Concrete Experience Essay

As an engineer of a pharmaceutical company, I directly report to my supervisor on a daily basis. I am very diligent with my work and I see to it that I perform at my best. I followed the orders of my supervisor and I work hard to meet deadlines. However, there is always a point in time where I realized the lack of efforts in the part of my supervisor. Sometimes, it has become a routine basis to be given a task, work on it, finished it with expected quality then reports to the supervisor on the job done. I sometimes ask, where his effort sets in the picture does, I have nothing against him personally, but having to question such setup can be regarded as my simple dilemma. It is very true that a working relationship among employees and supervisors, there will always be disputes or misunderstandings among them. Such causes of conflicts can come mostly from the side of the supervisor, such as failing to set clear expectations or to reinforce them regularly, letting the problems which they are aware of fester before having to address them, failure to communicate with people with problems, failure to recognize the importance of due process, taking some matters personally, or moving too quickly toward formal action, having to discriminate difficult or troublesome people, having to wait too long before getting professional help, being unwilling to see s resolution forma problem, worrying too much or reflective organization. These can be too general, but the happening of any of those critical causes may lead to serious working relationship problems, so before getting any matter to its worst, one of the parties can take the initiative to patch things up, or to start discussing with each other in order for compromise to take place. Reflective Observation It never occurred to me that this person was doing something different than I was and, as a result, had a better relationship with the supervisor.   And it certainly never occurred to me to ask him what he did to have such a great rapport with the group.   But both parties had stereotyped the other and were unwilling to change their opinions. Since other people and groups managed to have good relations with others, we could hardly be justified in thinking that they were totally in the wrong. This supervisor was more focused upon tasks than people so they never worried about the personal cost of the conflict, and probably did not know how to resolve the problem. Even though the supervisor knew about the problem, they did not intervene, perhaps because the work always got done somehow.   (Schein, 1996) Abstract Conceptualization Conflict can be regarded, abstractly, as neither wrong nor right and bad nor good. The meaning of conflict is recognized by its participants given that people who add value on its meaning. The vital results of a situation of conflict are dogged by the beliefs, values and feelings, of those who are involved. The real determinants are the people of the meaning of conflict. As humans though, and it is almost impossible for us to divorce ourselves of feelings, beliefs, and values. People create, or get involved in, conflict, and all possess predispositions as to how it ought to be addressed or handled. There is the tendency to have a strong behavioral leaning, a set pattern, for participation, and this emerges as a major factor in setting the nature of conflict. (Peppers, 1976) Active Experimentation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   If I do not have control over other people but if I act appropriately, I will have a much better chance of getting the cooperation I desire.   What is positive about having negative experiences is that hopefully I learn from them.   If sincerely worked with him and combined my weaknesses with his strengths and vice versa, I am sure that we would have been able to come up with better ideas, solutions, and programs that would have helped our company more. Another concept I must use in the future is how to combine different personalities in order to solve or create concepts or ideas that would be superior compared to those created only by a single personality type. For example, the production manager and I had extreme personalities. My mistake was that I am focusing on my strengths and perceived our differences as his weaknesses. In every way we try to put it, the result of conflict is probable to be dysfunctional. The decision of doing nothing is probably not the best. On the other hand, the supervisor involved must make have the determination. This can only be a decision function of the contingencies of the situation, a decision which can only be made by someone in the situation evaluating the forces and strengths involved. A unique method to resolve conflict is to increase interaction between conflicting groups by physically exchanging persons between conflicting groups.   The result should be better communications, greater understanding, and less future conflict. The supervisor must understand that there are times when the decision to do nothing may be best. (Peppers, 1976)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The issue can also be solved through mediation, if ever the situation gets worst. Basically mediation is a confidential and a private process to resolve conflict, it can deliver the opportunity to better understand and recognize the perspectives of others and at the same time be able to develop skills in communication that can contribute to the ability of further undertaking issues related in the workplace. Such process can help people the within the organization to have clarity on matters which can be vague to some. Mediation can be very challenging, because both parties involved should bring up together their different point of views. Each party should have an open mind and the willingness to listen. The success of mediation will lead to building a new relationship which is for the good of all those involved. (Hall, 2001) Concrete Experience   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Way back in college, I have been an organization president; I was elected to lead my academic organization in all the internal and external activities. Being titled as the president may be elevating; it somehow gave me a boost in confidence and there is the fact that there are people who will be working under me, I have the authority to delegate tasks, and approve or reject new ideas. But being the president was not just having authority and the privilege to man how everything works in the organization, when it come to problems or difficulties, I am the one expected to arrive at a resolution. I am the first point person on everything that the organization does; therefore I am accountable in everything especially when we are encountering a lot of difficulties. One of the major challenges that I have to face was getting my organization as one; there comes a point where my co-officers seem to be unmotivated. They do not have the same level of perseverance or drive that I have. They do what I say, but they are lacking enthusiasm and eagerness to do specific tasks. This was hard for me because I do not want to be demanding, but their passiveness provokes me to be a little hard to them. I usually think if only I am a superhero, then I would do the entire job and not ask help from them, but reality is, I am just a leader who needed the help of my co-leaders. There was a certain point where I had been tired to act, but the sense of accountability pushed me to initiate and had my organization driven in order to perform at our very best. Reflective Observation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Having to face such issue made me realized that I am different from them, and that I should not expect everyone to treat things the way I treat them. I may be motivated, but it is natural for some to be unmotivated. During my organization days, I have been joggling my time in order to still do well in my studies and be a responsible leader at the same time. It was hard, and I realized that my co-officers might have been experiencing the same dilemma; the only difference is that we have the different characters on how we deal with those. I have been struggling to get them all together and encourage them to speak out, then I realized that as the leader, I should have to act to have them motivated, to have them realized that I need, the organization needs them. Abstract Conceptualization The first resolution that came in my mind is motivation, comparing the organization in a business institution; there is a similarity of motivation issues in terms of co-officers and employees. A combination of energy and desire bound at fulfillment of a goal is a person’s motivation. In order to influence someone’s motivation calls to getting them to do what a leader know what needs to be done. According to the theory of motivation of Frederick Herzberg, there are various factors are involved to be able to instill motivation to the employees. Those factors may work as anticipated but may also fail because to resistance. (Herzberg, 1968) First are the KITA (â€Å"kick-in-the-ass†) factors, which are also connected with hygiene factors, such are extrinsic to the job. It consisted of administration, company policy, working environment or setting, security, supervision, compensation, and relationships with others. Meanwhile, the factors of motivation are job intrinsic, which comprised of the task itself, having achievement recognized, growth or advancement and conscientiousness. These factors are all interrelated with job dissatisfaction and job satisfaction. According to studies, the primary source of satisfaction is the motivators while what cause unhappiness in the job are the hygiene factors. (Herzberg, 1968) Having motivated co-leaders is a great aspect for an organization to be successful. Motivation compels them to act upon, do extremely well and give their 100 % percent. Active Experimentation Given that I am responsible for my organization, then I should have the initiative to set one foot forward, knowing that the issue is stemmed out from motivation, lack of motivation to be specific, then I must resort to ways on how to get my co-officers to be driven and motivated to carry out their tasks and duties, and that is what I did. Basically, I allowed the needs of my team to coincide with the needs of our organization. Rewarding is also an effective resort (Craig, 1996), simple acknowledgement to a job well done has boost their spirits and at the same time helping those who make mistakes or may need occasional help in order to achieve a specific goal. Another important thing is to set a good example, in my part, I have to stay motivated, I have to present an image of how a leader should be. Developing moral and team spirit is also very important. As a leader, I look out for my team, although I do not have control over their lives I should see to it that I empathize with them.   It is vary significant to allow them to be part of the planning and the processes in problem solving for this will help them develop, this will motivate them and will give them the interest in seeing a plan succeed, thus keeping them well informed is also important. Moreover is the importance of communication, leaders should see to it that a communication channel should always be open in order for everything to flow smoothly within the organization. It is also very vital to make each feel like an individual in a great team instead of a component in a lifeless machine. People call for evocative work, even if it is unpleasant and tiring; they need to be aware that it is necessary and important for the continued existence of the organization, (U.S. Army Handbook, 1973) hence there should be room for counseling wherein the members can voice out their opinions and where the leader listens and vice versa through which, the leaders and the subordinates can keep track with each other. Concrete Experience We are all working hard and striving for success, and in the courses of our careers, the fear of failure serves as pressure as we perform our work. Failure seems to be the dirtiest word in the society, I as an individual who works hard to be successful fears failure, I would rather be seen as hostile, overworked, odd rather than be seen as a failure. I think it is natural to have the fear of failure as we place tremendous stress on success. I think the fear of failure is probably the strongest power that holds us below our potentials. In our world, misfortunes can really happen this is why; I rather play safe most of the time. However, playing safe is a form of risk as well. Whenever I fail, I feel extremely bad, I felt that I am stubborn enough that I failed, maybe that is reason why I also developed my fear of failure. Because of such fear, our merit and ability are often underestimated, we then find it hard to recover and accept failure and some valuable opportunities are passed out. Reflective Observation Success and growing from it is not an easy experience. We can really get knocked as we persevere to succeed in our careers. The biggest drawback I have to deal with is fear of failure and I know that it can lead to terrible outcomes. What the fear of failure does is form an approach in opportunity which is overcautious. Being aware of when and how to make use of opportunity is essential to a successful career. Possessing understanding about the opportunity, I then need to find out timing. The pros and cons listed will help in making a decision. Fear of failure can also keep us from speaking up. It will cause us such hindrance to remain in silence and foregone the chance to stand out. Another major impact of this fear is missing out the point of professional and personal growth. If we really want to be successful, we should be prepared and grow with it. I know I should loses this fear of failure and be able to risk something which is important, in the long way ahead, I know I will be glad that I did. Abstract Conceptualization We can face the fear of failure by having an understanding of constructivism which is child-centered; it suggests that the environment of learning must shore up numerous perspectives or reality interpretations, construction of knowledge, richness of context, activities based experience. Constructivism concentrates on knowledge construction, and not on the knowledge reproduction. It is a conviction that from one’s experiences, mental structures, and beliefs that are used to interpret objects and events one constructs knowledge. The mind is influential and indispensable in understanding perspectives, events and objects on the basis that is individualistic and personal. Our outlook of the external world varies from others for the reason that we have our out set of unique experiences. (Dweck, 1999) Learning is influenced by the learner’s prior knowledge, learning goals and personality therefore it is an internal process. Constructivism illustrates the environment of the wherein knowledge and the creation of knowledge is inductive, collaborative and interactive, wherein manifold of perspectives are corresponded to, and where questions are appreciated (Goleman, 1997). The significance of context associated to learning and knowledge and â€Å"authentic activity† are given important emphasis. Active Experimentation Having the fear of failure should not be disregarded, it should be acted upon the soonest time possible, because having to endure such will make us stagnant and afraid to go beyond the norms, we will be stuck under the state of mediocrity, which we know is not good. The fear of failure had me bothered, but I told to myself that I should not lose in my game with it, I should overcome it. In order for me to lose my fear, I started thinking and considering the cost of missed opportunities if I pass on to them. Many careers out there entail a broad variety of opportunities therefore when opportunities came, I should be able to try my chances. I know that taking risk is very important and a greater reward is at stake. The issue of the fear of failure here is that without taking risks we cannot exploit opportunities. We can opt to live a rather simple, happy and peaceful life but we will be hindered to do something new and we then cannot make a difference in our world. The source of this fear is unknown I realized that when we do not know what are we dealing, the possible consequences can get worse. The fear should be understood, we should then have a holistic understanding of failure, its risks and benefits, by means of an analysis, and I can then get through my fear and further make a decision. It is also ideal to always put ourselves in the perspective of the worst-scenario. Making a plan of contingency is also a good strategy in order to reduce the downside and overcome the fear of failure. I should then manage the risk well and create a contingency plan so that I will be able to have a backup plan if ever the chances of failing are very high. An understanding of the benefits of failure also helps as each failure is like a trial in an experiment and an opportunity to growth, even if it can costs us a lot, there is an assurance that the benefits can outweigh the loss. (Jackson, 1993) Each failure is a trial in an experiment and an opportunity for growth. Even if a failure costs you financially, the educational benefits can far outweigh the loss. As I am determined to overcome this fear, taking action is the best way to start, though which I am certain to have a boost in confidence. I know everything is hard on the start, but it may be possible that with taking small steps, I can then build up my confidence and be able to manage the fear of failure. If there is a goal, but is afraid to commit, we should then force ourselves, the fear of failure disappears when we realize that it cannot save us. References    Applewhite, P. (1965).â€Å"Organzational Behavior†, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. Buckingham, M. 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