MBA401 People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership Reflective Journal

This reflective journal, created by a student, explores key concepts from the MBA401 People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership module. The journal reflects on various aspects of the course, including theories of talent management (such as egalitarian and elitist approaches), online resources (videos, podcasts, and textbook chapters), insights from an industry guest speaker, in-class activities, assessment feedback, and psychometric test results. The student analyzes their leadership strengths (motivation, commitment, and passion) and weaknesses (micromanaging), outlines learning experiences related to recruitment, organizational culture, and leadership skills. Furthermore, the journal details the importance of clear communication, goal setting, and accountability. The student also reflects on the feedback received and how it will be used to improve leadership skills, as well as the results of psychometric tests to understand their behavior and cognitive abilities, especially as they influence leadership effectiveness. Overall, the journal provides a comprehensive self-assessment of the student's learning journey and leadership development within the MBA401 course.

Reflective Journal 1
People, Culture and Contemporary Leadership
Name
Course
Tutor
University
Date

Reflective Journal 2
Theories
Talent management constitutes an organizations dedication to recruit, hire and retain the
best talent available in the market. I have come to understand that talent management plays a
critical role in managing the most significant asset of a company which is the employees. Also, I
understand that businesses need to manage their employees to develop a team that will be
efficient in its operations. My studies suggest that various theories inform the philosophical
perspective of the need to manage employees. Among the theories that I leant include Egalitarian
and elitist theories. Egalitarian theory suggests that talent management involves managing skills
and capabilities of the employees. On the other hand, I learnt that elitist theory states that high
performing employees tend to differentiate themselves from other employees as a result of their
added value.
In contrast, elitist view of talent management assumes that talent in management context
refers to skills that are not matched by anyone but are in demand by a particular organization. In
my view, Egalitarian approach is the best theory that explains talent because an organization will
seek to recruit people who are specialized in a number of areas that they need. Therefore, it is
challenging to compare individuals with talents and those whose talents are significant to an
organization. One example that resonated with me from these two theories is that leaders should
play a key role in inspiring others to become better at their responsibilities (Grint, Jones and Holt
2016).
My strength as a leader include offering motivation and reducing pressure by challenging
others to dream more, learn more, do more and become better people. My other strengths are
commitment and passionate. From the module I have learnt that am always committed to
perform my duties and responsibilities. Furthermore, the passion that I have as leader contributes

Reflective Journal 3
in boosting my morale and encouraged me to perform better at my duties. My weakness as a
leader is micromanaging employees. This is because I tend to monitor each and every activity for
purposes of ensuring that every task is linked to the overall objective. I intend to improve this
area by providing clear and direct instructions as well as allowing employees to offer suggestions
feedback and opinions
Online Resources
The module provided me with online resources such as videos, podcasts and textbook
that focus on people, culture and contemporary leadership. These resources played a crucial role
in increasing my knowledge about topics such as talent managements and processes involved in
recruitment. The sources were crucial in offering multidimensional perspective of the topics that
I have learnt in this module. For instance, I learnt different talent management practices such as
relying on recruitment dimension, talent identification dimension, practice is talent development,
career management and retention planning. These practices added to my knowledge the steps
that are taken to recruit and manage employees.
I was able to understand that employers or human resource managers in a firm tend to
recruit employees based on the needs of the job and qualification of the individual employee.
Furthermore, age is one of the most considered factors during recruitment (Smedley, 2017). As a
result, recruitment process is structured to target applicants that are considered to be qualified in
the areas that are being sought by an organization. Once these employees are recruited, they are
monitored to determine their strength and weakness. Consequently, training and development
activities take place and an organization retains most qualified and let’s go of other who failed to
meet a particular criteria that is determined by an organization.

Reflective Journal 4
The online resources assisted me in understanding my areas of strength as a leader. I
learnt that I am good at looking at various options and choosing the best decision based on the
options available. This is because the online resources helped me to understand that leaders
ought to take time and critically evaluate options in order to make informed choices. My
weakness as a leader is lack of defining the goals which leads to wastage of time and I intent to
improve this area of leadership by clearly defining the goals and prioritizing work so that
activities can be completed in time.
Industry Guest
The industry guest was invited by Kaplan. The speech revolved around culture of an
organization and its impact on recruitment, retention and development. One of the things that I
picked from the speech is that current recruitment strategies in the real world target the
millennial generation. These are those who expect to be recruited through social media platforms
(Melanthiou, Pavlou and Constantinou 2015). Since organization culture determines recruitment
strategies. Today, organization cultures are characterized with people who are social, tech savvy,
job satisfaction and personalized attention. This implies that an organization will likely recruit
from a pool of applicants that match the current organization culture.
The speaker also suggested that companies in the modern day rely on employees whose
talents are recognized individually. In my view, the organization culture in the job market is
characterized by individuals with specialty in a particular area. For this reason, an organization
will require to offer training, coaching, formal education and professional assertion (Rosenbach
2018). Since culture is a way of life and governs various activities, an organization plays a
significant role in building unique cultures that are different or similar to other organizations and
contributes meaningful to organizations goals. The speaker helped me to understand my

Reflective Journal 5
attributes which include honesty and integrity. This is after the guest alluded that individual
actions defines people’s behavior which contributes to a particular culture. This implies that y
being honest and having integrity contributes to a positive culture.
Moreover, no organizations look for people who are pessimistic in nature but people who
are optimistic in order to create a culture of growth. As a result, development programs are
normally provided for employees in specific areas in order to retain talent. My weaknesses as a
leader is valuing experience over potential. During recruitment, my goal is to consider the level
of experience of the applicants rather than considering the potential they could have once trained.
I intend to improve this area of weakness by ensuring that am able to offer employees a chance
to showcase their usefulness which might not be included in their curriculum vitae. Besides, now
that I have knowledge on development, I can improve my weakness by focusing on ways
strategies to enhance knowledge and skills among the applicants.
In-Class activities
Class activities contributed to my learning and understanding of recruitment and talent
management. For example, I was made the team leader of a group in which we were expected to
complete group assignments together. In this group, I learnt various team building skills such as
leadership where I was tasked to be accountable of the group and ensure that we completed the
assigned tasks. Also, I learnt that team member’s look up to the leader to provide direction for
the way forward. I managed to motivate my team by encouraging them to refer to online
resources that were offered to us to find better explanations of the concept learnt in class.
Besides, I learnt that communication is a crucial aspect in managing teams. This is
because I was required to communicate constantly with my team in order to agree on the way

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forward. Communication in our case involved discussing issues, bargaining and compromising
to reach a consensus. Effective communication skills by leaders enhance productivity in the work
place (Solaja, Idowu and James 2016). Class activities assisted me to understand the importance
of people and the need to collaborate in order to accomplish desired goals. Class activities played
a significant role in cementing my knowledge with respect to confidence development. I
discovered that confidence is critical elements among leaders and it is significant on assisting
leaders with decision making.
My strength with respect to class activities was accountability. In essence, I was
accountable for my class group in which I was supposed to monitor all the actions.
Accountability is a component of talent management where as a leader I am expected to share
the blame with others as well as share credit. My weakness attributed to class activities suggest
that I am closed-minded when it comes to responsibilities of my team members. I tend to shun
from opinion of others and suggestions. I intent to improve this area of leadership by taking the
responsibility to outline clearly what needs to be done and how to approach so that other team
members know what is expected of them.
Assessment Feedback
The assessment feedback from the subject coordinator of assignment 1 pointed a few
areas that I needed to address in order to ensure that I became and effective leader. The feedback
shows emphasis on the ability of a leader to share vision of an organization with other members.
Sharing the vision with other members is an effective leadership skill where the leader paints the
picture of the overall objectives to other members in order to ensure that they resonate and share
responsibilities to achieve the desired goals. Besides, the subject coordinator gave feedback on
leading by example. This implies that as a leader, I am expected to build credibility and gain

Reflective Journal 7
respect by setting examples. Leaders are expected to have unique qualities that shape the culture
of an organization (Kwiatkowski 2019).
Moreover, it suggests that organization leaders should demonstrate the behavior that they
need others to follow. This helps to establish trust among other team members and inspire them
to accomplish their objectives. Furthermore, the feedback alluded that critical thinking skills are
significant for effective leaders. For instance, leaders are expected to weigh in on various options
in order to make informed decision which implies that they need to think critically with respect
to the situation at hand. Another area that was addressed by the subject coordinator is effective
communication.
From this module, I have leant that the ability to communicate clearly is a critical
leadership skills. This is because communication is characterized with valuable information,
asking intelligent questions and seeking for opinions, suggestion and feedback. My strength in
this aspect is effective communicator. This is because I was able to communicate to my team by
providing clear directions and asking them questions regarding the instructions in order to ensure
that their understood what was required and were prepared to meet the expected objectives. My
weakness as a leader is failing to provide feedback. I tend to do this by not pointing mistakes or
providing tips to improve work. I will improve this area by putting measures such as allowing
feedback, suggestions, opinion and contribution with respect to the subject matter and actively
participate in brainstorming activities.
Psychometric Test
This test is designed to use characteristic and behavior of people to determine their
leadership traits (Kline 2015). The psychometric test that I took considers various traits. The test

Reflective Journal 8
focused on a number of aspects that played a significant role in defining my leadership skills.
Among the traits that were profound from my test included having faith in people, decisiveness,
adaptability, dominance and artistic. Based on my scores, I tend to trust in what people have to
say, I am hesitant in making conclusions and tend to continue debating after the decision has
been reached. Moreover, I tend to dominate people by micromanaging their activities. In
addition, the psychometric test determined that I tend to appreciate artistic features. This test was
significant in assisting me to understand my behavior and cognitive abilities with respect to how
it influences my leadership skills.
For instance, since I tend to trust in people, I am likely to delegate responsibilities to
people and not supervise them because I expect that they will do what is expected. My strength
from this test suggests that I tend to value people. This implies that I care for their concerns such
as job satisfaction, rewards and incentive among other aspects that matter to employees. Another
trait that is of importance to my leadership skills is dominance where I tend to take leadership
roles and control other people in group.
My weakness as a leader based on the psychometric test suggest that I am not decisive.
For instance, I can discuss something and agree with others on the best approach then suddenly
change my mind and begin discussing another angle. I can improve this area of weakness by
weighing between the opposing sides of a matter and look at their merits and demerits before
making my judgment. I will attend leadership conferences in order to consult on best practices to
improve my decision making. Additionally, I will seek coaching in this area in order to make
better decisions in the future.

Reflective Journal 9
Reference List
Grint, K., Jones, O.S. and Holt, C., 2016. What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
Leadership, p.3.
Kline, P., 2015. A handbook of test construction (psychology revivals): introduction to
psychometric design. Routledge.
Kwiatkowski, C., 2019. Effective Team Leader and Interpersonal Communication Skills.
In Sustainable Leadership for Entrepreneurs and Academics (pp. 121-130). Springer, Cham.
Melanthiou, Y., Pavlou, F. and Constantinou, E., 2015. The use of social network sites as an e-
recruitment tool. Journal of Transnational Management, 20(1), pp.31-49.
Rosenbach, W.E., 2018. Contemporary issues in leadership. Routledge.
Smedley, K., 2017. Age Matters: Employing, Motivating and Managing Older Employees.
Routledge.
Solaja, M.O., Idowu, E.F. and James, E.A., 2016. Exploring the relationship between leadership
communication style, personality trait and organizational productivity. Serbian Journal of
Management, 11(1), pp.99-117.