Strategic management skills

The program has been very beneficial to me since it has enabled me to acquire various key skills that I need in my career. Some of the major skills that I have developed from the program include;

Strategic management skills: Through interaction with the management of the organization, I was exposed to organizational goals and objectives setting, and how to continuously plan, monitor, analyze, and control all necessary factors to ensure that the goals and objectives are met, and also the formulation of contingency plans to be used in case the initial plans fail. Secondly, I developed my skills on how to analyze various risks that may deter the achievement of organizational goals and objectives, and how such risks can be controlled proactively. Thirdly, I acquired skills on how to manage corporate social responsibility (CSR) and how to integrate it in the long-term plans of an organization. Fourth I learned how to manage international businesses which have their operations in different international markets. These skills will help me to effectively and efficiently manage an organization, formulate, implement and control strategies to achieve organizational goals in my future career (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson 2012).

Change management skills: I developed knowledge on analyzing how a particular change will impact the organization now and in the future, determining the stakeholders who will be affected by the change and how they will be affected, making decisions on whether or not to adapt the change in the organization depending on its viability, formulating a change implementation plan, implementing the change as per the change plan, and controlling the change to ensure that the intended purpose of the change is realized by the organization. I also acquired crucial skills on how to ensure that any change that is to be adopted in the organization meets the established moral and ethical standards. The skills will be important in my future career in the sense that they will enable me to make quality changes in my organization putting into consideration all other factors in order to sustain the competitiveness of the organization in both local and international markets (Anderson and Anderson 2010).

Stakeholder management: As we developed the new corporate social responsibility plan, I acquired skills on how various stakeholders in an organization are included in decision making. Some of the key ploys of stakeholder inclusion that I learned and practiced include; stakeholder mapping which focuses on analyzing how the particular stakeholder relates with the organization and grouping them according to common interest, representation of each group of stakeholders by one or two individuals during important meetings, and stakeholder mobilization in order to gain their support (Freeman 2010). Also, I acquired skills on how to manage people who are in different countries putting into consideration their different cultural believes and interest. The skills are essential to my future career in the sense that they will enable me to be an open-minded manager who includes the stakeholders in decision making thus leading to quality decisions that are supported by all parties. 

Change management skills

Working with group contributed a lot to promoting my personal and professional development since we embraced teamwork, collaboration and continues development. Learning was mainly by interpersonal learning which can be defined as the ability of a person to interact with and understand other people and social situations (Sullivan 2013).  Interpersonal learning intelligence is highly founded on the ability to communicate and understand people.  It developed my ability to work with others as a team and apply empathy while making decisions that affect the entire team. In many organizations, people are expected to work as a team, therefore, my personal development in interpersonal learning will be of great benefit in my future career. Interpersonal learning involves the use of ones thinking ability to interpret certain issues. This has helped me to become a critical thinker who can qualitatively analyze situations.

The behaviorist theory which is a learning theory also contributed a lot to my personal and professional development while working with my group members. The theory states that learning occurs when new behavior or changes in behavior are acquired through association between stimuli and responses (Weegar and Pacis 2012). Therefore, associating with other people can lead to change of behavior. In my personal development journey, the group work enabled me to acquire a dynamic behavior set that will change and adapt to different organizational cultures. This will help me in my future career to easily acquire the culture of the organization that am working with thus promoting my ability to interact properly with my colleagues. Also, it will enable me to easily embrace changes within the organization I will be working with.

The cognitive information processing theory is another theory that promoted my professional development. The theory argues that human beings process the information that they receive rather than just responding to stimuli. Cognitive information processing is controlled by internal processes unlike in behaviorist where individuals are controlled by external factors (Lachman, Lachman, and Butterfield 2015). According to this theory, learning involves the reorganization of experiences either by acquiring new ideas or by changing the old ones. As per this theory, I developed the situational analysis skills which involves observing behavior patterns and analyzing their appropriateness. Also as per the theory, I acquired critical commentary skills which involves analyzing the views of others and commenting on them. The skills are essential in many organizations where decision making has been delegated to lower levels of management since it will enable me to contribute towards decision making.

Stakeholder management

The other theory that contributed to my professional and personal development while working with the group is the Constructivism learning theory. The theory argues that people construct their own perspective of the world based on internal knowledge and individual experiences. Learning is based on how an individual interprets and creates meaning of their experiences (Schunk 2012). As per this theory, I acquired the creativity, innovation, and qualitative decision-making skills. The skills play a vital role in my career because as an expert in management, I am expected to make decisions that influence the current and future operation of the organizations. Such decisions include; change in business processes, marketing strategies, and business growth strategies. Thus with these skills, I will be able to consider the past experience, the current situation, and prospect the future in order to ensure that I make the best decisions. 

A Review of What I Have Learnt in Taking Part in Visiting Speaker Programs and Organizational Visits

My personal and professional development in the program has been a combination of multiple learning activities and some of those activities are the visiting speaker program and organizational visits. Some of the major things that I learned from these two programs include;

Organizational are constantly changing their way of doing things to focus more on improving organizational efficiency and reducing the operating cost without compromising the quality of the products that they offer. For an organization to survive in this dynamic business environment it requires to acquire the appropriate personnel who will foster the change to ensure that the organization remains competitive (Leach, Stirling, and Scoones 2010). Thus in my career forecasting and business environment analysis skills are highly required.

Organizations have become more responsive to the needs of the society in which they exist. One way through which organizations are serving the society is through corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR builds a cordial relationship between an organization and its society thus making the organization and its products to be acceptable in the society (Du, Bhattacharya, and Sen 2010). There are various factors that compel an organization to conduct corporate social responsibility but the most dominant one is the ethical and philanthropic factor. Nowadays many organizations are considering CSR as part of their strategic plans.  

Different stakeholders of an organization hold different views towards a particular issue. Therefore, for the issue/ plan to be successfully realized by the organization the stakeholders should be included in order to give their views. In the current business environment, many organizations have founded stakeholder management panels which consists of representatives of various stakeholders and the senior management of the organization. Also, stakeholders have unionized to increase their bargaining power (Bourne 2016).

Management of international businesses requires a more critical approach than the management of local businesses. This is because international businesses operate in different countries which have different legal regulations, cultural, and moral standards. For an international business to be successful it must comply with the legal, cultural, and ethical guidelines of the various countries that they operate in. Also, management of international businesses requires a clear understanding of the different business environments in the countries which the business operates in (Dunning 2013).

Lastly, organizations are currently focusing on delivering value to their customers in order to build customer loyalty. This is a forward integration market competition ploy that attaches customers to the organization and locks-out competitors. This prevents the entry of new competitors into the market thus guaranteeing the sustainability of the organization (Baker 2011).      

References

Anderson, D. and Anderson, L.A., 2010. Beyond change management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership (Vol. 36). John Wiley & Sons.

Baker, D.P., 2011. Forward and backward, horizontal and vertical: Transformation of occupational credentialing in the schooled society. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 29(1), pp.5-29.

Bourne, L., 2016. Stakeholder relationship management: a maturity model for organisational implementation. Routledge.

Du, S., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Sen, S., 2010. Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International journal of management reviews, 12(1), pp.8-19.

Dunning, J.H., 2013. Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International Business). Routledge.

Freeman, R.E., 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge university press.

Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D. and Hoskisson, R.E., 2012. Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning.

Lachman, R., Lachman, J.L. and Butterfield, E.C., 2015. Cognitive psychology and information processing: An introduction. Psychology Press.

Leach, M., Stirling, A.C. and Scoones, I., 2010. Dynamic sustainabilities: technology, environment, social justice. Routledge.

Schunk, D.H., 2012. Learning theories an educational perspective sixth edition. Pearson.

Sullivan, H.S., 2013. The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. Routledge.

Weegar, M.A. and Pacis, D., 2012. A Comparison of two theories of learning-behaviorism and constructivism as applied to face-to-face and online learning. In Proceedings e-leader conference, Manila.