Reflection on my Statement of Purpose

Management has always been my ultimate goal and desire to master new concepts and techniques that would help me improve my skills and knowledge. I want to be the kind of manager that the employees will be comfortable interacting with even with their confidential information.  Motivating my staff and creating room for personal development are among my high valued priorities.

Here are the reflective questions that arise from my statement of purpose:

What are some personal characters and skills that I need to nurture in order to excel in business management

How has my background shaped my desire of becoming a business manager?

 Are my skills and experiences aligned in making me excel in business management?

Short Bio

Besides having a knack in social media marketing I have been practising in graphic and web designing. I am very passionate about my designing skills because it serves to improve my communication capacity. In this context, I intend to use these skills in reaching out to more customers during marketing campaign and product awareness projects. This will eventually translate to sales through social media platforms and websites.

Link to my e-portfolio: https://rmit.instructure.com/eportfolios/6496

What is Management?

The artefact that I have chosen for this module is the individual reflective report. This is a significant artefact as it enabled me to gauge my capacity of working in a team of diverse background.  Personally, I learnt that it is essential to work with a team of diverse nature. This serves to improve my understanding of the differences between cultures and society. Similarly, I have come to understand that management is the idea of achieving an organized life and effectively running different types of management. Other scholars have defined management as a set of principles associated with the functions of planning, organizing, directing and controlling physical, financial, human and information resources efficiently and effectively in order to achieve organizational goals (Wheeler & Richey, 2014, 2).

In the modern world, managers have a relatively new role or managing diversity; this a responsibility that entails acquiring the necessary knowledge and dynamic skills to manage differences in the workplace and in business (Harvey & Allard, 2015, 3). In this context, the manager will have a duty to deal with expectations, handle stereotypes and rise to solve conflicts among team members. Therefore a manager will have to work hard to come up with strategies that apply the best managerial practices with proven results to find and create a diverse and inclusive workplace.

 Initiating strategies that promote diversity has been recommended as an effective way of achieving leadership development. In order to handle diverse teams, I have discovered that a manager has to implement more than one type of leadership skills and styles (Wheeler & Richey, 2014, 4). Additionally, a manager has to be well aware of the different aspect of teamwork such as team composition, expectation, limitations, and profiles of the members and the social and professional dynamics of the team. I would say I am a team player and I can work with people from various cultures. Therefore I will not have difficulties working with people from various backgrounds some of the skills I will utilize include being flexible, willingness to adapt and empathy.

What is involved in Management in Organizations?

My second artefact is a TED talk video called “why do we work” by Barry Schwartz.  The artefact is resourceful in answering how a manager’s work has changed. Firstly Schwartz mentions that what we think about work is broken.  He proceeds to explain that people don’t work with the sole purpose of getting paid but they work to gain a meaning in their lives (Anthony, 2014, 12). I am convinced that the speaker in the video is aiming to inform managers that people work because they find fulfilment in what they do but not merely to earn money or other rewards or benefits. In this context, the manager has to organize resources in order to create a good environment where people can thrive.

Recent analyses have indicated that people feel nice if they earn higher; but this is not a guarantee that the pay they earn will lead them to have higher levels of happiness, fulfilment or self-worth. In a simple test, it was described that if an employees pay was increased in a fourfold one would be excited about it. However, after some duration, the employee will start to adjust, adapt and eventually expect it. This will mean that the excitement had ceased and they now expect more to handle their daily lives. It is reported that making more than 55,000 sterling pound annually will not necessarily mean that it has improved the employees’ day-to-day happiness (Anthony, 2014, 23).  Some of the strategies that I would suggest for making employees fulfilled are creating an employee-friendly culture, show them you recognize their routine jobs, reward outstanding work and utilize survey, focus group and interviews to understand what employees need or the things that matter in their lives.

             The video has also demonstrated that though technology has brought great impact at the workplace it has replaced people in making decisions and appreciating the employees. For instance, workers are now labelled as cogs in wheels where they only do things that their supervisors asked them to do (Gehring, 2007, 44). This is a move that has seen them lose motivation and another no longer enjoys their work. As a manager I would work hard to motivate my employees by including them in decision making at the workplace. I would strive to treat my staff equally and appreciate the work they do. Rather than considering pay a form of reward, I would take my staff to seminars and training sessions to advance their skills and knowledge (Hancock, 2016, 24).

The Key Functions That A Manager Needs To Address In Order To Be Effective In Their Career

The artefact that I have created for this module is the personality type test. I utilized the 16 personalities test to show my personality. According to the test, my personality is the type known as INFJ or the advocate. INFJ is the abbreviation for Introversion (I), Intuition (N), Feeling (F), and Judgement (J).  From the test I would say I have a unique combination of traits; these are being introverted and people-oriented, emotional and rational, thoughtful and yet spontaneous. I have identified my strengths as being creative, insightful, decisive, inspiring and convincing as well as determined and passionate.  These are great characters that would help to succeed as a manager.

Moreover, managers of the INFJ groups are always determined in treating the inferiors as equal, supervising and coordinating people. Some of the traits that I think will enable me to succeed in this role is that an organized and scheduled person.  Knowing personality traits will help a manager to know on the things he or she needs to improve (Hancock, 2016, 23). For instance, if they realize they are sensitive and evidently private they will go for training to improve on. Other benefits of knowing the personality of the team members are that it will help managers know the staff needs and motivations.  They will also know the things that they are naturally inclined to do or not do.

As a future manager, I have gained lots of insights from this course. Firstly I learnt that management is more about organizing and coordinating resources in order to get maximum results.  The reflective report where we were working in a diverse team has enabled me to appreciate people of different beliefs and cultures. The TED talk video has shown some of the challenges that a future manager need to expect; people work to achieve fulfilment and purpose in life. Lastly, I have learned that motivating the employees is a gradual process that needs good planning and researching on strategies (Dong et al., 2015, 1356).

Conclusion

            The reflection has highlighted my intention to excel in management. I want to be the kind of manager that the employees will be comfortable interacting with even with their confidential information. The first artefact was working on a diverse team it made me realize the new role of diversity management. It entails acquiring skills and knowledge to manage diversity in the workplace. As a manager, I need to utilize flexibility, empathy and being a good listener in order to promote diversity in the workplace. This knowledge will serve to solve conflicts and handle stereotypes. The second artefact was on TED talk video and highlights that we have the wrong perception about work. I discovered that people don’t work to get paid; they work to progress in life and find fulfilment. As a manager, I have a role to create a good environment and invest in coaching and training in order to promote the staffs’ skills and personal growth. Lastly, the artefact on personality test provided an opportunity to realize my traits I learnt that I am creative, insightful, decisive, inspiring and convincing as well as determined and passionate. However, in order to succeed as a manager, I might need to work on eliminating sensitivity and being extremely private. As a future manager I feel this course have provided useful insights to advance my management career.

References

Anthony, P.D., 2014. The ideology of work. Routledge.

Dong, Y., Liao, H., Chuang, A., Zhou, J. and Campbell, E.M., 2015. Fostering employee service creativity: Joint effects of customer empowering behaviors and supervisory empowering leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), p.1364.

Gehring, D.R., 2007. Applying traits theory of leadership to project management. Project Management Journal, 38(1), pp.44-54.

Hancock, D., 2016. To test or not to test: Assessing personality traits. Practice Management, 26(5), pp.23-25.

Harvey, C.P. and Allard, M., 2015. Understanding and managing diversity: Readings, cases, and exercises. Pearson.

Wheeler, J.J. and Richey, D.D., 2014. Behavior management: Principles and practices of positive behavior supports. Pearson.