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Reflective Management Journal

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Reflective Management Journal: Example Resource
Char Paul, 2006
Introduction
An organisation is a dynamic social structure that forms and maintains itself to achieve
collective goals (Buchanan & Huczynski 2004)
...
Buchanan points out that the ideal of most organisations is that their staff relationships are
inclusive, collaborative relationships of trust and openness, however, he points out that this is often not
the case
...
And that it is the informal “backstage” or
company policies, and culture embodied by these policies that determine the values and assumptions
of all employees, and their subsequent performance
...
Organisational leadership, culture and human resource management at NESMA shall be
presented and interpreted through the theories presented in contemporary management literature
...
What a responsibility!

Organisational Leadership
I am inspired in the knowledge that leaders can be developed
...
It would be great if my company
adopted a more formal mentoring program, as advocated by Buchanan and Huczynski (2004) in their

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text Organisational Behaviour (5th ed
...

Bennis and Thomas (2002), in their book, Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values and Defining
Moments Shape Leaders, identify factors that are shared across leaders of all cultures
...
Post World War II “geezer” organisations
were very military styled, leaders having a commanding or controlling style
...
I can relate to the “geeks”
of today, who want a life, not just a career
...

Diversity of thought should be encouraged so as to cultivate personal characteristics that
contribute to the organisation, and to the employees that make up that organisation (Wickenberg &
Kylen 2004)
...
Service and production can only be enhanced when all
employees realize that the sum of their organisation can be so much more than the sum of its parts
...
However, this is interesting I think, as the authors point out
that contemporary employees have less company loyalty and are becoming entrepreneurs in their wok
life
...
I am willing to try different methods and
techniques to lead myself, and to learn to lead others
...
I, like many geek co-workers have multiple careers
...
I have many commitments in my life, and it
is important to me as a developing leader to keep in mind the pressures that others too have to bear
...
Bennis and Thomas have also

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inspired me to be aware that I can contribute to my organisation, and further, the wider community of
which we are a part
...
I would like to take
this opportunity to reflect on the knowledge and skills required of a leader in the 21st century
...
An organisation should encourage its leaders to inspire, empower, facilitate
a sharing of information, and develop a learning organisation with mentors and coaches for all levels
...

I am empowered by reading this, and will maintain my journal in an attempt to cultivate
leadership qualities within myself
...
I will also write a letter of proposal to my supervisor to initiate a mentoring
program in our division, and I will offer my services as a potential mentor to new recruits
...


I think that my company could do more to develop leadership amongst our staff
...
For example, a particular favorite of mine is “upside down leadership”,
conceptualised by O’Hare who was once director of the World Bank (cited in Merriman-Clarke 2003)
...

What are my key relationships in the workplace? (A question posed by O’Hare in many of his
consultations)
...
There are also my relationships with clients by email,
phone and teleconference
...
Not so much really, beyond what is required by my
supervisor and organisations mission values
...

Like any of my co-workers, I expect my organisation to have a very proactive approach in my
working career, and development as a leader
...
I sometimes wonder if my upper management is aware of
how powerful a message they can send through just one word
...
A
leader looks at current operational goals and objectives, identifying skills, and noting the experience of
others
...
Peer, self, client and supervisor evaluations can be used as
performance indicators
...
Culture helps us to understand the
world we live in, helps us to make decisions, to choose what is important and what is irrelevant, and
prescribes our actions for different situations (Schien, 1990)
...
As Schien states, to understand
an organisation is to understand its culture
...
As such, organisational
culture is multidimensional and reflects employee’s efforts at all levels to cope with daily work life,
and to continue learning on the job
...
It seemed that no one ever washed up or cleaned up after them, yet all of
us insisted that we did our own dishes
...
He had never been formally or informally asked to, and when I asked him why he cleaned
the kitchen each week he said that he just could not stand the mess, and that “someone had to do it”
...
Did people not care? Who was
responsible for kitchen maintenance? Do we need a leader to tell us to clean the kitchen, and to
monitor our behviour? Could peer pressure resolve our messy service area? And importantly, was the
kitchen not a reflection of our values and respect for our co-workers?

Schein’s (1985) model of organisational culture has an observable level, a value level (not
directly observable), and a level of basic assumptions
...
In the case of our staff kitchen, the
observable behavior was a lack of care for the state of the kitchen, and a lack of motivation to consider
others
...
Apart from the man in administration
whose values appeared to be “cleanliness and cooperation”
...
A worker is
more satisfied with their workday in an organisation that has a strong culture, and the worker is more
motivated to contribute to organisational goals
...

However, at the time of the kitchen dilemma, my co-workers felt the best way to resolve the
issue was to do nothing, and to allow the man from administration to be the sole kitchen caretaker
...

We needed to understand that there are multiple perspectives (“It’s not my kitchen”, “I’ll do it
later”, “Everyone does it, I’m the boss…”) and needed to be aware that perception affects how one
interprets and responds to the conflict
...
We could have been more resolution focused
...

Unfortunately, management at the time was not open to suggestions, and so I said nothing
...
However, at the time, encouraging leadership amongst lower levels of
employees was not a consideration, and so my personalized style of problem solving was not
encouraged, or included in policy decisions, even to do with the staff kitchen
...
To me this is a very sterilised, and we have missed an opportunity to develop relations between

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staff, and their inclusiveness in decision-making processes
...

I think my organisation could enhance its culture by taking some tips from O’Hare (2003)
...
Having diversity of thought as a core organisational value, that becomes
automatic in day-to-day work life, will encourage behaviors that further support diversity
...
So that diversity
of thought in problem solving and goal setting, becomes “the way it is around here”
...
Upper
management argues O’ Hare, needs to get more involved with their staff, and to know more about
what is going on in the workplace, not just “sign a memo”
...


Human Resource Management
Buchanan and Huczynski (2004) outline two categories of theories for human resource
management: hard and soft
...
Organisations may downsize to strengthen management ability, and lower
wages and high staff turnover are usual
...
However, the incorporation of such policies decreases profits
...


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What is evident regardless of the overall HRM model used is that throughout the employment
cycle human resource management is required
...
I admire the idea of
consistent revision, change and implementation of policy
...

I am able to work much better with the understanding that organisational beliefs can be
integrated into the psyche of my co-workers and me
...
NESMA often
evaluates its HRM policies, to maintain a commitment to exceptional service for clients, and
exceptional working life for employees, so enhancing the effectiveness of the organisation as a whole
...
Criteria include, the degree of sharing information within the
organisation, quality of job evaluations, amount of internal promotions, general attitude surveys of
employees, quality of life programs that have been implemented, incentives and profit sharing
programs, staff training, the presence of formal grievance procedures, and the quality of methods for
testing recruitments
...
Staffs often dine together after work on a Friday night
...
There is a high level of internal promotions, and staff can “earn”
points for quality of work, resulting in holiday trips or visits to a spa treatment, or the movies
...


I will use the Michigan Model of the human resource cycle, developed by Fombrun and Tichy
(1984, cited in Buchanan & Huczynski 2004), to illustrate HRM processes at NESMA:

An employee of NESMA (selection)  accounting (performance)  feedback from self, peers,
management and clients (appraisal)
...
In turn, rewards and
development feedback creating a cycle, as such they both affect performance
...


Overall, HRM strategies require a strong organisational culture that implements policy that
values diversity, sharing of information, team work, staff motivation and customer focus
...

In conclusion, I consider the NESMA an organisation that is seeking to strengthen its organisational
leadership, culture and human resource management
...
I am confident that the organisation
that I work for is making a genuine effort to take responsibility for my learning development
...
Ultimately, I found the activity of keeping a reflective management
journal instructive and insightful, as it allowed me to investigate further theories and models advocated
as quality organisational resources
...


Reflective Management Journal 10
References

Bennis, WG & Thomas, RJ 2002, Geeks and geezer: how era, values and defining moments
shape leader, Harvard Business School, Boston,
Buchanan, D & Huczynski, A 2004, Organisational behaviour: an introductory text 5th edn,
Prentice Hall, Boston
...
Blake,
Ph
...
, Healthcare Forum Journal, vol
...
4
Lewin, K 1951, Field theory in social science, In D
...
Selected theoretical
papers, Harper and Row: New York
...
asaecenter
...
cfm?ItemNumber=11843>
Schein, E 1990, Organisational culture, American Psychologist vol
...
2, pp
...

The Centre for the Study of Social Policy 2002, Improving the Quality of Human Services
Through Results-Orientated Human Resource Management
...
cssp
...
pdf>
Wickenberg, J & Kylen, S 2004, How Frequent is Organizational political behavior?
Viewed 3 December, 2005, ...
chalmers

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Title: Reflective Management Journal: Example Resource
Description: 10 pages Harvard referencing Critical reflective journal example in the area of management, focusing on organisational leadership, organisational culture, and HR Management; with diary entries and links to theory (referenced). Summary: In the following paper I am taking a reflective approach to concepts discussed in class, and using them as a filter to interpret organisational practices of the organisation that I work for, that is NESMA. Organisational leadership, culture and human resource management at NESMA shall be presented and interpreted through the theories presented in contemporary management literature. Throughout this reflective process, I remind myself and the reader of Lewin’s (1951) comment that to understand any organisation we do by virtue change it, and so any diagnosis that I make will also be an intervention on my part. What a responsibility!

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