Critical Business Reflection : Business Professionalism

Reflection upon previous experiences is a vital aspect of professionalism, because it helps to develop good conflict resolution capabilities, good communication skills, and the ability to perform better in future. To look back on the team video project completed in week 8 of this semester, it has enabled the participating students to acquire a wide range of practical skills that are vital in the course and the profession. In this reflection paper, I will reflect upon my role in the video making process, and do a critical analysis of the general performance of the entire group. I will also reflect upon the team dynamics, and the possible way that the performance of the team can be improved next time, under similar conditions.

In a general view, I would argue that the performance of our team was good generally but effective organization skills and delegation could have been improved for better performance. The beginning of this reflection will comment on the team dynamics. Then I will explore the communication style experienced in the project. I will then reflect on the role that I played in the video production process. Finally, the paper will suggest the possible improvements that can be executed in the future group video making projects.

Our team consisted of five members and all the members were accorded different specific roles within the group video making project. Every member was assigned a role to play based on his or her skills and the move to balance work. This method of assigning work ensured that no one had to handle a role that he or she was not well familiar with, or given work beyond his or her capability. In the process, I played the role of a social communicator, researcher, and developer of socio-economic view third part. Reflecting upon my role as the social communicator, researcher, and developer of socio-economic view third part, I felt at the time that the position that was assigned to me entirely suits my profile and skills. I was satisfied with my role because it allowed me to apply my social skills and learn to work in a team.

According to Johns and Largo (2008), positive results can be realized in a group project if the close relationship between the personalities of the team members, both in real life and the video making project (p. 10). The close relation ensures that each member is able to carry out their roles freely and to the best of their capability, an aspect that gave our group an upper hand in its activities. In the same spirit, the accordance of the most relevant role to me made me feel a major support from my work group, which motivated me to work energetically towards accomplishing the purpose of the group work (Nagy et al., 2010, p. 891). Through the interaction with my partners in the group project, I learnt to respect and to support the different points of view of my partners. I was also able to highlight and uphold the most important and relevant ideas from the different members of the group, thanks to the advanced social skills that I had, and the role that was closely related to my personality.

The brainstorming sessions were sessions of fun, as we exchanged ideas for the development of the group video. It became one of the most useful methods to make the video, which every member of the team would feel that they are adequately involved in the project. At the same time, the method gave the advantage of having a variety of ideas, from the many participants, making the accuracy of the information obtained reliable (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011, p. 33). The result of the project can be guaranteed that it is the product of the minds of all the members that are involved in the video making. Reflecting on the information acquired during this process of making the video, I now feel that this working process will help me in my future projects.

In my case, the most challenging part of the role that was assigned to me was communicating and working effectively with the group in a clear and understandable manner. English is not our first language therefore, communication was very important. Communication helped us to understand each other and respect the opinion of each other. The mutual understanding and respecting the ideas of every member of the team helped to avoid misunderstandings (Hall & Buzwell, 2012, p. 16).

The other problem that was notable was difficulty with straight away communication because members were all working. To solve this problem, we created a WhatsApp group chat and a Google drive shared folder, where every member updated ideas, findings and corrections meetings. The third problem encountered was shy members. Two members of the group felt shy to speak in the video. All the group members encouraging them, and creating a private space to make the video rectified this problem. In this case, they would ease their fear and accomplished the goal of the team. Under some circumstances, I felt difficult to negotiate with other team members, who felt that they had their ideas and did not want to give up on them. It was sometimes difficult to conclude, since every had a different stance which they held to be the most appropriate for the video. I can generalize that communication and coming to a conclusion on a certain idea to incorporate in the video was the greatest challenge in the project. In spite of all the difficulties that came about because of this feature, it gave me a chance to build my communication skills and confidence in the areas of conflict over the period of weeks that the group video production activity took place.

Effective communication played a vital role in the process of making the team video project, and it is important to carry out a critical reflection on it at personal level. Kerzner’s research on teamwork and cooperation (2013) has indicated that effective communication in a team dynamic is vital (p. 15). In further research, it is stated that team member team members have to incorporate open dialogue and provide agendas that are clear (Cohen & Lotan, 2014, p. 120). Fushino (2010) stated that it would help to ease the possibility of conflicts arising (p. 710). Reflecting on my method of communication, it is evident that I attempted to forego my ideas and take the ideas of others, but posed as a reasoned and clear communicator and thinker. For most sections of the project, our group exchanged ideas in a good manner and it would be evident that most of the results obtained came because of effective dialogue between the members of the group, working as closely bonded group, and clear understanding. To sum up, I appreciate that our team communicated effectively during the team video project, and this nature helped us in accomplishing the overall objective.

Reflection provides an opportunity to correct issues that can hinder performance Braun et al., 2013, p. 1343). Richmond et al. (2012) stated that improving oneself involves the display of effective determination, persistence and courage (p. 20). Hence, reflecting upon the challenges that were involved with execution of the project, we can solve them through effective time management and delegation (Zwikael & Unger-Aviram, 2010, p. 413).  The conflicting work schedules, commitments and workloads made it seem difficult to delegate tasks to members.

It was a great problem to our project in my view and upon reflection; we should have used an effective task allocation plan. Significant time can be saved when accomplishing tasks, if delegation is done correctly (Filippatou & Kaldi, 2010, p. 20). We should have considered as well the weaknesses of the various members, but not only their strengths.

Additionally, it is evident that we had a problem communicating straight since all the members were working. Reflecting back, we had disputes with arriving for meetings at the same time because all members stuck to their work schedules, and we did not make an alternative group schedule that would cater for the convenience of all members. The problem affected me, as well as the other members of the team. To reflect on this challenge, there is an indication that every member needs to be committed to acting as an agent of change in the team (Perc et al., 2013, p. 20).

After experiencing these shortcomings and critically reflecting upon the problems that we faced, it is evident that our team should have a more realistic schedule to take care of our varying work schedules, effectively identifying the weaknesses of the various group members to provide a favorable environment for them, and to establish an effective communication media. If the problems mentioned above were addressed properly, we would have achieved our team objective in adequate time. The experience from the execution of this team video project has equipped me with valuable information on carrying on such projects. If I have to do a similar project in future, I will carry out adequate planning and allocation of adequate time to the various sections of the project. I will also consider the special weaknesses of individual members and provide a suitable environment for them to participate adequately.

In conclusion, reflecting upon the role that I played in the process of making the team video project week 8, I can hold that I have confronted a lot, learned a lot, and experienced a lot. On the other hand, commenting on the team dynamics and the literature that was used in this semester learning, I would argue that I have learned and created a new set of understanding and knowledge, which I would use in my future projects and coursework. Additionally, carrying out this critical reflection was very important. The process of carrying out such observation assists in developing both the performance of the individual and enhances the information available in the field.

Braun, U.K., Gill, A.C., Teal, C.R. and Morrison, L.J. (2013). The utility of reflective writing after a palliative care experience: can we assess medical students’ professionalism?. Journal of palliative medicine, 16(11), pp.1342-1349.

Cohen, E.G. and Lotan, R.A. (2014). Designing Groupwork: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom Third Edition. Teachers College Press.

Filippatou, D. and Kaldi, S. (2010). The Effectiveness of Project-Based Learning on Pupils with Learning Difficulties Regarding Academic Performance, Group Work and Motivation. International journal of special education, 25(1), pp.17-26.

Fushino, K. (2010). Causal relationships between communication confidence, beliefs about group work, and willingness to communicate in foreign language group work. TESOL quarterly, pp.700-724.

Griffin, R.W. and Moorhead, G. (2011). Organizational behavior. Nelson Education.

Hall, D. and Buzwell, S. (2012). The problem of free-riding in group projects: Looking beyond social loafing as reason for non-contribution. Active Learning in Higher Education, p.14-.

Johns, M. & Largo, E. (2008). Sensing of Change management: Rulemaking for the 21^st Century, Swan Page, London.       

Kerzner, H.R. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Nagy, M., Akos, Z., Biro, D. and Vicsek, T. (2010). Hierarchical group dynamics in pigeon flocks. Nature, 464(7290), pp.890-893.

Perc, M., Gómez-Gardeñes, J., Szolnoki, A., Floría, L.M. and Moreno, Y. (2013). Evolutionary dynamics of group interactions on structured populations: a review. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 10(80), p.20.

Richmond, V.P., McCroskey, J.C. and Powell, L. (2012). Organizational communication for survival. Pearson Higher Ed.

Zwikael, O. and Unger-Aviram, E. (2010). HRM in project groups: The effect of project duration on team development effectiveness. International Journal of Project Management, 28(5), pp.413-421.