Reflective Journal: Reflecting on Research Project and Skill Growth

This reflective journal details a student's experience conducting research on the challenges of lower menu pricing for Masala Cafe and Bar to maintain a competitive edge in the restaurant and cafes market. The journal reflects on the student's professional capabilities, including teamwork, communication, and adaptability, highlighting how these skills were developed and utilized throughout the research process. It examines critical learning experiences, such as connecting theoretical knowledge to practical application, and addresses the challenges encountered, such as accessing databases, data collection difficulties, and time management. Furthermore, the journal provides self-awareness regarding issues affecting personal growth, areas for self-development, and personal achievements, while also incorporating feedback and support received from the supervisor. The research involved both qualitative and quantitative data analysis, providing insights into pricing strategies, consumer behavior, and market competitiveness within the New Zealand context. The student gained expertise in research methodology, data analysis, and presentation skills, leading to a broader understanding of the restaurant industry and personal skill development.

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Reflective Journal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Introduction
This reflective journal describes my journey in conducting the following research on
‘Challenges to Lower Menu Pricing of Masala Cafe and Bar to Maintain a Competitive Edge in
Restaurants and Cafes Market’. This journal will illustrate my professional capabilities and skills
acquired from the project, my critical learning experience in associating the theory into practice,
my self-awareness regarding the issues affecting my personal growth, self development and
achievement and feedback from the supervisor that helped me in identifying my weaknesses and
challenges in the conducting the project in a successful manner. This study has been beneficial
for me not only to understand the price management of the restaurants and cafes but also to
understand the dynamic consumer behavior and their tastes and preferences in New Zealand. It
enabled me to meet many people, talk to them and understand the differences in choices. Along
with the academic knowledge, the study also helped me to explore my own skills, capabilities
and weaknesses, which is a part of my personality development process.
Professional capabilities
Teamwork: While conducting a research project, teamwork is very necessary. This was my first
research project and I had very little experience in how to conduct a research study
systematically and in a controlled and effective manner. Hence, I worked with my supervisor
(tutor) as a team. Many other people were also involved in this study, such as, the university
librarian, the participants who took part in the data collection process, etc. who all worked with
me as a team. Without their help, I would not be able to complete my study within the given
timeframe. While my tutor guided me immensely regarding every aspect of the study, starting
from the choice of topic to prepare the final report in the proper structure, the university librarian
helped me to search the relevant books and journals from the library database and online journal

2REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
stores. However, I faced challenges in convincing the participants about the research purpose and
make them participate in the data collection process. Majority of the participants were unwilling
to fill up the survey answers as they were not willing to spend their time to understand the
research topic and purpose or they did not have time. It took me a lot of time to gather substantial
amount of survey respondents, which enhanced my confidence about coordinating with people
from different backgrounds. Thus, my skill of working in a team has enhanced and mu
capabilities of coordinating with other people has enhanced too.
Communication: It is one of the most important professional skills that are required in all
aspects of academic and social life. A good communication skill is a key to have a successful
interaction with people and achieve success in personal and professional ventures. I learnt that to
conduct a research study efficiently, it is extremely important to have effective communication
with the tutor and all other people involved in the project (Morreale, Valenzano & Bauer, 2017).
I understood the importance of interacting about the challenges that come up during the research
process. Effective communication is helpful in solving any issues and with time, my
communication skills improved substantially (Yap, Abdul-Rahman & Chen, 2017). That also
helped me in communicating efficiently with the survey participants and let them understand the
research purpose and objectives and convince them to cooperate with the data collection
procedure. Thus, this study has been beneficial for me as my communication skill has enhanced
significantly and boosted my confidence which also help me in my future endeavors.
Flexibility/Adaptability: I have learnt in this process of research study that there can be
numerous challenges with different nature, such as, unavailability of sufficient relevant
literatures, inaccessibility to online databases, lack of knowledge on a particular research
methodology or analysis methods, inability to get required number of participants for data

3REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
collection etc. With the help of my tutor, I leant how to become flexible to overcome these
challenges and utilize the available resources in the optimized manner. That helped me to
develop my adaptability capability to any challenging situation.
Analytic: The research study entailed both qualitative and quantitative data and hence, I gained
an extensive knowledge on the nature of both of these types of data and their analysis processes.
My tutor helped to study and understand different types of data analysis process and their
benefits and drawbacks. It enhanced my knowledge about the entire research methodology and
data analysis processes and helped me to decide which method should be chosen according to the
situations and data type for the study. It has increased my confidence level about the research
methods and their expected outcomes.
Presentation skills: I learnt substantially about making and delivering presentations during the
study. I acquired the skills of how to present the research topic, its aims and objectives and
correct methodology in the most precise manner to defend my justification points. Initially, I did
not know how to make good presentations, but during this study, I got the understanding of the
structure of presentation and how to present the content efficiently.
Critical learning experiences
As stated by Stokey (2016), skill refers to the ability of an individual to do a work in
efficient manner. It represents the expertise of an individual that enables him to conduct any
work with minimum errors. While conducting the research I gained various types of skill, such
as, communication, team work, adaptability and analytical. Firstly, the process of this study
helped me in gaining the skill of efficient and effective communication. Before the study, I had
little knowledge in writing any professional email or effectively expressing my ideas to my guide

4REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
or to any other person who were involved in the project. During this study, my tutor helped me in
writing emails and the paper in a professional manner. I learnt the mail structure and the choice
of words that make the communication precise, to-the-point and effective. Furthermore, it is
taught by my tutor that narrowing down the research subject to choose a topic is crucial as the
research subject is vast and there are many aspects to it, which cannot be addressed efficiently in
one single research study within a specific time frame (Bailey & Burch, 2017). This helped me to
understand the structure of the research studies and the importance of choosing a narrowed down
topic, which is aimed at increasing the precision of the outcomes.
Regarding team work, my tutor taught me how to establish communication with the
people with different backgrounds. This skill not only helped me to learn about how to manage a
team of people belong to different cultures and educational background and coordinate different
tasks in an effective manner, but it would also help me in my future life when I would meet
people from more diverse background and work with them. I gained the skill of making
adjustment with people and coordinate with them to perform a task competently.
While conducting the study, I faced various types of challenges. Initially, I was not able
to access the online databases to explore literatures on different aspects of the research subject. It
was required to conduct the literature review in an extensive and comprehensive manner.
However, my tutor guided me with how to find different databases, how to search the literatures
from the university library in a smart manner and how to utilize the available resources in an
efficient manner. Furthermore, I also learnt how to deal with the situation when a selected
participant refused to participate in the data collection process or left the process in the middle of
the data collection. While collecting primary data through interviews, I faced the difficulty of
making the participants understand the research questions and research purpose. Thus, I gained

5REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
the skill of flexibility and adaptability of dealing with any adverse situation which was beneficial
not only for the study but also for my personality development.
In regards to the analytical skill, I had very little knowledge in the types of data and the
analysis processes. While conducting this study, I gained high level of expertise in the data
analysis process and its interpretations. This not only helped me to gain much knowledge, but
also it increased my interpretation and analytical powers that would help me in my future studies
and career options.
Thus, it can be said that as I gained the above mentioned skills, I gathered knowledge
regarding the pricing strategies and tactics adopted by the restaurants and cafes of New Zealand,
the application of competitive advantage theories in the real business world. As I completed my
study and overcame the challenges, I could successfully address the research objectives and
answered the research questions. Thus, this study enabled me to not only gain skill and expertise
regarding various steps of the research study structure, but also enabled me to apply the
theoretical knowledge into practice to conduct the study.
Self-awareness of the issues affecting personal growth, areas for self-development and
personal achievements, challenges or failures
Regarding the issues that were creating obstacles in my personal growth, self-
development and personal achievements, I was clearly aware about my lack of communication
skills, poor coordination skill, poor time management, and lack of analytical skills. For example,
I did not know how to write a professional email or professionally communicate with people
which I learnt while conducting the research study. I was also poor at time management, which
was hampering my delivery of the paper within the given time frame. My research was going in

6REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
an uncontrolled manner and the timeline was limited. Thus, I learnt to conduct the study in a
controlled manner and in a narrowed down approach to keep the information and findings
precise. I was also poor at interpretations and analysis of information due to my lack of
knowledge. My tutor helped me to make structure of the processes, study and make presentations
accordingly. This helped me to overcome the fear of robustness from the overwhelming
information. I was also poor at coordinating with people from different backgrounds, which I
dealt efficiently after I leant the tactics of team work. Thus, it can be said that, while doing the
research work, I learnt many aspects of the research study, both academically and socially. I
gathered that a research study not only makes academic contribution, but it also has social
implications, as it helped me to achieve personal growth and development of skills and also
helped me to gain practical knowledge about the competitiveness of the market for the
restaurants and cafes of New Zealand and the evolving tastes and preferences of the customers. It
widened my horizon of knowledge and also helped me to overcome many of my weaknesses.
The theoretical findings were beneficial for me to design the research questions to collect
primary data, as with the knowledge gathered from the literatures, I could select the factors that
affect the menu pricing in cafes and restaurants and frame the interview questions on that
(Orcher, 2016). This made the study and outcomes more realistic.
Feedbacks and support received from supervisor (tutor)
I had a very good experience with my supervisor. Initially, I had a tough time in
convincing my tutor about the research topic as I was not being able to express my ideas
properly and choose a research topic in a precise manner. However, as my tutor made arguments,
that helped me to properly understand the purpose of choosing a precise research topic by
narrowing down the horizon. Similar experience occurred at every step of the study. The critical

7REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
evaluation by my tutor was extremely beneficial for me to understand my mistakes in conducting
the study and also to understand the areas of personal growth that needed to be improved.
My supervisor provided every type of support possible, from selecting the research topic,
choosing relevant literatures and accessing the databases, to guiding through research
methodology, primary and secondary data collection, and analysis, and providing interpretation
and conclusion to the study. It was an immense support from the supervisor which not only
helped in gathering knowledge but also applying those in the practical life. The supervisor game
me honest feedback at every step, which I tried to address by discussing with him. There has
been no disagreement in the course apart from the topic selection. My supervisor guided me with
the process of topic selection and other than that, I never had any disagreement with my
supervisor as he has more knowledge and experience than me and I had faith that he was guiding
me in the proper direction of study as well as in the future course of my life.

8REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
References
Bailey, J. S., & Burch, M. R. (2017). Research methods in applied behavior analysis. Routledge.
Morreale, S. P., Valenzano, J. M., & Bauer, J. A. (2017). Why communication education is
important: A third study on the centrality of the discipline’s content and
pedagogy. Communication Education, 66(4), 402-422.
Orcher, L. T. (2016). Conducting research: Social and behavioral science methods. Routledge.
Stokey, N. L. (2016, October). Technology, Skill and Long Run Growth. In Conference in
Honor of Robert E. Lucas Jr., October (pp. 7-8).
Yap, J. B. H., Abdul-Rahman, H., & Chen, W. (2017). Collaborative model: Managing design
changes with reusable project experiences through project learning and effective
communication. International Journal of Project Management, 35(7), 1253-1271.