Main assumptions about managing, leading and stewardship (MLS):
Before the session commenced, I had spent lot of time on reading subject on in UTS. However, I do lack experience and knowledge about the MLS concept, as I am a postgraduate student. The subject materials on MLS topic has allowed me to identify main theories and assumptions for becoming a good manager in organization. MLS also includes the concept of stewardship that is primarily about disposition and distinctive personal capability. I had also assumed MLS as one of the two prime subjects within management discipline. Therefore, I feel it allows me to keep focused towards the MLS subject in an appropriate manner.
My expectations:
I have always focused on assessing the best possible way to handle distinctive nature of the team members for enhancing the efficiency level of the team. I feel the understanding from MLS will help me to identify all the areas related to the leadership in an effective manner. I have assessed that inappropriate using leadership strategies can have impact on the overall effectiveness of entire. Therefore, I am looking forward to capture in-depth knowledge from MLS, which I believe will help me to develop professional career. I would also like to gain information about flipped-learning method that allows the proactive nature of the study. I feel, proper understanding from the MLS subject will help me to identify the best possible way to handle diversified workforce for enhancing the effectiveness of the team performance. I also feel proper understanding of MLS subject will help to identify all the prime challenges in an effective way.
Key areas of MLS that can create tension for students:
I feel skewed 11 weeks semester can actually creates difficulties for some students to cover all areas related to managing, leading and stewardship. However, Friday MLS classes had provided exiting and fair job presenting ideas of being a manager. It is likely to provide all the pros and cons of the managers regarding the authority and power of the managers. I feel the concept of MLS is extremely vast that can increase the concern level of the students in a major way.
Mid-subject reflection:
Although I noticed that there would be arguments and debates in tutorials, I certainly not expected all these activities to have such complex and real experiences. In week 4, we were introduced with the case of King Gee redundancy of Kempsey plant. Here, all the students were provided with opportunity to play different roles like Bill Quin, HR director and managing director and employees. I feel that role play technique has induced all the students to prepare well with the inclusion of all the study. Every group was developed in the first tutorial in such a way that each group would only play one role. Our group MLS VI also has participated with the six members including Shruti, Harsh, Thao, Fannie, Edison and me Zobayed.
Changes in my expectations:
During the course, I did learn many new things about the best possible way to use leadership strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of the team. I had understood that modern practices of managers require a focus of stewardship in order to take responsibilities of other individuals within a particular team. I have also learned that there are no straight forward solutions for leaders for enhancing the performance of the team. Therefore, I had assessed the fact that leaders need to be innovative towards assessing different situations for encouraging team members to give their best for greater team productivity. I feel the MLS classes have changed my perception of balancing my ambitions of becoming a great leader in a very short span of time. The classes had allowed me to identify the importance of gaining practical leadership experiences for becoming a successful leader in an organization.
After class activities:
Besides classes, I am looking to provide proper support to the overseas students’ communities in New South Wales. For that reason, gathering of knowledge from the MLS classes had allowed me in taking proper decisions, which provided effective support to the foreign students. The MLS classes’ activities allowed me to develop clear mission and vision statements for accomplishing all the objectives in an effective manner. In addition, MLS classes had changed my habit of capturing news or information. I had started to become for critical about the capturing of information, as it creates major impact on the effectiveness of the decision-making procedure.
Post-subject reflection:
After the completion of 11 weeks courses, I had found that all actions and sessions in the classes are far beyond my expectations. Specifically, role playing in different positions have allowed me to capture practical knowledge about the MLS concept. I was very much impressed with the King Gee cases and Apple cases, as it described truth about overseas outsourcing and subsidiaries. It had also allowed me to understand a massive organization with clear mission and vision statement can still make mistakes. Therefore, I had recognized the significance of utilizing appropriate leadership styles for ensuring success in the competitive market. Cunliffe highlighted it in the extreme last chapter of the book. On the other hand, Enron case has highlighted about the financial market, which is definitely not in interest among most people. Therefore, it has allowed me to enhance my knowledge regarding the MLS concept, which had helped me in practical cases as well.
Changes in management practices:
From the experiences during the classes, I realised about my strengths and weaknesses in an effective manner. For that reason, I feel it had made me ready to face different types of critical future challenges. From series of activities, I had able to enhance my critical evaluation skills in a major way. I have also become a strong person who is ready to take different types of challenges in order to maintain unification of the group. Moreover, my perception towards the MLS concept has been broadened, which is again has helped to take on leadership roles in different situations. I believe MLS classes will help me to have sustainable achievement and long-term success in professional field.
Tensions:
In future, I am looking to lead a team with a culture focused action plan so that it can encourage employees to give their best at the workplace. I will focus on maintaining my position as manager or leader. It will allow me to provide prompt and precise advice to all the executives, which will steward them to achieve competitive efficiency in the targeted market. Hence, the knowledge of the study will help to reduce tension level in a greater extent. However, I would like keep some level of tension in next semester also, as I feel it will help to score good marks in future as well.
Individual action guiding principles:
After taking all the MLS session appropriately, I have started to evaluate myself in a better way. As a result, it is likely to allow me to identify the best possible way to improve my leadership skills. From the MLS classes, I had identified three guiding principles such as transparency, culture focus and change management. Thus, it had highlighted the fact that effective development of leadership skills heavily depends on proper management of these three factors. I have assessed that remaining transparent about the decisions will increase respect of my leadership skills among the executives. Secondly, MLS theories are likely to provide initial guidance regarding the best possible way to handle change management issues.
