Personal&Professional Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Personal&Professional Development - Essay Example I should not wait for a prompt to do action. I should be able to initiate it especially if I want my team to do the same. Creating an action plan for both myself and for my team will clearly guide everyone of the expected outcomes and there is no excuse to just wait for the others and waste time. As a manager, I should be aware not only of my own learning style but that of my team members’ so we can figure out a way to work together better. Learning Style (Honey & Mumford 1986) Reflective Practice (Schon 1983) Stages of Reflection (Moon 1999) Interpersonal Interaction Managing Conflicts I come from a very peace-loving family. We get to resolve our personal issues quickly. However, stepping into the real world entails knowing how to adapt to various personalities and being able to manage the conflicts that may inevitably crop up. I am inconsistent in my competence in handling conflicts, and that depends on the gravity of the issue and the strength of the personalities and the p ositions of the people involved. A manager needs know how to establish and maintain harmonious relationships with diverse people and groups. He possesses high emotional intelligence, maturity and understanding of people coming from various backgrounds and temperaments. To quote Buckingham & Coffman (1999) again, â€Å"The key to excellent performance, of course, is finding the match between your talents and your role.† A manager should know how to blend the talents and personalities of his team. Mastering such combinations will result in excellent performance of the whole team. Styles of Managing Interpersonal Conflict (Ruble & Thomas 1976) First, break all the rules: What the world's greatest managers do differently. (Buckingham & Coffman, 1999) Strategies and techniques for self-development Reflective Thinking From my youth, I have come to value self-introspection. I always analyze the things I have done, have said and have felt and thought to be lessons for me to learn fro m. This greatly helps me in my next moves. Most of the time when I do reflect on my actions, I come up with the right outcomes. As for my weaknesses, I need to keep reflecting on my performance to know where I need improvement on. My self-evaluation will help me identify these weaknesses and turn them into strengths. I know I am continuously evolving, and self-actualization is my goal. I need to be able to encourage my team members to likewise be more reflective in their tasks as this leads to good planning and foresight necessary in accomplishing goals successfully. Reflective Practice (Schon 1983) Stages of Reflection (Moon 1999) Learning Cycle (Kolb 1984) Personal leadership approaches Empowerment I am known to be an encourager and people have told me I have the ability to bring out the best in them. This may be due to the positive disposition I have that I mostly focus on the goodness and the potentials of people instead of their flaws. I, myself would want to be led by someone who inspires me to be better and not to settle for mediocrity. I believe that a manager should be an enabler. He sees the potentials of the people under him and harnesses their strengths. People may manifest varying degrees of greatness. The manager sees

Marketing mix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing mix - Essay Example All these suggest that the concept of marketing mix has evolved over time as the 4Ps were initially based on the production and supply context of the 1950s (Kent and Brown 2006). The model now encompasses aspects of sociology and cognitive psychology (Hakansson and Waluszewski 2005 cited in Kent and Brown 2006). Without marketing mix capability other concepts such as customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination would not be able to contribute to better firm performance, suggests Shin (2012) thereby highlighting the significance of MM concept in the field of marketing. However, scholars do not agree on the ingredients of the marketing mix. Some authors such as Borden (1964), Frey (1956), and Staudt and Taylor (1965) consider the elements as procedures, policies and processes, while others look at these elements as tools, parameters or instruments (cited by Waterschoot and Bulte 1992). This concept has been criticized as it lacks any specific explanati on of characteristics, thereby suggesting that the concept has a major flaw. The elements of marketing mix do not lead to any theory development. Gronroos (1989) postulates that the marketing mix artificially limits the scope of marketing management as the concept suggests that marketing decisions can be taken based on the 4 Ps (cited by Bitner 1991). Since many authors are critical of this concept, the marketing mix will be evaluated based on the typology of critique in marketing designed by Hackley (2009). This typology has four overlapping categories – functional, intellectual, ethical and political critique. Functional critique The functional critique would simply question whether the marketing mix concept works. Even though it is considered an important tool, there is no consensus over the eligibility and agreement of the practical application of the 4Ps of the MM variables (Kent and Brown 2006). The MM concept suggests that the buyers are a homogeneous group of people w ith common buying behaviour (Bennett, 1997). Resources and capabilities of the organization are organized in a way to satisfy customer needs but Bennett debates whether the customer accepts product benefits and attributes in the same way as the company claims. The customers are not concerned with the elements of the marketing mix and only seek satisfaction from the products and services. The purpose of MM is to improve sustainability performance across economic, ecological and societal indicators (Pomering, Noble and Johnson 2011). Consumers expect firms to be more socially and environmentally responsible and report that they would prefer to purchase from such organizations. However, there is an attitude-behaviour gap in actual consumer purchase, thereby implying that firms that tend to focus on the MM variables do not achieve the intended objectives. Sustainability through MM elements may appear discordant and hollow unless sustainability is addressed at the vision and mission leve l or at the corporate strategy level. The MM concept focuses on the tactical and managerial aspects of marketing and does not take into account the social, organizational, competitive and economic issues (Bitner 1991). The MM has been criticized for its short-term focus on sales and transactions while undermining the long-term relational thinking and brand equity (Rafiq and Ahmed, 1995 cited in Gordon, 2012). The concept has also been criticized f