Exploring Key Personal Qualities and their Impact on Professional Behaviors

Learning outcomes

K1 Identification and appraisal of work-based skills, competencies and values and the impact that they have on behaviours

K2 Investigation of conceptual underpinnings of behaviour in a business context Skills

S1 The ability to appraise and evaluate individual personal and professional qualities in a business environment

S2 Application of concepts of self-reflection to explain personal and professional behaviour and effectiveness

Student Assignment Submission:

The assessment is a critical reflective essay which must be supported by evidence of module related activities undertaken throughout the year, covering all learning outcomes. The evidence will include a record of your reflections on your experiences and achievements during the module, including skill and attribute diagnostics, workshop and extraâ€Âcurricular activities.

Reflective Essay

You must write and submit a reflective essay which should identify what you consider to be your most important and significant personal quality and your reflection should be focussed on this. The essay should identify the key personal quality that emerges from the various workshop exercises and module experiences and examine how this personal quality is demonstrated across a range of those activities and experiences. This means that you should choose one personal quality that you consider to be your key strength and explore this in depth. You are advised to write approximately 2500 words for the essay but there is no formal word limit.

Things to include:

· Define and describe this quality – use theory

· Explain, evaluate this quality – use theory. In what ways is this quality a strength for you? Provide specific examples of where this quality has been displayed.

· What attributes, behavioural preferences and values underpin this strength?

· What did you find difficult or particularly challenging in the workshop exercises and the experiences and why might this be? Can the theory help explain this?

· Are there any contradictions evident from experiences and how might these be explained? For example, your strength may be your communication skills but are there certain contexts where you communicate more or less effectively than others – why might this be?

· How might this quality benefit you in the future? You should reflect upon what are you going to do to develop and exploit this strength as part of the conclusion and summary of the work.

The assessment will be made not on the quantity of experiences but rather the quality of reflection upon those experiences. This quality will be measured by the extent to which you can demonstrate and explain increased self-awareness in a professional or employment context through a process of reflection.

Remember you MUST use appropriate concepts and theories to explain and evaluate your personal qualities. For example:

· How have you used concepts of reflection and reflexivity?

· How might concepts of happenstance, efficacy and locus of control explain your approach to challenges, your behaviour in different situations and your relative success?

· To what extent do you possess attributes which enable you to successfully exploit happenstance events?

Supporting Evidence

During the course of the module you will be asked to complete a number of exercises. You will alsobe required to engage with employability related activities and experiences during the course of the year. These work shop exercises together with the employability activities and experiences will form the basis of your evidence. The discussion of your strength in your essay should be supported by  evidence from the module and extracurricular experiences. The quality and completeness of this evidence will influence the mark you receive. The following activities and tasks will be completed during the course of the module and evidence of these activities should be included as appendices to your reflective essay.

Experiential Element

· Description of the professional experience.

· A short reflection upon what you have learned about yourself from engagement in this activity. The reflection section of this piece of evidence will normally be between 250 and 300 words and should link to the substance of the essay. Workshop activities element

· Completion and presentation of the workshop based diagnostic.

· A short reflection upon what you have learned about yourself from engagement in each workshop activity. The reflection section of each piece of evidence will normally be between 250 and 300 words. This word count is for guidance only.