Develop Critical Reflection Skills - Professional Life | Reflective Writing Assignment Help

July 24, 2017
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Question: Reflective Writing Assignment

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The capacity to reflect is an important element of professional life. It enhances the capacity to evaluate current knowledge and to understand and accept personal weaknesses and strengths.This assignment will enable you to:

  1. Develop critical reflection skills
  2. Recognise the value of critical reflection in professional life.

Task Description

The assignment requires the writing of three short reflective pieces. Each piece will reflect on a specific content within the course. Each piece requires you to bring together:

  1. Information from relevant readings
  2. Concepts from the relevant part of the course
  3. Personal experience

Turn these over in your mind and reflect on the topic, and write in the first person about your considered view.

The three pieces in total should not exceed 2000 words. You may choose to allocate approximately equal words to each of the three pieces.

Specific information about the 3 reflective pieces

You are required to write three separate reflective pieces for this assignment:

  • The first reflective piece requires you to reflect on: Should (or should not) business be worried about more than profit?

Information: Read Edward Freeman’s article on the stakeholder theory of the firm. ‘A Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation’ in Hartman, LB (ed), Perspectives in Business Ethics, McGraw-Hill, Chicago IL, pp. 171-181. Other suggested readings: E reading Ignatius, A 2012, 'Captain Planet: Interview with Unilever CTO Paul Polman', Harvard Business Review, vol. June, pp. 112 - 118. You may, however, also choose to anchor your reflection in any of the other readings from the sustainability and ethics section of the course.

Way of making sense: Useful conceptual background might come from the segment of the course which discusses sustainability, or from the part on the relationship between business and society.

Personal experience: this may be experience you have had of occasions where a business has placed undue emphasis on profit with unfortunate consequences, or where the concern shown by a business for the community has had positive consequences, or some other personal experience.

  • The second reflective piece journal requires you to reflect on: What I value in a career

Information: Spend an hour working through the Careers workbook. Students will complete this task in tutorial time-you will be given a hard copy version of the workbook. Choose two of the 56 career values listed on pages 4-6 of the Careers workbook as the topic for this reflection. Other readings from the course can also be used to inform your reflections.

Way of making sense: Useful conceptual background might come from the segment of the course which discusses what it means to be professional, or from the part on ethics.

Personal experience: this may be experience you have had of other people who are memorable or influential because of values they displayed, or your own personal experience

  • The third reflective piece requires you to reflect on: The importance of leading a life of meaning and integrity in your professional life.

Information: suggested reading E reading 17: Life’s Work Jane Goodall by Jane Bell (2010); E reading 15:Life’s Work Muhammed Yunus by Alison Beard (2012); E reading 24: How will you measure your life by Clayton M Christensen (2010).

Way of making sense: Useful conceptual background might come from the segments of the course which discuss work and being professional.

Personal experience: this may be experience you have had in your own life or how you have been inspired by others.

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Solution:Reflective Writing

Should or should not business be worried more about profit?

Most organizations opine that one of the primary reasons for conducting business is to earn money. Despite this, when confronted with explaining the word profit, most people have varied explanations. Some of them link profit with the attainment of objectives and others attribute it in earning more money.

There are very few entrepreneurs who believe that profit is not the ultimate means and end to any business enterprise. Take the case of the CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman. He has turned Unilever into one of the leading innovative firms. More than profit, innovation, creativity and an inclination to do good for the society is important. Paul Polman has aimed to achieve twice the revenue by 2020 by ensuring that environmental impact is decreased to half (Ignatius, 2012). After reading the interview, I thought how many of us even care to think of the greater good? Most of us ae concerned with earning money. I myself am an entrepreneur but I have hardly thought beyond the prospect of earning money.

Being a small time entrepreneur, I do not have the required resources to engage in doing societal welfare on a large scale. Reminiscing on this topic, I thought that I have not even associated myself with some environmental activists to engage in societal welfare. At the same time, how many people actually engage themselves in caring for the society rather than earning profits? I spoke to some friends on this and found that most of them donated to charities and helped in planting trees in their building grounds.

Reflection on the above sentence, I find that in our own small way, each person can contribute to building a better world. However, the main problem is that there are very few of them who value the qualities of ethics and integrity. This may be one of the principle causes for people to run after money.

Theoretical models underlying several business and management constructs have established basic foundations to care for the stakeholders and the broader society. However, how many organizations actually engage in contributing to stakeholder interests? At the same time, the main interests of stakeholders is again to maximize profits. This led me to think that in the business connotation most models have been applied to garner heightened profits. People have become increasingly materialistic and this has led business establishments to offer products and services without doing well for the environment. The global warming has led to worldwide climate change and despite this, greenhouse gas emissions have still not lessened. The ulterior motive being to earn revenue, most business houses think of short term consequences, thereby ignoring the greater damages that the environment can inflict on them. Perusing through one of the writings, I found that very few business establishments have strived to lessen their environmental footprint and at the same time balancing the interests of relevant stakeholders (Washburn, 2009).

The model of business ethics and corporate social responsibility has been used as a tool to conceal unscrupulous business activities (Hanlon & Fleming, 2009). Instead of integrating business activities to align with societal good, leading multinationals have engaged in discrimination and severe human rights violations acts of hiring child labor. The recent happenings have led me to think whether the absence of morality and ethics have led the world to undergo such drastic change. Severe acts of ethical mishap are taking place in developing nations and as their poignant tales are aired in newspapers and television, it got me to think as to why is the entire world running for heightened profits (Armitage, 2013). The big terms of cost effectiveness, change management and diversity management all seem to be gimmicks. This is because when I thought about these terms, I have found that the business houses have used all the three terms to work in unison to exploit the general public and earn increased revenue. Cost effectiveness and change management go hand in hand and firms use these as a ploy to cut on their existing workforce. It got me to think that how many people are working for these business houses and are being underpaid? The inclusion of diversity management is again another gimmick as firms like Walmart has engaged in widespread discrimination and have used the clause of diversity to refute all claims of discrimination (Dover, Major & Kaiser, 2016).

Driving profits is not the only concern. I have been forced to think that most business houses have willfully ignored the greater aspects of societal welfare by using cutting edge to remain in competition. Reminiscing on this, I find that changing the current scenario of running after profits has been chiseled into the head of every individual – even the workers. Hence, business houses have successfully done away with all claims of ethics and corporate social responsibility to concentrate their attention of collecting heightened revenue. The situation is highly sad and when I think about it, I find the only remedy is to engage in self-introspection and try to do something good for the society in your own small way. The motive to drive profit by unscrupulous means often leads firms to suffer a loss of reputation. This may be one of the main reasons for most global organizations to engage in socially responsible acts. The criticism levelled against the construct of CSR to drive unscrupulous business activities in order to garner augmented revenue holds good for several instances. Despite this, business organizations should ensure that adherence to ethics in conducting business operations is highly significant. This is because once they come under the scanner for engaging in unethical activities, it results in loss of reputation leading to earning very less profits or even losses.

What I value in a career

Values are one of the significant guiding benchmarks that help in setting priorities to achieve career related objectives. Values are extremely personal and are defined mainly on the basis of fundamental upbringing consisting of a set of values, beliefs, norms and societal underpinnings. Despite this, over the course of life and the diverse circumstances that one is subject to, some of the values may undergo major alterations. According to me the values of honesty and integrity are foremost. I believe that even if confronted by complex situations, I should not waver. Sticking with my fundamental beliefs like hard work, integrity, honesty and trust may lead me to choose the difficult path, but will help me to be a better individual. Thinking on the above statement, I find that most of my friends are competitive and are highly career oriented. I do understand that I need to work and refine my talents to rise up the ladder. However, I also understand that some core values need to be retained. On reading the contributions of environmentalist Jane Goodall, I was extremely impressed (Bell, 2010). She stuck to her core values and observations skills to rise up the ladder despite lacking a standard scientist degree. This has led me to think of the power of individualism. It is very necessary for individuals to be upright so that one is able to distinguish between right and wrong. I need to even find out the domain of work that will help me in fulfilling my passions. In today’s rat race most individuals choose a career that fetches increased money. However, I believe that living a happy and contented life is often a dream and I want to strive for this dream. Keeping my core values of hard work, integrity and honesty intact will help me to choose and succeed in my career.

Career is highly impacted by professional ethics and values. Leaving aside the fundamental skills required by an individual to smoothly conduct routine work functions, it is essential to have a favorable reputation as an individual in your career circles. I will maintain an amicable relationship with all colleagues. This will help me to develop a positive reputation and also help me to rise in my career. According to me, valuing ethics is of paramount significance. This is mainly because organizations have a zero tolerance policy for ethical failures. Having engaged in ethical malpractices leads to the tarnishing of one’s reputation leading to a devastating career. Hence, ethics and morality play key roles in shaping my career.

The importance of leading a life of meaning and integrity in your professional life.

Most people have core values of honesty and trust especially while working in a professional setting. Adhering to ethical considerations help individuals to achieve long term career growth. When I thought about the above two terms of meaning and integrity, then I found that there is an absence of both in the lives of most professionals.

I thought that my life is centered on my job. Every day I wake up in the morning, do my regular chores and go to office. I come back late in the night and again the same routine is repeated. This has led me to reminisce for the first time on whether my life has any meaning. I started carefully exploring my passions and found that I am contented in my office as I am pursing my passion of writing and blogging. I am an avid reader and hence love to write also.

When I reflect on the above statement, I find that there exists a confusion between being honest and displaying integrity. Honesty is a virtue in which an individual is morally sound, speaks the truth and displays fairness and authenticity in all activities. On the other hand, integrity is a virtue that enables an individual to persistently follow professional benchmarks and increased ethical principles (Anderson, 2012).

Most individuals value the tenet of honesty but fail to adhere and value the significance of integrity. I tried to think of the last time, I was confronted with an ethical situation and whether I wavered. I reflected on the issue and realized that by not bowing down to the unethical demands of my supervisors had led to a conflict as a result of which I experienced stress. However, this was very short lived. Things became normal again and I was happy and contented. Having a sound character and displaying integrity and meaning to life helps an individual to confront complex ethical dilemmas. Especially in an organizational setting, it is essential to put one’s foot down if one is asked to engage in unethical practices. A person having integrity will have the self-confidence to say no to engage in ethical malpractices.

For me earning money is secondary. My primary motive is that I will pursue a professional life that helps me to hone me as a better individual. I want to be happy and contented and give meaning to my life by valuing integrity. For this, the first tenet is to believe in myself. I do believe that if I work hard and display integrity then my life will have a meaning and I will be contented. Especially in my professional life, it is extremely necessary to stick to values mainly because they help me to value my core beliefs and ethical underpinnings to conduct myself responsibly. Some people have achieved optimal success in their careers by rising to top and responsible positions in an early age. Despite this, they are not contented and happy. In order to lead a happy and contented life, just earning money does not help. Even running after success and enjoying a top position in a firm may also not contribute to achieving happiness. This is one of the main reasons that have prompted myself to think of the importance of integrity and meaning in life and their applications in my professional life.

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