Essay On International Management

 

In this essay, I shall reflect upon the various theories of leadership and project management that had been taught in the classes of our International Business Management course. Along with that I shall also try and articulate the learnings and reflections I had from working in a group presentation. I shall summarise the various principles and ideas I had learnt from the modules of our course, as well as the lectures given by our institute’s professors and guest speakers. This being a reflective essay, my reflections and thoughts about the various areas of learning I had regarding multiple theories are going to be a part of this essay. I shall discuss about the different areas of my personality where I lacked basic people skills or had poor self-esteem, and how learnings from this course helped me work on them.

 

 

Right from the early stage of discourses through class lectures and modules, it is quite clear and obvious from that leadership theories include observation of certain traits and specific behaviours leaders have in common but are more about an in depth articulate analysis of the various ideas and processes that are necessary to be embodied by an individual to be an effective leader (Adnan, and Valliappan, 2019). We have all heard the statement that a leader is not always a person holding a position or a title, but the very person who has the quality to influence and inspire others. The statement is so common that it has almost become a cliché (Kuo, et al, 2020). Yet it is that very statement that never fails to have an impact on students in a management studies discourse. I am no different from other students in this regard, and the statement had a deep impact on me too. Despite the statement being very obvious, when I reflected upon the idea after coming across the statement in the class lecture and study module, I realised its profundity along with many other realisations that came as a chain of thoughts that followed the idea. I realised it is very important to have deep clarity about the reason why some task or activity or work is being done. It is more so important if I want to be a leader that has to lead other people.

 

I also had a very deep intuitive realisation amidst a group of people working for group presentation where I happened to be the leader that we all have to be leaders to even lead our own desire to do something that is worth doing. However, a leader who has to influence other people and lead them has to have far more stronger conviction and clarity about the importance and worth of the work. When such a leader with that much conviction and clarity does his work, others are bound to be awed by the person's clarity of thought and enthusiastic energy. The energy is almost contagious. When such a person speaks to other people, he does not have to try to motivate others. He simply speaks of the work, and others are inspired to carry out the work too because he puts forth with absolute reasoning about the worth of the work. This was also very evident in the assigned group presentation I was a part of. When I took the first step and clearly spoke about what is the worth and significance of the project, everyone in the group responded positively and showed solidarity by committing to resolve the communication gap within the team.

 

If we go by the different leadership theories that are part of the discourses taught to us, leadership may be classified in quite a few ways (Connor, McDermott, and Gillies, 2022). I did realise it over a period of time though it is often very important for a manager to be able to embody any of the styles as per circumstances. And this sort of realisation is really possible only in practical scenarios like the one we have in group presentations or in a workplace where one has to officially or unofficially assume the responsibility of a team’s performance. Usually, transformational leadership is considered a virtuous style of leadership that brings about a positive shift or transformation in the very conscience of the whole team or group or organisation (Kibbe, 2019). While, I do believe that idea is a very beautiful one, and it might be obvious that the ideas discussed in the above paragraph totally correspond with this. Yet, I also did realise that a transactional style is more effective in many circumstances. It is not always possible to wait for all the people in a group to become inspired enough for them to complete a project. Or even if they are motivated to work, it does require a clear set of laid-out risk and reward systems. It is often transactional leadership styles that get work done. However, in the long term, a transactional leadership system would make its personnel dull, who have no vision to work other than risks and rewards (Martinko, 2018). What I really understood is that transformational and transactional leadership styles have to complement each other, to bring the best out of a group of people. And that infers, that a really good leader is not just one who apparently inspires people, but also one who knows how to get things done when it is needed and necessary (Boon, 2021).

 

Now moving towards my reflections on the concepts of practices of management, from the discussion in the last paragraph, it can again be inferred that the most important aspect of good management is about getting things done. Practice/Principles of Management is a much more vast topic in terms of the theories available, compared to leadership. There are several theories on management, and several ways management the different functions of management can be classified or termed, or defined (Siegel, and Leih, 2018). However, often the most useful learnings come from the basic of definitions. Simply speaking, when we say management practice is the working methods employed to fulfil a goal, that provides the most straightforward and basic solution to all problems relating to management (Hardy, et al, 2020). Of course, the problems that arise in different processes can be very different, unique, or specific, and in each case, different principles of management can come into play. But it just can’t be denied, that at the base of it all, management is about the skill to solve problems. To solve problems in typical processes, knowledge of the nature of that process is required, and it is true that one person cannot have the skill to solve all kinds of problems (Moonen, 2019). But the common theme I learnt that I'm trying to articulate here is the simple concept that without having the correct attitude to patiently understand and solve or manage a problem, it is not possible to be a good manager. This concept became practically clear to me while working with other team members of the group presentation that was assigned to me. Hence, it is absolutely necessary for a manager of any project or process, or function to have a positive and problem-solving attitude that allows them to effectively deal with challenges that come in between the work and finally get things done (Santos, et al, 2018).

 

 

The overall discourses through study modules and lectures were all good until the time for the actual challenge arrived. I had to take part in a group presentation with students of other nationalities. A practical project is bound to be more challenging or difficult than classroom lectures (Fila, et al, 2020). To add to that, there were Chinese students in my group with whom I had a language barrier. To solve the issue, we had to hire a translator. Despite that, there were difficulties and challenges in communication not just with the Chinese students, but even with the students who spoke English. Barriers to communication definitely go beyond just language barrier. There are multiple factors involved, and we as management students do study the theories about those as well. But having studied theories, that itself isn't enough to solve problems. We have to practice what we preach too after all (Anwar, and Asari, 2018). And while I had this thought during the starting phase of our group project where we were having problems communicating, that is when I actually realised that it is the very fundamental of being a good manager, to be able to solve problems. And it is from this point, I took initiative and discussed our common goal with the team members – to make a good presentation and learn teamwork from this group task. Seeing my seriousness and initiative, my team members cooperated and also chose me to be the team leader. I was very happy about this development, but I knew that I needed to be determined to make things work. I tried to be as democratic as possible as a leader and gave space to everyone to place their opinions. We had different opinions outlooks and perspectives often even after committing ourselves to the team, but we worked together in figuring out what would finally work most effectively for the cause of that group presentation. I divided the responsibilities for the completion of the project among team members. I communicated clearly about the time by which I needed the work to be complete. Apparently, it seems that my initiative and initial efforts to bring the team members together and coordinate with each other brought about some transformation in the group which was otherwise just a peculiar chaos before that. Things slowly got easier after that, as we grew in camaraderie and there was little need for transactional leadership. Over a period of time, while we completed the presentation together, we did face some challenges in the tasks but we helped each other in whatever way could and truly performed as a team. This again reinstates the cliché that friendship, cooperation, and teamwork can make even difficult things easy, whereas the lack of these can make even easy things difficult (Fekry, Dafoulas, and Ismail, 2019). This project taught me a huge deal about people skills. We had studied management and leadership theories that talk about building trust and faith between personnel, but this time we had a practical example of that right in front of us (Radovic Markovic, and Salamzadeh, 2018). After the completion of the group presentation, it really felt as if I had achieved something that day. And that achievement was not merely the fact that the professors were impressed by our presentation, but it was more so about seeing the happy faces of all team members as we jointly shared the pride and satisfaction of good performance (Foster, O’Reilly, and Dávila, 2020).

 

I have often been a person who often gets awkward talking to people but during the group presentation, I almost saw a different version of myself. While I have always believed that it is the worthiness of a work that can bring out the best from a person, it was good to see the idea materialising through this group presentation. However, after the presentation was all over, I continued reflecting upon the experience. It taught me about small nuances of life as well. As I keep speaking about doing work that is worthy, I realised it is not the work itself that holds the highest value in life. Long after the work is completed, it is not always that we want to remember what we had done or achieved. At least, that is not the only thing that is important. Often it is the expression of ourselves that we find through work, how challenging work brings about a change in human beings, these are the things that matter the most (Jena, 2020).

 

 

To conclude my reflections on this International Management Practitioner Course, I would like to share a way in which I applied the learnings and insights I had from the various classes and activities that were part of the course. I had stated above the realisation I had regarding the concept of being a good manager is that effective management is essentially about problem solving. I have always been intrigued by technology and wondered how modern computers, smart devices, the internet, artificial intelligence etc. work. But I only kept wondering about them all my life and thought they must be too complicated for me to understand. However, by the time this management was course was over, I found myself inspired to solve this problem of my absurd mental state of being curious and scared of complexity, both at the same time. I enrolled myself for a course on basics of machine learning and artificial intelligence, and took an active step to learn about technology. A degree in management combined with skills and knowledge of technology is definitely something that is sought after by organisations looking to hire professionals as well. I hope this step taken by me would help me excel in my career.

 

 

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