The Reflective Manager Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Reflective Manager - Assignment Example 40 as cited in Hoyrup, 2004). " Hence, reflection in its broadest sense is active and not passive. Reflection is a conscious decision to be aware of everything that needs to be done in order to accomplish a long-term goal, even if the insight gained might not be favourable. Come to think of it, when someone or an organisation commits a mistake, should that person or institution just go on with their lives They should and ought to find out what went wrong. They must identify the causes which produced a negative outcome than what was originally planned. Hence, at this stage, reflection is a very important step for them to learn. Otherwise, they will commit the same or even worse mistake, resulting to possible losses of money or even life. In this paper, I shall try to present the broad use of reflection in organizations based on the finding of the research literature. It is my hope that managers will utilize reflection in their work place. On my part, reflection should be included as standard operating procedure. In other words, after a certain period has elapsed, employees and managers should reflect on their progress as members of an organization and that they should evaluate the progress of the project they are engaged with. Essentially, it is better to use reflection when things are doing well, or at least nothing disastrous has happened, or is about to happen. This is like the mistake of many in praying for God's protection and delivery after everything went wrong, when people if they believe in a Divine Being, ought to pray beforehand. There are many instruments for reflection. Let us start with the personal learning journal. This could take the form of the traditional paper and pen. If an employee is web-savvy, he or she could use a personal blog for this. A personal learning journal is a diary, journal, or log where a person can write about his or her experiences doing an activity. This could also include learning about complex concepts, or simply by working. I found this useful since research shows that students using a personal learning journal develop reflective skills. These skills make them more likely to learn and appreciate a subject than their non-reflective counterparts. Lyons (1999, p. 33, as cited in Loo & Thorpe, 2002) opined: "[D]eveloping reflective skills made students more confident in their learning, fostered responsibility and accountability and assisted in integration of theory and practice." In making a personal learning journal, the following questions could be asked and used as starting points (Scanlon and Chernomas, 1997 as cited in Loo & Thorpe, 2002): (1) What was that event or concept that made me learn (2) What are the things I learned and in what way did I learn them (3) How do I feel about that which I learned If good, what are they If bad, what are they (4) Is there a way by which on the next try I could learn more effectively and efficiently (5) If so, what prevented me from learning effectively and efficiently in the first try On the level of the individual employee, such reflection will help him or her. But further step must be done. Once a group has agreed that its members will write a personal learning journal, the members of that group should schedule a special meeting where each could share the insights gained. Based on the learning