¶ … communications skills to solve problems they are likely to encounter in the workplace. Communication is the process of sharing information, expression, feeling, and thought between two or more people. Effective communication plays an important role in the organizational development, and communication forms an important constituent of every aspect of an organization. To maintain good working relations, it critical for the entire workforce to communicate with one another to enhance coordination, as well maintaining good working relations.

Evidence of communication skills is the ability of an individual or business organization to persuade and negotiate within business environment. Persuading and negotiating is one of the important aspects within business environment. Arriving at a concrete agreement within a business environment involves using effective communication skills. Persuasion involves ability to convince others to reach appropriate course actions, while negotiating involves ability to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement.

Reflective Practice

Evidence of communication skills is reflected within my work place when my company decided to acquire Wachovia in 2008. I work with Wells Fargo in the United States, and based on the U.S. financial crisis that affected major banking institutions, Wells Fargo decided to acquire Wachovia to avoid a failure of Wachovia. Before my bank acquired Wachovia, there was a series of negotiation and persuasion between Wells Fargo officials and Wachovia officials. I was chosen by my bank to be part of negotiation team. When negotiating the acquisition deals, our team used series of communication skills to convince Wachovia officials on the acquisition agreement. Part of the communication skills used was positive language. The positive language is very critical in the communication. Typically, our team used the positive language throughout the negotiation period. One of the examples of the positive language we used was "we agree with your suggestion, however, you have to realize that we need to consider the stock market value before we agree with the acquisition price." Part of the communication skills that we implemented was that our team tried to be good listeners during negotiation. We implemented series of listening skills to have good understanding on the views of the opposing parties. We took time to listen to the views of the opposing parties very carefully and grabbed the important points from their discussion before we provides our suggestions. Showing the listening skills during the negotiation made the opposing party to understand that we were interested in them. More importantly, our team argued logically, which reflected evidence of mannerism in our communication tone. With all the communication skills implemented during the negotiation, Wells Fargo was able to reach the acquisition deal with Wachovia in 2008 and acquired the stock of Wachovia that worth $15.billion.

LO 2: "Apply appropriate methods to prepare for and participate in a simulated job interview."

Evidence

Stimulation job interview is designed to mirror challenges related to a particular job. Evidence of stimulation, which I had experienced, was the time I was looking for a job before I got admission into a college. I applied for jobs with several organizations, after the second weeks of my application, I received some interview letters, and part of the content of the letters was the instruction on how I should prepare for the interview, and the materials I should bring along for the interview.

Reflective Practice

To attend the stimulation job interview, I used several strategies to prepare for the job interview. The technique I used was to browse through the internet to search for lots of information on the technique to prepare and participate for the stimulated job interview. Part of the information I discovered was to make oneself as presentable as possible during the interview. Essential, first appearance matter most during the interview process. A candidate should put on a formal dressing outfit for the interview. From the research I conducted, I discovered that Communication Skills, Analysis Exercises, Role-Plays, and Group Discussions are the important strategies that interviewers used to select candidates during the interview process. To prepare for the stimulated job interview, I used my peer group to improve my oral communication skills. More importantly, I also picked up some English grammar textbooks to improve my written skills. I also improved my skills in the analysis exercise. The analysis exercises requires candidate to provide a recommendation for a complex business problem. To prepare myself for the analysis exercises, I read several case studies of the companies having business problems and the strategies they used to arrive at the solutions. I also prepared myself for the role-plays, which stimulates important challenges in a business environment. More importantly, I prepared myself for group...

To prepare myself for group discussion, I improved my communication skills such as listening skills, and speaking skills. In the group discussion, there is a need to be a good listener and have the ability to speak fluently without grammatical errors. The techniques are very effective in convincing others. I used all these strategies to prepare myself for the interview, and I discovered that virtually all the interviews I attended, they use one or more of these strategies for the stimulation job interview.
LO3: "Apply the principles of group development when participating in team work."

The principles of group development consist of:

Trust

Communication

Self-esteem

Collaboration

Problems solving

Leadership

Decision making

In my workplace, I and other 5 co-workers were assigned a project to design a marketing plan for a product that was newly introduced in the market. The entire team member was required to apply these principles to arrive at project objectives.

Reflective Practice

The team member applied all the major principles of group development when designing a marketing plan. First, the entire team member applied their communication skills. We used our listening skills and discussion skills to accomplish out task. The team member realized that the foundation of our success for the project was our ability to apply communication skills. Thus, we used our communication skills to highlight major issues and pinpoint the important issues relevant to the project before arriving at the marketing plan.

Moreover, the entire team member implemented collaboration to arrive at the solution. We worked together and tried to strive at win-win solutions. More importantly, we implemented trusts during our discussion. Typically, trust is the foundation of the success of a project. Without trust during the project lifecycle, a project could head into bedrock. Thus, all team members were open-minded during the discussion and we did not hide important issues to ourselves.

With the trusts established during the teamwork, we were able to arrive at the concrete solution. We also allowed democracy in the team building because we tried as much as possible to allow everybody to contribute. No matter how silent the person may be, everybody was allowed to contribute to the project design. My experience has shown that the most silent people seem to have simplest solution to the problem.

Additionally, the entire team member used the problem solving skills and decision-making skills to arrive at the project objectives. Typically, we used our best possible to accomplish the project task. During discussion, we made a note on different views of each individual within the group, and collected the most important points from discussion, and through this process, we were able to arrive at a solution. Although, there seems some sort of argument during the discussion in which one or two members were unable to agree at a certain issues. After lengthy discussions, we were able to arrive at concrete conclusion.

LO4:

"Demonstrate the ability to be productive in a dynamic environment.."

Apple Inc. operates in a dynamic environment because the company activities are changing everyday. The company always introduces the new products in the market to enhance competitive advantages. Apple Inc. is a typical example of a dynamic environment because the company always uses innovation to improve its product. When I was working at Apple Inc., every employee was required to be productive to enhance company growth.

Reflective Practice

Dynamic productive efficiency is the ability to convert inputs into outputs. The organization, which I am working, requires every employee to be productive and be more efficient in order to reduce losses. Before I joined the Wells Fargo, I had one time worked with Apple Inc. where every employee needs to be productive to enhance organizational efficiency. I was an assistant software developer at Apple Inc., and there were several strategies that I used to be productive at Apple Inc. First, I always upgrade my knowledge on different strategies to develop software. Apart from the training that the company always conducted for all IT staff, I also attended different conferences to ensure that I equipped myself in software development. Through my skill and my knowledge, I had been able to be productive within Apple organization. For example, I was among the team member who assisted the company to develop different software products for Apple Computer, iPod, iTunes, iPad, and iPhone. Through my contribution to the company productive activities, Apple has become one of the biggest companies that produces both hardware and software product.

LO 5: "Apply the principles embodied in the ACS codes of ethics and…