Personal and Professional Development Reflection

This reflection discusses the author's personal and professional development through various programs and activities. It covers topics such as strategic management, change management, stakeholder management, and learning theories. The author also shares their learnings from visiting speaker programs and organizational visits. The article is relevant for students and professionals interested in personal and professional development.

Reflection 1
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REFLECTION
By
Class/ Course Name
Professor (Tutor)
University Name
Date

Reflection 2
The program has been very beneficial to me since it has enabled me to acquire various
key skills that I need in my career. Some of the major skills that I have developed from the
program include;
Strategic management skills: Through interaction with the management of the
organization, I was exposed to organizational goals and objectives setting, and how to
continuously plan, monitor, analyze, and control all necessary factors to ensure that the goals and
objectives are met, and also the formulation of contingency plans to be used in case the initial
plans fail. Secondly, I developed my skills on how to analyze various risks that may deter the
achievement of organizational goals and objectives, and how such risks can be controlled
proactively. Thirdly, I acquired skills on how to manage corporate social responsibility (CSR)
and how to integrate it in the long-term plans of an organization. Fourth I learned how to manage
international businesses which have their operations in different international markets. These
skills will help me to effectively and efficiently manage an organization, formulate, implement
and control strategies to achieve organizational goals in my future career (Hitt, Ireland, and
Hoskisson 2012).
Change management skills: I developed knowledge on analyzing how a particular change
will impact the organization now and in the future, determining the stakeholders who will be
affected by the change and how they will be affected, making decisions on whether or not to
adapt the change in the organization depending on its viability, formulating a change
implementation plan, implementing the change as per the change plan, and controlling the
change to ensure that the intended purpose of the change is realized by the organization. I also
acquired crucial skills on how to ensure that any change that is to be adopted in the organization
meets the established moral and ethical standards. The skills will be important in my future

Reflection 3
career in the sense that they will enable me to make quality changes in my organization putting
into consideration all other factors in order to sustain the competitiveness of the organization in
both local and international markets (Anderson and Anderson 2010).
Stakeholder management: As we developed the new corporate social responsibility plan,
I acquired skills on how various stakeholders in an organization are included in decision making.
Some of the key ploys of stakeholder inclusion that I learned and practiced include; stakeholder
mapping which focuses on analyzing how the particular stakeholder relates with the organization
and grouping them according to common interest, representation of each group of stakeholders
by one or two individuals during important meetings, and stakeholder mobilization in order to
gain their support (Freeman 2010). Also, I acquired skills on how to manage people who are in
different countries putting into consideration their different cultural believes and interest. The
skills are essential to my future career in the sense that they will enable me to be an open-minded
manager who includes the stakeholders in decision making thus leading to quality decisions that
are supported by all parties.
Interpersonal and Learning Theories While working with the group
Working with group contributed a lot to promoting my personal and professional
development since we embraced teamwork, collaboration and continues development. Learning
was mainly by interpersonal learning which can be defined as the ability of a person to interact
with and understand other people and social situations (Sullivan 2013). Interpersonal learning
intelligence is highly founded on the ability to communicate and understand people. It

Reflection 4
developed my ability to work with others as a team and apply empathy while making decisions
that affect the entire team. In many organizations, people are expected to work as a team,
therefore, my personal development in interpersonal learning will be of great benefit in my
future career. Interpersonal learning involves the use of ones thinking ability to interpret certain
issues. This has helped me to become a critical thinker who can qualitatively analyze situations.
The behaviorist theory which is a learning theory also contributed a lot to my personal
and professional development while working with my group members. The theory states that
learning occurs when new behavior or changes in behavior are acquired through association
between stimuli and responses (Weegar and Pacis 2012). Therefore, associating with other
people can lead to change of behavior. In my personal development journey, the group work
enabled me to acquire a dynamic behavior set that will change and adapt to different
organizational cultures. This will help me in my future career to easily acquire the culture of the
organization that am working with thus promoting my ability to interact properly with my
colleagues. Also, it will enable me to easily embrace changes within the organization I will be
working with.
The cognitive information processing theory is another theory that promoted my
professional development. The theory argues that human beings process the information that
they receive rather than just responding to stimuli. Cognitive information processing is
controlled by internal processes unlike in behaviorist where individuals are controlled by
external factors (Lachman, Lachman, and Butterfield 2015). According to this theory, learning
involves the reorganization of experiences either by acquiring new ideas or by changing the old
ones. As per this theory, I developed the situational analysis skills which involves observing
behavior patterns and analyzing their appropriateness. Also as per the theory, I acquired critical

Reflection 5
commentary skills which involves analyzing the views of others and commenting on them. The
skills are essential in many organizations where decision making has been delegated to lower
levels of management since it will enable me to contribute towards decision making.
The other theory that contributed to my professional and personal development while
working with the group is the Constructivism learning theory. The theory argues that people
construct their own perspective of the world based on internal knowledge and individual
experiences. Learning is based on how an individual interprets and creates meaning of their
experiences (Schunk 2012). As per this theory, I acquired the creativity, innovation, and
qualitative decision-making skills. The skills play a vital role in my career because as an expert
in management, I am expected to make decisions that influence the current and future operation
of the organizations. Such decisions include; change in business processes, marketing strategies,
and business growth strategies. Thus with these skills, I will be able to consider the past
experience, the current situation, and prospect the future in order to ensure that I make the best
decisions.
A Review of What I Have Learnt in Taking Part in Visiting Speaker Programs and
Organizational Visits
My personal and professional development in the program has been a combination of
multiple learning activities and some of those activities are the visiting speaker program and
organizational visits. Some of the major things that I learned from these two programs include;
Organizational are constantly changing their way of doing things to focus more on
improving organizational efficiency and reducing the operating cost without compromising the

Reflection 6
quality of the products that they offer. For an organization to survive in this dynamic business
environment it requires to acquire the appropriate personnel who will foster the change to ensure
that the organization remains competitive (Leach, Stirling, and Scoones 2010). Thus in my career
forecasting and business environment analysis skills are highly required.
Organizations have become more responsive to the needs of the society in which they
exist. One way through which organizations are serving the society is through corporate social
responsibility (CSR). CSR builds a cordial relationship between an organization and its society
thus making the organization and its products to be acceptable in the society (Du, Bhattacharya,
and Sen 2010). There are various factors that compel an organization to conduct corporate social
responsibility but the most dominant one is the ethical and philanthropic factor. Nowadays many
organizations are considering CSR as part of their strategic plans.
Different stakeholders of an organization hold different views towards a particular issue.
Therefore, for the issue/ plan to be successfully realized by the organization the stakeholders
should be included in order to give their views. In the current business environment, many
organizations have founded stakeholder management panels which consists of representatives of
various stakeholders and the senior management of the organization. Also, stakeholders have
unionized to increase their bargaining power (Bourne 2016).
Management of international businesses requires a more critical approach than the
management of local businesses. This is because international businesses operate in different
countries which have different legal regulations, cultural, and moral standards. For an
international business to be successful it must comply with the legal, cultural, and ethical
guidelines of the various countries that they operate in. Also, management of international

Reflection 7
businesses requires a clear understanding of the different business environments in the countries
which the business operates in (Dunning 2013).
Lastly, organizations are currently focusing on delivering value to their customers in
order to build customer loyalty. This is a forward integration market competition ploy that
attaches customers to the organization and locks-out competitors. This prevents the entry of new
competitors into the market thus guaranteeing the sustainability of the organization (Baker
2011).

Reflection 8
Appendix
What I want to
Learn
What I will do
to achieve it
Resources or
support needed
My success
criteria
Target dates for
review and
completion
Strategic
management
Visit an
organization and
attend guest
speaker
programs.
Exposure to
strategic
management
environment.
Ability to make
decisions that
relate to strategic
management.
January 2019
Change
management
Examine a
change
management
scenario.
Exposure to a
change
management
scenario.
Ability to
implement and
change that has
unanimous
support of
parties involved.
March 2019
Stakeholder
management
Participate in
stakeholder
management
scenarios.
Exposure to
stakeholder
management
scenarios.
Ability to
include the
interest of all
stakeholders in
decision making.
April 2019

Reflection 9
References
Anderson, D. and Anderson, L.A., 2010. Beyond change management: How to achieve
breakthrough results through conscious change leadership (Vol. 36). John Wiley & Sons.
Baker, D.P., 2011. Forward and backward, horizontal and vertical: Transformation of
occupational credentialing in the schooled society. Research in Social Stratification and
Mobility, 29(1), pp.5-29.
Bourne, L., 2016. Stakeholder relationship management: a maturity model for organisational
implementation. Routledge.
Du, S., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Sen, S., 2010. Maximizing business returns to corporate social
responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International journal of management
reviews, 12(1), pp.8-19.
Dunning, J.H., 2013. Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International
Business). Routledge.
Freeman, R.E., 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge university
press.
Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E., 2012. Strategic management cases:
competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.
Lachman, R., Lachman, J.L. and Butterfield, E.C., 2015. Cognitive psychology and information
processing: An introduction. Psychology Press.
Leach, M., Stirling, A.C. and Scoones, I., 2010. Dynamic sustainabilities: technology,
environment, social justice. Routledge.

Reflection 10
Schunk, D.H., 2012. Learning theories an educational perspective sixth edition. Pearson.
Sullivan, H.S., 2013. The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. Routledge.
Weegar, M.A. and Pacis, D., 2012. A Comparison of two theories of learning-behaviorism and
constructivism as applied to face-to-face and online learning. In Proceedings e-leader
conference, Manila.