University MBA401 Reflective Journal: Leadership & People Management

This reflective journal provides a detailed account of a student's learning experience in the MBA401 module, focusing on people, culture, and contemporary leadership. The journal covers key concepts in human resource management, organizational culture, talent acquisition, performance manage...Read More

Running Head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Reflective Journal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The Theories-
In the MBA401 module which was about people, culture and contemporary leadership,
the workshop week 1 dealt with driving the organizational performance through people. The aim
of the subject to detail the key concept in the management of the human resources in a particular
organizational system. The lectures explained how to evaluate and apply the human resource
considerations during making the business decisions with the strategic gals of an organization. It
provided an overview of talent management, the cultural change and the ethics of the people
management too. The contemporary approaches to leadership also provided the students along
with an opportunity to practice the leaders. The main focus of the week-1 workshop was
explaining the role of people in the organizations and relay the importance of measuring human
capital organizations. It also described the role of the HR having considered what the future role
of HR may be. I have come to learn after going through the week materials that people and
organization share a different relationship. The organizations rely solely on the availability and
the effectiveness of three types of resources such as finance, people and technology.
I have also known that the effective organization recognizes the values of the employees.
In my career in future I will use the metrics and the analytics for helping people to predict and
contribute in the organizational performance and managing the organizational talent. On the
other hand, the focus of week – 2 was the organizational culture. I have learnt that the
organizational culture is the shared values, the assumptions, beliefs and the patterns of behavior
in an organization. Moreover, it is the social glue which holds together the entire organization.
The culture triangle of Schein has given me an in-depth view of the concept. There are various
types of organ organizational culture such as the power culture, the role culture, the task culture
and the person culture. In future, if I come an HR of a company, I will be able to apply my own

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role in shaping the organizational culture. I will be able to recruit sensitively, do the performance
management, train and develop the employees and at the same time manage the cultural change.
In the week-3 I have learnt how to do the talent acquisition. The examples of Apple Westconnex
and Telstra has made me understand how to do the human resource planning and ensure how the
organizational objectives are fulfilled by utilizing the human resources.
It is an ongoing process which is focused on the long –term. The talent acquisition has
few parts such as the job creation, the job analysis, job design, the competency profiling, the
skills identification, the person specification and others. The week has made me aware of the
types of interviews. The topic of week -4 was the performance and reward. The week lectures
has taught me that performance management helps to improve the company productivity,
increases the sales, reduces the employee turnover, increases the organizational effectiveness. It
also ensures the internally consistent policies that are linked to the policies of the organization. I
found the week-5 topic and lectures the most interesting as it described the talent management
and leadership development. I have known that talent management is helping a person perform
their current role and enable advancement to the next role. It includes the on job training. In a
particular organization, there are three types of learning such as the formal, the informal and the
social. In order to retain the employees, the commitment and the loyalty is highly necessary. I
have got in-depth knowledge that in the knowledge economies, the employee expertise, the
organizational experience and the customer relationships are equally important. The lectures
have taught me the staffing processes which must be designed for ensuring the retention of the
employees by alignment of the personal and the organizational goals. In my future endeavors, I
can easily incorporate the theories learnt in the weeks.
Online Resources

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As far as the online resources are concerned, I have come across many such as in week -
3, the online resource related to workforce planning suggest that it is a systematic approach for
assessing the current workforce utilization. It covers the future staffing requirements for
appointing the right roles for the right talent. The video elaborates that the workforce planning
must be a part of the strategic planning process in an organization. A well-prepared workforce
planning should be an essential part of the strategic planning process of a company. The effective
workforce planning can leverage the whole business growth cycle. It further elaborated the
alignment between the organization’s human capital and the business direction. This online
resource has been of great help to me as I got a practical view of the scenario. Moreover, as the
topic of week-2 was developing culture and engagement, I watched the suggested video of Apple
to get more illustrations on how they manage the organizational culture. The corporate recruiting
video of Apple. It shows that they focus on some specific traits of the candidates. They find
people who work with passion and idealism. They believe that the best way to establish a special
workplace is to hire for the attitude and to train for the skills. They also seek for people who do
not accept the status quo. They select only those people who are not fond of the rules ad have
least respect for status quo. Those people who are not satisfied with things inherently and know
that everything should be different and seen from a different perspective. The candidates are not
asked for a test to go through but they go through several rounds of interviews. The aim is to find
someone may be unaware of the solution of a problem, but have the full zeal to find out the
answer. The hiring philosophy of Apple shows that the diversity of experience is reflected in the
workforce of the company. They look for people having diverse experiences which could be
applied in their organization to strengthen it.
In class activities

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In week 2 where the topic was to develop the culture and the engagement we went
through the activity of Atlassian espoused values. The task was to watch the Youtube video and
answer the given questions such as how important is the organizational value in creating the
corporate culture of Atlassian and what does it mean for the employees, customers and the
Atlassian organization as a whole. We enjoyed this activity a lot as there were many new aspects
to become familiar with. Another activity was to review case studies in group and determine
which type of culture they follow. We also came to know how to use the Quinn and Cameron
model. We were also asked to share the responses too which was all fun. On the other hand, in
week-5, where the topic was the talent management and leadership development, the in –class
activity that I went through was completing the interpersonal skills checklist including the key
reflection from doing that. This activity enabled me to analyze my own self and determine what
interpersonal skills I have and on which skills I need to work. The next activity of the promotion
debate enabled me to get teamed and debate on two questions such as a company should promote
an insider or an outsider to a top position and also on the advantages and the disadvantages of
each one. I went through many online and article resources and prepared myself with all the
important points and the debate was a creative way to exchange knowledge. Lastly, the journal
reflection was the most interesting for me as here I received the opportunity to reflect on my own
learnings, my queries, doubts and demonstrating where the learnings can be applied properly.
Where week 4 dealt with the performance and reward, the activity it gave us was the
performance conversations. We were divided into two groups and there has been a detailed
conversations related to the topic. Another activity in the same week was the rating descriptions.
In the same week, the next activity was to compile a list of 10 reasons behind people’s
underperforming in the workplace. In the activity of reward preference, we were asked to stand

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by the reward which is most important from our perspective. The second most important and the
third most important were also asked to us.
Assessment Feedback
Feedback is used for describing the helpful information or the criticism regarding the
prior action or the behavior from the perspective of an individual conveyed to another group
which can use the data to improve the current state for future. As per my observations, the
feedbacks are highly important because it is a valuable information use for making essential
discussions. The top performing companies are at the top because they engage themselves in the
feedback process for assessing their current activities/operations and improve for the future. It is
a true focus which is founded on the feedback from the whole organization, its clients, the
customers, the suppliers, the employees and the stakeholders. It is also a way of listening
effectively to another person. For me, the feedbacks received from my professor have motivated
me and encouraged me not to repeat the mistakes and improve myself for future. The feedbacks
which I have received from my professor suggest that my next assessments requires few genuine
research and I need to learn more from him how this can be done. He has also suggested me that
I need to focus on the references that I cite. I have understood that I need to explore more and
find out the most relevant references and cite them properly. He further comments that I need to
strengthen my ability to demonstrate and understand the topics aligned with honest research and
referencing too. Undoubtedly, the feedbacks have been of great help to me and I will definitely
try to work on it in future.
Psychometric test

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The topic of week -7 was core leadership and we were made to learn about different
leaders from all ages. The week made us go through a psychometric test. Under the psychometric
test, I selected the interpersonal skills test covering the emotional intelligence, the team working,
empathy, integrity and the social boldness. The interpersonal skills are responsible for describing
how a person interacts with others in a social or the occupational setting. In a business context, it
is the ability of the individual to maintain a soft relationship with the colleagues and at the same
time accomplishing the organizational operations. There are few characteristics which are
assessed by the interpersonal skill tests such as the emotional intelligence, the team working, the
integrity, empathy and social boldness. I have undergone the test and there were 50 questions.
From the results of the test, I have understood that as far as the emotional intelligence is
concerned, I am strong and can maintain a healthy relationship with anyone around. The team
working spirit is a bit less within me because I have weak communication skills. Empathy is
moderate within me which indicates that I am able to understand and feel what others are feeling
or might feel. I am sensitive too towards the cultures. It is an essential quality which is
appreciated. The integrity relates to the consistency of the values of a person where I have scored
the highest. Regarding the social boldness, it can be said that I am a little conservative but I can
express myself when necessary.

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References
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work in progress. Routledge.
Anderson, T., Crowley, M.E.J., Himawan, L., Holmberg, J.K. and Uhlin, B.D., 2016. Therapist
facilitative interpersonal skills and training status: A randomized clinical trial on alliance and
outcome. Psychotherapy Research, 26(5), pp.511-529.
Anderson, T., McClintock, A.S., Himawan, L., Song, X. and Patterson, C.L., 2016. A
prospective study of therapist facilitative interpersonal skills as a predictor of treatment
outcome. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 84(1), p.57.
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Helmreich, R.L. and Merritt, A.C., 2017. Culture at work in aviation and medicine: National,
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Margerison, C.J., 2017. Managerial Consulting Skills: A Practical Guide: A Practical Guide.
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Mencl, J., Wefald, A.J. and van Ittersum, K.W., 2016. Transformational leader attributes:
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