applied management mgt636 individual reflection

8/22/2019 Applied Management MGT636 Individual Reflection

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Individual Reflection

MGT636June 1, 2012

Francis Paolo Figueroa Meria - 2011001975

Tutor: Sam Young


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Applied Management MGT636

Assignment 2(a) Individual Reflection on Working in a Team

Student Name: Francis Paolo Figueroa Meria

ID: 2011001975

Assignment 2(a) Team Rating Form

Please place a number in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5 (1 is poor; 5 is excellent) for each of the fourteenpairs of adjectives that best describes your feeling about your team. Do not give any individual assessment, do itcollectively. Do not name individuals or give separate assessments on this form.

Negative Score (1 to 5) Positive

Unco-operative 4 Co-operative

Selfish members 4.5 Unselfish members

Unfriendly/reserved 4.5 Friendly

Passive 4.5 Interactive

Incompetent 4.5 Competent

Not planned & measured in actions taken 3.75 Planned and measured in actions taken

Unreliable 4.75 Reliable

Not cohesive in direction

4Cohesive in direction

Not innovative 3.75 Innovative

Not inclusive of members 4.5 Inclusive of members

Mainly ineffective followers 4 Shared leadership /effective followership

Would not want to work with the team again 4 Would want to work with the team again

Decisions not well made 4 Decisions well made

Unhappy with team recommendations &implementation plans

4 Happy with the team recommendations &implementation plans


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Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your teamrating(500-700 words).

Co-operation: Every member has been very cooperative right at the outset. Despite otherassignments and commitments, everyone always gave their best in everything they did. Therewas not really much support or encouragement from members. At times or most of the time,

everyone was working in isolation. However, the team was rather considerate and very sensitiveabout how much one can handle. They wont give you something they feel or think is too much foryou.

Unselfishness: None of the team members only thought of their own advantage. We all knewright from the start that its a team work and that everything we do affects everyones grade.

Friendliness: The team has been very warm and friendly to one another. One reason could bebecause they were all in the same two courses the previous semester. Theyre always open foropinions and ideas and they give praises and tell you face-to-face that you really did a great work.They acknowledge your hard work, time and efforts. This team creates a very healthyenvironment.

Interactivity: The team, being so welcoming, always involves and encourages the only slightly

passive member to participate during team meetings. Face-to-face or not, the communication hasalways been open. Everyone feels free to share their thoughts and express anything andeverything at all times.

Competence: This is one of the biggest strengths of the group. Each member works really hardto meet a high standard. The team comprises quality and academically excellent students. Everyone has really good strengths that contributed to the success of the team.

Planning: Planning was done strategically and remarkably well. The team makes sure that everywritten report is finished and ready to be proofread and submitted by the team about 4-7 daysbefore its deadline. We always review and run through our lists of things-to-do and to-be-done-bytoward the end of every meeting. When we get home, one sends and email and a Facebook poston the private groups wall to remind everyone of the tasks that need to be completed including

their corresponding owner and deadline.Reliability: The team is very reliable. You can trust that everyone will have anything done a weekbefore the planned deadline. Right at the very first meeting, we all had agreed that we would allaim for A. This goal, apart from a members slight officiousness and being a little condescending(matched with being so organized, planned and structured, which, as a matter of fact, did a lot ofhelp for the team as well) has caused every member to really work hard and take everything veryseriously.

Cohesion: Although there had been several occasions where some members had begunbehaving more tenaciously, digging their heels in and sticking to their guns, the team has beenrelatively united. They still try to compromise, try to control their emotions, appear diplomatic, becivil, polite, professional, and respectful as much as possible.

Innovation: Some members are undoubtedly incredibly smart and intelligent. However,imagination and innovation within the team is fair to middling and satisfactory. At times, greatideas strike when their hearts are into it, when they feel like it, or when theyre all in the zone andnot too stressed by other factors. The team has found really interesting facts and information. Onemember discovered Coca-Colas Happiness Truck while one came up with the idea of usingCoca-Cola as a case study. These not only helped narrow down our topic but also made ourpresentation more captivating and compelling.


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Inclusivity: The team has a very good positive climate. It has never made any member feel likean outcast. Everyone has always been treated fairly and equally and their opinions alwayswelcome.

Shared Leadership/Followership: We all shared the same vision. There was a deeper sense ofteamwork because we all intended to work and improve ourselves in an effective manner so our

level of participation and contribution are at their fullest potential.Work with the team again: Maybe yes, maybe no. It depends. Yes, because its great to haveteam members who are very structured, who know what they are doing, who may be a lot betterthan you are in terms of organizing and dealing with things. However, one member may end upbeing a constant follower and a silent contributor just because no matter what his/her input is,leaders think that their ideas will always be the best and will always be what needs to be followedby everyone. Sometimes you want to do something your own way and learn from your mistakesbut its just not possible because one personality dominates over the other. Sometimes you justfollow and obey as much as possible to avoid conflicts, to not make others feel slightly offended(in case they take you the wrong way), or just to make them feel good about themselves leadingthe team. Sometimes its all about whos got the stronger personality and who knows more aboutthe subject.

Decision-making: Decision making was pretty good until toward the end. At times there were afew healthy exchanges of thoughts during meetings and on Facebook. However, conflicts hadrisen between the two members who are quite too insistent and immovable in terms of their ownstrategies and the way they do and would like to do things. But overall, it was still relatively prettygood and well even though sometimes one member tends to lose patience and injects sarcasmtime after time. The rest of the members had been able to deal with this quite well.

Happy with team process: Spending the entire semester working with one another has trulyhelped us get to know more about and understand one another. Weve learned to give way, actmore appropriately and acknowledge not only our strengths and weaknesses but also the othermembers. Weve learned to be more flexible, to be less stubborn, to bend and stretch for the sakeof someone, and most importantly, to help, encourage, inspire and motivate other members. One

of the most amazing things and one of the biggest accomplishment I think our team has is thatwe hardly had issues about inability to attend the meeting. Despite having the seldom reasonablylate for a few minutes, every member had always been present no matter what. It shows howdedicated and committed everyone was. We knew we would and could do anything for the team.


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Assignment 2(a) How You Rated Yourself

Your Name: Francis Paolo Figueroa Meria

Complete this Rating Form for yourself. Please place a score in the most appropriate box below from 1 to 5, (1 ispoor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of your own performance in your narrative of 300-500

words, using examples; ill-considered opinion is not good enough.

Enter a number: Poor (1) to Excellent (5)

Attribute Score (1-5)

1. Quality of contribution to team discussions 2.5

2. Quality of initiative when things needed to be done 3.5

3. Reliability in completing assigned responsibilities 4

4. Amount of effort put forth 5

5. Commitment to the team 4

6. Leadership or followership inspiration provided to the team 5

7. Emphasis on task functions 4

8. Emphasis on relationship functions 4

9. Would want to work with again 4

10. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome 3.75

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify yourindividual rating outlining the positive and challenging aspects of how your team operated.

What part you played in planning/job allocation to ensure tasks completed?

Tasks: The amount of task given to me has always been good. They probably knew I had beenpressured because Im not a straight-A student but they know I work hard to accomplish anything.I would love to do a bit of editing and maybe a huge chunk of formatting but it was alreadysomeone elsesjob. Besides, the level of eagerness of the other two members to help with theediting and formatting skyrocketed so they ended up doing it anyway. I tend to always just giveway and step back when I feel like someone wants to do something even though I would like to do

it too. It felt like they believed I couldnt do it or that they could do it better than I do. Its not right toassume but Im sure it happened for a reason (a matter of perspective). Probably I had enoughon my plate already. During meetings, I didnt have much to say really. They seemed to haveeverything planned out so well and knew what they were doing and everything they were talkingabout. At times, some members would receive a straightforward face-to-face harsh commentabout their ideas so it could be hard to speak up when you know that any idea will be turneddown. You just end up being a follower. So Ive learned that I should be more assertive and firmnext time. There was no favoritism in the team but having a couple actually resulted to someminor biases. It sparked some tension, not very visible, but very much felt.


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Overall Contribution: My contribution may not be straight-As objectively, I may not havecontributed much in terms of planning or during group discussions, but it is satisfying enoughknowing that I spent a great deal of time, effort, dedication, commitment and hard work ineverything I did for the group, and that I performed and completed whatever was assigned to meto the best of my ability at all times.

How did you ensure the work was done properly?Reliability, Effort and Commitment: Most of the time, I met all the team deadlines and handedin everything that is of high standard as much as possible. Since I was too pressured abouthaving team members who really badly want an A and I was worried about letting the team down,I worked very hard for any task assigned to me to the point that I dedicated all my time, effort andcommitment to the group project as though it was my only paper that my three other subjectsended up suffering and going downhill. I come up with a quality work except that it sometimestakes me some time or a long time which depends whether or not my heart is into it, or whether ornot Im passionate about it. I did not anymore study for my Law test out of fear of disappointingthe team. There were times I couldve been studying for something or working on an assessmentwhose deadline was nearly approaching but I still spent most of my time working on a taskassigned to me because I wanted to give the team something that would somehow meet the

standards I had expected them to have.

What do you think you could have done better to help the team work more efficiently(Discussions; Initiative): I had attended 99% of the meetings and I had always replied to everytext, email and Facebook post right away to acknowledge receipt or understanding. Most of thetime, I had whatever was expected of me before every meeting despite being late at times. Icouldve been more assertive, more confident, less intimidated, and less passive. Theres alwaysa better way in anything and everything. This is a great learning experience. Although I might nothave been able to defend a team member against the other two during the worst stage of theprocess because I kept silent knowing that arguing with a tenacious person could be useless orpointless or could be like coming up against a brick wall, I was able to comfort, encourage,empathize and sympathize with the person by sharing a lot of my time through a longconversation through text. I didnt not really volunteer so much. Most of the time I just waited forthem to give me tasks as though I had settled for being controlled. I know I have to be moreproactive next time.

How did you influence the team and how did the team influence you?

Leadership/Followership: Rebecca and Richard were already there. Rebecca is an excellentleader. She wanted to take charge and we let her do it. No one had issues about it. She led ourteam to success. In this team, Im a follower and a silent contributor. Im good at followingdirections and Im okay with it. I also know how to work hard to get it done on time. I just get the

job done without saying much. I complete the tasks assigned to me and dont really createconflicts. However, this is balanced because my team members are not afraid to speak up. Eventhough I did the same two papers with them last semester, we dont really hang out often.However, the three of them have been pretty close since high school so theyd felt comfortable

right at the start. They were all from the same school and were at the same year level so therewasnt much of a need to break the ice or tiptoe around one another. Most of the time, Ive beenpassive. I hardly talked. That was because I could feel that everything was flowing really smoothlyalready. So I just did my best to every task assigned to me.

Relationships: I dont think I influenced the team that much nor did they influence me greatly. Iwas passive most of the time. I avoided conflicts as much as possible although Id talk to Rebeccafor a long time through text even though it could be really frustrating trying to talk to someone likeher. I just said say yes to anything, not objecting at all. When the team finalized the PowerPoint


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the day before the presentation, I spoke up and told Rebecca in the nicest and most professionalmanner how exactly I wanted to make minor changes, i.e. reorder my bullet points. She flew offthe handle, told me I had not been speaking up (when I actually did, except that she cut me offand told me All changes have to be emailed to me by 6pm tonight, scripts at 7pm. Sharp. anddirected her anger at me because she felt like the whole team ganged up on her that afternooninsisting that she cut down her 8-minute speech. Richard was very insistent, Abbey followed, but

then I got their point about going over time. I also understand how much time and effort Rebeccaspent on her speech and how she badly wanted to deliver all the information. However, I justremained quiet because Abbey and I could feel that there was enough tension and heatedargument already. Both sides had a point but maintained an intransigent position. I just didnt feelthe need to join the conversation because we all knew that almost nothing and no one couldchange Rebeccas and Richards mind.

I did not like how Rebecca used to reply to me (and then to everyone else later on) with sarcasm,making every idea I said in front of the group seemingly the most asinine thing shed ever heard.Thats why I stopped talking. I just did not feel like talking anymore. I just felt like I was notneeded. Whenever she was not feeling great, out of the blue, shed randomly crack a sarcastichalf-meant joke that criticizes me or Abbey or Richard. We would play along and laugh with herbut the three of us could tell that Rebeccas comments were very satirical and that she was reallytrying to insinuate something. Every time Rebecca would find mistakes in our work, she would notsay it in the most professional and constructive way. She would say it the way she wanted to. Shecould be constructive if she wanted to but more often than not, it was more harsh thanconstructive. We managed to ignore it and to take it all in stride as we did not want to create moreconflicts throughout the process. I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Probably she was too stressedout or maybe she had other things in her mind. She probably was too worried about our finalreport so she was often in a bad mood and rather cranky. She had other more difficult subjects.Perhaps she just isnt very good at handling her emotions and stress sometimes. Despite allthese, I love this group because it definitely improved my skills in dealing with different kinds ofpeople. You just learn it along the way, by instinct. Every time I feel the dark cloud over us duringmeetings, I try my best to be happy, to look positive, and be fun when everyone else feelsstressed out. Fortunately, I managed to look jolly at times and pull it off without them affecting mymood.


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Assignment 2(a) Team Member Ratings

Student Name: Rebecca

Complete one Rating Form for EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Please place a score in the most appropriatebox below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of each team members

performance in your narrative of 300-500 words, using examples; ill-considered opinion is not sufficient.



Quality of contribution to team discussions 5

Quality of initiative when things needed to be done 5

Reliability in completing assigned responsibilities 5

Amount of effort put forth 5

Commitment to the team 5

Leadership or followership inspiration provided to the team 5

Emphasis on task functions 5

Emphasis on relationship functions 3.5

Would want to work with again 2.5

. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome 5

Under the headings below, using examples from the semester, meeting minutes and PRM minutes, justify your rating ofeach individual team member outlining the positive and challenging aspects of how your team operated.

Discussions: Despite being bossy and harsh sometimes, Rebecca never runs out of brilliantideas. She always has the drive. She is one of the best leaders Ive known. She takes charge, shedelegates fairly, she may not be the best when it comes to motivation and encouragement butshes a natural born leader. Very impressive. She knows what shes talking about. The way shedoes things, her organization, planning, leading and controlling skills are terrific! Shes been agreat role model to us after all.

Initiative and Tasks: Rebecca has great judgment in making decisions. At times, we felt like she

wanted to do everything just so the team would get an A or that it would appear as though shehad done the most contribution. She had too many other things on her plate too but even so, shedid more than she could handle and still managed to accomplish everything at a very highstandard and on time. Some of us offered to help not only because we didnt want her carryingmost of the burden herself but we also wanted the tasks to be equally distributed. Nonetheless,sometimes she would insist that she would rather have it done her way to achieve the highestpossible mark. The rest of us didnt like how several times she insisted on doing most of the workbut ended up using it against us, looking grouchy and saying things along the lines of Guys. Ivehad enough. Ive done this and that. You have no idea how long it took me to do this and that.


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Sorry. I cant do this anymore. Abbey would reply, Well, we offered you some help but youinsisted and wouldnt let us help.

Reliability: There seems to be nothing she cant handle and accomplish on time. Rebecca is veryreliable and her efforts are commendable. Everything she did was of high standard in terms ofquality and quantity. Rebecca and Richard are academically excellent.

Effort, Commitment and Leadership/Followership: She spent so much time and effort editingand proofreading our work, correcting each error, every little single mistake. Her commitment anddedication for this project was exceptional. Her leadership skills outstanding. If not because ofher, we wouldntve done so well. She allocates tasks fairly and equally too. She definitely hasgreat management skills.

Relationships: Rebecca is most of the time diplomatic and professional. She frequently gets verymoody and sometimes her mood swing and subtly rude and sarcastic comments just drive everymember nuts. Everyone in the team has flaws but looking at the bigger picture and consideringeverything Rebecca has done for the group, her flaws become insignificant.

Work with again: Maybe Ill work with her again. A lot of people may dislike her personality andattitude, she may talk behind her team members back and tell everyone else and her family the

flaws of every member in her group, but truth is you can never ever change a person. But you canalways change yourself, the way you deal with them, the way you handle or manage or talk tothem. And I think it will only take some time before Rebecca and I completely get to know eachother and learn how to deal with each other. We get along pretty well when were not talking aboutthe group project. When we talk about life and the most random things and I become her shockabsorber, things go very well and we realize we have so many things in common.

Overall Contribution: Need I say more? Rebeccas overall performance and contribution isstellar, peerless and superb.


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Student Name: Richard

Complete one Rating Form for EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Please place a score in the most appropriatebox below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to jus tify your opinion of each team members











Emphasis on relationship functions 4

Would want to work with again 5

. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome 4.75


Discussions: Like Rebecca, Richard also has the most sensible, clever ideas. He and Rebeccaare highly opinionated. There was always a great exchanges of thoughts and ideas between thetwo of them. Richard had always been present and was hardly ever late.

Initiative: Because he knew that social media is the current trend, and that people are likely to beon or to check Facebook rather than DropBox or emails, Richard created a private Facebookgroup for the team. This private group page was used to share videos, articles and exchangeideas. Richard also use this to post the agenda the night before every meeting, which was goodbecause all members own an Android phone that pops up every Facebook notifications rightaway.

Reliability: Richard always turns in a quality work and always meets the deadline. He is good towork with. He does not brag about his abilities not does he talk much about trivial matters. LikeRebecca, he talks with sense all the time and just gets the work done incredibly swiftly at a highstandard.

Effort: Richard is the kind of person who can have fun while doing a big group research project. Itonly takes him a very short time to accomplish anything so he gets a lot of free time to do otherthings. He never got frustrated nor stressed out. He was always chilled but hard working at the


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same time. He gives his best in everything. It may not seem obvious only because he canproduce something of high standard for a short period of time.

Commitment, Leadership/Followership andTasks: Richard always made sure that everythingwas planned and organized well. He thinks fast and comes up with solutions quickly. He is easy towork with because he knows how to compromise and knows exactly how to get his point across

without sounding offensive, impolite, too demanding or abrupt. Sometimes he would take overand lead the team. Hes a very effective and efficient leader and follower.

Relationships: Richard never makes a big deal out of petty little things. He never let his emotionsget in the way. Hes constantly maintained his professionalism and diplomacy and performedevery task the best he could all the time.

Work with again: I will definitely work again with Richard. He is a good leader and a goodfollower and does analyze people and deal with every situation really well.

Overall Contribution: Both Richard and Rebecca have a great eye for detail. They both led andguided the team toward its success. I would say that about 50-70% of the overall research projectwas because of their quality work and brilliant ideas.

Student Name:Abbey

Complete one Rating Form for EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS. Please place a score in the most appropriatebox below from 1 to 5, (1 is poor; 5 is excellent). You need to be able to justify your opinion of each team members











Emphasis on relationship functions 5

Would want to work with again 5

. Overall contribution to the successful team outcome 4.25


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Discussions: Abbey may not be as academically excellent as Rebecca and Richard but shealways thinks very critically and analytically. She does may not have the brightest ideas but she salways engaged, she asks questions, gives a lot of comments and suggestions and expresses

herself freely.Tasks, Initiative, Effort, Commitment: Abbey takes down a lot of notes, she s great with detailsand accuracy, she does the minutes, reviews the minutes and what needs to be done by whobefore the meeting ends to ensure we were all on the same page. She is the very committedfacilitator who puts everything into structure, she organizes meetings and the documentations anddid all the formatting in the proposal, progress reports and final report. She makes things runsmoothly and makes sure that everything goes according to plan, on schedule and in order. Thiskept the team from being chaotic. Abbey managed to control the team so well.

Reliability, Leadership/Followership : Abbey is a good follower and can be a good leader too.She had submitted everything on time and of good standard while juggling work, other subjects,the research project and managing the team.

Relationships: Abbey is the only person who has always been there for me when things gowrong. She comforts me through text all the time and always offers help. She empathized with meand told me how she felt that it was only Rebecca and Richard doing most of the contribution andhow she felt left out too at times. It is deeply touching and moving when you get comfort andoffers of help from the person you least expect to get it from. Sometimes she would just randomlysend a text message asking how things are going, how my progress report or literature review isgoing, how I am doing with my other subjects and other assessments. I am very grateful for all thetimes Abbey encouraged me and motivated me.

Work with again: Ill definitely work with Abbey again. Both Abbey and Richard know how to workeffectively with people without letting their emotions get in the way.

Overall Contribution: She may not be a straight-A student but knowing how committed,

dedicated and driven she is, by assessing her work and performance, you can tell she has othermuch more important skills which plain A grades will never ever measure up to. I believe that asufficient level of hard work, determination and superior performance combined with substantialknowledge will always overpower high marks alone. Abbey impressively and admirable took asmany tasks as she could. She is a good role model. From this, Ive learned that if you want to bereally really useful, you have to do something about it. You definitely have got to do somethingand be more proactive. Just dig in and grab anything you can before it s too late and therenothing much left for you to do.

applied management mgt636 individual reflection

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