Reflective Writing: Managing People and Organization with POLC

This reflective writing assignment delves into the application of the POLC (Planning, Organizing, Leading, and Controlling) management approach within a real-life event scenario, specifically a Christmas Eve party organized at the author's uncle's restaurant. The author reflects on the experience of stepping in for absent managerial staff, detailing the planning phase which involved comprehensive preparations from decorations to menu selection. The organizing aspect covers the delegation of responsibilities to the restaurant staff to ensure a smooth event execution. Leadership skills were employed to guide and motivate the staff, while the controlling function addressed unexpected challenges such as a larger-than-anticipated crowd. The reflection concludes with a critical evaluation highlighting the success of the POLC approach and lessons learned, particularly the importance of contingency planning for future events. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running Head: REFLECTIVE WRITING 0
Reflective Writing: POLC functions
Managing People and Organization
(Student Details :)
5/29/2019

Reflective Writing 1
Contents
Reflection: Managing People and Organization with POLC.....................................................2
Life-Incident Description...........................................................................................................2
Situational Analysis...................................................................................................................2
Planning..................................................................................................................................2
Organizing..............................................................................................................................3
Leadership..............................................................................................................................3
Controlling.............................................................................................................................3
Critical Evaluation.....................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

Reflective Writing 2
Reflection: Managing People and Organization with POLC
This reflective journal is based on the application of the POLC management approach in real-
life event management. To do so, I am going to reflect upon an event of my life during which
I have been utilized the 4 prime management functions. The main functions of the POLC
management approach are Planning, Organizing, Leadership as well as Controlling of people
and organization (Zheng, Yang and Mclean, 2010).
Life-Incident Description
The particular incident of my life on which I am going to reflect is related to the Christmas
Eve party at my uncle’s restaurant. It was all about organizing a Christmas Eve event at the
restaurant of my uncle in the absence of managerial level staff and people of his restaurant. I
really love the ambiance of my uncle’s restaurant and it seems lively to me every time I visit
his place. Thus, I often visit my uncle’s restaurant as well as assist him in the normal
management functions at the restaurant. The name of our restaurant is ‘Flavour of Sydney’
(FOS).
However, the managers’ and their team are highly effective in their work and they never
bother my uncle in the context of any management related issue at the FOS. In the month of
last December, my uncle called me as well as asked me to visit him at FOS on an urgent
basis. Post reaching at FOS, he told me that the manager along with his assistant is absent
since 5-6 days due to some personal reasons and hence manager will not be able to join the
FOS even on 25th December. Immediately, I analyzed the whole situation and assured my
uncle that I am going to plan, organize, lead as well as control the whole Christmas event at
the FOS for him.
Situational Analysis
Planning
To be an effective manager, I planned the whole event with the help of the rest of the staff
there as only 3 days were left to Christmas Eve. In this way, my planning was containing
each and every small thing from lightings, wall decorations to evening buffet menu of the
Christmas Eve.

Reflective Writing 3
Organizing
For organizing the event well, I took a meeting of everyone from FOS staff to tell them their
work as well as responsibilities so that no conflict can occur at the end time (Cooren et al.,
2011).
Leadership
Based on (Zheng, Yang and Mclean, 2010), I lead the Christmas Eve event at a short notice
in a well manner without any support of the managerial level staff of the FOS.
Controlling
During the event, a surplus of people arrived and the number was more than expected which
made my staff confused and nervous initially. Yet, I controlled everyone including people
and staff’s intentions as well as encouraged them to tackle guests efficiently (Bolman and
Deal, 2017).
Critical Evaluation
The critical evaluation of the whole Christmas Eve event suggests that an approach of POLC
management functions worked well and it offered me a lifetime experience and learning of
leadership and management. Based on my experience (Colquitt et al., 2011), my future
strategies will contain adopting a backup practice whenever planning an event in future as we
had to handle more people than what we expected.

Reflective Writing 4
References
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E. (2017) Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership, London: John Wiley & Sons.
Colquitt, J., Lepine, J.A., Wessaon, M.J. and Gellatly, I.R. (2011) Organizational behavior:
Improving performance and commitment in the workplace, London: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Cooren, F., Kuhn, T., Cornelissen, J.P. and Clark, T. (2011) 'Communication, organizing and
organization: An overview and introduction to the special issue', Organization Studies, vol.
32, no. 9, pp. 1149-1170.
Zheng, W., Yang, B. and Mclean, G.N. (2010) 'Linking organizational culture, structure,
strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management',
Journal of Business research, vol. 63, no. 7, pp. 763-771.