Reflective Practice and Supervision Experience

This assignment provides an in-depth analysis of reflective practice in a supervisory context, utilizing Gibbs' Reflective Cycle as a framework. The experience is examined through a series of reflective statements, showcasing the supervisor's efforts to engage employees in constructive feedback and facilitate meaningful discussions. The importance of debriefing sessions is emphasized, along with the need for continuous learning in such roles. The assignment highlights key references from relevant literature, demonstrating a clear understanding of the subject matter.

Robert Dyas Company

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
PART B......................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Robert Dyas is a UK based retailer company established in 1872 which is selected for
the present study. It deals in housewares, small electrical equipment, garden products, etc.
with around 95 stores spread across South of England, ranging from 1251 to an impressive
experience. I am proud on myself for assisting the broader community and doing everything
for the welfare of the community and environment. As I work on the position of a supervisor
in this company and my role play is a mystery shopper. The purpose of this report is to assess
the ability of students to reflect on practice and development of effective self-management.
PART B
1. Nature and purpose of reflective practice
Reflective practice refers to the ability to reflect on one’s actions to engage in a
process of continuous learning. In other words, it means paying critical focus to the practical
values and theories which inform everyday actions by evaluating practices reflectively.
Reflecting upon own work is a crucial way to develop knowledge, practice and skills (Brown,
2016).
Figure 1: Gibbs Model
(Source: Reflective Writing: About Gibbs Reflective cycle, 2018)
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The above figure describes the Gibb’s Reflective Cycle which can be used by people
to make sense of situation at work so that they can understand what they performed well and
what they can do better. This model was introduced by Professor Graham Gibbs in 1988 and
it is considered to be useful for helping people to learn from situations that they experience
regularly especially when these don’t go well. The procedure of model contains 6 elements:
 Description: - This element needs a factual explanation of the incident. Furthermore,
at this stage no conclusion is drawn, the concentration is on the information, that too
which is applicable. It includes what happened?, how did it happen? and so on
(Carlsson, Hantilsson and Nyström, 2014).
 Feelings: - In this situation, any emotion felt during the incident is discussed.
Questions that arise include what did you feel before the incident?, during it? and
after it?
 Evaluation: - This stage objectively evaluates the situation in terms of what went
well?, What went badly? and how did the experiences ended?
 Analysis: - Here think about what might have hindered or helped the situation. Also,
this part can be enhanced by referencing to a literacy article or a previous experience
(Bowers, 2015).
 Conclusion: - Here, an individual considers what he/she learnt from the whole
incident.
 Action plan: - Lastly, comes the action plan where an individual deals with a plan of
how effectively handle and make the situation better next time. Any training or skills
required that can be used to handle the situation in a more effective way in future are
included in the action plan(Redmond, 2017).
2 & 3. Reflection on personal experience and relationship between theory and experience
I am working as a supervisor in Robert Dyas Company and dealing with Mystery
Shopper. My job is to visit various retail stores, posing as a casual shopper to gather
information about the store’s display, quality, price and sales workers. A mystery shopper is
supposed to capture a snapshot of the whole. A moment is captured, relying on the situations
such as staff shortage on an extremely busy day. Apart from this, my job is to align the best
results and to create the interaction credible. Also, I think I am the best mystery shopper with
retail experience in company I work as I have necessary knowledge and skills to observe
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things. Being a mystery shopper, I analysed and identified many positive and negative
elements in the retail stores to improve their functions. I decided to utilise Gibb’s framework
as research states that it is a basic framework which endeavours to incorporate knowledge,
feelings and actions (Evans, 2018).
Description
The first of my critical situation occurred on 23rd July 2017 which was the 7th month
of my job as a supervisor on the post of mystery shopper. In my previous year, I have been
working with my senior executive Mr. James. One day while performing my job of mystery
shopping, a new worker was appointed under me and I would be assisting him. It was briefly
informed by James of what I would be assisting with, that include making that individual
learn basic things of mystery shopping. I began introducing myself to him also started
explaining about his task of mystery shopping. When I had finished my training session
where I wanted for him to be enough to understand (Gould and Taylor, 2017). He began
doing his work and one day he was given with task to visit a multinational supermarket in
UK i.e. Sainsbury. His task was to visit the store and look at various new products launched
by company. Later, it was found that he got unsuccessful in his job as got spotted by the store
staff. The reason behind this was that he was an unqualified shopper and sometimes, he used
to present varying results of his findings. Results brought by him were different because he
did not follow the guidelines and was considered unqualified because Robert Dyas company
does not consider pre-screening or pre-testing of employees.
Feelings
I felt very bad many times that individual was under my supervision and the owner
felt it was my mistake which I didn’t make him understand his job properly. I discussed this
whole incident with my senior head i.e. Mr James, regarding the situation of that new
employee. He was also little angry on me because he also thought that it was entirely my
mistake.
Evaluation
I started evaluating the entire training process to find out where I got failed in making
him learn his job. Then I found that he was lacking in being observant and objective. Things I
did well while providing him training was making him understood that he needs to take
complete detailed reports for each assignment undertaken. I also missed educating him with
the guidelines of MSPA.
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Analysis
Things that had helped in this situation was understanding of what needs to be
performed during the process of training. I would have used different methods of training that
can be imparted to him. If I have had used mystery shopping software then employee might
have able to viewed the training content in the form of videos in order to acquire well defined
needs of job. The first thing I will do will be finding right set of people for the job.
Conclusion
From the entire incident, I learnt that I prepared him well prior to the audit in order to
avoid these unpleasant situations. I should have trained him in such a way that he can
perform well during his job. I also, learnt that a mystery shopping management software
should be capable enough to tackle such incidents. I gained a lot from this incident, however,
I would not consider this a great way to evaluate overall performance of me as a supervisor,
as I have had done the way much better than this (Jonasson, Nyström and Rydström, 2017).
Action Plan
Therefore, the whole incident makes me learn that selecting and screening of new
employees is an important job before assigning an audit to them. Also, proper training to
them is crucial for performing the job. Hence, in future I will ensure this process of whole
selection, screening and training must meet the job expectations. As it is the role of project
managers to identify right group of people to complete the assignment (Husebø, O'Regan and
Nestel, 2015). However, it is tough to identify such people but the mystery shopping software
will help me to provide the project users with right candidates. Then comes training material
which I am going to use in the future. The reason behind this is that each client’s needs are
different and hence, training the new mystery shoppers will fulfil such requirements.
From above, it shows clear relationship with the theory and to my personal experience
such that as I describe my experience and in that I present entire incident which a person face
under my supervision and according to 2nd cycle i.e. feeling in which I felt so bad because my
boss blamed me for all. After it I start evaluating my mistakes and find that, the candidate is
actually did not observe and apply things easily and after evaluation, I analysis that there is
need to change the training sessions so that the people who are working under my supervision
feel motivated. Then I concluded that if better session are provided to him then the chances of
mistakes are automatically reduces, therefore I made an action plan in which I makes sure
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that in future I will ensure this process of whole selection, screening and training must meet
the job expectations.
4. Key issues encountered
During my role play as Supervisor in Robert Dyas Company, key issues that I have
faced were:
 Selection of shoppers: - As I face issue for selection of shoppers because I need to
take great care in selecting and screening of new shoppers to make sure that they
match company’s profile. But I failed at this area where I need to improve myself. I
will keep records of all of mystery shoppers and then ask them to sign confidentiality,
quality and integrity agreements for every job every time.
 Mystery shopper’s training: - As our company’s client and program is different and
so our training for shoppers. Therefore, it also becomes a key issue for me because
shoppers must do tasks such as study a detailed briefing manual that has been created
specifically for the program, pass an online comprehensive test which is tailored to
the program, and lastly attend a face to face raining at one of our offices and web
briefing also. For this, I will make sure that shoppers know me before they start
working with me. Moreover, not only be familiar with the scenarios, but also with the
organisation and the program’s objectives (Johns, 2017).
 Debriefing session: - This area is another key issue for me. I did not assessed well to
the new shopper about the retail performance and provided with constructive and
actionable briefing through the mystery reports. I was not able to consciously and
critically observe his front line, backed by his extensive experience in relevant job. It
was debriefing by me was essentially a focused session for him to ask him more in-
depth questions about the brand, our retail performance or even plans for the future
(Knott and Scragg eds., 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the overall report, it has been concluded that the reflective practice is an ability
to reflect own actions so as to engage in a procedure of continuous learning. Apart from this,
the report also described Gibbs’ Reflective model that can be used in making people learn
about their experiences and explore own understanding. Lastly, the report relates Gibb’s
model to my own experience in Robert Dyas Company as a supervisor.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bowers, S., 2015. Bowers Reflective Model. The Journal of New Writing in Health and
Social Care. 1(2). pp.31-37.
Brown, M. M., 2016. Reflective Supervision.
Carlsson, G., Hantilsson, U. and Nyström, M., 2014. Reflective team–a clinical intervention
for sustainable care improvement. Reflective Practice. 15(3). pp.378-389.
Evans, T., 2018. Reflective Practice and Learning from Mistakes in Social Work, Alessandro
Sicora. The British Journal of Social Work.
Gould, N. and Taylor, I., 2017. Reflective learning for social work: research, theory and
practice. Routledge.
Husebø, S.E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in
simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing. 11(8). pp.368-375.
Johns, C. ed., 2017. Becoming a reflective practitioner. John Wiley & Sons.
Jonasson, L.L., Nyström, M. and Rydström, I., 2017. Reflective team in caring for people
living with dementia: a base for care improvement. Reflective Practice. 18(4). pp.435-
447.
Knott, C. and Scragg, T. eds., 2016. Reflective practice in social work. Learning Matters.
Redmond, B., 2017. Reflection in action: Developing reflective practice in health and social
services. Routledge.
Online
Reflective Writing: About Gibbs Reflective cycle. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.brookes.ac.uk/students/upgrade/study-skills/reflective-writing-gibbs/>.
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