Fundamentals of Management: A Reflective Paper and Self-Assessment

This reflective paper, submitted by a student, examines the fundamentals of management, incorporating insights from lectures and seminars. The paper details the student's learning journey, focusing on key concepts such as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling within an organizational context, including practical applications and management theories. It includes a self-assessment based on feedback received, highlighting strengths in theoretical knowledge and research skills while identifying weaknesses in analytical skills and practical application of tools like SWOT and PESTLE analyses. The paper concludes with a personal development plan designed to improve analytical skills and knowledge, aiming for better performance in future assessments and professional development.

Fundamentals of
Management

Table of Contents
Reflective paper ..............................................................................................................................1
1. Learning in the module along with knowledge gained in the lectures and seminars.........1
2. Self assessment through ascertained feedback...................................................................2
3. Area that need to improve through use of effective development plan .............................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

Reflective paper
1. Learning in the module along with knowledge gained in the lectures and seminars
My name is Elena Petrea and I have completed this module over the topic of fundamental
of management. In this module, I learned about the fundamentals of management which is an
interesting topic as per my current interest. In workshop 1, I enhanced my knowledge about the
management. I identified that good management involves planning, organising, leading and
controlling that helps in improvement of an organisational performance. In week 2, I learned
about the management theory that helps an organisation to manage its business operations and
functions. In this week, I also learned about organisational management according to its working
environment. This is transformation process that includes different aspects related to external
environment such as people, finance, material etc. These are main parts of external environment
that helps an organisation to improve its reputation in market (Andrés, Ramón and Concepción,
2018). I also increased my knowledge about the hierarchies under the area of management. In
this, people doing the work related to supervising. The different people like middle managers,
senior managers and board of directors are important part of an organisation and playing
prominent role in exercise of improving business performance. I enhanced my understanding
regarding the process of managing people in the organisation. In this process, Mintzberg’s 10
management roles are essential. This divides the workforce within three groups which are
informational, interpersonal and decisional. Four functions of management such as planning,
organising, leading and controlling are essential in overall direction of work, allocating of
resources, saving time and efforts and generating higher efforts and commitments towards
business objectives for their effective accomplishment on time. With the help of this module, I
increased my understanding about the Ryanair that is an Irish budget airline.
In week 4, I developed my knowledge regarding the management theory and models
along with the points that aid in practical development of same over particular situation. These
models are rational goal models, internal process models, human relation models and open
systems models. I identified that these are useful models in development of management theory.
These models help an organisation in its performance. Human relations model is related with the
commitment morale and participation openness. Internal process model is related with stability
control and documentation information management (Aryasri, 2020). Rational goal model helps
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an organisation in improvement of its productivity and direction towards goal. Under open
system model, company require to adopt innovation and growth resources. Through all this, I
improved my understanding about the scientific management & Henry Ford.
2. Self assessment through ascertained feedback
Feedback is the effective approach to determine the areas which are good and bad. In the
current case, feedback is using for the purpose of self-analysis. The importance of this is that it
aids in timely determination of the aspects which are work as strengths while others which are
not effective and present as weakness in personality. This has future importance in development
of plan and ideas that further help in improving same (Barry, 2017).
Areas which are good
It was ascertained from the feedback that I have good knowledge about the aspect of
management. This was the reason that able to present the good definition of same. Here, I got 15
marks out of 20 which is quite significant and effective to demonstrate my good knowledge
about topic. This simultaneously shows that I am good in theoretical knowledge where easily
grab the knowledge on topic. This means I have good research skills where easily able to
determine the actual meaning of the different aspects.
Areas which are weak and requires improvement
It was ascertained from the given feedback on project that I am not good in analytical
skills and knowledge. This was the reason that got just 5 marks out of 20 in case of describing
the usefulness of SWOT and PESTLE to managers (Robbins, De Cenzo and Coulter, 2016). This
clearly demonstrates that I have lack of knowledge about the determinants which are covered in
these models along with their impact or influence over business organisations and their parties. I
determined from the multiple choice questions and answers feedback that I also poor in
determining correct option while giving more options that similar to one topic answer. They
create confusion in me and misguide actually from the authentic result. I also don't know about
the actual focusing point of PESTLE. This was ascertained by me after getting the feedback
where I selected the wrong answer. This clearly depicts that my analytical knowledge is weak
along with information about different models. Also, I don't have knowledge about their actual
application. The end impact of all ascertained by me in the form of low marks in project along
with bad image among peers. This shows that there is huge need to work over the analytics part
and practical knowledge that not only improves the knowledge but also aid in actual personality
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development. The final impact of this exercise will must attain in the form of good professional
career.
3. Area that need to improve through use of effective development plan
I identified that my analytical skill and knowledge are weak that effects on my
performance while implementing and applying SWOT and PESTLE analysis. In order to
improve my analytical skill and knowledge I am developing a personal development plan which
is demonstrated below;
Objectives Success criteria Actions Implementation
I want to improve my
analytical skill and
knowledge because it
helps me in
implementation and
applying of SWOT
analysis and PESTLE
analysis.
I will recognise my
success by collecting
feedback from my
tutors. They will help
me by giving accurate
information about my
weakness. I will
review and measure
my improvement by
conducting meeting
with my senior
managers.
In order to improve
my Analytical skill
and knowledge I read
more frequently and
learn something new
every day. I also focus
on different models
such as PESTLE and
SWOT (Zhang and
Grossmann, 2016).
I implement my
analytical skill and
knowledge by
conducting PESTLE
and SWOT analysis on
an organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andrés, A., Ramón, M. and Concepción, M., 2018. Fundamentos de Gestión
empresarial/Fundamentals of Management.
Aryasri, A. R., 2020. Fundamentals of Management| JNTU. McGraw-Hill Education.
Barry, W. S., 2017. The Fundamentals of Management: Business Management in Transport
1 (Vol. 12). Routledge.
Robbins, S. P., De Cenzo, D. A. and Coulter, M., 2016. Fundamentals of Management: Essential
Concepts and Applications, Student Value Edition. Prentice Hall.
Zhang, Q. and Grossmann, I. E., 2016. Enterprise-wide optimization for industrial demand side
management: Fundamentals, advances, and perspectives. Chemical Engineering
Research and Design. 116. pp.114-131.
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