Challenging Conversations Skills
What activities did I do this week on the topic?
When I went into this topic, I already knew the basics of employee relationships, but my self-evaluation indicated that I still needed to become more informed, especially in the practical sense.
What do I already know about this?
I already knew about working from home and part-time working as examples of flexible working options. However, the other concepts appeared very foreign when they were introduced. I am likely to be stunned by the options in actual practice unless I become familiar with them. Although I know that the options relate to the component of flexible working, I have to find out more about their application in real organizational situations.
Reflect and question to review learning
What are the key things that I learned from the session (about myself and the topic)?
At first, I thought that I have sufficient knowledge about flexible working, yet I discovered that there are a number of concepts that I have no idea what they mean.
How does my learning fit with work experiences?
In my line of work, I expect that there will be many instances where new learning will play an important part in what I choose and how it impacts my career and my organization.
What have I learned about the topic from work or other situations?
One situation that has allowed me to learn about the topic is my learning experience. Although it is not directly related to the idea of flexible working and employee relations, it presents an example of what can happen when organizations’ expectations are not congruent with employee abilities. I have learned that even when the environment for learning is right and all resources are provided, the perception of the learner is important in facilitating the entire process (Dromey, 2014).
Reflect and question to understand and for meaning
Any comments about your feelings on the topic and activities?
The fact that I felt very lost about the topic and the activities related to the session on flexible working and employee relationship is a testament to what I need to work on.
How does this topic impact you now or may do in the future?
This topic challenges my current notion of human resource management roles and causes me to reflect on what I want to improve in the future.
Plan
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about yourself?
I am going to work on my expectations of what an organization should provide for its employees. At the same time, I will ensure that I have the right expectation of what employees want in different work environments (Avey, Wernsing, & Palanski, 2012).
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about your skills or work style?
I have identified that I am mostly collaborative when working; therefore, I will seek to organize my work in the form of a project. I can only do so what I am in environments that support my display of courage. Therefore, I will enroll in a program that is likely to rest my people management skills and force me to display courageous behavior. I understand that for me to gain the courage necessary to challenge others rationally in confrontations and handle employee disputes, I need to gain more experience in my collaborative working style. However, I know that some situations will not favor team-based projects (Cole, 2008).
In this regard, I am going to attend management seminars that deal with working style so that I can learn more about my preferences and the opportunities and challenges that I should expect in typical workplaces. Working with managers who use a different style should also let me become more knowledgeable about myself, including my limitation and preferred way of minimizing them.
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about your learning from doing?
I expect to have a chance to be assertive and be cooperative as a representative of an organization. I will be considering the plight and demands of employees at all levels.
How can you develop the required skills – either now or in the future?
I have identified a number of opportunities that can help me develop the right level of inquisitiveness that will assist me to be able to learn new concepts faster. Moreover, I am also going to engage in programs that allow me to demonstrate my courage and I have considered a few examples. Overall, I want to indulge myself more in my career field so that I can become an all-rounded person. I understand that different organizations will have different kinds of opportunities for exercising human resources management roles. Therefore, I will only be concerned with the activities that I can do, based on the opportunity that is availed to me by a position in an organization.
Resolving Individual Conflict Skills
What activities did I do this week on the topic?
I resolved conflicts on discussions with friends and worked on developing a framework to limit future conflict.
What do I already know about this?
Conflict management is critical to the success of HR activities. These skills will allow me to work efficiently in different situations.
Reflect and question to review learning
What are the key things that I learned from the session (about myself and the topic)?
The session was an eye-opener. Additionally, I learned that with the new information that was presented, there were things I needed to do in my personal capacity to come up with a strong background understanding that would help me tackle flexible working issues in my career as a human resource professional.
How does my learning fit with work experiences?
Therefore, there is a likelihood that the new realization of my need to learn by being more inquisitive will allow me to embrace opportunities faster.
What have I learned about the topic from work or other situations?
Thus, I am supposed to consider the same fact when it comes to my relations with employees.
Reflect and question to understand and for meaning
Any comments about your feelings on the topic and activities?
As part of the personal reflection logs and personal skill audit done during the session, I have come to understand that I possess the following skills: I am a decisive thinker and I display a curious personality. In addition, I am a skilled influencer who values personal credibility highly.
How does this topic impact you now or may do in the future?
This topic is causing me to be critical of my approaches to employee relationships and engagement with colleagues. It makes me be careful and thoughtful of the consequences of my decisions.
Plan
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about yourself?
Improving my communication skills will be a priority for my career growth. I expect my communication skills to help me choose what is necessary for situations where there are many options and there is no sufficient time to go through all options.
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about your skills or work style?
I will represent an organization on such cases, and any success or failure that I have when dealing with employees will be due to my perception, attitude, and knowledge of the underlying processes and motivations of the exercise.
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about learning from doing?
Leading people and resolving disputes related to the concepts that I have learned in this session will be a good opportunity for me to learn by doing. Thus, I will actively look for negotiation opportunities between an organization and employees on any matter. I have identified practical learning opportunities as the best ways to meet the challenges that I will experience at work. This should ensure that I am constantly learning concepts that are relevant, such as dealing with employee fit to an organization’s preferred way of working (Kim, Aryee, Loi, & Kim, 2013).
How can you develop the required skills – either now or in the future?
I hope this initiative will expose me to events and other opportunities that I can use to enhance specific personal skills and make career progress. I need to network more with professionals who have been in the industry for a long in different organizational capacities. I hope they will assist me to avoid many obstacles that would affect my career growth.
Engagement Skills
What activities did I do this week on the topic?
I learned how flexible working conditions play an important role in organizational performance. I reviewed the options available, including part-time working, term-time working, job-share options, flexitime, compressed hours, annual hours, working from home, mobile working, and career breaks. Much of the week’s activity was on learning theoretically about the concepts
What do I already know about this?
My skills self-audit shows that this will be an important area for my personal and career growth.
Reflect and question to review learning
What are the key things that I learned from the session (about myself and the topic)?
Regarding me, the session allowed me to realize that whenever I am presented with new information I tend to shy from making initial inquiries, irrespective of what occurs. I open up about my ignorance after I have already gone through an acclimatization process on the new topic or concept. This is why it might have taken me longer to integrate the concepts that were being introduced in the session.
How does my learning fit with work experiences?
What I am learning is shaping how I embrace work situations where I have to deal with employees and improves my professionalism.
What have I learned about the topic from work or other situations?
Engaging people requires the right approach to achieve the objectives of engagement as people are perceptive.
Reflect and question to understand and for meaning
Any comments about your feelings on the topic and activities?
I am driven to deliver and prefer a collaborative working environment, although in some cases the collaboration will be temporary due to the nature of the task at hand.
How does this topic impact you now or may do in the future?
I am going to familiarise myself with emerging web 2.0 technologies so that I can handle the different situations that require the needs of a new generation of employees
Plan
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about yourself?
I will use skills learned to find out more about new concepts of HR that I did not know.
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about your skills or work style?
I will become more collaborative and participate more in projects instead of limiting myself to only my other work skill areas.
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about learning from doing?
I need to practice them in different situations so that I also gain intuitive insights on what works and what does not. Such exercises in the real world will also help me become more practical in my approach to the management of employees, given that I understand that organizations differ in their outlook and employee demands.
How can you develop the required skills – either now or in the future?
I can take part in networking events in my locality and also attend interviews and workshops. I will also join associations that require me to hone my skills in engagement.
ER Policy Communication Skills
What activities did I do this week on the topic?
I reviewed research on the topic and familiarised myself with my communication skills.
What do I already know about this?
I already know the role that these skills play ineffective management of people and that I have to work on my abilities to come up with effective ER policies.
Reflect and question to review learning
What are the key things that I learned from the session (about myself and the topic)?
Eventually, I know that what matters most is my ability to follow my instincts to learn, as that will be beneficial to my human resource career. Before I gain the ability to change my reaction in the future, I will still need to find alternative ways of dealing with novel information without jeopardizing my chances for making quick and effective decisions (Keegan, Huemann, & Turner, 2011).
How does my learning fit with work experiences?
Learning communication skills allows me to make better use of research and work well with colleagues.
What have I learned about the topic from work or other situations?
I am a good communicator, but there is always an opportunity to improve
Reflect and question to understand and for meaning
Any comments about your feelings on the topic and activities?
Although I have the courage to take on challenges, I still need to improve on that. I will also have to increase my role model abilities, despite the fact that I already scored highly in this section.
How does this topic impact you now or may do in the future?
The topic is helping me be able to motivate others whom I work with and it will allow me to be able to share my ideas clearly.
Plan
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about yourself?
Communicating clearly and in a timely way as an organization or an individual will help me to provide employees with the right facts for them to offer accurate responses (Cañibano & Daniel Curto-Millet, 2013). Good communication using the right tools for the right situation is important (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2011).
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about your skills or work style?
I am going to focus on my tolerance of solo-projects and workplace routines that may not have a high level of excitement in work performance (Kruse, 2012). Nevertheless, I know that work routines might be critical to organizational performance (Dimba, 2010). Thus, I will also consider training and opportunities for being able to develop the right strategies for sustaining employee commitment.
How can you plan to apply what you have learned about learning from doing?
Employment and consultancy opportunities will let me practice my communication skills to let me enhance my usage of conflict-handling modes. I am aware of the assertiveness and cooperativeness of the conflict-handling modes (Downs & Swailes, 2013). I will also practice developing ER policies and seek peer-review of my skills.
How can you develop the required skills – either now or in the future?
I will use my job position to meet employees regularly in formal and informal capacities so that I am working with them. In the meantime, I am going to subscribe to reputable magazines in the human resource industry so that I can become familiar with many concepts and challenges, as well as trends that characterize the industry.
References
Avey, J., Wernsing, T., & Palanski, M. (2012). Exploring the process of ethical leadership: The mediating role of employee voice and psychological ownership. Journal of Business Ethics, 107(1), 21-34.
Cañibano, A., & Curto-Millet, D. (2013). Balancing unintended consequences of organizational innovations on the employee relationship. Proceedings of the 2013 EU-SPRI Forum Conference. Madrid.
Cole, N. (2008). Consistency in employee discipline: an empirical exploration. Personnel Review, 37(1), 109-117.
Dimba, B. A. (2010). Strategic human resource management practices: effect on performance. African Journal of Economic and Management Studies, 1(2), 128-137.
Downs, Y., & Swailes, S. (2013). A capability approach to organizational talent management. Human Resource Development International, 16(3), 1-15.
Dromey, J. (2014). Meeting the challenge: Successful employee engagement in the NHS. London, UK: IPA – Involve. Web.
Jackson, S. A., Schuler, R., & Werner, S. (2011). Managing human resources (11th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
Keegan, A., Huemann, M., & Turner, J. (2011). Beyond the line: Exploring the HRM responsibilities of line managers, project managers and the HRM department in four project-oriented companies in the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and the USA. The International Hournal of Human Resource Management, 1, 1-20.
Kim, T.-Y., Aryee, S., Loi, R., & Kim, S.-P. (2013). Person-organization fit and employee outcomes: test of a social exchange model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(19), 3719-3737.
Kruse, K. (2012). Why employee engagement – 28 research studies prove the benefits. Web.