Reflective essay on personal experience and self-discovery

¶ … professional skills related to the pursuit of my MBA. By taking a step back and viewing the organization as a complex machine, it is easier to understand in a general sense how efficiency and other aspects can be improved. My knowledge of each specific feature of an organization was amplified by breaking down the set of tools, hardware, and other components within a "technical system" and examining points needing improvement. I now feel that I have achieved some degree of progress within my own personal pursuit of education. Prior to this course, I felt more closely associated as an observer, and now I feel I have a much further developed level of control in any potential working environment, and could bring about the development of any smaller-scale business or organization.

Although I relied on previous course knowledge for the completion of this class, there were only specific aspects of the learning that I applied during this course. Notably, I was surprised that much of my knowledge of sociology would be so useful during the case studies. Understanding the way people think and act at the core level is necessary, but also taking into account their actions as a group linked my comprehension of business with this course material. Possessing developed language skills also made a big difference. In order to achieve as a student or professional, it is necessary to say what one means, and to be able to accurately represent cohesive thoughts and processes. Each case assignment, as well as The Session Long Project, required integrated thoughts and the use of different forms of information. In that sense, it was of the utmost importance to precisely differentiate between the elements of each case in order to solve the particulars of the problem.

I tend to hold myself to a higher standard than many, so I am especially critical of the work I submitted during the session. As is typical, I carefully researched each case and made sure to understand the overarching questions within every aspect of the course. Essentially, I feel that there was no confusion on my part about what I was being asked to do, and I had no trouble understanding the information contained within each document used during my research. Despite this confidence in my abilities as a researcher, I feel there was much room for improvement in my assessment of each problem. Because there was no specific answer to any given case, the solutions put down on paper can be very subjective, and it is quite easy to get bogged down thinking about the numerous possibilities associated with crisis-management and problem-solving. I feel that oftentimes it is best to be decisive and choose what feels reasonable based on my own knowledge, yet this is easier said than done, and I would not consider this a completely successful aspect of my own coursework.

Specifically, there was only one module that I felt needed significant improvement. Module 5, concerning organizations as political systems, attempted to cover a rather large and complex subject in short period of time. Because this is so difficult to do, as I would assume all of the modules were, this module in particular felt as if it needed more direction. Adding a political dimension to the study made the subject matter slightly more daunting, and trying to keep the written response down to 4-6 pages really made the case study difficult.