Task 2 Learning Journal Assignment Sample

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Analysis

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I encountered a challenging ethical situation in the workplace when I found out about supplier payments being repeatedly delayed to preserve profit margin performance for the quarter.

In this event, my workplace was delaying the payment of suppliers because of the purpose of keeping its profit margin high. The workplace has been doing this unethical activity for around 2 months. I have therefore decided to apply a suitable ethical model for take action against such kind of unethical activities. 

I referred to Carroll’s CSR Pyramid to remind procurement department officials of their economic responsibility to pay suppliers on time for services rendered.

One of the key shortcomings of the model however is that it did not consider the severe financial pressures being felt by my organization.

A further critically important shortcoming of the Carroll CSR Pyramid is that it failed to clearly detail how to approach to better fulfilling economic responsibilities (i.e., workable solutions, methods or

practices).

In future, I intend to use this experience to further boost my confidence in flagging up instances of unethical business conduct when I see it without fear of undermining the security of my position within the company.

Description

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Creation

I realised that in my organisation, the perceived power distance between departments puts employees off raising concerns they have with factory/shop floor issues encountered. The perceived power distance is different from actual power distance in the sense that it may not be as great as employees feel it to be. If employees feel it to be sizable then they

will fail to report any issues they encounter or come across in the workplace.

I have experienced high power distance within the workplace where greater inequality has been observed among the employees. Due to the high power distance cultures, the individualism is not being valued. 

I referred to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions model to measure how sizable the perceived power distance is in my department within the organisation. There were some representativeness issues encountered with the model due to it being based exclusively on the case of IBM.

I am now currently working on a report detailing how the organisation can reduce the perceived power distance and to therefore increase employee voice and involvement in strategic decision making processes. In the future, I will make sure that some effective measures and practices must be followed for keeping the power distance cultures managed and lower. 

Description

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Creation

In some departmental conference calls, I feel that I lacked the professional courage needed to speak up for the integrity values that I believe in for fear that they would not necessarily gel with those espoused by the wider department/organisation. The key reason why I lacked the courage and conviction to raise my concerns with other leading strategic officials within the department was due to my self-effacing traits and conflict avoidant personality type.

I consulted with the Professional Courage and Influence factsheet as part of the CIPD’s Profession Map series. The key benefit of this factsheet is that it opened up my perspective to the power of the individual in positively reframing the professional values an organisation stands for.

This factsheet was however somewhat limited by a fairly considerable research-practice gap thus resulting in not all insights proving readily transferable to my unique work situation.

Additionally, it is also significant to note that I was hesitant to put any changes into practice due to having become accustomed to buying into the organisation’s existing set of values rather than influencing others within the organisation to buy into my professional standards of

integrity.

I am currently working on building up my professional courage to speak out based on the knowledge that by doing so I can start to influence others to buy in to the high standards of professional integrity which I myself maintain.

Description

Analysis

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Creation

With the intra-team conflict report that I prepared, I felt quite uncomfortable about being fully open about the conflict

dynamics I had witnessed for fear of engaging in a blame game and overlooking the importance of resolving the process rather than the people.

To deal with this issue I listened to multiple CIPD podcasts to and from work on the processes which

underly or fuel conflict in multicultural teams. The main, primary benefit of listening to these CIPD podcasts is that they vastly improved my knowledge and understanding of why openness and transparency are important in the context of ensuring that conflicts remain creative and constructive as

opposed to personal.

Despite their usefulness, the podcasts were mainly theoretical in nature thus providing no

guarantees that they would work in real life, practical contexts.

I intend to follow up my initial report with a new report that deals not with naming names as such, rather

signposting work processes and methods that require changing to prevent conflict detracting from team performance levels

Description

Analysis

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Creation

During the initial months post- pandemic, I realised that the anxiety and instability I was feeling in my personal life was crossing over into the workplace and negatively affecting the feelings of my colleagues, subordinates and superiors.

This information was given to me via informal discussions with colleagues and subordinates as well as during a performance appraisal meeting with one of my superiors.

Upon realising the influence which my emotions have on those around me (emotional intelligence), I endeavoured to find out how I can better control my emotions in the workplace via referring to

Goleman’s Model. The principal benefit of employing this model is that it helped me to get to the roots of how to control my emotions.

Despite its usefulness in my unique case,

Goleman’s model is not without its limitations the most significant of which include: unsubstantiated findings and principles which have not yet been sufficiently well tested in the field.

I am currently producing a PowerPoint presentation for the organisation to showcase the Goleman techniques I have used which may help leaders of other departments to better control their emotions in the workplace.

Description

Analysis

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Creation

I used the feedback I received from the report I compiled and presented to the senior board members to further develop ad enhance my knowledge and understanding of the link between business acumen and organisational improvement & performance output.

After providing the developed report to my senior managers, I have been provided with the feedback where I was recommended to consider both the external and internal constraints that could deliver greater success to the business acumen. 

I analysed the feedback I received via using the GROW model. On balance using this model proved highly beneficial in clearly mapping out how I can use the feedback I received to benefit my CPD path as well as my business acumen levels.

A critically important limiting issue to consider with respect to the effectiveness of the GROW model in this context however is that business acumen is a highly intricate and complex discipline. As a result, making, the necessary improvements proved somewhat difficult or more difficult than was

initially expected.

I am to produce a follow up report to my original report which builds on the output of the GROW model which clearly details the specific training and development methods which my organisation should look to employ to boost the business acumen level of employees from other departments.

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Analysis

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Creation

Researching behavioural science to get to the roots of impactful behaviour and how to positively influence my colleagues, subordinates, and superiors with my workplace behaviours.

I particularly focused on impactful behaviour in areas of business ethics and social responsibility (i.e., respecting the cultural differences between members of the project team).

Referring to the journal articles series on behavioural science in the workplace.

The key benefit of the scholarly material referred to is that it enabled me to steadily build up my competency and technical skillset proficiency in the area of impactful behaviour and inspiring others to engage in impactful behaviour in ethics and social accountability.

The principal limiting issue to note as regards the strength of the scholarly material sourced is that much of it was theoretical in nature rather than practically actionable.

A further critical limiting issue to consider with respect to the effectiveness of the scholarly material is that not all of it was relevant and applicable to my

unique workplace context.

These limitations notwithstanding, I intend to generalise some of the insights I have gleamed from the scholarly material gathered to other areas of people management practice via inspiring my colleagues to engage in better performance and teamwork behaviours.

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Analysis

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Creation

During my examination, I have registered for the internship of risk management in a workplace because I was curious and very passionate about my future career. 

I have my exams coming on the next week, but still I was so curious that I have got myself registered in the internship as risk management executive for gaining knowledge and experience about managing various risks. 

Everything went well, but I was not able to take out time for my studies so I have decided to write a report to the strategic board members for shifting my internship to the next couple of weeks until my exams get finished. 

I have also applied Kolb’s learning cycle for reflecting my experiences and challenges being faced by me during the internship. 

Composing and producing a future report which rectifies and fleshes out some of the originally suggested recommendations to make them more pursuable for the organisation.

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Creation

Reading widely into the workplace motivation and performance benefits of CPD and succession planning activities. Using the information gained from this process to compose a new PowerPoint presentation thus making the recommendations more digestible for members of the board as opposed to reports which are more onerous and time consuming for

board members to read through.

Referred to various CIPD factsheets and reports on the topic of CPD and its benefits for modern day organisations.

Reading a diverse and eclectic mix of journal articles, academic textbooks and market reports on CPD and how it can be used as a lever for improve delivery of business strategy.

A core limitation associated with the literature sourced and read is that it draws from very few real life, practical case examples and as such lacked transferability in some key areas.

As a result, I was forced to spend quite a significant period of time reworking strategic suggestions advanced by prominent scholars in the field to be more transferable to the unique context of

my own organisation.

Collating and synthesising all of the scholarly material gathered to design and deliver an informed and insightful PowerPoint presentation on how my organisation can successfully utilise CPD and succession planning to benefit employee commitment, engagement and performance in the workplace.

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Creation

Practicing new digital strategic data management and interpretation techniques to add more value to my organisation in its pursuit of realising long term strategic vision.

Referred to latest digital data interpretation techniques used in the field (i.e., regression analysis, cluster analysis, cohort analysis, time series analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics, Monte Carlo simulation and sentiment analysis). A key benefit of this approach taken is that it enabled me to develop a more thorough and comprehensive understanding for how best to interpret digitally capture data to advise business strategy.

A critically important limiting issue to consider in respect of the value of this learning experience is that my initial competency in data interpretation was relatively low. As a result it proved highly challenging and time consuming to make the necessary improvements in this area.

A further primary weaknesses to note as regards the value of the experience is that unless I make similar progress in the area of business acumen, my capacity to interpret data more effectively will add little value to the

organisation.

Making more informed departmental decisions on the subject of successfully delivering business strategy to date and under budget.

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Creation

Engaging in shared learning experiences with peers and colleagues to gain some real life, empirical insight into how the dynamics of shared learning work.

Referred to the constructivist learning environments framework which encompasses 5 core elements: shared control, personal relevance, uncertainty, critical voice and negotiation. On balance using this framework proved reasonably beneficial in respect of furthering my knowledge and

understanding of the key variables involved in shared learning outcomes (i.e., performance attainment, CPD outcomes and skillset acquisition).

A critical limiting issue to consider with respect to the usability of the constructivist learning environments framework however is that its key principles remain relatively untested in the field.

A further core weaknesses to note in terms of using the framework cited immediately above is that it limited my

thinking to 5 variables when in reality there are many more involved.

Pulling together my practical real life experiences and key learning outcomes from reading CIPD factsheets on the subject of shared learning, I intend to produce a report on how my organisation can further enhance and improve shared learning programmes.

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Creation

Practicing situational decision making techniques in real life, workplace scenarios.

I have been assigned with a task of making relevant decisions for the team and managing the problems that are being faced by the team members. For completing this task, I have taken suitable guidance from my manager and taken this task as a challenging responsibility. 

Referred to the Stoner Situational Team Decision Making model. The model breaks down situational decisions on complex problems to three primary elements: consensus, majority and minority. The key benefit of applying this model is that it freed up my thinking and appreciation for how different decision making approaches are need to solve different complex problems as opposed to employing a unilateral, universal

approach.

Despite the various strengths of the model utilised, it also carried with it some fairly significant limitations including but not limited to: research-practice gap, lack of specificity and failing to account for the unique idiosyncrasies of strategic decision making processes in my organisation.

Making strategic decisions which are not only more informed and justified by which are also capable of adding more value to the organisations commercial performance output.

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Creation

Attending body language sessions and workshops to improve my capacity to influence my colleagues to engage in workplace behaviours which are more conducive

to organizational improvement and enhanced levels of performance attainment.

Applied the key learnings and takeaways from the body language workshops to key influencing scenarios/situations in the workplace (i.e., weekly team

Performance conferences and briefings). The main advantage of the approach taken is that it ensured that the new influencing skills gained from the body language workshops were applied kinaesthetically to real life work situations.

Due to having applied the learnings from the workshops in real life situations, the new influencing skills gained have now been firmly locked in place in my wider portfolio

of skills and aptitudes. Despite, this, the experience was not wholly positive. A key negative of the experience was the differences experienced in displaying the ‘right’ body language behaviours in the controlled setting of the workshop and in the variable setting

of the workplace.

I am now actively using my new found influencing skills to encourage and motivate my colleagues, subordinates and superiors to demonstrate more

positive behaviours in the workplace (i.e., ethics, standards of professional integrity and performance commitment).

Description

Analysis

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Creation

Becoming more assertive in situations which require more professional courage. This will be achieved via positive self-talk and mindfulness.

Assertiveness is an essential, prerequisite trait associated with professional courage because without it individuals are therefore highly unlikely to stand up for their beliefs and make the necessary changes to their department/wider

organisation.

Referred to TED talk series on assertive body language and mindfulness techniques.

Practiced new techniques in real life workplace scenarios requiring professional courage. In retrospect, I encountered less of these scenarios than I initially thought that I would.

The main limitation of the TED talk series video clips watched is that they were simulations and conducted in a closed environment. In a real life practical situation, the content creators failed to appreciate that radical unforeseen variables can be encountered.

Producing a new report detailing all of the ethics changes I think are required in the organisation without fear of offending superiors.

Description

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Creation

Streaming feedback from senior boardroom personnel on the quality of the report delivered to them on the subject of utilising my professional contacts to improve organisational performance attainment.

Referred to my Linked In business portal to clearly signpost professional partners who could benefit my organisation’s performance output. The criteria established for contact selection comprised of: reach, scale, potential for information/knowledge transfer and available time, resources, and company capital.

A critically important limiting issue to consider with respect to the strength of the professional contacts suggested is that they may not necessarily be willing to support the organisation at present due to their unique business circumstances/incompatibility with company culture.

Composing and presenting the board of senior strategic personnel with a new, follow up report which clearly details how each of the professional partners suggested can add genuine value to the organisation.