Albaraa alamoudi Reflective Portfolio BEM1023 PDF

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REFLECTIVE PORTFOLIO TERM 1 BEM1023
talks about subjects including leadership transformational and transactional democratic and...

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1) As a result of your term 1 learning in the Discovering Management module, what is the single most important lesson you have learned about effective management? Reflect also on why you see this as the most important lesson, and what the implications of this are for you. In this module I have learnt many aspects of management from theories such as mintzbergs 5Ps which states that strategy may be viewed as 5 parts (plan, ploy, pattern, position and perspective). Or Corporate social responsibility (CSR) which implies that a business should focus on more than just profits and that it should have a moral compass in the sense that it should take into account whether their actions are ethical or not ,in other words applying the triple bottom line to their decision making process. There are many more lessons that I have learnt but the most important for me is Porters 5 forces which is a framework designed to analyze the competitive environment of a business and what competitive forces are driving the industry. This has allowed me to expand my thinking and also incorporate my knowledge of economics into my management skills, using this strategic model is an excellent way to know the chances that a business has in succeeding whether it is attempting to enter a new market or if it’s trying to making decisions in an existing market (i.e increasing prices of its products) this is a tool that can be very useful in the decision making process and can be a key factor in knowing whether products will succeed or not. Further more this will help me become a better manager in the future, I will be able to properly assess each key aspect of the industry before making a decision and that will further increase my chances of success. Secondly even though this topic and others I have learnt in this course have helped me improve my capabilities as a manager they have also shown my weaknesses. This includes the fact that my interpretation of management before I entered this module was more of a autocratic style of management and leaning more towards F.W Taylor’s motivational theory which implied that employees only care about monetary rewards and that would be a good enough approach to get their maximum effort (i.e piece rate/time rate). Now I realize that although monetary rewards are appreciated by workers, it will only motivate them to a certain extent. Managers should have more of a humanistic approach applying maslows hierarchy of needs to their managerial skills this would allow me to not only build a relationship with my employees by satisfying their needs of motivation but it will also in turn be good for my business as I will shape every worker into the best version of themselves as both employees and people in general this will lead to greater business success. In addition to that the digitalization topic in this module has shown the automation of jobs making some workers redundant, thus putting them out of work. Managers must be aware of these things in their industry so that they don’t fall behind on the competition at the same time they must take into account the impact of putting an employee out of work, this relates to my point that business should be ethical to achieve CSR. Managers should figure out a way to insure the employees that are being let go that they will have something to keep them on their feet, such as severance packages letters of recommendation etc. lastly all of these have contributed to my CPD because I am no aware of my weaknesses and can find an action plan to further improve and develop not only my knowledge but also my approach to management. In conclusion, I realize I have mentioned more than one topic so I must emphasise that Porters 5 forces is the most important topic but it is not the only one that has helped me improve my approach to management all of the mentioned above were key parts of my growth as both a student and an aspiring leader and manger.

2) As a result of your experience of group work in term 1, what do you think are your emerging strengths and weaknesses as a team member? Reflect also on the implications of this self-assessment for you and on what actions you can take to develop your ability to become a better team-worker in the next term. In our presentation me and my group were asked to compare and contrast the performance of two companies (news of the world and news on Sunday), we were required to incorporate what we have learnt into our presentation to analyse their decisions and performances as businesses. We were able to link our presentation to various topics such as porters 5 forces using it as a way of finding a solution to why news on Sunday failed, implying that if they had incorporated that into their decision making process they may have been able to survive and possibly maintain a good position in the market place. CSR Because news of the world was unethical in its use of hacking to get their information. Working in a group in these circumstances proved to be somewhat difficult however we were able to find a medium at which we could communicate, personally I feel that I was able to contribute and add value to the team however I've also found weaknesses in my team working skills such as the fact that I wasn't able to voice my opinions and ideas properly And because of the time difference which was no surprise since we're all in different countries proved to be a problem, we could not find a time where we were all comfortable so some of us had to compromise to find a reasonable time so that we could start our presentation and discuss what we were going to do. The presentation in my opinion was the success because we were able to showcase our knowledge and dedication to the project. Furthermore the application of what we had learned was clear and well put. However we weren't able to be concise and straight to the point at some points in the presentation the topics wouldn't link together and I feel that this was because of the lack of communication between each other. This presentation has allowed me to find an action plan to further develop my teamworking skills such as being a leader when no one is stepping up to take appropriate measures to make sure that the project is a success and to find common grounds on which we can all relate, which can in turn help us communicate better and start working more as a team. Solving the same puzzle together rather than just individuals bringing different parts that don't fit. Secondly I've learnt that I'm able to work with anyone and not have any problems which is a good characteristic to have especially when working in a randomized group I'm able to avoid problems and find solutions very quickly which was a key part in our first step towards our groupwork. I made the compromise to take a time that other people were comfortable with although I wasn't because it was late in my country however for the sake of the presentation and the group as a whole I felt that the compromise was something that had to happen. In the future I aim to be more vocal of my ideas and opinions because I feel that I could have made our presentation much better than it was, putting in different ideas and applying my knowledge to our work could have improved the presentation as a whole and we could have surpassed other groups in terms of our ideas and specifically the way in which we present our work. We were not able to rehearse our presentation because some of us hadn't finished our part in time therefore we couldn't rehearse the presentation as a whole which made it seem like it didn't flow together and I feel that that may have looked unprofessional even though the way we spoke individually was excellent. In conclusion although our presentation was good I feel that it wasn't up to my standard as I always aim to be the best at what I do and for future presentations and group projects in general I will apply that principle to my team and that will further contribute to my team working skills as a whole and help me reach my goal.

3) Your third piece will comprise of written feedback from you to one of the other teams in your seminar group about their formative presentation. This should be concerned as much with content as with the presentation skills the team demonstrated. You can build on the feedback you provided earlier on as a team but here you are asked to provide your individual thoughts and review. Your feedback should be thoughtful and constructive.

I chose to analyze the presentation made by group two. This group was asked to compare Rayanair and Vrigin airlines, I chose this group specifically because unlike my assignment they were asked to compare two companies that we're still active meaning they went through the pressures of the pandemic so I was very interested to see their insight and How they could apply their knowledge to the current occurrences in the airline industry. What I found impressive was that they were able to apply porters 5 forces to their presentation and critically analyze the airline industry and the effects that the pandemic had on it. I feel that they were very well spoken and the presentation was extremely professional In the sense that the way they were transitioning from one another it was very seamless. Furthermore in comparison to my own group and our presentation group two was able to be concise and not depend on a large amount of text to explain their point. They were able to respond well to questions and although the students did not have many, the questions that the professor asked were for the most part answered with no flaw. This gave me a clear sign that they understood the material and are able to assess each and any given market through the porters 5 forces model. However although the use of porters 5 forces was good when it came to the second part of the presentation I felt that this group was not digging deep into management theories and applying that to their presentation by analyzing how the two companies adapted their management and strategic models to survive in this very unique position that the market has been put in. They could have compared the two companies in what their decisions were when the pandemic hit and the fact that they had to cut down costs. Whilst Rayaniar was willing to discuss pay cuts virgin simply resorted to downsizing. Group two could have even went on to discuss possible advantages of this to Rayanair such as good relations with the public as well as the union of workers which especially now have a lot more power and can cause massive changes within each company therefore it is better to build a good relationship with them. These are just some ideas that came to mind, however this only scratches the surface of the ways in which group two could’ve articulately incorporated and show cased their knowledge of management theories they have gained from this module. In conclusion this group performed well and I feel that with the right feedback they will be able to improve their presentation in term two, they had many good characteristics which were mentioned above that indicated to me that they have immense potential. I would suggest to each of them to revise management theories or at least work on their ability to apply them to their work....