Applied Practice Reflective Portfolio

This reflective portfolio explores the author's experiences during a summer internship at Amazon, focusing on autonomous learning, ethical practices in business, and the relationship between knowledge and innovation. The portfolio includes reflective logs, a log of practice hours, and supplementary evidence of learning, demonstrating the author's growth and development in a professional context.

Applied Practice (CSE3015-N)
Reflective Portfolio
Module Leader:
<insert student name>
<insert student number>
<insert word count>
<insert date of submission>

Contents
1. Element 1: Reflection on autonomous approach to professional learning
2. Element 2: Reflection on ethics within a business environment
3. Element 3: Reflection on enhanced organisational knowledge and innovation
Appendix 1: Reflective learning logs
Appendix 2: Log of Practice Hours
Appendix 3: Letter/email of confirmation from work-experience organisation
Appendix 4: Supplementary evidence of learning (e.g. presentations, reports etc.)
References
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1. Element 1: Reflection on autonomous approach to professional learning
(approximately 1750 words)
1.1 Reflection on <autonomous learning>
What?
The approach of autonomous learning is complex and is difficult to define. By working in
an Amazon as a summer intern, it has become important for me to consider autonomy in
learning language which is desired for philosophical, pedagogical and practical reasons.
Autonomous is the widely used and accepted concept in learning policies and practices.
Autonomy is highly concerned with various laws and rules which are required to be set
either by others and or by autonomous itself. As the business environment is highly
dynamic, every organisation has certain sets of learners and learning programs which
helps the individual in career development and organisations can attain business goals
and objectives effectively and efficiently. When I got freedom to do the work on my own
terms and conditions then I am able to work with full confidence in the organisation. This
has helped in improving my academic and professional skills.
So What?
Learning is most important and on going process for accomplishing desired goals and
objectives of the Amazon. By adopting this approach in my professionalism while working
with Amazon I have realised the importance of self directed professional action, capacity
for the same, freedom from control over the professional action and development, capacity
for self directed professional development, etc. It has gained a lot of attention in the
present business scenario.
Now What?
As the business environment is highly dynamic, every organisation has certain sets of
learners and learning programs which helps the individual in career development and
organisations can attain business goals and objectives effectively and efficiently. When I
got freedom to do the work on my own terms and conditions then I am able to work with
full confidence in the organisation. This has helped in improving my academic and
professional skills.
1.2 Reflection on <Importance of autonomous learning>
What?
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Recorded direction and actions has helped me in developing reading and writing skills. It
is a powerful and useful method of autonomous approach and with the help of voice memo
functions on newly devices, it helps in recording which provides direction. Being the
student and by working in Amazon I have learned about digital recordings which develops
interdependency in completion of the task. This helped me in working within the groups
with free mind.
So What?
Apart from this, autonomous learning is very important for me because it has helped me in
developing several certain areas while working in Amazon as a intern and I have gained a
lot of knowledge and skills which are discussed below :
Communication skills : These skills are very important in the professional context
while working in an Amazon (Beech, McGill and Brockbank, 2017). With the help of this
skills, I have understood the clear vision and mission of the company for which I have to
work.
Motivational skills : By working in Amazon as a intern, I am highly motivated
which has encouraged and promoted me to work for the attainment of business objectives
and goals. As the company provides various motives like financial motives and non
financial motives which involves bonuses, incentives, respect, recognition, etc. which has
highly influenced me and generated a confidence and ability which will help me in working.
Leadership skills : Amazon, adopts various leadership skills and each skills and
different impact on me. For instance, when leaders follow democratic leadership styles in
stable business environment, then they used to take suggestion from sub ordinates which
makes me feel attentive as I am able to share my views and thoughts and plays a greater
role in decision making. This motivates me to work for higher level.
Now What?
So learning helped me in improving my communication skills with the help of reading
books, attending debates, taking part in group discussions., etc. Furthermore, this skills
will help me in clarifying people with the problems which are faced so that it can be
conveyed to the senior level people. While in fast changing situations, when leaders of
Amazon adopts autocratic leadership styles where entire decisions are taken by leader
and in such I have learned the importance of being flexible so that I can adopt my learning
styles in changing business environment.
1.3 Reflection on <Approaches>
What?
Autonomous learning is the process which has a primary motive of developing the
capability and responsibility of students in learning process (Eppich and Cheng, 2015).
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There is favourable relationship between the autonomy learning and improvements in
students competence.
So What?
There are various approaches which are required to be considered and they are discussed
below :
Resource based approaches : It is an important aspect of enhancing the
understanding of outsourcing decisions relating the various resources. It involves various
resources like manpower, finance, etc. This kind of learning helps in motivating the
individuals and utilising the available resources judiciously and efficiently.
Technology based approaches : Technology is the most emerging term in current
business world. Learning helps in knowing about the latest technology which are prevailing
in the market and are useful for Amazon. To gain availability in cloud data centre, this
approach gives many useful amenities for the application so that the dynamic changes can
be done very easily during the implementation.
Learner based approaches : This type of approach is concerned with developing
autonomous learning skills. In this, I am able to gain and learn a lot of knowledge about
various skills like motivation skills, research and analytical, problem solving, importance of
competitiveness, etc. and I have learned this with the help of effective training and
guidance.
Teacher based approaches : This type of approach is concerned with focusing on
role of a teacher and their educational practices which helps in fostering autonomy among
learners. A teacher can be psychological which provides a strong sense of personal
responsibility (Taylor, 2017). It helped me in continuous reflection and aware me about the
potential for self directed professional action. She can also be technical who will provide
pedagogical skill and helps me in professional development. And lastly she can be also be
political who will provide uniform staff development programs and observations of
classrooms. It will help me in gaining freedom and flexibility from others over professional
action and development.
Classroom based approaches : This type of approach is a prominence of learner
autonomy as a goals. This helps in in promoting learner autonomy, in this the students are
more centred, helps students in learning about the collaborations and is more efficient due
to limited number of students in a class.
Now What?
Thus, it has been believed that autonomous learning is related with the emotional aspects.
It is a particular manner of learning which is applied by individuals because of their
potentiality to identify learning needs, setting learning goals and objectives, set the most
suitable way for their own learning and useful in monitoring and evaluating the learning
progress. So being the student I have adopted the 3 basic and major autonomous
strategies in my working styles. These strategies are discussed below :
Meta cognitive strategy : It is the most dominant strategy which has helped to
apply numerous researches on learning processes. It has helped in improving my
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languages skills in course of listening. The activities which are involved under this strategy
are planning for learning, data collection, self super vision, evaluation, learning refection,
etc.
Cognitive strategy : This strategy has helped me a lot in preparing notes, learning,
reading, questioning, remembering, etc. This has developed my thinking skills and I am
able to think critically by considering various options and points (Gouthro and Holloway,
2018).
Social mediation : This involves relaxed behaviours during the learning activities
which are concerned with making several rules for the groups, enhance my cooperation
with colleagues, developed my communication skills with the help of attending debates
and group discussions, etc.
1. Element 2: Reflection on ethics within a business environment
(approximately 1125 words)
1.4 Reflection on <Ethics>
What?
Ethics are the morale principles or set of rules which are very important in the business
organisation because it protects the rights and interest of employees working in the
company. They are exceptionally regular and has good esteem which has helped to take
the right choices where it is hard to select between the right and wrong things. It is
therefore, a thought process of moral decisions and responsibilities in the procedure of
operating a business.
So What?
They are created with the foundation of integrity and accountability (Jensen and et. al., 2016).
This is displayed as a rules and values which describes roles and actions which is required
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to followed by people when they are required to deal with other human beings. This helps
in demonstrating moral and ethical problems which arises in business environment.
Now What?
Ethical practises are growing rapidly in the business organisation in present world because
it establishes a unique position. According to me, these ethics are very important in the
Amazon because it is applicable to all the contacts of business conduct on behalf of
individuals and entire company.
1.5 Reflection on <Ethical actions>
What?
According to me, the business organisation which acts legally and ethically gives an
assurance of saving money and also gaining support from the public and reputation of the
company. Business is considered to be the part of the society which believes that the
principles that are applicable in the society is directly applicable for the business as well
(Etzkowitz and Zhou, 2017).
So What?
There are various stakeholders of the company and they are concerned with the culture
and behaviour of the business organisation due to dominance of economy in the society.
Furthermore, there are various ethical practices which are used by the Amazon and I have
gained and improved myself a lot by experiencing such practices and they are discussed
below :
Now What?
 Honesty : Ethical executives of the company are responsible for honest and
truthfulness in all their dealings and they do not deliberately mislead or devise other
by misrepresentation, over statement, partial truth, etc.
 Integrity : It is concerned with the spirit of strong belief by doing what they think is
right even when there is greater pressure to not to do that (Wolin, 2016). It is
essentially important to not to recruit or retain those employees who does not have
integrity.
 Promise keeping and trust worthiness : It is essentially important that the
organisation keeps and stand on the promises made by them to the employees and
they must be trust worthiness so that employees feel motivated to work towards the
organisations goals and objectives.
 Customer focus : Every company work for the common objectives of satisfying
customer needs and wants. Therefore, Amazon is entirely based on meeting
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customer demands and produces new and innovative products and services
regularly. Apart from this, it is also important for the company to keep the customer
query at first and foremost and must be able to solve their problems easily and
rapidly.
 Leadership : The company follows democratic leadership style, which makes
everyone participate in decision making process. It is important so that people
working in Amazon feel participated and attentive in decision making process.
 Employment legislation : These legislations are very important in present
business world because it helps in protecting the employees from malpractices and
gives them assurance and safety (Christensen, Raynor and McDonald, 2015). It
involves minimum wages for the employees, certain duration of working over and
above the workers are legally entitled to not to work, provides them safety and
security of jobs, etc.
 Reputation and morale : For the purpose of maintaining reputation and morale of
the employees, the organisation will follow various practises like motivation,
training, guidance, learning, etc. so that the morale of the employees are improved
and they are encouraged to work with full confidence and zeal in accordance to
their potential which will attain business objectives and goals. Thus, this will develop
the reputation of the organisation in the market.
 Persistence : People working in Amazon are persistent and they will have to keep
working even when results are not attained what they have planned (Pope and
Vasquez, 2016). In this, the organisation is required to invest lot of efforts and time
which will hire those people who share common values and beliefs.
 Confidentiality : Every organisation has certain set of confidential or private data
which is not shared with everyone. So Amazon takes various steps for maintaining
privacy and confidentiality of data of its customers (Kogan and et. al., 2017). For
this it follows data protect act or law which assures that the information is protected
from unethical practises.
 Abusive behaviour : In many organisations, the managers or other people behave
abusively and unethically with the sub ordinates which generally leads to the higher
rate of labour turnover and absenteeism. For this purpose, organisation uses
certain employment laws which will protect their employees from harassment and
other unethical activities.
 Motivation : For effective working, every employee working in the organisation
needs some or the kind of motivation through which they will be encouraged to work
for the benefit of organisational goals and objectives (Habermas, 2015). These
motivation can be provided to the employees either in financial motives like
incentives, bonuses, etc. while non financial motives like respect, recognition,
enrichment, etc. that will inspire them to work with full zeal confidence in the
organisation.
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2. Element 3: Reflection on enhanced organisational knowledge and innovation
(approximately 1125 words)
2.1 Reflection on <enhancing organisational knowledge and innovation>
What?
Knowledge and innovation are two important aspects of the organisation. Knowledge plays
an increasingly vital role in present business organisations. Procedures of business
activities are dynamic and manual labour is replaced by knowledge work.
So What?
It needs higher level of expertise and skills, and knowledge and skills are therefore, treated
as a valuable resources of the organisation which cannot be substituted. There are two
different kind of knowledge namely tacit and explicit (Harding, 2016). Tacit knowledge is
personal in nature and is therefore its is difficult to formalize, communicate and share with
others. It consist of technical and cognitive dimensions. Whereas, explicit knowledge is
concerned with conceptualisation and stored in form of information.
Now What?
Furthermore, knowledge can be enhanced in the organisation by adopting such
organisational culture where there is a encouragement of collaborative working among the
people and facilitates learning networks. There are certain steps which are required to be
followed by the organisation of cyclical model of knowledge management processes and
they are discussed below :
 Creates knowledge : It comes mainly from the experiences and skills of the
employees. This is created by describing new manner of doing things and if
knowledge is not residing in the organisation then it has to be brought from outside
sources (Trevino and Nelson, 2016). For instance, by recruiting newly talented and
qualified personnel, technology transfers knowledge, etc.
 Captures knowledge : The knowledge which has been created is required to be
stored in its raw form in a data base. Majority of the organisations uses many
different types of knowledge repositories to capture the knowledge.
 Refine knowledge : The new and fresh knowledge must be kept in context so that
action can be taken upon that.
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 Store knowledge : By storing knowledge in form of codes, is helpful making it
understandable and can be used during the later period of time (Jensen and et. al.,
2016).
 Manage knowledge : Knowledge is always required to be managed so that it can
used in the future course of action. Furthermore, it is required to be reviewed
regularly so that assurance can be made regarding the knowledge is relevant and
accurate.
 Disseminate knowledge : It must be available in a useful and appropriate format
so that anyone in the organisation can use the knowledge at anytime whenever
they are needed.
2.2 Reflection on <Innovation>
What?
It is a widely recognised and important process in the organisation. Innovation is not only
concerned with introducing and initiating new ideas or methods (Goldie, 2016). This
process involves multiple activities to cover new ways of doing things. But it also provides
bigger opportunities which are helpful in developing original concepts and is a driver of
optimising activities.
So What?
With this, the organisations are able to set themselves in different paradigm for the
intention of identifying new opportunities and supplies best methods for solving current
organisations problems.
Now What?
The process of innovation is highly dependent on knowledge. Organisations are able to
create new and important knowledge which are concerted into relevant products, services
and processes. Organisations which are able to absorb new knowledge successfully then
they are considered to be an innovative organisation. Therefore, innovation and
knowledge both have significant and crucial impact on organisational operations (Elbaz,
2018). For businesses, to be highly competitive in nature, they must be able to adopt the
changes prevailing in the dynamic business environment. In order to realise the
importance of innovation, everyone is required to be open minded and collaborative in
their nature in order to accomplish business goals and objectives effectively and efficiently.
Innovation is applicable for management and organisation on all the levels, sizes and in
every industry. Therefore, it is a fundamental way through which the organisation brings
value to the customer businesses or life and also to their shareholders and stakeholders.
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Appendix 1: Reflective learning logs
A reflective log is a learning tool that can be used to encourage reflection. They will
be specifically used to enable to reflect on the work-related activities that you carry out
during the report. It will help to explore and develop practice based knowledge and skills
and will help to develop the assessed reflective portfolio.
By working in Amazon, I have realised that professionalism is something way more
different than what I was thinking. Working with Amazon has developed me in my
professional career. I am highly motivated and enthusiastic now because I have deal with
different kind of people with different backgrounds, cultures, countries, etc. These 120 hour
work related practises has developed my communication skills as I am now able to
communicate with people effectively and with fluency such that they are able to
understand my point of view very clearly. Furthermore, by good communication skills I am
also able to deal with problems of the people and can generate a solution such that it will
not harm the sentiment of any of the conflicting group. Apart from this, with the help of
collaborative working has helped me in understanding the importance of team and how if
people works in team then they generate better and more productive results. When I
worked in team, then I am able to maximise my mental ability and now I used to think
critically about each and every aspect of the organisations.
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Appendix 2: Log of Practice Hours
Date (week
commencing)
Organisation(s) No. of hours
21/01/19 Communication 8
28/01/19 Research 13
04/02/19 Analytical 12
11/02/19 Information technology 13
18/02/19 Leadership 8
25/02/19 Eliminating work of data redundancy 9
04/03/19 Confidentiality of data 10
11/03/19 Presentation 9
18/03/19 Problem solving 10
25/03/19 Forecasting 10
01/04/19 Conflict resolution 8
29/04/19 Managerial 10
Total practice hours 1
2
0
120
Signed (student) _______________________________________
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Appendix 3: Letter/email confirmation of 120 hours work-experience
Letter
123 Street
ABC Building
Amazon , UK
Subject : Letter of internship completion
Date : 8.05.2019
Dear PQR,
This is to inform you that you have completed the 120 hours program of work
related practices with out organisation successfully. During this course of action you were
exposed to different processes which exist in the organisation. We are highly delighted
with such a candidate because you were extremely hard working, punctual and
inquisitive.
We wish him every success in life and career. All the best for future.
Your sincerely,
XYZ
HR Department of Amazon.
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Appendix 4: Supplementary evidence of learning (e.g. presentations, reports etc.)
By working in Amazon as a summer intern, I have learnt a lot of new skills and
knowledge. I have become confident and by working over their I have build a great
platform for myself in my future career. The completion letter which I have received from
Amazon will help me a lot in my future course of life when I will be going for work in
another company. Apart from this, I have also made various contacts in Amazon and build
a very effective relationship with them that can help me in future as well. The confidence
which I have build in my self by working in one of the largest e commerce industry is
something inexpressible and I will try my best to work again in future with this company.
Apart from this letter, I have also got one picture with my superiors in Amazon which will
motivate me throughout my life because during the time when the picture was clicked, my
sub ordinate were appraising me for my work and skills which means a lot to me.
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(PEARLS): development and rationale for a blended approach to health care simulation
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Jensen, M.B., and et. al., 2016. Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation. The learning
economy and the economics of hope, pp.155-182.
Jensen, M.B., and et. al., 2016. Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation. The learning
economy and the economics of hope, pp.155-182.
Kogan, L., and et. al., 2017. Technological innovation, resource allocation, and growth. The
Quarterly Journal of Economics.132(2). pp.665-712.
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John Wiley & Sons.
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Taylor, E.W., 2017. Transformative learning theory. In Transformative Learning Meets Bildung
(pp. 17-29). Brill Sense.
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