Day: February 28, 2020

Aim: To participate in your final Action Learning Set meeting

Duration: 6 hours

In your final Action Learning Set meeting, we have suggested you focus on the report writing process, though you may have chosen otherwise within your set. This is the final opportunity to get feedback and discuss any issues with your peers, so it is important that you use this time wisely, to address any outstanding problems you may be facing.

As this meeting marks the final set interactions, the meeting will end with individuals having established their action points, but there is no need to agree to arrangements for a future meeting. Instead, we suggest you take some time to reflect as a set on your performance in these meetings. Try to identify what worked well and what could be improved. These reflections will be helpful when you complete your reflective review for your assessment and the insights gained will be invaluable should you plan or participate in any future Action Learning Set meetings.

Write no more than 200 words summarising your learning from the final Action Learning Set meeting, and indicate the actions you intend to take to apply this learning to your problem. Upload your summary to the Tutorial area for feedback from your tutor.

im: To reflect on Meeting Two, considering how well you implemented your actions and to prepare for the next meeting

Duration: 2 hours

Take some time now to reflect on the previous meeting and consider the actions you are to implement. Then, having addressed the necessary actions, we would like you to evaluate how effective they were and consider how you will report on your progress to your set in Meeting Three. We would also like you to prepare the required materials for the next group session.

Write no more than 200 words, summarising your progress and assessing how effectively you applied the learning of Meeting Two to your problem. Upload your summary to the Tutorial area for discussion with your tutor.

Aim: To participate in your second Action Learning Set meeting

Duration: 6 hours

Having already completed one set meeting, you should now be familiar with the process and will have established a preferred approach for your set. We have suggested that this second section focuses on data analysis, but as stated earlier in the course, these topics are just suggestions and your set may have determined an alternative focus for your discussions.

In this second meeting you will be expected to feedback on what you have achieved since the previous meeting, identifying the actions you planned and the extent to which they have been implemented and their success. You will then be expected to present the new problem you are facing, for this to be discussed with your set.

As with Meeting One, we would like you to end the meeting by agreeing the arrangements for the next Action Learning Set meeting.

There is again the opportunity to change the approach if the set feels it has been ineffective. These decisions should be made collaboratively and critically. We would advise against radical changes without thorough consideration, and any adjustments should be fully justifiable.

Remember that each individual should finish the session with a number of action points ready to implement before the next meeting.

We would like you to write no more than 200 words summarising the insights you gained from the meeting, and the actions you intend to take. Share this in the Tutorial area for feedback from your tutor.

Aim: To participate in your first Action Learning Set meeting

Duration: 6 hours

You will be now have commenced your research, and will be starting to discover some of the practical challenges related to your project. In an earlier activity, you will have established how you are going to conduct your Action Learning Set meeting and we would now like you to engage in this discussion with your set.

As we have stated before, how you communicate and coordinate this process is to be decided by your set, but your tutor will be available to support you all in this endeavour. If you have any concerns about the action learning approach please contact your tutor in the Tutorial area.

Before beginning, it can be helpful to establish for yourself what you wish to gain from the Action Learning Set meeting, and we recommend that after the set is complete you reflect on your goals to assess the effectiveness of your approach to the meeting.

As a set you will have previously discussed the format of the discussion, so you will already know what you are expected to bring to the meeting and in what form. You should arrive at the Action Learning Set meeting with a number of predetermined issues that you want to discuss.

The Action Learning Set meeting provides a sounding board for your own ideas and opens up the possibility for new insights to be revealed through open questioning and discussion. We would therefore advise you to identify the areas that you are struggling with, and bring these to the meeting for the input of your peers.

By the end of this activity, you should have completed in your first Action Learning Set meeting, the outcome of which should have provided you with new insights into your business solutions project and a fresh perspective on how to progress. You may even have solved one or more outstanding problems that you had previously been facing.

At the end of the meeting you should, as a set, agree the arrangements for the next Action Learning Set meeting. This may involve a different process to your first meeting, depending on how effective you felt the meeting was.

The meeting should end with each member of the set formally collating their learning and identifying a number of actions to be completed prior to the next Action Learning Set meeting. We would like you to write no more than 200 words summarising this information and share it in the Tutorial area for discussion with your tutor.

8: Developing Critical Reflection Skills
Aim: To consolidate your understanding of critical reflective practice

only 100 words

Take a few moments to think about what critical reflective practice means to you. Without looking back to the earlier sketch you did in Activity 6: Understanding Reflective Practice, draw a second picture that represents critical reflective practice for you. Once completed, look back to your earlier picture and compare the two. What, if anything, has changed?

We would like you to annotate the second image to indicate where your images are different. Next write no more than 100 words summarising the differences and explaining why your perspective has changed or ideas developed. Your response should also identify how this new understanding of critical reflection might enhance your future reflective practices.

Share your summary in the Forum for discussion with your peers.

im: To reflect on your previously written reflective accounts

Duration: 3 hours

We would like you to undertake a systematic and rigorous analysis of all the reflective accounts you have submitted during your MBA journey, along with the feedback you received.

Using template analysis and Reynoldss (1998) four characteristics of critical reflection for initial a prior codes, as provided in the template below, identify if and where these themes and trends appear in your work. Read and re-read your reflective accounts and the feedback provided to establish any additional emerging codes and add these to your template. Complete the template by adding illustrative quotations to each section.

We explored template analysis in Making Sense of Research, Analysing Quantitative Data, so you might like to review these materials to refresh your memory and then watch this video on template analysis to help you in this activity. You may also find the resources available on Professor Nigel Kings website useful.

When you have finished your analysis, please submit your completed template to the Tutorial area for feedback and discussion with your tutor.

References

Reynolds, M. (1998) Reflection and Critical Reflection in Management Learning, Management Learning, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 183100.

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You are required to attempt the following essay question, by writing a critical analytical essay of between 2000 2100 words.  (Your word count is based on your introduction, body, and conclusion, and does not include your title page or your list of references at the end of your essay.)

What is meant by the term group dynamics?  What are the characteristics that determine whether a group will be cohesive or not in an organizational context?  Some authors have claimed that organizational groups in certain eastern cultures are far more cohesive than working groups in western cultures.  Provide an analysis of this statement.

    You should formulate your answer as a single coherent essay using paragraphs to build sustained critical analysis.

The grading of this assignment:

This assignment will be graded according to its content, analysis, argument and presentation.  More specifically the following criteria will be used to evaluate your essay and provide feedback:

(a)    Level of Analysis:
Is the assignment well researched?
Is the assignment well argued?
(b)    Level of Written Expression:
Is the assignment well written fluent, lucid, using appropriate language.
(c)    Overall Coherence of your Essay:
Is the assignment well structured?
Is the assignment well presented?

When completing the final draft of your essay, please ensure that your essay is formatted as follows:

    12 point font
    1.5 line spacing (not single spacing, not double spacing)
    Times New Roman or Calibri Light font
    Left AND right justification of your text – text margins must align on both sides
    Paragraph format
    No tables, charts, diagrams in the main body of your essay – put these in appendices if you feel you need to use them.
    No bullet points, no number lists this is an essay, not a report and not a set of notes

    Use quotation marks and in-text references where necessary.