Analysis Of Marketing Internship Experience At XYZ Company

Tasks as well as Skills, Knowledge and Capacities Needed

Previously, I worked as a Marketing Intern at XYZ Company for around six months. The company was a private firm which sold Vegan Food Items wherein I was assigned to work with few other interns and we had one group leader who was in the system for quite a few years. The main job role as a marketing intern was to assist the marketing department in advertising as well as promotional efforts along with completing few clerical duties. As I was confident regarding the digital marketing aspects, the overall responsibility of social media marketing and promotions were assigned to me and this gave me the chance to prove my skills for completing the tasks accurately.

I tried to complete the tasks with the other team members who helped me thoroughly for understanding the overall efficiency and difficulties faced by me as the leader was not approachable. While I started working for the organization, I realized that there are several issues which are faced by me in the team and the major reason behind the same was improper leadership of the mentor.  The essay helps in mainly analyzing along with understanding the work experience with the proper focus on the skills, knowledge along with the capacities which are needed for completing the different tasks successfully.

 With the help of the different concepts and theories, proper analysis is needed to be done which will be suitable for understanding the situation and provide recommendations as per the same. The three theories and concepts which have been selected include Bureaucracy, Red Tape as well as Bureaucratic Personality.

While I joined the organization XYZ as an intern, I was quite happy with the job role of marketing intern as I was always keen to work in the proper field of marketing wherein I will be getting the proper chance to design the digital marketing strategies for the company and help them grow in a prosperous way. Therefore, the role of Marketing Intern was quite interesting for me as I was quite familiar with the major social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. Additionally, though we were working as a team; however, all the members were assigned with specific kind of tasks like wherein I was only assigned with conducting the market research, identifying the business based opportunities along with managing the different email campaigns successfully.

The XYZ Organization is the private based firm wherein the main focus has always been the satisfaction of the customers and achieving the high level of profitability. The respective company was mainly dealing with selling different food items like burger, pizzas; tacos along with few others and the specialty in the products were that all of them were Vegan in nature. The main aspect of the company was that as the consumers are becoming quite health conscious, but the prices were quite competitive and on higher side. Therefore, in such scenario, my main job role was to market the products to the customers through adopting the proper online social media channels successfully.

Difficulties of Task and Ways of Overcoming Them

While performing the marketing of the different vegan products to customers, the main knowledge and skills required were regarding the digital marketing strategies. During my graduation course, I have been able to learn a lot of elements like promotional events which were needed to be organized online for making the customers aware regarding the products in a proper manner. My main responsibility was to market the Vegan food items to the target customers who were belonging from the age group of 20-35 years.

While I was being assigned with the task of promoting the Vegan food items through the assistance of digital marketing, I faced few difficulties in understanding the design and the layout of the promotional mails. In such scenario, when I asked for help from my mentor, there was no such cooperation shown from his end as he was always busy with his own work and was not bothered regarding the tasks which are being done by us. He was quite uncooperative in nature which impacted my morale as I felt quite hesitant to ask questions and could not approach my team leader for any kind of assistance. This was the major difficulty for me while I was working with the team members and in a group.

As I was just an intern, I was always quite particular for the tasks which were allotted to me as I felt that it is my sole responsibility to take care of the different promotional events which will be giving me the scope to deliver the best. However, due to the stringent attitude of my mentor, I was not able to perform the duties accordingly as I did not receive any kind of help from my supervisor which was primary element for me. Therefore, when I approached several time to my mentor; however, the reply was not at all effective, I tried to apply different informal strategies like making a list of questions which were important for me to ask. And, without bothering my mentor, I tried to ask the other senior group members in my team for getting the brief idea on the tasks which are being performed by me.

While I joined the company as a Marketing Intern, after completion of few days, I started to face tremendous issues in the workplace which were regarding the uncooperative mentor and there was nil support received from his end. It was quite a tough challenge for me as a fresher to understand what criteria should be followed by me while I am trying to work in the company. From the respective incident, I have been quite successful in analyzing one aspect which is the Ineffective Organizational Culture of the XYZ Company. The reason behind the same was that the leader was not at all cooperative in nature as he was only bothered regarding his own work and performance. He was more of a manager who did not take the responsibility of managing and leading the team members. Due to the ineffective work culture, it led to the disengaged workplace, lower profits and employees felt highly demoralized for performing the different tasks. When the team leader is uncooperative, it will be making the people feel that they are creating a huge burden on the leader and they try to be aloof from the others (Tasheva and Hillman 2019). The leader was not at all bothered regarding any problems which were highlighted by us and this impacted the overall culture of the company in a negative way.

Theories as Well as Concepts: Causes of the Difficulties

Moreover, the company followed the RED TAPE Approach in the different tasks which were followed in the company. It mainly started from rigid organizational structure wherein the leader was not at all supportive and as a result, it hampered the productivity and the motivation among the employees working within the organization (Tannenbaum and Salas 2020). The bureaucracy was at the top and this impacted the overall effectiveness of the business performance while I was doing my part during the internship program. The redundant actions of the leader was quite challenging on my part as I was not being able to understand to whom to share my difficulties.

Lastly, the leader was of Bureaucratic Personality wherein he only performed the tasks in ways which he felt is correct. The leader believed that his title was important than work done and keeps the position while trying to reduce actual work which is being performed (Suzuki and Hur 2020). Our leader was not at all a successful bureaucrat as he did not listen or adopt to the situation in which he should have for gaining the better results. This impacted the overall process in the negative way and as a result, it hampered the productivity of the company in the negative way as well. I believe that the bureaucratic personality person can never become a good leader as he is always worried regarding his image and he has no interest in understanding and solving the different tasks or difficulties faced by the different group members.

Therefore, due to the ineffective organizational culture and bureaucratic personality leader, I was not at all confident in the different tasks which are performed by me. It was seen that I failed drastically in the different tasks which were required to be done by me like offering the best digital services to the different customers. As the leader was quite uncooperative, it impacted the process in a large manner and I faced greatest internship challenges while performing the tasks successfully.

After analyzing the different difficulties faced by me during my internship period, there are different recommendations available for managing the change in the successful way.

First and foremost, the organizational culture should be effective in nature in the companies as this is the major source for generating the competitive advantage in the market. The culture at the company mainly sets the different expectations for analyzing the ways in which the people should be behaving, working together in the joint manner along with functioning as a proper team (Rico et al. 2019). Proper team work is the main element which should be implemented by the team leader as he/she is the main element in maintaining the bonding within the team. Therefore, improving the morale of the employees and making them feel good are the two major ingredients which should be implemented for generating better results (Pratoom 2018).

Secondly, the Red Tape approach should not be removed completely from the company or the team. However, it should be applied only when there is a huge need for it. As a team leader, it becomes the sole responsibility of them to take care of the people who are involved in the process as this will be beneficial in learning regarding the different elements of the work which are being performed (Blom, Borst and Voorn 2021). Guiding the overall decision-making, improving the work flow are the few elements which should be implemented for proper understanding of the difficulties faced by the employees and as a result, it will be leading to generation of better results (Buljac-Samardzic, Doekhie and van Wijngaarden 2020).

Lastly, there should be inclusion of the flexible work culture and not bureaucratic aspect as the reason behind the same is that employees or the interns should be feeling comfortable with the work environment (Dimas et al. 2018). They should not be feeling hesitant to go and ask the leader regarding any queries and as a result, it will be beneficial for creating the proper and effective bonding between the different people. While an employee or intern joins any company, their expectations are that their team leader is supportive and they will be able to share their issues and grievances and they will be able to work together (Greer et al. 2018).

Conclusion

Therefore, it is inferred that the work culture, efficiency, flexibility along with the proper efficiency of the team leaders play the integral role for managing the tasks successfully. From the work place experience, it has been analyzed that I was not able to share my problems to my team leader and the main reason behind it was the uncooperative nature of the leader. Hence, in such scenarios, I believe that the bureaucratic or rigid approach may not be suitable as this can be hampering the workplace productivity along with the morale of employees. The employees are the integral asset of the company and hence, they should be valued in the efficient way.

 I feel that the top management should be supportive always as this will be allowing the team members to grow and as a result, it will be enhancing their business growth and they will be generating the successful results in the different tasks which are being assigned to them. As a leader or management consultant, I strongly feel that proper efficiency is the key ingredient which should be implemented in the workplace as this will be giving the members the scope to perform well and generate the best results. The different theories and concepts have been used in the essay for providing the in-depth understanding of the process and as a result, it will be allowing the people to grow in the accurate way and deliver the best results. I feel that the organizational culture and proper leadership are the aspects for generating productivity. 

References

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