Advantages of Learning for Personal and Professional Life
This learning reflection will include the summary of the learning and knowledge gained during the research process conducted on the topic ‘Challenges Managing Global Teams in Wesfarmers Ltd.’ The learning reflection showcases the advantages of learning for personal and professional life (Nash, 2016). It will review my learning experiences and will make me able to understand my learning experiences during the research conducted in the Wesfarmers.
The research was about the management of global teams in the Wesfarmers. The experience helped me a lot in learning the culture of multinational companies operating across the globe. I have observed that the companies need to be finely connected with all the operating branches in the world. This is how they are able to achieve their goals and objectives after facing various challenges and hurdles during the normal course of business (Kimble, 2011). I observed that Wesfarmers keep trying to align their goals with the global scenario so that the company can achieve success at the international front. I have learned that the research has given me the opportunity to observe a global company like Wesfarmers which has a huge network across the globe. The project made me understand the importance of communication within the global teams in the organisations. I understood that the disruption in communication leads to the failure of projects and delivery of services. The companies may adopt various communication methods which can make the flow of information smooth and effective (Dossick, Homayouni and Lee, 2015). The service industries have main motive to satisfy the customers by providing the services on time. Wesfarmers also tries its best to have alignment between its teams functioning in different countries so that the services can be delivered on time and as per the demand of the customers (Lilian, 2014)
This research provided new insights about the supermarket industry and delivery of services. It shows that how a global company face different challenges to manage various subgroups and operation units (Binder, 2016). The research would help me in working with a global company in future because I will be having an idea about the challenges I might face during my job. I will also be able to give suggestions to my bosses for meeting the challenges and to enhance the productivity of the team. These insights and knowledge will help me in managing and coping up with different teams with different backgrounds, behaviour and culture. This will create an advantage for me to have smooth communication with everyone which will also help me in gaining different ideas to complete my project successfully. This will also be helpful while interacting with my professors and future recruiters. This process of learning will impart knowledge and various skills which will help me in dealing with the critical situations in future. Research process not only make you understand about the subject but also impart skills like time management, problems solving, team building and management, interpersonal skills and more (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).
Learning Experiences During the Research Conducted in Wesfarmers Limited
The learning process is a never ending process which starts with the curiosity and goes on when data is collected and analysed (Wynee, 2010). The process started with the selection of topic. I selected the topic of challenges in managing global teams so that I could help me in managing various problems in future. It further continued with the data collection about the operations of Wesfarmers in different countries and how they are managed with the challenges in between. The learning process included data collection, survey process, interviews and readings made in the libraries to gain knowledge about the topic. The process also included the analysis of data which made me learn about statistical tools which are helpful in analysing the data to derive the final conclusion.
I saw that the challenges in managing different global teams include the challenge of managing cultural different in different teams, language barriers, time and distance barriers and many more. It is very difficult to bring a consensus in the ideas and opinions of people sitting at different locations (Ferraro and Briody, 2017). The company take certain actions to meet these barriers like regular meetings are held, a standard culture is maintained in the organisation and shift systems are arranged at work but still it is not so effective in bringing the expected results (Schellwies, 2015). It is observed that the gestures, facial expressions and vocal chords are the supportive tools of communication which helps in exchanging the actual message between both the parties.
It is very important to have an effective communication to reach the desired results in an organisation. This process of learning is the highly beneficial process which helped me to understand the importance of communication and team building in an organisation. I am able to evaluate the learning when my teachers provided feedback to me. It will help me in understanding the loopholes in my research and that is how I will be able to improve in future. This is how, I will be able to do well in my professional life. I will also take feedbacks from my peers which would help me in improving in project. Opinions from other would help me in bringing improvement in those areas in which I am not capable of performing well at present. I will be able to do my strength and weakness analysis so that I can perform well in my personal life and career.
Importance of Communication within Global Teams
The learning process of the research made me capable of understanding the importance of managing global business and teams of various nature and background in order to achieve a common goal of the organisation. The research process included the activities like research methodologies and data collection which helped in the progress of the research. This research process included two assignments which took the process ahead and discussed about the literature of the topic. I have learned that there are two types of methods which are used to conduct research. These methods are qualitative research method and quantitative research method. Both the methods are used in this research to collect the data from surveys and interviews (Silverman, 2016). It is because in this way, the data collected from one source will be used to collect data from other source. I have learned about sampling and its different techniques used in the research to collect the information. Sampling is the techniques with which the data can be collected by selecting a set of population from the total population (Wilson, 2016). The data collected from the sample population depicts the response of the whole group of population. I have learned the importance of ethics in the research and have also learned to keep the privacy of the respondents who trusted and provided me their genuine responses for the purpose of completing the research. I have also learned to manage time and scheduling which helped in completing the research on time and with discipline.
This learning process will help me to apply these learnings and knowledge in my career. This will also help me in communicating my learnings to my professors which will help me in getting good grades in my course/ program. This also assisted me in analysing my strengths and weaknesses which could help me in grabbing the future opportunities in my career. Communication is one such essential of the organisation which can bridge the gap between the teams sitting at different locations and can help the organisation in achieving the common goals and objectives (Stan, 2010).
This learning will help me in making delivery on time so that the customer satisfaction can be achieved. It will also make me familiar with the challenges and I will be able to face them well with the solutions in hand. I will be able to look out for new opportunities in future. This could help me in getting jobs in research and development field or in supermarkets. This could also help me in getting better positions in the global organisations. Wesfarmers is a well-known organisation which added a new level of experience in my life. I learned how to react, behave and communicate with different people. I learned how to manage different problems and move ahead for the main goal.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that this learning process has been a wonderful experience for me because it helped me to develop and grow in this competitive world. I have learnt about the challenges of managing different global teams, learned how to resolve the issues and also about its results. Cultural and language differences have a lot of impact on the performance of the teams which needs to be managed by the project manager by taking steps which unites the teams coming from different locations and cultures. Overall, this learning experience would help me in growing in my career and also personally.
References
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Routledge.
Dossick , C.S., Homayouni, H. and Lee , G. (2015)Learning in Global Teams: BIM Planning and Coordination. International Journal of Automation and Smart Technology.5(3),pp. 119-135.
Ferraro, G.P. and Briody, E.K. (2017). The Cultural Dimension of Global Business. Taylor & Francis.
Kimble, C., 2011. Building effective virtual teams: How to overcome the problems of trust and identity in virtual teams. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 30(2), pp.6-15.
Lilian , S.C.(2014) Virtual teams: opportunities and challenges for e-leaders. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences .110 ( 2014 ) ,pp. 1251 – 1261.
Nash, C., 2016. Donald Schön: Learning, re?ection, and coaching practice. In Learning in Sports Coaching (pp. 65-76). Routledge.
Schellwies, L., 2015. Multicultural Team Effectiveness: Emotional Intelligence as Success Factor . Anchor Academic Publishing.
Sekaran, U and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Stan, A., 2010. Managing Global Teams. Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics Edition, (15).
Wilson, V., 2016. Research Methods: Mixed Methods Research. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 11, 56-59.
Wynee, R 2010, ‘Student Perceptions of Reflective Learning Activities’, Fall?2010?MidAtlantic ASEE Conference.
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