Issue 1: Identification of sustainability initiatives and their authenticity
Technology keeps on changing, and as it changes, it also influences other areas to change including business sector. Notably, skills set in a commercial world like leadership, stewardship, and management become more important as business sector changes, and it is the responsibility of business people to make a point to understand these changes in order to keep up with the others around the globe (Zott, Amit and Massa, 2011, p. 1040). My main motivation for taking this course is so as I can understand more about leadership, management, and steward. As I was growing up during my childhood stage, I viewed my teachers as leaders since they could give instructions and I grew up knowing that leaders should only give instructions and should not participate in what others are doing. My assumption on management was as the word states, and I knew that a manager is a person who oversees and supervises what others are doing and keeps things in order like my class prefect who was the manager in our class. On stewardship, I would say I didn’t have a lot to assume on this since I viewed it as a difficult word and I assumed that the terminologies used to explain this term could be problematic for me to understand but I was willing to take the risk and take a management course.
Managing can be defined as having supervisory or executive authority or control while management is the processing of supervising and allocating people as well as resources to various tasks so as to attain the set goals in an organization (Malik and Malik, 2011, p.6). Many businesses succeed or fail because of the form of management used which means that management style is the pillar of all companies (The World Bank, 2017). I was not aware that management is a crucial aspect in businesses and I always related management with planning. I knew that a manager plans how goals should be attained in the organization but I was missing a lot since management also entails budgeting, timekeeping, delegating duties, as well as setting objectives. I began this course being open-minded to learn what it takes for an individual to be an effective manager which could be beneficial for my future goals of starting a company.
Leading or leadership is directing others in the right direction so as to achieve various goals which are set in an organization (Kreutzer, 2017). Personally, I assumed that leadership is an easy work since one only needs to give out instructions for others to follow them. Little did I know that leadership can be challenging and not everyone can lead others. There are traits that a leader should have, and there are styles of leadership that one should embrace in order to lead people in the right direction of achieving goals (Kurucz et al., 2017, p.180).
Stewardship is described as a task of taking care or supervising something like some property or an organization (Y?ld?z, Ba?türk and Boz, 2014, p. 780). Stewardship is an important aspect of the business, and as I stated, I assumed that stewardship was a difficult concept, but I was willing to take this course in order to understand it. I also thought that understanding the terminologies of this concept and comprehending it into deeper details could be hard for me.
Issue 2: Authenticity of sustainability initiatives
My expectation while taking this course was that I would understand more about managing, leading and stewardship and I will be able to apply them in future. Additionally, I expected that I would be in a position to explain to someone who has a problem understanding them in the business world. My hope is that this course will widen my thinking about managing and leading and I will stop fearing the concept of stewardship, and I will know how I can apply it in future.
As learning this course continued, I realized that my entire assumptions about management, leadership, and stewardship were totally wrong when we were taught about their theories. I came to realize that such concepts like management require teamwork as the manager cannot work alone in an organization. For instance, when he sets goals in a firm, employees should be willing to work in order to achieve those objectives. Stewardship concept was my greatest fear, but the instructor had a way of explaining it and using practical concept so that the idea could sink in my mind. I was selected to act as a steward where my work was to supervise that every student was doing her or his assignment at the right time and this helped me not to take too long to comprehend about it.
While I was in class, I viewed the whole situation and associated it in real-life where there are different forms of businesses. Taking a situation like leadership, I viewed that many successful businesses are as a result of good leadership styles that are used. For instance, that leaders who use the transformational style of leadership tend to achieve a lot at the end of the day in their company (Cope, Kempster and Parry, 2011, p. 285). I started relating my class work which is the theory part with real-life situations, and it enhanced my understanding in comprehending these terms. Additionally, I could not make any recommendations at a certain business at first, but having learned some of the ideas; I could use my knowledge and recommend what a business should do in order to perform better than it does. For instance, I was in a position to recommend what a manager or a leader can do in order to ensure that the goals of an organization are attained without delay since I was taught about motivational theories which talk about how employees should be motivated in order to be productive. I was able to use my knowledge and complete all assignments that were concerning recommendations that one should give to a business that is failing due to poor management.
I have to state that the task of relating class work with the real-life situation was an amazing task because it opened my mind to perceive this course in a different dimension. In other words, the activity helped me to draw conclusions in a real business and understand my course better. I was able to complete all the assignments which required me to advise a business which had leadership and management issues since I started linking theory work with practical work.
Completing this course has enlightened me in my areas and has also opened my mind wider in a way that I stopped thinking the leadership is all about giving instructions. Additionally, I am able to relate and apply my knowledge in class in the real world and can be use theories learned in class to start my own organization. I can confidently say that all my assumptions about stewardship have changed especially the way I assumed that the terms used to describe it are hard, and I am able to understand the way it is used in business. Talking about what has not changed is difficult because I feel everything has changed especially my thinking and I have started to see the benefits of taking this course.
Completing this course has helped me to understand myself better and my roles in the society. I believe that everyone has a role to play in order to ensure that everything goes in the appropriate direction in the society. For me, I believe that taking this course has helped me realize my dream in a great way and I have seen that with the knowledge I have acquired, I can go out there and be the person I have always dreamed of being. Additionally, the course has enhanced my decision-making process, and I am able to make proper decisions whenever I am called to make one. When I start my organization, I am sure that I will be able to run and manage it in a proper way.
The course has enhanced awareness about the action-guiding principles in people’s life. I recognized that implementing action-guiding principles in one’s life leads to developing a feeling of real obligation to the cause. As I was learning this course, I realized that stewardship and well as management and leadership play an important function in the process of enhancing inner qualities as well as confidence in an individual. Thus, I developed a deep understanding concerning the role of realistic as well as decision-making strategy in the life of a person, under the management and stewardship concepts.
The main aim of any business in this competitive world is to gain sustainability and have the best steward, leadership, and management so as to be successful. Learning this course has enabled me to realize that changes in every sector are inevitable and it is the work of all employees to embrace changes when they come in order to have a different way of achieving goals. Most people in the organization are resistant to change, and they should understand that changes are inevitable so they should be willing to accept them for the best of the organization (Crossan et al., 2013, p.286). This course has helped me to understand that changes help in development. After I completed this course, I realized the benefits of good management in an organization and the role of a manager which entails more than supervising people. I realized that management is the pillar of all businesses, not the business must be careful in the process of hiring a manager.
Issue 4: How outcomes might differ for the similar initiatives in a different business context.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the course has helped me understand my role in the society and I believe that everyone has a role to play in order to ensure that everything goes in the appropriate direction in the society. For me, I believe that taking this course has helped me realize my dream in a great way and I have seen that with the knowledge I have acquired, I can go out there and be the person I have always dreamed to be. Additionally, the course has enhanced my decision-making process and I am able to make proper decisions whenever I am called to make one. When I start my organization, I am sure that I will be able to run and manage it in a proper way. The course has enhanced awareness about the action-guiding principles in people’s life. I recognized that implementing action-guiding principles in one’s life leads to developing a feeling of real obligation to the cause. As I was learning this course, I realized that stewardship and well as management and leadership play an important function in the process of enhancing inner qualities as well as confidence in an individual. Thus, I developed a deep understanding concerning the role of realistic as well as decision-making strategy in the life of a person, under the management and stewardship concepts.
Atul is a member of my group assignment and his feedback about my portfolio assignment is that it is a good piece since it covers all the requirements that the assignment needed. Notably, he commented that the pre-subject reflection was very creative and it described clearly how my assumptions were before I began this course. He also stated that the mid-subject reflection showed how well I was progressing to understand the course and it showed that it was possible for me to apply the knowledge learned in class in real life situations. His feedback was positive and he stated that I have clearly indicated that the course has enabled me realize my dream in a great way and he have seen that with the knowledge I have acquired, I can go out there and be the person I have always dreamed of being.
References
Cope, J., Kempster, S. and Parry, K. (2011) ‘Exploring distributed leadership in the small business context’, International Journal of Management Reviews, pp. 270–285. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00307.x.
Crossan, M., Mazutis, D., Seijts, G. and Gandzs, J. (2013) ‘Developing leadership character in business programs’, Academy of Management Learning and Education, 12(2), pp. 285–305. doi: 10.5465/amle.2011.0024A.
Kreutzer, R. (2017) Digital Business Leadership, Digitale Transformation – Geschäftsmodell-Innovation – agile Organisation – Change-Management. doi: 10.1007/978-3-658-11914-0.
Kurucz, E. C., Colbert, B. A., Lüdeke-Freund, F., Upward, A. and Willard, B. (2017) ‘Relational leadership for strategic sustainability: practices and capabilities to advance the design and assessment of sustainable business models’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp. 189–204. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.087.
Malik, A. and Malik, M. S. (2011) ‘Strategic managemen accounting A messiah for management accounting?’, Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, 1(4), pp. 1–7.
The World Bank (2017) Doing Business – Economy Profile 2017, Tajikistan, ISBN. doi: 10.1596/978-1-4648-0948-4.
Y?ld?z, S., Ba?türk, F. and Boz, ?. T. (2014) ‘The Effect of Leadership and Innovativeness on Business Performance’, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, pp. 785–793. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.064.
Zott, C., Amit, R. and Massa, L. (2011) ‘The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research’, Journal of Management, 37(4), pp. 1019–1042. doi: 10.1177/0149206311406265.
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