MBA401 Reflective Journal: Analyzing People, Culture, and Leadership

This reflective journal delves into the concepts of people, culture, and contemporary leadership, emphasizing the importance of leadership in organizational coordination and goal achievement. It analyzes leadership theories and their practical applications, drawing from class activities, online resources, and assessment feedback. The journal reflects on the author's leadership skills, highlighting strengths like teamwork and areas for improvement such as negotiation and communication. It also discusses the significance of organizational culture and talent management, focusing on identifying and bridging skill gaps to enhance employee performance. The journal concludes with an improvement plan aimed at developing analytical, negotiation, and communication skills to foster effective leadership, referencing psychometric tests and strategic management concepts. The document is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools and resources for students.

Running Head: MANAGEMENT
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People culture
5/11/2019

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The essay brings about the discussion on the concept of people, culture and contemporary
leadership and other related aspects. The concept of leadership is vital to obtain number of
benefits and ensure coordination amongst the members of the organisation. Leadership is the
process of influencing the behaviour of individuals and integrating their efforts towards
achieving a common goal. Therefore, this is the reflective journal, which will analyse the use
of theories, and other resources in context to the leadership. Leaders are the individuals who
influence the performance of the organisation through a positive influence on the practices.
Thus, the reader will gain an understanding of the effective leadership in the path of self-
growth and development.
A reflective journal is the collection of the thoughts, ideas, and other relevant material built
over a period. According to me, the concept of leadership lies in exercising the command or
control of the employees, and promoting them to perform better, to achieve both, personal
and organisational goals. I believe as per my understanding that there are no specific
qualities or capabilities of a leader, however the opportunities of coaching, teaching, leading
defines the characteristics of an effective leader (Grint, Jones and Holt, 2016). Therefore, I
possess some of the leadership skills such as teamwork, which defines about my leadership
qualities. To work in today’s business organisations, these skills are essential as they can be
described effectively through the implementation of leadership concepts, theories leading to
the attainment of goals ensuring improvement in the future (Black, 2015).
Now, in the later section of this reflective journal, I will mention examples from the given six
categories or criteria, to determine the leadership effectiveness, i.e. type of leader I am and
improvement. Essential traits or leadership roles which state or mention the criteria to
become a good leader:
Figurehead: As a manager, it is essential to fulfil some social, legal, and ceremonial
responsibilities in order to complete responsibilities in the organisation. Therefore, one needs
to encourage or inspire his/her followers or employees to work with high commitment.
People observe and perceive the manager as a person with the authority, i.e. called as
figurehead (Bolden, 2016).
Leader: A leader is the person who exercises effective leadership skills and abilities for their
team and organisation as a whole (Mintzberg, 2015).

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Liason: The ability of a leader to connect with the people in the external and internal
environment, on behalf of the organisation.
Monitor, on the other hand, is another core function of the being a manager, that reviews and
monitors the team productivity, and improve status of wellbeing of members (Mintzberg,
2015).
Disseminator includes exchange or sharing of the important and useful information with the
users in the organisation.
Spokesperson, describes about significant role and contribution of the manager to represent
the organisation. Under this role, the manager performs the duty of communicating the goals
and objectives of organisation (Mikkelson, York and Arritola, 2015).
Resource allocator: We have been taught about the role of resource allocator, which
determines what organisational resources are effectively utilised within organisation. In
addition, it includes the aspect of allocating, funding, and assigning staff with their
appropriate roles and function (Black, 2015).
Disturbance handler: To resolve any conflict or blockages leading which further create
disputes within team or organisation is another role of effective leader.
Negotiator: It mentions about the participative role of manager in the negotiations with the
team members or organisation (Elliott et al., 2016).
To understand the significance and application of these theories in the business organisations,
we have used the online resources such as class activities and the use of textbook chapters.
One of the example of the class activities I can mention, is an event which was held in our
college which conducted an analysis of managerial skills and competencies essential for
future business operations. In this particular event, I performed the role of a leader, and the
positive trait or aspect from this event was the role of a figurehead. Therefore, the role of
figurehead led to higher performance of the event. However, I analysed through the class
activity/event that I lagged the skill to negotiate about the roles, or in consideration to any
change or attainment of goal within an organisation. this further highlighted the lack of

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effective communication, which was essential or vital for the process of talent management
within organisations (Noe et al., 2017).
Leadership and culture are two vital elements in any organisation leading to the growth and
sustainability. The term organisational culture refers to the shared beliefs, values, or
perceptions held by the employees working in the organisation (Martin, 2015).
The discussion will determine the use of management theories such as ‘recruitment’ and
‘talent management’. The concept of talent management refers to the commitment of an
organisation, to recruit, hire, retain, and ensure development of the talented and superior
employees available in the job market. These skills or abilities of the employees align best
with the goals and objectives of the organisation (Martin, 2015).
Therefore, amongst these theories, we were taught talent management concept, and how does
it relate to effective performance of the employees. As per my knowledge regarding this
theory, the role and contribution of an HR is vital in maintaining the talent and employee
performance through identifying the skill gap and bridging the differences. Identifying the
gap between actual performance and desired level of performance is essential for the
effective application of the talent management theory. I have felt that the skill gap in any
individual affects their performance, attitude, and behaviour towards the achievement of
organisational goals. This can be described through an example where I faced the issues of
ineffective performance at my work due to lack of leadership qualities (Rabbi et al., 2015).
Group discussion was also considered a part of the in-class activities, as criteria to assess
and analyse the skills and abilities. This included the application of cognitive exercises, and
knowledge related to the topic of the discussion. In this group discussion, conducted in our
class wherein five people were asked to speak and mention their views on the topic ‘role of
leaders’ and their significance in the development. It has been stated by one of the members,
that leaders are not born, they are created through their effective skills and abilities. Almost
every person or participant in the discussion represented their viewpoints correctly, and I
lacked the efficiency of explaining my views about leadership. Specifically, I lagged behind
demonstrating the statistical aspects about the topic, and was not able to speak with
confidence. This represented the skill gap, as I was not able to convey my thoughts about
leaders, and effective leadership therefore; I need to work upon developing the
communication skills (Owens, Call and Vincent, 2017).

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In accordance, to the concepts learned, it has been understood that for retaining best talent
within organisations, for the long-term. The managers or leaders must ensure the effective
recruitment, and provide training to enable them perform with their best potential and
efficiency. In addition, they can focus on the measurement of performance by using the
rating scales, and other methods to make them aware of the need of change or improvement
(Noe et al., 2017).
Regarding this criteria, as another parameter of ensuring practise of effective leadership
skills, i.e. assessment feedbacks also contributed to the strategies. We were given first
assignment, i.e. to complete a particular project for our final semesters, every person or
student was given a feedback. I was given a negative feedback, i.e. to improve the analytical
skills, which will improve my understanding of the leadership and other management theories
and concepts (Carasco-Saul, Kim and Kim, 2015). Therefore, it has been understood that it is
essential for an individual to develop interpersonal/communication skills to work together
within a team and attain higher performance. This has further demonstrated that these skills
and qualities lead to the effectiveness in the process of recruitment and talent management,
which helps in retaining employees for a longer period (Rabbi et al., 2015).
The reflective journal or essay has critically outlined or mentioned the concepts of the
leadership, which describes strategic management of organisations, and personal goals. The
use of psychometric tests has been also organised by our educator or instructor that identified
my skills, abilities that form a part of my personality to become a successful leader (Cripps,
2017). Psychometric tests refer to the standard and scientific methods, which are used to
measure or evaluate an individual’s mental capabilities and aspects of behaviour. Managers
within organisations use these tests to identify and evaluate the need of change in the
behaviour and attitude of employees working in the organisation (Mone and London, 2018).
Below mentioned in the improvement plan, which will help in developing my skills and
abilities over time and attain effective leadership.

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Goals/Milestones Action Evidence of achievement Time- period
Acquiring Analytical
skills
Participating in various
Seminars, conferences related
to management of businesses.
Enhanced involvement in the
activities to attain the
objectives. Activities
influences my behaviour,
representing evidence towards
achievement of goals.
Within period
of 2 months
Negotiation skills Finding a negotiation coach
for improving the negotiation
skills within team member
(Sheehan, Grant and Garavan,
2018).
Effectiveness in the negotiation
agreements, leading to
successful execution of
projects.
Within two
months as of
07-06-19.
Communication skills Acquiring knowledge,
theories of leadership will
enhance confidence, which
will help in communicating
effectively with the
organisational members
(Hoegl and Muethel, 2016).
Interpersonal skills, and
relationships ensure successful
management of the businesses
(Bolden, 2016).
Within 2
months.
To conclude the above discussion it has been analysed that leadership plays a vital role in
determining the skills leading to higher performance. The discussion in the above essay has
mentioned different skills and qualities, which are essential to attain effective leadership to
work within a team. The theories of talent management, and skill gap and the impact on the
performance have been demonstrated well in the reflective journal. However, some of the
strategies with the examples, and improvement plan have been mentioned in the essay, which
will ensure attainment of goals.

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References
Black, S.A. (2015) Qualities of effective leadership in higher education. Open Journal of
Leadership, 4(02), p.54.
Bolden, R. (2016) Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
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Cripps, B. (2017) Psychometric testing: Critical perspectives. United States: John Wiley &
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Elliott, N., Begley, C., Sheaf, G. and Higgins, A. (2016) Barriers and enablers to advanced
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Grint, K., Jones, O.S. and Holt, C. (2016) What is Leadership. The Routledge Companion to
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Mone, E.M. and London, M. (2018) Employee engagement through effective performance
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