Category: Critical Reflection

Reflective Essay on Group Project

Personal Reflection

Completing Group Project 3 has allowed me to improve and enhance my transversal skills and act upon identified areas from Group Project 2. (See Personal Development Plan, Appendix 1-2). As with all aspects of life when working in a group a key skill required for success is communication. Within the industry, the use of BIM and other sharing platforms has allowed this skill to become easier to share ideas and communicate. Platforms such as OneDrive and group messenger applications were used to communicate efficiently as a group. These allowed for simple methods to relay material and site information to the architects during real-time on our site visit.

Responsibility and problem-solving within the project were skills that came hand in hand with my role. Being the only quantity surveyor within the group all the responsibility for providing a cost estimate for the project relied upon me, given the idea of multiple buildings within our feasibility study this required more work than first anticipated. This proved to be difficult for me when it came to providing an estimate for areas such as the viewing platform extension and main campus building with limited design information on these. Through research using books Spon’s price books 2020 and NRM1, I was able to construct a cost for these elements. Taking my time to think of a method to help complete this problem rather than going into a blind panic I feel helped me stay calm during this.

Managing my time and working under pressure was pivotal to my role, with constant changes to the designs up until the last minute, this required adapting my figures to relate to changes such as size, function, and materials as they were made. With the main changes taking place after the site visit, this left two weeks to construct accurate rates to adapt to the changes, understanding this would be the case from the start of the project I was prepared to stay calm under the pressure of research before proving critical.

With every group project, conflicting ideas arise leading to disputes and negotiation. In my role, this led to conflicts with design ideas and cost implications. Negotiation techniques took place when designing our main campus building, with ideas originally reaching a GIFA of over 15,000m2. During this, I informed them of the cost implications of constructing at this scale would be. Initial thoughts from the group were to disregard the cost and continue with the design, Through further talks of my experience of a year in the industry I explained that if the cost came out as unreasonable, this could deter the client, resulting in no project. Remaining calm and explaining the consequences this allowed us to reach an agreed outcome to reduce the size without major conflict amongst the group.

Group projects have been one of the key modules each year, given its attempt to emulate real-life scenarios in the industry and allow us to recognize personal skills and improve. First two years, I failed to realize the benefits of group projects but after completing a year in the industry I can now see the relevance it has and the base it has provided for me to work in a team. Personally, the progression from myself has come from being put out of my comfort zone and working in different teams. Taking part in group projects each year has led to constant improvement in teamwork and adapting yourself to overcome challenges. During group projects one and two I was happy to complete my part and not really engage with fellow group members, shyness and unfamiliarity being the cause of this. This year I had no worries about getting stuck in and being involved from the start in a group that clearly was familiar with each other beforehand. Becoming more comfortable with meeting and working with new people has been a key area for me over the group projects.

Looking to the future I will look not to make changes to my behavior but keep improving on current noted skills from reflection over the group projects. I believe one main area will be when to keep professionalism within the workplace and when can calm this down. Acting unprofessional at the wrong times could be costly to my future career prospects and the business working under, this will be something I will look to closely monitor when in the industry. A key point I will take in the future when team working is to understand and take into consideration everyone’s opinion and decisions but to consider this from the point of their role and not just from the perspective of a quantity surveyor.

Technical reflection

From a quantity surveyor’s perspective, there are potential areas to consider improving in the project. My main involvement revolved around producing a cost plan for the feasibility study and providing a full estimate and budget.

To achieve a more detailed and accurate estimate, more detail would need to be considered, including a specification, and more drawings, Understandably with time constraints this would not be possible. The further along the design process the higher the accuracy of the estimate. With this information a full bill of quantities could be prepared, this would account for all items within the construction process. With more detail for a car park, viewing platform extension and for external works in our project, this would’ve led to an estimate for these concepts as opposed to provisional sums.

With the increased use of BIM in today’s industry, software can be used to improve costing, with 2D and 3D drawings, software such as CostX could be used. This software provides electronic measurement with high-level accuracy, This could’ve been to measure exact GIFA within our project, but cost implications affected the use of this product. The ability to recognize changes in revised drawings would’ve automatically changed the rates for me, decreasing the time spent on revisions.

Considering project cost efficiency, the inclusion of solar panels would’ve improved this, with high initial costs, this would be paid back in just over 11 years and start showing a profit in the investment, thus also helping the BREEAM rating. (Holmes Media (UK) Ltd, 2010)

To achieve a project with a BREEAM rating of excellent there are further minimum requirements to be met, including an overall rating of 70% or higher. The project’s current score is 56.75% (See Appendix 3). Extra mandatory credits must also be completed (See Appendix 4), the majority of these are covered with our very good rating.

Out of these additional requirements, some have already been credited, these include credits for Management 03, and achieving over 4 credits for Energy 01. To attain an excellent score this requires one credit achieved in Management 05 and in Waste 03. Completing these increases the overall rating to 58.29%, making the project 11.71% short of the desired excellent rating. Figure 1 recognizes the credits I would recommend to reach the BREAAM Excellent rating for the project.

These extra 16 credits increase the project score to 70.66% (See Appendix 5), thus satisfying BREEAM minimum requirements.

From a cost perspective, these extra credits incur an initial rise in costs, the improvements such as energy 05, 06, and 08 will allow for fewer lifecycle costs, and more importantly, increase the life cycle of the project.

In line with The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (The Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974), and complying with legislation from the UK Government a risk assessment must be created before work can take place on-site. (See Appendix 6) (The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999). This has been updated to include specific details to decrease the likeliness and severity of these taking place on our site. With a total cost of £1.2billion in 2017/2018 lost from injury to accidents in construction, these are extra precautions we will look to implement on our site;

Slips, Trips & Falls – In construction around 40% of deaths in the industry come from falls (Roswold, 2014) and 30% of injuries in the last 3 years (RIDDOR, 2018). To minimize the likelihood of this, I would enforce site rules to include regular checks throughout each building and externally, recognizing uneven surfaces, wet floors, or holes below. Where this cannot be prevented, increased signage will be in place, costs are happy to be absorbed to reduce the likelihood. Falls from a height being included under this, providing scaffolding and fencing will be drastically increased when constructing our two-story and above structures such as the Main Campus and Library.

Stress – Stress, depression, and anxiety are leading causes of suicide. Statics show male construction are 3 times more likely to consider suicide than the UK average (Ukconstructionmedia.co.uk, 2018). Using simple low-cost methods such as toolbox talks, and offering help by making them aware of helping bodies can prevent the likelihood on our site. Simple communication between all levels and checking on fellow workers is pivotal and could save someone’s life on our site.

Manual Handling – Between 2016 and 2019, of all ill health in the construction industry, 62% of these were musculoskeletal disorders (HSE, 2019) a direct effect of manual handling. On our site, we will increase the use of machinery to provide heavy lifting, such as more pallet trucks, electric or hand-powered hoists, and lift trucks for when handling can’t be avoided. Manual handling training will also be a requirement to be on-site. Proving in initial extra cost for the project, this machinery could also provide work completed faster whilst ensuring further safety of employees.

References

1. BRE Global Ltd (2018). BREEAM New Construction 2018 (UK). [online] Breeam.com. Available at: https://www.breeam.com/NC2018/ [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].
2. Browell Smith & Co Solicitors. (2018). Browell Smith & Co Solicitors. [online] Available at: https://www.browells.co.uk/falls-height-uks-biggest-workplace-killer/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2019].
3. Exactly. (2019). CostX – BIM and 2D Construction Estimating Software. [online] Available at: https://www.exactal.com/en/costx/products/costx/ [Accessed 18 Nov. 2019].
4. ‌Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (2012). Health and Safety Executive Manual handling at work A brief guide. [online] Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/INDG143.pdf.
5. Holmes Media (UK) Ltd (2010). Solar Panel Payback Time | Solar Guide. [online] Solarguide.co.uk. Available at: https://www.solarguide.co.uk/solar-panel-payback-time#/ [Accessed 20 Nov. 2019].
6. Hse.gov.uk. (2019). HSE: Information about health and safety at work. [online] Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/ [Accessed 15 Nov. 2019].
7. Roswold, J. (2014). Construction’s “Fatal Four”: Tips for Prevention. [online] Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys. Available at: https://www.kansascityaccidentinjuryattorneys.com/blog/the-leading-causes-of-death-on-construction-sites.cfm [Accessed 13 Nov. 2019].
8. Syntegra Group. (2010). BREEAM Consultant/s | BREEAM Assessment Services. [online] Available at: https://syntegragroup.com/m-and-e/services/sustainability-assessment/breeam-assessment/ [Accessed 12 Nov. 2019].
9. ‌Ukconstructionmedia.co.uk. (2018). Mental Health in the Construction Industry – UK Construction Online. [online] Available at: https://www.ukconstructionmedia.co.uk/features/mental-health-construction-industry/ [Accessed 2 Nov. 2019].

Reflective Essay on Time Management

The way of consciously watching and thinking about our experiences, actions, feelings, and responding to them, and then interpreting or analyzing them so as to learn from them is usually known as Reflection. Reflection helps us to understand our self which eventually makes us more successful. The benefits of reflection are: reflection transforms the experience into learning about own values and goals; it helps to develop high-level thinking and problem-solving skills; it helps to understand a particular event fully and analyze our role in that event; it helps in advocating for change; it critically analyze the influences on practice and promote person-centered care. Reflection helps to identify points for improvement and work on them and can be a useful learning opportunity for others (Koshy et al., 2017)

The reflection model I am using is Gibb’s reflection model. The picture of Gibbs Reflective Cycle is presented below:

Description of an incident:

When I was studying bachelor of nursing science first year at Maharajgunj Nursing Campus, Kathmandu, Nepal, we had three three-week placements at an emergency department. At that time my teacher asked me to study thoroughly about the case of Meningitis. As it was my case study, I had to look after each and every report of this case and the drugs used in this case. But when I started to know about the history of the case by looking at the report and talking with the visitor about the patient having meningitis, all of sudden another patient who had recently arrived had vomiting and his spo2 level was very low. So, the nurse looking at that patient asked me to help her in transferring the patient to the ICU department. so, I chose to help her to transfer the patient. After that, my teacher arrived and asked me about the case which she told me to study thoroughly. I told her that I had not yet looked about that case as I had gone to help the nurse and now I am going to study that case. My teacher told me that I was very poor in time management, as I had not studied about the case she told me. She carried on explaining that I had to know about each and every case when I became a registered nurse and if I did like this I could not be a good registered nurse in the future. This situation left me questioning which was the priority, the patient’s need or my own learning.

Feelings

when the nurse asked me to help her, I automatically helped her because I thought that I could study the case of meningitis any time but transferring the patient to the ICU for further treatment was a most necessary priority at that time. I knew that I had made the right decision but I could not explain the issue to the teacher at that time and I felt very annoyed with myself. I was very concerned about the needs of the patient and felt I could not justify leaving the patient untreated because I had to study the case of meningitis. The decision made by the nurse should be justifiable (Nibbelink & Brewer, 2018)

After that event, the words told by the teacher about time management confused me. I decided to search for time management skills because I knew that my time management skills were good as I am very punctual during my shifts and made the checklist about the work needed to be done and priorities accordingly. This event created the question of how I was prioritizing my workload at the moment.

Evaluation

In this situation, I chose to help the nurse in ensuring the patient was getting better treatment and I felt that this was the priority at that time. Prioritizing the need for care is one of the themes included in the national competency standard for registered nurses [Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), 2019]

I also understand what my teacher was explaining to me, that I had to know about each and every case when I become a registered nurse. As an accountable health practitioner, one must have knowledge and skills regarding the disease condition and the drugs used for safe practice. I must have up-to-date knowledge while working and I must be involved in each and every learning activity that develops my competencies. We must treat the patient as an individual and respect their dignity (Nursing and Midwifery Council, 2015), which I did in this case. After this experience, I thought that it was a priority to help the nurse in transferring the patient to the ICU for further treatment or to learn about the case of meningitis. If I had studied the case of meningitis I would have been leaving the patient untreated which may have been dangerous for the patient’s health.

Analysis

we learn about time from our childhood. time management skills are very important in my career. I will be overwhelmed with my work and I need to evaluate how to manage time properly. time management is very important in every sector, especially in the health sector. It is a dynamic process. Time management goes together with prioritization skills, which means deciding priorities and planning accordingly. Proper time management reduces stress in the workplace which contributes to increased productivity. Effective time management is related to academic performance and lower levels of tension in students (Adams & Blair, 2019). In the health care setting, during patient care priorities can change anytime and I will need to reassess the situation and decide accordingly. the nurse needs to decide the priorities first and plan accordingly. After prioritizing and planning, it should be followed by appropriate nursing action.

If I had not helped the nurse to transfer the patient to the ICU, the patient would have had to wait until I finished studying the case of meningitis and left there in the emergency ward. This could have a serious effect on the patient’s health as he vomited many times and his saturation level is low. this is a life-threatening condition as there is a need for oxygen administration due to low levels of SPO2. Life-threatening problems should be placed as high priority. According to NMC (2015) registered nurse should always be able to justify their decisions.

Conclusion

Time management skills are a dynamic process and should go together with prioritizing skills. If we fail to do time management, it causes stress to ourselves and other people in a team. The nursing process can help to manage time effectively. after analyzing the situation and researching time management skills, I came to the conclusion that my teacher was wrong in that she told me that I was very poor in time management skills as I had prioritized well and in this situation, the patient transferring to ICU was more necessary than my professional learning. And I still believe that I was not wrong. The patient would have been in trouble if I had not helped the nurse. In the future as a registered nurse, I will be accountable for every action. So, if the same situation arose repeatedly, I think that I would not act differently rather than speak and justify the decision I made. taking care of the patient will always be my first priority in the future.

Action Plan

Time management is very important in today’s world. It is also recognized as an important factor in work performance in the field of health and medicine. To be a qualified registered nurse, I should have excellent time management and prioritizing skills. To achieve this I will adopt the following strategies: evaluate how long it takes to complete the task; make the checklist and mark the task that are completed and evaluate at last; delegate tasks to others in the team if necessary.

Talented people do not solely involve chasing specific experiences and getting feedback additionally creating an attempt to receive the teachings of experience through reflection (Dane & Sonenshein, 2015). Through this reflection of experience, I am currently aware that I want additional development to challenge and make questions that I feel don’t seem to be in the best interests of the patient. So, to obtain this I will always speak and justify my actions and also build my confidence skill.

Reference List

1. Academic Skill Learning Zone, (2018).Reflective Practice & Gibbs Reflective Cycle. retrieved from:http://academicskills.marjon.ac.uk/as2.php?pageID=36&subID=102
2. Adams, R. V., & Blair, E. (2019). Impact of Time Management Behaviors on Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Performance. SAGE Open, 9(1). Retrieved from:https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1210843&site=eds-live
3. Bain, J. D., Mills, C., Ballantyne, R., & Packer, J. (2012).Developing reflection on practice through journal writing: Impacts of variations in the focus and level of feedback. Teachers and Teaching, 8(2), 171-196. doi: 10.1080/13540600220127368
4. Back, M. D., Schmukle, S. C., &Egloff, B. (2016). Who is late and who is early? Big Five personality factors and punctuality in attending psychological experiments. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(5), 841-848. Retrieved from: https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Who+is+late+and+who+is+early%3F+Big+Five+personality+factors+and+punctuality+in+attending+psychological+experiments&btnG
5. Dane, E., &Sonenshein, S. (2015). On the role of experience in ethical decision making at work: An ethical expertise perspective. Organizational Psychology, 5(1), 74-96. Retrieved from:https://sonenshein.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/Publications/Dane%20and%20Sonenshein%20Ethical%20Expertise.pdf
6. Koshy, K., Limb, C., Gundogan, B., Whitehurst, K., & Jafree, D. J. (2017). Reflective practice in health care and how to reflect effectively. International journal of surgery. Oncology, 2(6), e20. doi:10.1097/IJ9.0000000000000020
7. Nibbelink, C. W., & Brewer, B. B. (2018). Decision-making in nursing practice: An integrative literature review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5-6), 917–928. doi:10.1111/jocn.14151
8. Nursing and Midwifery Council (2015). Professional standards of practice and behavior for nurses and midwives. Retrieved from http://www.nmc-uk.org/code
9. Poorchangizi, B., Farokhzadian, J., Abbaszadeh, A., Mirzaee, M., &Borhani, F. (2017).The importance of professional values from clinical nurses’ perspective in hospitals of a medical university in Iran. BMC Medical Ethics, 181-7.doi:10.1186/s12910-017-0178-9
10. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2019). Retrieved from: https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards.aspx

Personal Best Leadership Experience Essay

Introduction

Leadership is the ability of a personal or a gaggle of people to effect and lead supporters or alternative members of a corporation. Leaders are needed in most areas, such as business, politics, regions, and community organizations. This report will talk about my best leadership experience, an inspirational leader for me, two group activities this semester, values, beliefs, and assumptions about leadership, and my leadership philosophy.

Critical reflection

Best personal leadership experience

When I was in high school, our school set up a psychology department for students, which is mainly to understand the psychological development of students and timely help them when they are depressed or in trouble. I was the psychological representative of our class, and the most important event for me was the annual competition. The competition is that each class has to come up with a witty skit, and then the judges choose the best one to be the champion. Therefore, I am a leader in the skit. I told them my only requirement is that we do it well and you can decide how you want to do it. Because I think this is the best way to mobilize our enthusiasm. As a result, every student actively participated in the rehearsal. Although in the end we only got third place in the competition, I still feel like it was not a bad decision. Because we tried our best, and the time spent working together is more valuable than the result.

My leadership experience is aligned with Laissez-faire leadership. In this style, the leader does not interfere or direct his subordinates to make decisions, which means that leaders let subordinates do their jobs in the way they choose, without strict policies or procedures. (St. Thomas University, 2018). This approach makes the team more cohesive and stronger. That was the way I led, because I think as long as everybody works towards the same result, team members can choose the way they want to use it.

Inspirational leader- Zhengfei Ren

Zhengfei Ren is the current President of Huawei, he is the founder as well. The way he leads his company is that he thinks the most capable people should get the highest salary, not the leader. Therefore, competent people will be well-treated in his company. The most important is employee ownership, Zhengfei Ren owns less than 1.5% stock of Huawei, and the rest is in the hands of employees. (Saarinen, 2010). At Huawei, employees with strong working ability, a sense of responsibility and good performance will be allocated shares. In my opinion, the biggest feature of his leadership style is employee stock ownership. The reason is this behavior can cause workers to treat the corporation they work for as their own, they take their work seriously and responsibly. workers are a lot willing to require the initiative after they are unit rewarded. His influence on me is how to make employees work as hard as possible, which is by empowering them by encouraging participation and providing the best interest.

The leadership style of Zhengfei Ren is transformational leadership. This kind of leader is willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good of the team, they motivate employees and attract followers. (St. Thomas University, 2018). This is how Zhnegfei Ren attracts talent, he attracts talent by giving employees stakes and high salaries.

Team experiences this semester

This semester we have two different teams doing different activities. I think we did well in the first group because we did enough research before testing. I remember searching for all the possible questions before one test, So I did not drag my team members down, and our team got good results in that test. However, in the second group, our results were not good. I think I have a great responsibility, I did not find useful information when we did the first task, and there were a lot of due at that time, so I did not read all of the paper before starting the second test. In the two groups I also learned a lot, the most important thing is communication, and not only in class.

Critical Reflection Essay on Marketing

During Current Topics in Marketing, Kristof Bossuyt gave an insightful and inspiring guest lecture about building brands in digital media. During this lecture, Mr. Bossuyt explained four pitfalls for marketing managers creating and transforming their brand in the digital age. These pitfalls included: selecting the right channels, believing in viral fairytales, not starting and continuing the conversation, and seeing digital as an add-on to traditional campaigns and offline content. Even though these pitfalls form applicable guidelines for students when pursuing a career in marketing and branding, these should be critically reviewed before being applied. Based on three studies, it can be concluded that the pitfalls presented by Mr. Bossuyt, are accurate in creating digital brands. The theory presented shows the same overall trend of digital instruments becoming fully embedded in marketing strategies. An important takeaway that was present in both the research and Mr. Bossuyt’s lecture is that brands should interact and communicate with their audience on a personal level, acting like humans. Brands should pull the attention of consumers, instead of pushing content. On the other hand, the research provides theoretical concepts that explain these managerial takeaways. This is something Mr. Bossuyt didn’t include. In this critical reflection, all four pitfalls will be reviewed based on the presented theory in the different studies.

The first pitfall presented by Mr. Bossuyt was that companies often say they have experience in digital marketing, yet they are only ticking boxes. These companies are present on almost every social medium, yet have no defined strategy on how they will use these channels to reach objectives. According to Mr. Bossuyt, companies should be impactful on the right channels, and do what is most valuable for their brand and audience instead of trying to use every digital channel. According to Hamilton et al., the increasing social media activity of companies is changing the way brands and customers communicate. In addition, with the number of digital platforms increasing, it becomes more important for companies to understand how brand-consumer interactions differ on each digital and offline communication instrument. The study performed by Hamilton et al. shows that consumer motivations for engaging in brand interactions affect the channel on which these interactions take place (Hamilton, Velitchka, & Andrew, 2016). For example, the study has shown that customers with an intent to purchase a product or require customer service activity, are more likely to interact with the brand via offline channels such as face-to-face and over the phone. On the contrary, customers eager to be entertained will look for interactions on social media, which are also being used for timely and time-based interactions. Further, email remains important when it comes to product updates, product launches, and information transfer. This shows that companies shouldn’t bluntly represent their brand on all digital channels. Instead, they must formulate a clear strategy on how they can use these digital media to support their overall objectives, and what the specific purpose of the digital medium will be. The theory presented in this research study is similar to the first recommendation presented by Mr. Bossuyt. Both parties mentioned that companies must be impactful on the right channels, having a clear strategy in mind when using a specific channel. Yet, only Hamilton et al. mentioned the use of offline channels about digital channels, while Mr. Bossuyt stuck to digital media for this part.

The second pitfall concluded with firms believing their content will be very successful when it is made by a content agency. In reality, they experience low organic and owned reach on digital channels. According to Mr. Bossuyt, these companies should invest in paid and shared media to make their content’s reach go higher and amplify their content to users and non-users, which should be segmented. For social media, organic reach is often based on algorithms. Yet, these algorithms will often base the organic reach of content on the interaction of users with this branded content. Increasing engagement will therefore result in higher reach (Bernazzani, 2018). As mentioned earlier, consumers will engage on different platforms based on their motives for engagement. Companies looking to maximize their reach should therefore be aware of this when creating content for digital channels. In their research, Tafesse et al., argue that the message strategy used in digital content has an impact on the engagement by consumers, and could therefore also influence the overall reach of the content. Their findings concluded that a transformational message strategy results in the highest consumer behavioral engagement. This means that marketers should create emotional, entertaining, and fun content to maximize the behavioral engagement of consumers. Further, there was no significant difference between the informational and interactional message strategies. Yet, complementing the informational and interactional strategy, with the transformational strategy will also result in higher engagement (Tafesse & Wien, 2018).

While Mr. Bossuyt argued that companies should invest in paid distribution to increase the reach of their content, using the right message strategy will influence the engagement of consumers and might result in higher organic reach (depending on the algorithm). Instead of directly looking at increasing paid distribution when organic reach is low, companies should also review the message strategy used in the content they are spreading on their digital channels. For example, spreading informational content won’t typically result in high engagement. Yet, in combination with an emotional, entertaining aspect, engagement and reach might increase. According to the study performed by Hamilton et al., organic reach could be low due to content being published on the wrong channel. As mentioned earlier, different consumer motivations to engage with brands will result in different use of channels. Therefore, companies should review whether their content was published on the right channel when organic reach is low. Taking these factors into account and creating and publishing content accordingly, might increase the organic reach and reduce the need for paid distribution.

According to Mr. Bossuyt, many brands are still broadcasting content, instead of actively conversing with their audience. This results in brands having low response rates and limited interactions with their customers. Mr. Bossuyt explained that companies should create dedicated communities and engage with these communities in a natural, human way. Research performed by Hudson et al. showed that consumers who engage with their favorite brands on social media will have stronger relationships with these brands compared to people who do not interact with their favorite brands using social media. This shows that indeed, companies should focus on interacting with their audience instead of pushing content. Moreover, Mr. Bossuyt explicitly mentioned that people would like to interact with brands that have the same values as them and that they can connect with on a human level. This statement aligns with the conclusion of the research conducted by Hudson et al. They found that social media interactions have a positive effect on the quality of the relationship between brands and consumers. Moreover, the research has shown that when a brand is highly anthropomorphized, meaning a brand shows human values and traits, the effect is even stronger. Yet, having a highly anthropomorphized brand does not guarantee to have a strong relationship with your audience but it can enhance the relationship once a brand starts to interact with its audience online (Hudson, Huang, Roth, & Madden, 2014). As a takeaway, companies should try to communicate as people and interact with their audience like friends. They should use social media as their audience. This takeaway was mentioned by Mr. Bossuyt and presented in the conducted research.

Furthermore, Hudson et al. also researched how the effect of anthropomorphizing a brand and encouraging social media interactions, might result in different rates of behavioral engagement in different cultures. Countries with a culture characterized by higher uncertainty avoidance will find frequent interactions on social media with brands that are highly anthropomorphized, and more valuable. This will result in a better brand-relationship quality. Uncertainty can be reduced when consumers and brands interact more often on social media and therefore are looking for more frequent interaction, yet this reason was not proven by the research. For marketing managers, and Mr. Bossuyt, this implies that brands shouldn’t overload their audience with content, but might also want to consider the cultural characteristics of their audience and the impact of this on their behavior on social media.

Lastly, Mr. Bossuyt presented that many firms still see digital as an add-on to their offline marketing efforts. They create offline content and traditional campaigns and simply translate these to their digital channels. Mr. Bossuyt argued that companies should use the strength of digital and that digital channels should be embedded in the marketing strategy of firms. This can be related to the theory presented in all three different studies. Frequent brand-consumer interactions will lead to a better brand-consumer relationship. Yet, according to Hamilton et al., consumers will interact with brands on different platforms, based on their motives for interaction. When the motive for interaction is entertainment, consumers are more likely to interact with a brand on social media. Looking from the brand’s point of view, a transformational message strategy leads to higher engagement. This research shows that digital should be looked at as a crucial part of a marketing strategy. Bluntly translating to digital channels will result in low engagement and low reach, which is a missed opportunity for companies. Different channels, both digital and offline, should be used for different objectives.

As a conclusion, the four pitfalls for companies presented by Mr. Bossuyt reflect the outcomes of the different studies presented. Yet, while Mr. Bossuyt clearly explained managerial takeaways to the students of the class, the researchers also provided theoretical background and reasons for these takeaways to be relevant. Mr. Bossuyt stated that companies should select the right channels to be impactful for their audience. In addition, Hamilton et al. have shown that different interaction motives might result in the use of different platforms. Also, according to Mr. Bossuyt, companies should invest in paid media to boost their content’s reach. This might be correct in most cases, yet Tafesse et al. showed that different message strategies will result in different rates of engagement and therefore organic reach. The most significant takeaway, which is present in all three research studies, concerns the third pitfall presented by Mr. Bossuyt. Brands should communicate as humans to their audience, using a transformational message strategy to increase brand-consumer interactions. This will lead to a better brand-consumer relationship. Overall, Mr. Bossuyt was very accurate when presenting these pitfalls for companies trying to build their brand on digital channels. The different studies provide meaningful insights that can be useful for both Mr. Bossuyt and other companies that are building a brand in the digital age.

Decision Making Reflection Essay

There are Five questions required to answer to complete a self-reflecting report:

• In this subject, what concepts or ideas you are reflecting on?
• What aspects did you find interesting or challenging?
• Has it changed the way you think or confirmed something you know?
• What else do you need to find out? Are there any further questions?
• How will you incorporate these concepts into your future professional life?

Accounting for decision-making subject is covered by 6 Modules each module provides different information. I remember what I learned from the beginning of this subject. I will give all the information Module wise about what I learned? and what difficulty I had? and how this help me in the future.

Module 1:

This module gives information about types of accounting, the difference between business and personal transactions, preparing financial statements, advantages and disadvantages of basic organization structures, and preparing balance sheets. This module was not more challenging as I have already done another subject called financial accounting where I had learned about this same thing. This module will help me in the future to evaluate the overall financial position and performance of an organization.

Module 2:

This module has given me information about the difference between accrual accounting and cash accounting, introduced the nature of a statement of comprehensive income and changes in equity and what are the relations between the statement of profit or loss, the balance sheet, statement of comprehensive income and statement of changes in equity. I did not feel very hard in this module. This will help me in the future to apply relevant accounting concepts in business scenarios.

Module 3

This module has given me information about nature and purpose of financial analysis, calculated and interpreted the ratio for profitability, asset efficiency, liquidity, and market performance, and taught us the analysis and interpretation of the financial statement. I find it hard to calculate the ratios in this module. This will help me in the future to explain the importance of financial formation in business decision-making.

Module 4:

This module gives information about the management of net working capital, comparison between short-term finance and long-term debt finance, Calculation and evaluation method for accounting rate of return, the payback period, net present value, and internal rate of return. The hardest part for me was to memorize all the methods of calculation. In the future, this will help me to make financing and capital investment decisions.

Module 5

This module has given me information about fixed cost, variable cost, and mixed cost. It also gives information about break-even point analysis, calculation of contribution margin and contribution margin ratio, CVP calculation, calculation of direct and indirect cost, etc. The same hard part for me is to remember the formulas. This module will help me in the future to apply costing and budgeting techniques to business decision-making.

Module 6

This module gives information about budgeting style, budgeting process, components of a master budget, budget variance important for managers, and issues related to behavioral aspects of budgeting. This module was very easy for me to learn. This module will help me to apply budgeting costing strategies to organization decision making.