Final Blog

Introduction: this is the last blog and is a review of the module. The outcome of the module was to define and explain theories, models and concepts relating to the study of human behaviour in the workplace, also demonstrating an understanding of how these theories could explain the way people behave and interact within the organisation, identifying the role of HRM in managing the employment relationship via policy and practice, and lastly demonstrating a range of interpersonal skills through oral and written communication and collaborative group work.

Interpersonal skill:

Interpersonal skills are skills that an individual uses to communicate and interact effectively with other people.  Interpersonal skills which I have developed during this module would be effective listening and problem solving skills being able to listen to other when they talk, I also believe that I am a more confident individual as I am fully aware of my interpersonal skills and therefore I can improve and develop them. Listening to what others are saying, to get a better understanding of what they are trying to express and providing feedback and my opinion at the end to become a better listener, by having good listening skills it also shows that I have a better level of awareness this has enabled me to focus on what others are saying, it has helped me when doing group work when listening to others and working on group assignments.

Most challenging blog:

The blog that I believed to been the most challenging for me would be ‘improving staff performance’, this was my third blog when I started the module, where I had to explain briefly the differences between content and process theories, and outline a process theory, and choose an organisation and identify all the ways in which they motive their employees. I attempted this and submitted it and I got it wrong as I felt I didn’t understand the theories that well, however I took me quite a while to understand what was expected in the blog, having read through a number of text books to become familiar with the difference between process and content theories, along with the internet for researching I eventually got a better understanding of what had to be done in the blog. 

I felt this was the most challenging blog, as I didn’t read the blog activity properly and rushed it and as a result got it completed wrong, however I got the chance to go back and have another attempt, and had a better understanding and got there in the end. I found that Improving staff performance within an organisation, the employees play an important role as they have to be motivated to work and organisations such as Sainsbury have to offer some form of reward or benefit packages to motivate them, as employees reflect on the success of an organisation, improving staff performance within an organisation has to be recognized by the organisation to keep employees stimulated, there are many ways such as bonus, holidays and promotion etc, organisations like Sainsbury  need to know what motivates its staff in order for there to perform well. I also found that the organisation had a strong link to Vroom’s process theory as I believe that the company rewards employees for their hard work.  Organisations such as Sainsbury have to motivate staff to improve the business performance, as motivated staff would provide customers with an efficient service. 

Changes and recommendations:

If I was the module leader and could change anything about the module, it would be for the module to have an insight into an organisation to see how they operate the business and look at how they improve staff performance so that the module is more hands on for e.g. having a placement every other week  so one week you go to the lecture and discuss what you have learnt and another week you can go to an organisation and see how they operate in the different areas of the organisation such as HR, finance etc  how do they motivate the staff, what is the organisational culture like, this might make the student enjoy the module as it would be more hands on. The lectures could have more group work and discussions so that all student could interact and participate to have a better understanding of the lecture and what is being taught, this would help student broaden on their listening, team working, problem solving and communication skills. I would also recommend that the assignment had a longer deadline as I felt they all clashed with other modules, and at times I felt it was hard to get them all completed on the set time limit to ensure that were submitted within the deadline, I felt that I  had a less time and therefore consider I could have got a better grade in deadlines were more spread out and managed my time effectively, however I felt the blog activities  were excellent as I worked through them weekly and had more than enough time to ensure they were all completed and got feedback on time which I felt was good so that I could improve the next time if required.

Conclusion: overall the module as a whole had been quite interesting and enjoyable to study and I felt I learnt quite a lot and as a result I have developed  my interpersonal skills such as listening, problem solving and decision making as there were many lectures that involved group work and discussions that  I took part in, I felt some of the blogs were quite challenging as opposed to the others however I did manage to complete them to my best ability, there were some recommendation and changes I would make to the module if I was the module leader however on a whole I felt this module was quite practical and interesting to study and might go onto studying a similar module next year, it gave me an excellent understanding of various aspects of people and organisations I could now explain the theories, models and concepts and can identify the role of HRM in managing employment and have broaden on a range of interpersonal skills through both oral and written communication as well as collaborative group work.