Effective Business Operations and Management

This assignment provides a comprehensive guide on preparing for interviews using the STAR method. It includes three example questions that demonstrate how to effectively manage business operations, resolve conflicts, and provide excellent customer service. The STAR method is used to structure the answers, providing clear and concise examples of real-world scenarios. This document is suitable for publication on Desklib, which provides past papers and solved assignments for students.

Employability Skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Theme 1- Know Yourself: ..............................................................................................................1
Term 2- Know your sector:..............................................................................................................2
Term 3- Let them know you:...........................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Accomplishments which are required by an individual to make him/her employable are
employability skills. These skills involve the self-awareness and sector-awareness. This
information is necessary to represent their strengths in front of others. This study is based on the
basic knowledge that is needed in development of employability skills. Thus, focus on the
development of abilities is important in order to be able to apply for a current job within
required field. This report also includes details of skills that are mentioned in CV.
Theme 1- Know Yourself:
In order to understand relationship of people with themselves and others, an effective tool
can be used and that is Johari's Window theory (Owens, Motl, and Krieshok, 2016) This model is
really helpful in creating personal awareness. There are four elements of this exemplary which
can be arranged in a 2 by 2 matrix. These elements of matrix are divided into four areas and they
are- open or free, blind, hidden and unknown area.
Johari quadrant 1 (open area)- This area involves the information about the behaviour, feelings,
emotion, skills and views of a person which are known by him and others. This is the most
essential factor that helps in determining the strengths.
Johari Quadrant 2 (Blind area)- This is that area that covers that information about the person
which he or she cannot observe but others can see them. This knowledge can be acquired by
using feedback from others.
Johari quadrant 3 (hidden area)- This is that sector which is known to the person but is kept
hidden or unknown from others or group (Mirkovic and et.al., 2016). This is the information
which an individual does not like to reveal.
Johari quadrant 4 (unknown area)- Under this segment it reflects experiences, aptitude, feelings,
latent abilities etc. that are unknown to other group of persons as well as to the person himself.
All of these aptitudes, feelings, behaviours, attitudes etc. can be either positive or negative and
can influence behaviour of persons. However, such types of unknown areas are found typically
among those people who lack in experiences and younger in age.
Johari window theory is a psychological tool which is basically used for enhancing
certain skills in an individual such as personal development, interpersonal relationships, team
development, self-awareness, improving communications etc. which is very useful for me in
order to improve my strengths while in business (Forde, McMahon, Hamilton and Murray,
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2016). This theory can be applied to achieve sustainability and growth among individual in every
sector. Applying this theory on myself I can enhance team working skills in me with the instance
of two factors which includes-knowing about myself and secondly understanding that what other
people’s perception about me is. Even it enhances the trust among employees working in
business organization by learning about every individual aspect as well as sharing of personal
issues or information to others (Adizes, Cudanov and Rodic, 2017). However, there also
includes many ODF things that I don't want other persons to know comes under the criteria of
hidden area or unknown area. For example, if I'm not comfortable in sharing some personal
aspect with other employees I would keep them as hidden and unknown to others. Therefore, by
adopting this theory possibilities have occurred that I have started liking many of the aspects
which I was not aware of or were not liked by me earlier.
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Also, on considering the Gallup strengths assessment done to identify my own qualities it
has been found that I am an adaptable person who can promptly adopt the changes (Berland and
Berland, 2017). Apart from this, my another quality defines the trait of relater where I can easily
relate to other's concerns and can quickly understand their problems. Beside this, I together
possess the characteristics of an includer on whose basis, I can perform better in groups by
including people with distinct thoughts and ideas. Next is my strength of being an empathetic
person by which I can understand the difficult situations arising in an individual's life to further
come up with effective opinions to solve the same. Lastly, belief is my another foremost strength
where I respect distinct cultural norms and societal aspects of almost all religions. This further
assist me to work with diverse set of people belonging to different social and cultural
background with less possibility of conflicts.
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Term 2- Know your sector:
I have done many jobs on or relevant to the post Business Assistant and thus, in order to
find the best job of this sector, a detailed knowledge of the sector is essential. It is necessary to
understand the professional standards required in my sector so that I can develop my skills
accordingly. These standards are the ethical or legal duty of a professional to perform the level of
skills ordained in the code of practice (Russell and et.al., 2016). In the business assistant sector
the required standards involves effective management, problem solving ability, communication,
customer service handling, digital skills, technical knowledge, team working, handling situations
of work under pressure, appropriate knowledge of legal norms, understanding or present trends
of market, etc (Nguyen and et.al., 2016). These are all the standards which I found important to
be aware about the profession I want to choose. I observed that I do possess some skills that are
required for the post of Business Assistant however, I need to work on some lacking elements. A
detailed description of the skill set possessed and not obsessed by me is present below:
Required skills Status
Skills to manage the operation effectively Not disappointing but I need to do some
work on it.
Communication Communication skills are my biggest
strength.
Problem solving ability Problems based on egos between
employees can be solved by me. But I
should put some efforts on solving
technical issues.
Customer handling ability With the help of my friendly nature and
good communication skills I can easily
interact with customers and can manage
them.
Digital skills I have good knowledge of computer
basics. For instance- MS excel, word,
power point, etc. and hence, I can manage
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work digitally.
Technical Skills I should work on this accomplishment.
Team Work I am an enthusiastic team member
Ability to handle pressure I can work well even under pressure
Knowledge of legal norms I should learn more about this.
Thus, from the above table my weak and strong points can be highlighted. I should work
on enhancing my technical skills, ability to solve technical issues, effective management of
operation and knowledge of legal norms.
In order to improve my professional standard, I should develop a plan which can help me
in evacuating these weaknesses. This plan is explained further:
Lacking area Ways to improve the weaknesses
Technical Skills Technical knowledge can be enhanced by
reading books and journals related to the field
of business assistant. Further, with the help of
this, the issues that are arising in solving
technical problems can also be eradicated.
Effective operation management There are various tools present to manage the
business effectively. I should use these
techniques while performing the operations.
Knowledge of legal norms I am unaware of few of them and hence, I
should improve them by going through the
associated articles. Also, with the help of e-law
books this knowledge can be acquired.
Term 3- Let them know you:
I have researched a job recently that relates with all the desires I want in my future
profession. The description of that job involves:
Responsibilities
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1. Assisting with budget management.
2. Working closely with the administration to ensure smooth functioning.
3. Providing line management in administration.
Essential Requirements
1. Educated to associated degree level.
2. 3-year work experience in relevant field.
Personality profile
1. Should be confident.
2. Should possess good communication skills.
3. Dedicated to work.
All these qualities are mentioned in my CV and my LinkedIn profile which I provided
while online applying for this post. I have mentioned that I am working from past three years and
worked in different entities on the same or relevant profile. Hence, if I have the essential skills
necessary for the job as prescribed by you then I keep the potential to work on this profile.
In order to answer behavioural interview questions STAR method can be used. Further, it
is useful in matching the qualification with the job description (Xu, J. X. and et.al., 2016). It is
acronym for situation, task, action and result. The model states that answers of this type of
interview questions should be attempted on the basis of the these four tools. For example-
Question 1: Time when you worked under a deadline. Describe the situation and steps taken by
you?
Answer- I always do my work with the help of segmentation and thus, it enables me in
attempting all the pieces of work. I have faced a similar situation of working under a deadline
when I was employed in Vodafone and an employee there left his job without any prior notice
that resulted in heavy work load on me. Hence, in order to complete the tasks, I have divided
them in pieces and then worked upon them and completed them before the deadline provided to
me.
Question 2: In case a team member denies to perform his task, what will you do?
Answer- As I declared in my CV that I possess good communication skills, thus I will use this to
manage the conflict by influencing him/her. For example, Once I was working on a project as a
team leader and two members had conflict issues among them and as a result of this, one
member denied to work. In this situation, I communicated with them and sorted out their issues.
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Question 3: In case a customer claims for wrong services, how will you handle the situation?
Answer- According to me customer satisfaction is the most prior thing. I have faced such type of
incident when I was working with Primark where a customer complained that he was given
defected product and now he wants to exchange that product with the money he had paid. In this
case, instead of exchanging the product with the money I agreed to exchange it with some other
service he wanted. This method helped both the entity in retaining their value and the customer
in replacing the unwanted service.
I have applied this method in making list of the skills and experiences that are required
for the job. Further, on the basis of those listed skills I have considered some particular examples
in which I have displayed those skills. Also, every example presented by me contains situation,
tasks, action and result.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Forde, C., McMahon, M. A., Hamilton, G. and Murray, R., 2016. Rethinking professional
standards to promote professional learning. Professional Development in
Education.42(1). pp.19-35.
Mirkovic, J. et.al., 2016. Patient Insights into the Design of Technology to Support a Strengths-
Based Approach to Health Care. JMIR research protocols.5(3).
Nguyen, N. and et.al., 2016. SU‐F‐P‐36: Automation of Linear Accelerator Star Shot
Measurement with Advanced XML Scripting and Electronic Portal Imaging Device.
Medical physics.43(6). pp.3366-3366.
Owens, R. L., Motl, T. C. and Krieshok, T. S., 2016. A comparison of strengths and interests
protocols in career assessment and counselling. Journal of Career Assessment.24(4).
pp.605-622.
Russell, H. F. and et.al., 2016. Professional standards of practice for psychologists, social
workers, and counsellors in SCI rehabilitation. The journal of spinal cord
medicine.39(2). pp.127-145.
Xu, J. X. and et.al., 2016. A modified L2-star discrepancy method for measuring mixing
uniformity in a direct contact heat exchanger. International Journal of Heat and Mass
Transfer. 97. pp.70-76.
Berland, A. and Berland, A., 2017. Using the Johari Window to explore patient and provider
perspectives. International Journal of Health Governance.22(1). pp.47-51.
Adizes, I., Cudanov, M. and Rodic, D., 2017. Timing of Proactive Organizational Consulting:
Difference between Organizational Perception and Behaviour. Amfiteatru
Economic.19(44). p.232.
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APPENDICES
A. Job Description
B. Resume
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PERSONAL PROFILE
I am a good team player capable of learning new skills on the job. I have a friendly
personality which enables me to effectively communicate with others. I have a flexible
approach to work, which allows me to learn from others and adapt to the work
environment. Reliability, diligence and punctuality are some of my key qualities, which
allow me to prioritise work and other aspects of my life efficiently. I am able to work
under pressure within a diverse team, as well as being able to complete tasks with my
own initiative, with minimal supervision.
EDUCATION HISTORY
Greenwich School of Management
Dates: October 2014 - Present
BSc (Hons) Business Management
College: Newham College of Further Education
September 2012 – July 2013
Course: Access to higher education diploma in Humanities (Business Level 3)
College: NewVic-Newham Sixth Form College
Dates: September 2010- July 2011
Course: BTEC First Diploma Business (Level 2)
College: NewVic-Newham Sixth Form College
Dates: Sept 2009 –July 2010
Course: BTEC Introductory Business (Level 1)
EMPLOYMENT & WORK EXPERIENCE
Asda
October 2014 – December 2014
Role: Personal shopper
 Picking items of customers home order specifications
Primark
February 2013 – September 2013
Role: Retail Operative
 Customer Service
 Till handling
 Arranging clothes on shelves
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Caribbean Scene Restaurant
September 2011- January 2012
Role: Waitress
 Greeting Customers at the door
 Waiting on Tables
 Customer service
 Till handling
Supply Group Employment Services
August 2011- August 2011
Role: Trainee in Banqueting
 Full Banqueting plate training
 Stack and scrape procedure
 3 hot plate carry
 Cutlery polishing and Wine glass polishing
 Room service trays
 Table layouts and how to set up a table
 Champagne flute trays and walk
 Silver Service training
Vodafone
August 2010- October 2010
Role: Sales Assistant
 Customer Service
 Cash handling
 Selling Phones and phone accessories
Peacocks
February 2010- February 2010
Role: Shop Assistant/Stock Controller (work experience)
 Taking deliveries
 Arranging clothes on shelves
 Customer Service
 Tagging clothes
KEY SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES
 Good communication skills (verbal and written)
 Friendly
 Well organized
 Able to work under pressure
 Proactive
 Enthusiastic team member
 Responsible
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 Punctual
 Bilingual (Portuguese and English)
 Computer literate (Microsoft word, Excel, PowerPoint)
INTERESTS & HOBBIES
I have a great passion for Fashion, following and researching the latest trends. I like to
read in my quiet time but also take great pleasure in meeting up with friends. I enjoy
experimenting and trying new challenges and activities.
REFEREES
Available upon request
D. Current professional development plan.
Lacking area Ways to improve the weaknesses
Technical Skills Technical knowledge can be enhanced by
reading books and journals related to the field
of business assistant. Further, with the help of
this reading, the issues that are arising in
solving technical problems will also eradicate.
Effective operation management There are various tools present to manage the
business effective. I should use these
techniques while performing the operations.
Knowledge of legal norms I am unaware of few of them and hence, I
should improve them by going through the
associated articles. Also, with the help of e-law
books this knowledge can be acquire.
E. STAR template for interview preparation.
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STAR METHOD
INTERVIEW
Prepare 3 questions for an
interview answer them using
the STAR method
Q Example “Can you tell me about a time that you went above and beyond your
expected duties?”
S
I was a part of a team working on a presentation meant to help us secure a major new
client for our company. The weather was bad, and as a result my supervisor got caught in a
snowstorm and was unable to make it back in time. It looked like we were going to have to
cancel the meeting and potentially lose the client.
T I had been looking for ways to take on more responsibility, so I volunteered to finish up
the presentation.
A I worked with my supervisor via the phone and between the two of us, we were able to go
ahead with the scheduled meeting.
R As a result of my initiative, we not only landed the client, but I was also recommended for
a promotion.
Q1 "Can you tell me a time when you have worked under a tight deadline"?
S
I have faced this situation when I was working in Vodafone and an employee left his job
without any prior notice.
T I have allotted some of his work and that too until a prescribed date.
A
I have segmented all the work in small pieces and completed them effectively.
R As a result of this segmentation, entire work was completed before the setted deadline.
Q2 "Can you tell me what will you do if a team member refuses to perform his task"?
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S I was playing the role of team leader in a project and conflict arises between two members,
to which one of them denied to perform his part.
T I communicate with both of them and removed their issues.
A In order to attain this, I talk with them separately about their issues with each other.
R As a result, issues between them are solved and he was agreed to perform his task.
Q3 "What will you do if a customer complains about your services"?
S When I was working with Primark, a customer comes with a complain claiming that he
received wrong product.
T I checked the old records to cross check his statement.
A
I exchanged that product with some other product of his choice.
R As a result of this, customer satisfaction was not hurt and also, no business value was
affected.
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