HRM- Oragnisational Behaviour -- Critical reflective blogs
Length: 700 words per blog
| Choice of topics |
| Organisational processes and behaviour (T8) - 700 words |
| Leadership (T9) - 700 words |
| Organisational justice and employee wellbeing (T10) - 700 words |
Task
You are required to set up and use Interact2 Blog tool and post your reflections on four OB topics of your choice. You can choose from the following OB topics:
A starting question for your reflection should be: What is the applicability and relevance of OB theory/model/concepts covered in the specific OB topic for me as a practitioner in my workplace? Discrepancies between the theory and practice should be explored, and implications for your workplace identified.
For students who may not have work experience, you may use a newspapers or academic journal articles that discuss an OB trend/issue in an existing Australian or international organization. Alternatively, you can do your own research on an organization of your choice and focus your reflection on the imagined influence this organizational context (in relation to the specific OB topic) would have on you.
The structure of the blog should follow the following three steps in order to enhance the analytical aspect of the reflection process and to ensure the benefits of this assignment for you and your development in the organization:
Each reflection needs to be based on five journal articles. As this is a reflection where you are using your own experiences and views, your blogs should be written in first person.
A quality reflection shows deep critical analysis of workplace experiences through application of OB theories/models/ concepts. It provides deep insights into the practitioner’s own practice.
This is an opportunity to express your voice on workplace trends that are important to you.
You are required to post each reflection by the end of the week when each topic is covered in this subject, as per the subject schedule. This will ensure continuity of learning as well as the quality reflections. Please note that failure to submit weekly blogs will result in mark deductions.
I will provide feedback and marks on the first blog, and the other three blogs will be graded at the end of the session.
Additional guidance (Suggestion only)
Use this guide as a suggestion only. You can choose to reflect on any other situation/question that is of value to you and your workplace as long as the focus of each post is aligned with the content of the relevant OB topic.
Examples of questions that can be explored in your reflections are provided below.
•Organisational processes and behaviour (communication, negotiation and conflict) (T8)
How are meetings being held in your workplace? Who dominates, who is silent and does this tell us something about the organisational dynamics? What is the role of conflict in your workplace and how is it being accepted and dealt with? What is your negotiation style and how effective is it in your workplace environment?
•Leadership (T9)
What is effective leadership in your workplace? Is there a discrepancy between the leadership behaviour that is rewarded, and the behaviour that is needed? What is the influence this has on you and development of your leadership style? What else do you need to do to be an effective leader?
•Organisational justice and employee wellbeing (T10)
Which workplace conditions are linked to employees’ stress, based on your observations in your workplace? You can identify these based on the job demands-resources model. What is the impact they have on you? What are the measures that your employer adopted for ensuring employees health and wellbeing? How effective are these measures? What else can be done?
Rationale
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
The purpose of this assignment is to complete a critical reflective journal for four OB topics covered in the subject. The aim of this assignment is to enable you to highlight thoughts on each topic as well as demonstrate your understanding of the topics covered in this subject.
Presentation
Guidelines
What is critical reflection?
We tend to use critical reflection when we are trying to make sense of how diverse ideas fit together, when we are trying to relate new ideas to what we already know or when new ideas challenge what we already know, or our beliefs and world-view about how things should be (i.e. taking a deep approach to learning). Reflection is the process we use when working with material that is presented in an unstructured manner, not organized and purified as in a traditional curriculum.
There are different ways of engaging with issues, ideas, events, facts or literature reports -
Descriptive writing:
This is a description of events, issues, ideas, facts or literature reports. There is no discussion beyond description. This writing is considered not to show evidence of reflection.
Descriptive reflection:
There is basically a description of events, issues, ideas, facts or literature reports but the account shows some evidence of deeper consideration in relatively descriptive language. There is no real evidence of the notion of alternative viewpoints in use.
Dialogic reflection:
This writing suggests that there is a 'stepping back' from the events, events, issues, ideas, facts or literature reports which leads to a different level of ‘discussion about' the material. There is consideration of the qualities of judgements and of possible alternatives for explaining and hypothesizing. The reflection is analytical or integrative, linking factors and perspectives.
Critical reflection:
This form of reflection, in addition to dialogic reflection, shows evidence that the learner is aware that the same actions and events may be seen in different contexts with different explanations associated with the contexts. They are influenced by multiple historical and socio-political contexts, for example.
Critical reflection is a skill that can be developed, and which keeping a critical reflective journal is intended to help you with. A key to this is the degree of focus and engagement you can bring to the material.
The following analogy may help you grasp the difference between simple description of issues and deeper reflection:
You go to see a movie that you find bores you. After you come out of it, your friends ask you about the movie. You are not likely to remember much, and your account might cover some of the main events or briefly describe the overall plot, but it will not go much beyond a superficial response.
On the other hand, you see a movie that absorbs you. You are likely to become deeply engaged with the events and the characters on the screen, even to the point of forgetting that you are in a theatre. When your friends ask you about the movie, you are able to give an extended account, describe the key characters, events, and the connections between them, provide nuanced interpretations of what was happening below the surface, consider the action from the point of view of different characters, compare and contrast the movie with other movies, and may even find yourself thinking about particular key aspects of the movie for days afterwards.
Developing your capacity for critical reflection is associated with developing the skills of critical thinking, which have been described in the following terms:
What is a critical reflective blog and why should you use one?
Critical reflection is an opportunity to construct knowledge and meaning from your work. It is one of the most valuable activities you will perform in this course. A critical reflective blog is an instrument for developing your writing skills and critical thinking ability. A critical reflective journal differs from your typical class notes in which you “passively” record data/information given to you by an instructor. It should not be a mere “listing of events” but rather reflect upon lessons you have learned- it's a personal record of your educational experience in class.
An online blog/journal facilitates your documentation of knowledge you are constructing throughout the course. It will help you take control of and direct your own learning experience, identify what you have learned, what questions you have, and what you would like to know more about. You should not only reflect on knowledge gained through materials and discussion, but also new ideas to explore through feedback from others.
More specifically, maintaining a critical reflective blog serves several purposes:
• It facilitates and enables the development of communication and conversation (e.g., between material and yourself; yourself and your teacher).
• It provides regular feedback between you and the instructors and helps to match expectations.
• It works as a platform for synthesizing your developing knowledge and ideas.
• It helps you move from passively remembering the topic material to a more active and questioning engagement with the material, deepening your understanding of the strengths and limitations of key ideas and approaches, and an appreciation of its relevance to practice. This is a part of developing your capacity for critical thinking.
• Helps to identify issues that interest you, that challenging challenge you, and areas that you can improvement upon.
• Aids in clarifying the meaning of key terms by developing a Dictionary of important terms.
What to write?
First write a brief summary of the contents of a topic, chapter or reading material. Then reflect upon the learning activities you have engaged with. Record your own thoughts, ideas, responses and reactions to any of the above. Make notes about concepts, questions you have, and any confusion that may arise. Record new insights and problem-solving strategies realized during discussions with fellow students and instructors. The journal helps you to identify and explain the key issues and to critically reflect and further develop your own thoughts and ideas about it. Be as original and critical (constructive) as you can.
How to write?
You should use whatever style you are comfortable with as long as it is clearly written and sensible, is understandable to another reader (your teacher) and uses correct spelling, grammar and semantics (word meanings).
Expectations
Your blog should meet the following expectations:
Requirements
Submission of blogs in the week when the relevant Organisational Behaviour topic is covered in the subject, as indicated in the subject schedule.
Each reflection needs to be based on at least 5 journal articles. (each Blog)
Your complete assignment (blogs) will be graded at the end of the session.
As this is a reflection where you are using your own experiences and views, your blogs should be written in first person.
Critical Reflective Blog
1. Reflect on a workplace experience that is meaningful and important to you and your growth in the organization (reflection should draw on your personal observations, experiences, assumptions and emotions).
In my professional exposure in ITSM Corp, which is a software developing company, the work pressure is quite high. In my experience, I observed sometimes the work-related stress increased the erroneous practices and lowered the organisational productivity. In agreement to McShane et al., (2019) I state that in a multinational corporation, the employee wellbeing is essential, given the fact we are a customer service based organisation. In my observation, I recognised that employee's perception towards managerial justice directly impacts their wellbeing and motivation. Authors Kim & Park, (2017) agree that the concepts of procedural justice with respect to whistle-blowing, biased behaviours and employee engagement were some of the stimulators of employee wellbeing and cultivate a healthy working environment. On the other hand, agreeing with authors Billing et al., (2014) job burnout is directly related to the role-related stressors within the ITSM Corp. The emotional exhaustion, cynicism and reduced personal accomplishment within the workplaces lower the employee wellbeing. I observed this when the team was praised for their target achievement, and the team member who worked most hard was not recognised by the manager. The following couple of months, there was no motivation in the employee, and poor performance and the employee even considered leaving the company.
2. Analyze the chosen situation by applying relevant OB concepts/theories/models from the relevant Topic.
I learned from Chaby et al., (2015) that there was a model depicting the relationship by Medical extension of Yerkes–Dodson law, which describes the work pressure and the employee performance along with the quality of life. The increasing ill-health of the employee might be sure of the increased boredom or lack of job satisfaction in the workplace context. Additionally, the excessive pressure creates the same impact on the health well being of the employee within the workplace. The moderate control of the work pressure over the employee in relation to task management and relations development increases their quality of life. I have observed this model be appropriate when the level of work stress increases within the organisation at certain times of the year. Mostly at the end of the financial year end when all the employees are working hard to feel pressurised in completion of their targets feel stressed, which depletes after the work pressure is moderate. Another model that I thought might be useful to explain the employee stress in ITSM Corp is the General Adaptation Syndrome. According to Saufi (2017), this model is effective in understanding the employee response to identifying the level of stress by the alarm, resistance and exhaustion stages. In a similar case, when the yearend happens, most of the employees look exhausted during that time of the year. This is generally an indicator to me that the wellbeing of the employees might not be as expected.
3. Develop a strategy for managing own or other employees behaviour with the purpose of addressing the workplace situation.
In order to mitigate the employee stress during certain times when the job demand and work pressure is high, I chose the structural and transactional approach to handle the employee wellbeing. In consideration of the structural approach described by Kossek et al., (2014), the passive, high-strain, low-strain and active job are the variants. I like to allocate tasks based on the above-described nature to different members on the team depending on the situation. This helps me ensure that not all the employees are stressed at all times. Some time provide passive jobs which require low control and low demand to one employee who has undergone immense stress in a given time period. Similarly, I would allocate a high-strain job to an employee who has been lethargic in the team to boost up their motivation and vigour. This also helps me maintain employee behaviour towards one another and improve the collective team performance.
4. Explain what you have learned about the relevant OB topic/yourself/others in the workplace as a result of this reflection exercise.
My observations helped me learn that consistent pressure on the employee would disrupt their physical and mental health. The chronic stressful condition would later have health implications on the employees, which, as a manager, I need to understand. Evaluating the stress level of the employees would reduce the organisation outcome and lower the organisational behaviour within ITSM Corp. Managing the work stress effectively improves team performance, provides an opportunity to showcase creativity and maintains the employee performance vigour. This ensures that effective stress management and the employees feel that their health initiatives are ensured. In the case of mental health and well-being, I try to be as fair as possible to my subordinates by shaping group engagement.
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Pages: 4
Words: 890