Pre-Subject Reflection
The main aim of the self-reflective portfolio is to enhance the efficiency and quality of the learning process. It does so by primarily reducing knowledge gaps with a practical application of efficient management of resources and time and knowledge relevant to the fields of managing, leading, and stewardship. It looks at how I see the subject from a reduced knowledge point of view and creates learning targets that will be covered later as the course advances. Overall, the self-reflective portfolio intends to showcase the acquisition of information and knowledge in management. Individual developments from the literature and studies relating to managing, leading, and stewardship are explored. I will highlight some of the main assumptions about managing, leading, and stewardship that I held before the subject.
Before commencement of the course, and before reading the materials and literature assigned for the subject, I held the assumption that management, leadership, and stewardship were the same concepts with different names and that a manager doubled up as a leader and a steward. I was convinced that those were the roles of a single individual, regardless of their training, personality, position, or abilities. I always believed that everyone could manage, lead, and steward on a moment’s notice, that is was easy as long as there were people to be managed. My assumptions did not just include a poor definition of the concepts of managing, leading, and stewardship, but also what Cunliffe (2014) terms as a poor understanding of the functions of each role and how it influences organizational and personal development. These assumptions greatly weaken the individual roles of every concept in managing, leading, and stewardship because they simplify the responsibilities to just a management concept. In short, my assumptions point to a belief that managing, leading, and stewardship are all about telling people what to do, and having ways to measure progress and giving feedback. Like so many others who have had no training in management, I used the concepts of managing, leading, and stewardship interchangeably and to mean the same thing, elements that I now see to be very different and with different objectives that converge to supplement organizational outcomes.
My expectations on the subject is to gain an understanding of the differences between management, leadership and stewardship practices. I expect to gain a clear understanding of the subtle differences between these major practices, how they are connected, and what they contribute towards organizational progress. I also hope to be able to better define these concepts and apply relevant theories to their applicability in the organizational setting. I also have personal goals that relate to better performance in this subject. Towards this end, I expect to have a better understanding of the role that each of the management, leadership and stewardship practices plays in contributing positively to organizational goals, both for better class performance and to apply the knowledge later when I enter the job market. Towards the end of this subject, I hope to have gained enough understanding of the concepts to a point of being able to develop individual principles and philosophy on the use of management, leadership and stewardship practices in the current global setting. I also desire to link these practices to issues that are relevant to the current job market including green strategies, corporate social responsibility, and the role that management, leadership and stewardship practices have on social enterprises. The overall objective of participating in this subject is to better apply leadership and management theories in real life, by shaping me to become a leader conversant with trending issues in the organization.
I believe that a better understanding of management, leadership, and stewardship is important to developing individuals as responsible practitioners in any of the three practices. For example, one cannot be a great leader or an effective manager without understanding what leadership and stewardship entails. The same is also true for stewardship as noted by Cunliffe & Luhman (2012) and further emphasized in a study by Du Gay and Vikkelsø (2016). In order to achieve these objectives, the following areas will play a crucial role: communication and interpersonal skills, attitude and values, skills relating to business practices, leadership theories, management theories, general organization theories, stewardship theories, contemporary problems to leadership and management practice, organizational tensions and moral responsibility, decision making developments, and the integration of organizational, management, leadership, and stewardship approaches to tackling social problems. These topics are relevant to my quest to become a better equipped leader and manager. I will pay particular attention to how the topics relate to modernity and how they influence or are influenced by contemporary issues such as global warming, the current COVID-19 pandemic, global recession, and other social issues. I will also look at how the said areas are affected by political and economic changes, and what these changes mean to the process and practice of leading, managing, and stewardship.
Mid-Subject Reflection
One of the most important concepts taught so far in this subject is how the concept of leadership exists everywhere in our surroundings. For example, the tutorials mentioned that the family unit is a form of organization that has management and leadership roles. In the community, the same exists, albeit in a different format. In class, organization theory relating to managing, leading, and stewardship were introduced in terms of how they have been understood in the past, how they are currently viewed, and the organizational practices that are expected to headline the future. Concepts such as the agency theory, the institutional theory, bureaucracy, and transactional cost economics ae mentioned to have a critical role in the management, leadership, and stewardship activities in an organization (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 2011). In this class, I am gaining immense knowledge that seems to contradict previously held beliefs and assumptions. For example, week 1 lecturers introduced management, leadership, and stewardship practices as different concepts in the running of an organization, which was against what I previously thought to be true. The class has forced me to re-evaluate what I thought I knew before. Previously held misconceptions about management and what it entails, or about leadership and the idea of stewardship are all coming out now that we are studying the said concepts. Another major learning curve has been to accept every management term that I had heard before as a new line for learning. For example, I thought bureaucracy to mean complex systems that frustrate effective management. However, the class has opened up my knowledge of this organizational model to understand it as a type of organization that attains efficiency and rationality through clearly defined hierarchies in the office and other formal authority spheres upon predetermined rules and regulations (Clegg & Bailey, 2008). This and many other concepts taught in class have enabled me to see organization behaviour and all related concepts as independent entities that must always be seen as such.
My existing knowledge is an important benchmark even as I learn more and relearn some of the assumptions and notions I previously held. A lot has changed in the way I think and how I view management and leadership. Now, I no longer see it as just a job where one is in charge. I have begun seeing it as a way of relating with people. The differences between management and leadership are subtle, but very present. Management is all about controlling different variables to attain a goal or objective while leadership entails an ability to motivate, enable, and influence others to contribute towards the success of the organization (Jaffee, 2001). Every day, I learn something new, cover some knowledge gap I had before, and try to make this knowledge work for me.
I have not been in a leadership or management position in my life, at least not in an organization setting. However, I have been a group leader, a sports group manager, and an employee for a number of years. What I have learnt about management, leadership, and stewardship from the interactions and experiences is that there is a need to understand the inner workings of every segment. For example, stewardship is all about taking care and supervising something in a manner that is both responsible and careful (Kostakis, 2018). Following the understanding of the concept of stewardship, I now apply the principles in my part time position, to relate with other employees, take care of the resources entrusted to me, and to generally perform my roles and responsibilities as expected. The management and leadership theories that I have learnt in this subject are applicable in almost every aspect of my life right now. Although they are meant for the workplace or an organization, I find myself applying concepts relating to management, leadership, and stewardship practices even in the classroom setting when doing group assignments, when performing conferencing meetings, and may other situations. From the subject and discussions in class, I have a new perspective on leadership. I believe that a good number of leadership qualities are inborn and cannot be taught in class. For example, when conducting group assignments, some people are able to naturally unite people, motivate them to work, and even influence them to perform without necessarily being hard on anybody. In the same example, a manager tasked with ensuring a group assignment is completed would simply allocate tasks to different people, and ensure that every required task is completed in time, using the available resources. Therefore, I now believe that leadership and management are very different. However, they all include some aspects of stewardship.
A key benefit of participating in this subject is that I am now able not only read my environment but also make sense of it using my newfound knowledge. For example, I am now able to tell the difference between a leader and a manager. For instance, I can identify a leader by their charisma and the way they are able to instil a sense of duty, confidence, and motivation onto other people. From our class readings, especially the article by Wright (2009), leadership emerges to be an amplification of personal values that illuminate positivity on to other people fostering an ability to instil confidence, good relations, and motivation to undertake various tasks. Leaders have very high emotional quotient, an ability that creates empathy to enable people to be more than just managers but to relate well with their followers in a way that allows problem solving and achievement of tasks without excessive supervision. I am able to apply all of these newly acquired knowledge in different areas of my life. I can use the knowledge even in smaller settings within university leadership programs to implement change or to simply oversee completion of tasks.
Post-Subject Reflection
One of the benefits of participating in this subject is that it opens an individual up to self-scrutiny, allows one to be vulnerable and to accept their own flaws in relation to management and leadership. In the course of the subject, I have been able to look internally at my own assumptions, flaws, weaknesses, and strengths. I have confronted all of these negative aspects in my own leadership and management capabilities with the knowledge that weaknesses, flaws, and vulnerabilities are all opportunities for improvement. Having been through the subject, I have learnt what it takes to be a leader, one able to command respect and motivate others to perform at their best levels while attaining results with effectiveness. Despite my lack of experience and limited knowledge on what it truly entails, the theoretical knowledge that I have gained is sufficient at this stage in my life to achieve results. By identifying my own negative aspects at the start of the subject, I am now able to apply theory to allocate approaches that would be necessary to correct the weaknesses. I am now better versed with what managing, leading, and stewardship entail. In various in-class activities and group assignments, I paid a lot of attention, noting my own weaknesses and trying to adapt to what some strong leaders in my groups were doing. At the start of such exercises, I was a quiet member, shy, and unwilling to participate. I quickly learnt that no leader leads from the back, and I therefore had to start being more active and using the theoretical foundations taught in class to step up. I failed a number of times. It was very frustrating. However, looking back, I believe this was the best course because I was able to learn more. That is not to say that I am now a skilled leader. Far from it, I need a lot of practice and experience. The skills and theoretical knowledge I have gained are the beginning of a journey of continuous improvement from here all through my career in management. There are several aspects that need improving, for example, I need to be able to read the mood of people more and become better at charming (using charisma) people to perform at their very best level to become a better leader. The examples of Steve Jobs and President Barack Obama’s charismatic leadership skills are a confirmation that effective communication, charm, and persuasiveness can influence other people to work. I intend to use my ability to connect with other people as a tool to be a more effective leader, later in my career in an organization setting.
A huge part of what has changed is the attitude I had regarding management, leadership, and stewardship before the subject. The experience has been very humbling, beginning by a systematic teardown of all assumptions and fallacies previously held. What has not changed in my desire to learn and to be better at being a leader. My personal goal is to become a leader in an organization, and to be a part of the management in a modern social enterprise. I am passionate about people and this has been one of my strengths coming into the course. My approach can be equated to that of a charismatic leader. I prefer to motivate people to perform as opposed to barking orders in order to get things done.
Overall, I acknowledge that a lot of areas in my leadership and management skills need to change. I also understand that this can only happen with added responsibilities, management experience, and a place that puts me in the spot to perform. As I continue to study, I will also work towards gaining the right experience to become a better and more rounded leader. Currently, managing people is still an uphill task, yet it is getting better compared to where I was at the beginning of the subject. I will apply the theoretical concepts taught in class to show better stewardship, management, and leadership in every aspect of my life. I know it all begins in the small tasks and responsibilities required of me. For example, by being punctual in finishing and attending different classroom requirements, I can begin to implement the demands of a manager. Later, I will be able to enforce the same on to others.
Individual Action-Guiding PrinciplesMy own-action guiding principle is to ensure that I am able to improve on one aspect of my leadership every week. Currently, I am focusing on better communication. I will then work on being charismatic, and later proceed to people management. Like expressed before, my perception of the environment is becoming clearer by the day. I can identify leadership where it is evident or identify gaps where it is lacking. From here, I will continue practicing and studying harder to ensure that I can comfortably apply organizational, leadership, and management theories in different areas of my career today and in future.
References
Clegg, S., & Bailey, J. R. (Eds.). (2008). International encyclopedia of organization studies.
Sage Publications.
Cunliffe, A. L., & Luhman, J. T. (2012). Key concepts in organization theory. Sage.
Cunliffe, Ann L (2014). A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about
Management, 2nd edition. SAGE Publications.
Du Gay, P and Vikkelsø, S (2016). For Formal Organization: The Past in the Present and
Future of Organization Theory. Oxford University Press
Jaffee, D. (2001). Organization Theory: Tension and Change, MGraw Hill.
Kostakis, V. (2018). In defense of digital commoning. Organization, 25(6), 812-818.
Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (2011). The big idea: The wise leader. Harvard Business
Review, 89(5), 58-67.
Wright, E. O. (2009). Real Utopias II: Social Empowerment and the Economy. Envisioning Real
Utopias, 135-91.
