for granted. What is the productive activity undertaken by the department and how it is performed considering your job role within the organisation? The productivity undertaken by the chamber of commerce indicates retention of the membership within the brand. This is achieved through providing e-newsletters and marketing support. Providing the media with press media coverage comes with the marketing department ensuring that the social media content marks all the comments and related it to perspective members. This is the responsibility of manager Katey who ensures the retention of members within certain branding ranging from small to medium. Delegation of strategy involves understanding how organisation communicates with the world. With what chamber of commerce comments on, they want to be seen as an influencing part. How does chamber of commerce using Constant contact package + analyzing Metrics and open rate trends. The American package in relation to the chamber does not incorporate well into the warp media as they are not in a position to communicate through the phone. Maintaining the contact enables one create e-zine articles since they provide templates for different packages. The constant contact package provides a split theme for a suitable template that works to capture the attention of the audience. The chamber of commerce can work with a variety of templates to create an e-zine, and in this case, one would choose the business selection templates as the Fairley limited package. This is because it provides the employees with the basics. The chamber of commerce can create e-zines without having a graphic designer as it is flexible, providing a variety of backgrounds and colors. When promoting repetition is used through various different medians in order to push events and increase the use of open rates of E-Ziens. Single businesses, which have a small amount of influence, come to the chamber of commerce as they are a larger well known company consisting of 2000 businesses within the chamber network. The application of the content voice of business work contains members that come from specific regions and prefer a more target at the York council. The Leeds voice of business contains: Policy and representation Property forums Opportunity to meet MP events Lobbying activity Campaigns Opinions of what is going on in the economy Reports mentioning the chambers PROJECT ANALYSIS Introduction Analysis of given information comes with understanding the background of the organization. Chamber of e-commerce in Leeds works well on an online platform hence its connection to the e-zine article. The analysis below provides various outputs; Question 1 The numbers of individuals do read the chamber e-zines meaning a good percentage of individuals can access the information online. Question 2: Providing information after every two weeks gives the company the opportunity to gather more information to incorporate in the change. It also provides the readers with a diverse and different piece of information. Question3 It could be important for the company to inform its member on new e-zine articles. This gives both the company and the audience a chance to wait for new information. I recommend the company to provide information before putting it available to the site. Question 4 It is vital to discuss the information with the member before displaying the information on the sites. This is important as it provides the institution with vital information that needs the attention of the members. Question 5 In the survey, a majority of the people did not like the design. While formulating the design, it is important to ask the users of the design before displaying the information on the sites Question 6 The survey indicates that the majority of the people agree to monthly e-zine articles. This gives enough time for the audience to receive and accept the previous article. Question 7 It is important to have the correct content for the organization. In the case of chambers of e-commerce Leeds, the content matched the organization. This ensures a collaboration of what is displayed on the site and what the company stands for. Question 8 The information displayed on the chambers is vital as it represents the organization. Understanding what is displayed in the chambers stands for what the organization hopes to accomplish. Question 9 In the survey, a majority of the people did not like the design. While formulating the design, it is important to ask the users of the design before displaying the information on the sites. Survey While looking at the survey made by the employees, it is important to note a difference in the information displayed. Analyze table of results The software provides for analyzing information at the organization comes in two types, constant contact and Google analytic. The constant contact displays the constant information displayed by the table while the Google analytic compares the reading to Google. These statistics assist in the analysis of the themes and trends by showing e-zines in the last 6 months have the highest numbers which have increased and decreased. Chambers of e-commerce Leeds uses the Chambers of e-commerce Leeds to discover compatible strategies. The culture in place will likely to manage the strategy instead of the managers. Developing and holding a culture that tends to run the strategies may become a hindrance for the organization as it may not give information on the proper needs or resources that the company requires as a successful. It is important for Chambers of e-commerce Leeds to find out if the culture they hold is departmental and functional. This may mean that functionalism is not preserved and legitimated by professional ethical means protected by departmental heads. It is logical that the same departmental groups that were involved in making sure that the move is maintained end up revealing or providing information that is not relevant to the study of the culture (Campbell, 2009). The web brings to light the analysis of the organization as a whole. It will give an analysis of how the organization is linked heritage, uniformity and for how long this has been in perspective. This type of information is likely to be linked to the results in the form of revenue generated. The marketing institution is able to tell if their culture affects the generated incomes with respect to the way of running business. This information is generated from a diverse platform. The use of the internet and surveying lists could reveal information that may be used as supporting data. This is however only applicable is the information is from a viable source. Culture tends to be preserved meaning that previous employees in the organization are likely to hold on to ways of doing business. It becomes difficult for the new staff to be incorporated to the new culture if their mentors act differently. The web hence ensures that the changes that the marketing institution approves are incorporated and followed to the latter. It may prove to be a difficult task for the marketing institution to change culture kept by the organization for long periods. The most common reason is that the changes are usually taken for granted. Change in culture is not one of the things that people question. To explain this, take for instance, a change in salary or downsizing brings about many questions compared to the change of culture (Barrow & Mosley, 2005). This is because it might not really affect them. To ensure that this is not present in the marketing institution, the management makes sure that any circumstances revealed that show reluctance in adhering to the culture placed is dealt with immediately. Just to ensure that the culture does not seem like a rule that they have to follow, the whole organization comes up with this on a consensus basis (Canton, 2007). Survey Results for First Survey to Staff Individuals and groups tend to be associated with organizations that have functional organizational structures. This is because they are likely to preserve their base. Chambers of e-commerce Leeds knows this well and ensures that it accomplishes just that. The marketing institution depends on the individuals and groups for the running of their business. To this respect, the marketing institution ensures that these groups find trust in them as a strong and stable organization. Dominant routines and persistent trends with clear hierarchical or authority and similar stories ensure that the marketing institution brings out the best management for the success of everyone. Surveying of departmental structures and determining the influence bestowed on individual employees is important as it brings out the need to create viable and strong communication lines. Formal committees for decision making and control over sized budgets come with the need for the company to use the cultural web. It helps in sourcing for information as earlier stated and makes sure that only the vital appears in the top of the list (Borysowich, 2008). It is common for senior personnel to get privileges in certain areas such as through getting parking places and other minor services. The junior personnel on the other hand get fewer privileges. To deal with this misconception Chambers of e-commerce Leeds ensures that importance and focus is kept on the achieving their responsibilities. It is also important that the cultural web incorporated the immediate and relevant external environment. Local and international government authorities affect the decisions made by the company and come as an important element to the marketing institution. The web incorporates them as they are likely to impose terms of conducting business that may affect the culture held by the marketing institution. This move is to ensure that they work with the conditions placed by the regulating factors (Haviland, Prins, McBride, & Walrath, 2010). It is common for many organizations that aspects of the cultural web be associated with power. Departmental silos solve this problem as they ensure that the standing terms are done in professional networks. This is important to ensure the strategy of everyday. The web is likely to prompt decisions about the nature of the organization in terms of its everyday reality and how changing that reality becomes an important move in changing the overall strategy. Coping with daily routines comes as an important move as it gives important envisage in a strategy compared to the focusing of local needs and co-operation with other departments (Haviland, Prins, McBride, & Walrath, 2010). All these issues are important and its discussion also plays an important role and to helps the managers to sensitize on the recognition of cultural aspects of the organization. The cultural web can be essential in a more organizationally specific way to think of problems and changing techniques that can be applied to ensure that the move does not only bring sudden change but is well embedded into the operations of the marketing institution . Chambers of e-commerce Leeds has larger number of employees to go around and ensure that they are at par with the culture being placed. It is important for them to have a clear analysis of the needs of the employees through their managers and provide relevant but meaningful solutions to problems that may arise as a result of the cultural web (Fairfield-Sonn, 2001; Becker & Baloff, 1969). Question 1 and 2 Quantitative data - screenshot & Graph: Survey monkey Q.1 and 2 response from members Question 1 Graph Question 2 graph Question 3 and 4 survey monkey response Question 3 graph The web aids Chambers of e-commerce Leeds deal with identifying the blockages to change. The cultural web is significant for the marketing institution with coming up with sort exhibits that will make it difficult to deliver strategies. The marketing institution is also able to identify some quite specific blockages as to why this could be the problem. Preservations of standards by departmental heads are soon embodies in the formality not only by the committees but also to address issued such as the dress code that will be taken up by the staff (Fairfield-Sonn, 2001). RECCOMDATIONS/THEMES OF RECOGNITION, SUGGESTIONS ETC ON HOW TO IMPROVE CHAMERS E-ZINES The readings provided in the data analysis below indicate various applications that are not running properly. The marketing institution has a clear analysis on each cultural function of the themes. The analytical question that the marketing institution should have while ensuring that the needs of the employees are meet in terms of the cultural changes that need to take place are as follows; The cultural manifestations in relation to the organizational structures are described as the formal and informal leadership relationships available in the organization (Benedict‏, 2005). So in this case Chambers of e-commerce Leeds should ask, how structures, formal and informal are placed. It is also important while looking at the control systems, the administrative on the important aspects of the organization. Under this theme, Chambers of e-commerce Leeds should look at the closely monitored or controlled and why this is so. Rituals and routines are inevitable in the marketing institution as they establish the protocol of carrying out things. It is important that the management asks the question on the important beliefs and how they reflect on the management (Goulding, Mulcahy, & Chambers, 2005). Stories in reference to the information that is reproduced to existing and new members of the organization should provide detailed information in the culture. The management of Chambers of e-commerce Leeds should be asking on the stories told and how they will reflect on the core believes of the organization. Symbols are defined above will signify the meaning grasped with immediate appearance. It is to this respect that the act to sensor and control the behavior of these symbols should be questioned. Power structures are mainly linked to top management (Campbell, 2009). It is important for the marketing institution to find out the assumption present related to leadership and the top beliefs related to the culture that the marketing institution holds. Paradigm, being the most neglected but holding the most important information on assumptions of management should be addressed with importance. Chambers of e-commerce Leeds should ensure that dominant cultural assumptions are underpinned (Borysowich, 2008). References Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrongs Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Barrow, S., & Mosley, R., 2005. The employer brand: bringing the best of brand management to people at work. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Becker, S. W., & Baloff, N., 1969. Organization Structure and Complex Problem Solving. Available from JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/pss/2391104 (Accessed February 12, 2013). Belch, G., 2008. Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communication Perspective. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Australia. Benedict‏, R., 2005. Patterns of culture. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Borysowich, C., 2008. Developing Project Staffing Plans. Available from http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/enterprise-solutions/developing-project-staffing-plans-25338 (Accessed February 12, 2013). Campbell, G. M., 2009. Communications skills for project managers. Newark: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Canton, L. G., 2007. Emergency management:concepts and strategies for effective programs. Hoboken: Wiley-Interscience. Fairfield-Sonn, J. W., 2001. Corporate culture and the quality organization. WestPort: Greenwood Publishing Group. Goethe, J. W., 2011. Communication and Leadership. Available from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/leadcom.html (Accessed February 12, 2013). Goulding, P., Mulcahy, J., & Chambers, B., 2005. Protecting The Business:Good Faith, Competition And Confidentiality. London: Oxford University Press. Grensing-Pophal, L., 2000. H R Book: Human Resource Management for Small Business. Sydney: Self Counsel Press. Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E., McBride, B., & Walrath, D., 2010. Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge. New Jersey: Cengage Learning. Johnson, G., & Scholes, K., 2002. Exploring Corporate Strategy. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Appendices Appendix A: Survey figures Question 1 Question 2: Question3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Appendix B: List of graphs Question 1 and 2 Quantitative data - screenshot & Graph: Survey monkey Q.1 and 2 response from members Question 1 Graph Question 2 graph Question 3 and 4 survey monkey response Question 3 graph Question 7 Question 8 Read More