Reflective Essay: Business Research on Global Teams at Wesfarmers Ltd.

This essay provides a reflective account of learning experiences gained from researching the challenges of managing global teams within Wesfarmers Ltd. It evaluates the effectiveness and usefulness of the learning process, detailing how the research insights can be applied in future career endeavors, particularly in managing diverse teams and enhancing communication. The reflection covers the happenings of the learning process, including data collection methods (surveys, interviews), analysis of challenges like cultural differences and communication barriers, and the application of research methodologies. The author emphasizes the importance of communication, team building, and ethical considerations in research, concluding that the experience has facilitated personal and professional growth applicable to future opportunities in global organizations and research roles. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide array of study resources for students.

Business Research
Challenges Managing Global Teams in Wesfarmers Ltd.
Individual Learning reflection

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Effectiveness and usefulness of learning experience.............................................................................2
Usefulness of learning process..............................................................................................................2
Happenings of the learning process......................................................................................................3
Learning evaluation...............................................................................................................................3
Learning process of the research...........................................................................................................4
How research will be applied in future?................................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
This learning reflection will include the summary of the learning and knowledge gained
during the research process conducted on the topic ‘Challenges Managing Global Teams in
Wesfarmers Ltd.’ The learning reflection showcases the advantages of learning for personal
and professional life (Nash, 2016). It will review my learning experiences and will make me
able to understand my learning experiences during the research conducted in the Wesfarmers.
Effectiveness and usefulness of learning experience
The research was about the management of global teams in the Wesfarmers. The experience
helped me a lot in learning the culture of multinational companies operating across the globe.
I have observed that the companies need to be finely connected with all the operating
branches in the world. This is how they are able to achieve their goals and objectives after
facing various challenges and hurdles during the normal course of business (Kimble, 2011). I
observed that Wesfarmers keep trying to align their goals with the global scenario so that the
company can achieve success at the international front. I have learned that the research has
given me the opportunity to observe a global company like Wesfarmers which has a huge
network across the globe. The project made me understand the importance of communication
within the global teams in the organisations. I understood that the disruption in
communication leads to the failure of projects and delivery of services. The companies may
adopt various communication methods which can make the flow of information smooth and
effective (Dossick, Homayouni and Lee, 2015). The service industries have main motive to
satisfy the customers by providing the services on time. Wesfarmers also tries its best to have
alignment between its teams functioning in different countries so that the services can be
delivered on time and as per the demand of the customers (Lilian, 2014)
Usefulness of learning process
This research provided new insights about the supermarket industry and delivery of services.
It shows that how a global company face different challenges to manage various subgroups
and operation units (Binder, 2016). The research would help me in working with a global
company in future because I will be having an idea about the challenges I might face during
my job. I will also be able to give suggestions to my bosses for meeting the challenges and to
enhance the productivity of the team. These insights and knowledge will help me in

managing and coping up with different teams with different backgrounds, behaviour and
culture. This will create an advantage for me to have smooth communication with everyone
which will also help me in gaining different ideas to complete my project successfully. This
will also be helpful while interacting with my professors and future recruiters. This process of
learning will impart knowledge and various skills which will help me in dealing with the
critical situations in future. Research process not only make you understand about the subject
but also impart skills like time management, problems solving, team building and
management, interpersonal skills and more (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).
Happenings of the learning process
The learning process is a never ending process which starts with the curiosity and goes on
when data is collected and analysed (Wynee, 2010). The process started with the selection of
topic. I selected the topic of challenges in managing global teams so that I could help me in
managing various problems in future. It further continued with the data collection about the
operations of Wesfarmers in different countries and how they are managed with the
challenges in between. The learning process included data collection, survey process,
interviews and readings made in the libraries to gain knowledge about the topic. The process
also included the analysis of data which made me learn about statistical tools which are
helpful in analysing the data to derive the final conclusion.
I saw that the challenges in managing different global teams include the challenge of
managing cultural different in different teams, language barriers, time and distance barriers
and many more. It is very difficult to bring a consensus in the ideas and opinions of people
sitting at different locations (Ferraro and Briody, 2017). The company take certain actions to
meet these barriers like regular meetings are held, a standard culture is maintained in the
organisation and shift systems are arranged at work but still it is not so effective in bringing
the expected results (Schellwies, 2015). It is observed that the gestures, facial expressions and
vocal chords are the supportive tools of communication which helps in exchanging the actual
message between both the parties.
Learning evaluation
It is very important to have an effective communication to reach the desired results in an
organisation. This process of learning is the highly beneficial process which helped me to
understand the importance of communication and team building in an organisation. I am able

to evaluate the learning when my teachers provided feedback to me. It will help me in
understanding the loopholes in my research and that is how I will be able to improve in
future. This is how, I will be able to do well in my professional life. I will also take feedbacks
from my peers which would help me in improving in project. Opinions from other would help
me in bringing improvement in those areas in which I am not capable of performing well at
present. I will be able to do my strength and weakness analysis so that I can perform well in
my personal life and career.
Learning process of the research
The learning process of the research made me capable of understanding the importance of
managing global business and teams of various nature and background in order to achieve a
common goal of the organisation. The research process included the activities like research
methodologies and data collection which helped in the progress of the research. This research
process included two assignments which took the process ahead and discussed about the
literature of the topic. I have learned that there are two types of methods which are used to
conduct research. These methods are qualitative research method and quantitative research
method. Both the methods are used in this research to collect the data from surveys and
interviews (Silverman, 2016). It is because in this way, the data collected from one source
will be used to collect data from other source. I have learned about sampling and its different
techniques used in the research to collect the information. Sampling is the techniques with
which the data can be collected by selecting a set of population from the total population
(Wilson, 2016). The data collected from the sample population depicts the response of the
whole group of population. I have learned the importance of ethics in the research and have
also learned to keep the privacy of the respondents who trusted and provided me their
genuine responses for the purpose of completing the research. I have also learned to manage
time and scheduling which helped in completing the research on time and with discipline.
How research will be applied in future?
This learning process will help me to apply these learnings and knowledge in my career. This
will also help me in communicating my learnings to my professors which will help me in
getting good grades in my course/ program. This also assisted me in analysing my strengths
and weaknesses which could help me in grabbing the future opportunities in my career.
Communication is one such essential of the organisation which can bridge the gap between

the teams sitting at different locations and can help the organisation in achieving the common
goals and objectives (Stan, 2010).
This learning will help me in making delivery on time so that the customer satisfaction can be
achieved. It will also make me familiar with the challenges and I will be able to face them
well with the solutions in hand. I will be able to look out for new opportunities in future. This
could help me in getting jobs in research and development field or in supermarkets. This
could also help me in getting better positions in the global organisations. Wesfarmers is a
well-known organisation which added a new level of experience in my life. I learned how to
react, behave and communicate with different people. I learned how to manage different
problems and move ahead for the main goal.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that this learning process has been a wonderful experience for me
because it helped me to develop and grow in this competitive world. I have learnt about the
challenges of managing different global teams, learned how to resolve the issues and also
about its results. Cultural and language differences have a lot of impact on the performance of
the teams which needs to be managed by the project manager by taking steps which unites the
teams coming from different locations and cultures. Overall, this learning experience would
help me in growing in my career and also personally.

References
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and
management across borders. Routledge.
Dossick , C.S., Homayouni, H. and Lee , G. (2015)Learning in Global Teams: BIM Planning
and Coordination. International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology.5(3),pp. 119-
135.
Ferraro, G.P. and Briody, E.K. (2017). The Cultural Dimension of Global Business. Taylor &
Francis.
Kimble, C., 2011. Building effective virtual teams: How to overcome the problems of trust
and identity in virtual teams. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 30(2), pp.6-15.
Lilian , S.C.(2014) Virtual teams: opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia -
Social and Behavioral Sciences .110 ( 2014 ) ,pp. 1251 – 1261.
Nash, C., 2016. Donald Schön: Learning, reflection, and coaching practice. In Learning in
Sports Coaching (pp. 65-76). Routledge.
Schellwies, L., 2015. Multicultural Team Effectiveness: Emotional Intelligence as Success
Factor . Anchor Academic
Publishing.
Sekaran, U and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Stan, A., 2010. Managing Global Teams. Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics
Edition, (15).
Wilson, V., 2016. Research Methods: Mixed Methods Research. Evidence Based Library and
Information Practice, 11, 56-59.
Wynee, R 2010, ‘Student Perceptions of Reflective Learning Activities’, Fall2010Mid-
Atlantic ASEE Conference.