Survey Results of Clovis

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Survey results of Sophie

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Survey result- Lisa

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Survey result of Ben

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Survey results of Dai Xiaoxiao

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Week four activity

DAI Xiaoxiao Cindy
PD in my workplace: mainly two parts


1. Training-online courses

As an intern in HSBC, the company offers a systemic e-learning course on the basic banking knowledge for all the interns. Every intern need to complete the whole e-learning course and get an acceptable score to pass it, otherwise, we need to do that again. Moreover, all the employees also have their e-learning course according to their different responsibilities. Normally, the e-learning course will be updated once a week, the employees need to log on the Intranet and complete the new course. This will be supervised by the manager of different departments.

2. Knowledge sharing

For the employees, they have a morning meeting and a afternoon meeting everyday. The branch manager will give them some suggestions on their work, and they are also asked to share the everyday experience with the other colleagues.

3. Reward mechanism

Normally, a wide range of rewards will be offered to employees based on the evaluation of their performances. Food, shopping voucher, tour, promotion, etc...

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Week 4 Activity

Lujia Yang---Sophie
The PD in my workplace.


As I have mentioned, I used to taken an internship in an event company in the marketing department.
Although I'm just an intern, the company still always try to improve my ability, which contribute to my progress in performance in all kinds.
firstly, there are training offered when I take part in new work or position. Moreover, the training is made up of both on-work (from existing employees) and off-work (from outside experts)
Secondly,  there are informal evaluation after everyday's work and feedback offered on every Friady afternoon.
Thirdly, on the meetings held every Friday, all people try to share and dissucss about the work and experience.
Forthly, the manager is always welcome suggestions and she (he ) would try to carry out the good ones among people.

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Week Four Activity - Ben

What PD happens in your workplace?
What strategies does your organization have in place to encourage development, change and innovation?

Our company is a Luxury band and we run business of watch, jewelry and accessories.
Professional Development is divided into two parts in our company, including

1.       Training (Internal and External)

2.       Appraisal

Internal training will be provide to all new joining staff, where all of us have to attend 10 different core courses including the background of our Company, the professional experience sharing by experienced colleagues, skills knowledge about our product, knowledge of watches making, knowledge of gemology, knowledge of diamond, knowledge of different certificate…etc.

Specific courses will also be provide to appropriate staff, like Sales skills and technique for Sales staff, system training for CS and Logistic staff, application training for Finance staff and technical training for watch technician. All these kind of training are aim at building up a brand image among colleagues and in order to develop us as a professional in different aspect.

Instead of internal trainings, external trainings like Microsoft Office, ladies make up courses will also be provided, whether colleagues are able to attend it through company’s arrangement outside.

Besides, appraisal is another tool for professional development; all staffs have to fill in a self evaluation form to their boss before year end. Within the form, there are columns about: Target Achievement, Job Knowledge, Work Attitude, Initiation, Team Work, Accountability, Communication Skills, Grooming……etc. At the same time, managers have to fill in the form for their staffs and a meeting will be held to discuss about the form in details. Promotion and recommendation will be made and they are depends on the appraisal form which reviewed by Department head and HR.

In my point of view, I think external training subsidy can be considered to encourage employee to have a comprehensive development and bring along outsiders’ information to the company. It can help on both individual and the company itself.

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Week Four Activity - Ben

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Week Four Activity

What PD happens in your organisation/would you like to see in your organisation?


Fan Jiajun, Clovis

For the IELTS training institution I have described during the last several weeks, professional development often happens in it because the success of this educational organisation is largely determined by its knowledge workers and the knowledge in their minds. Having realized the great importance of learning, this institution provides the following approaches for professional development:

1.     Pursuing master’s degree in Australia. Every year the organisation selects around five to ten IELTS trainers who only hold a bachelor’s degree to further their study in education or applied linguistics in some Australian universities.

2.    Inviting experts to hold workshops. Every month we have the opportunity to attend some workshops on the latest development trends of the IELTS exam and some advanced teaching methods.

3.     Visiting universities and other famous training centres. This approach is quite effective for us to learn in that we can draw on other’s successful experience to improve our organisation and ourselves.

4.     Training for new staff. Every summer some fresh graduates join our institution as new trainers. Our centre provides a complete set of training courses for them, including job rotation and mentoring programmes.

5.     Meetings and online platforms. We regularly hold meetings to share our ideas and discuss some problems we face. Also, we use the online platform to obtain useful resources for us to learn.

Apparently the organisation has done quite well for the professional development of staff, providing both formal and informal opportunities to learn. In the future, I would like to see that our institution can encourage teaching staff to form as many communities of practice as possible for the purpose of learning and sharing knowledge both inside and outside our institution.

To conclude, professional development benefits staff, students, and the organisation. Staff can acquire new knowledge and skills and obtain opportunities for career advancement. Students can learn more from the staff and get better results in the IELTS exam. And the organisation can attract more customers because of the high quality of its trainers.

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Week 4: PD and strategies- Lisa

Liu Meng, Lisa

What PD happens in your workplace?

According to Fullan(1991), professional development is the sum total of activities and learning experiences to enhance professional career growth. As I mentioned in the former assignments, a mentor program of professional skills was implemented in my organization and proved to be a success. Besides the mentor program, there are quite a lot activities in different forms to enhance the self-development of employees. For example, HSBC has an advanced and well-designed e-learning system, which contains every aspect of HSBC and a numerous number of training courses.

Moreover, employees are strongly suggested to pursue education, especially part-time master (or even higher) degree. Quite a few colleagues have achieved their MBA degree by part-time education in the Zhongshan University.

As for an intern like me, the most helpful activity is inevitably the “study group”. The other interns and me are asked to form a study group, we learn together and are encouraged to change ideas and give comments during mentoring classes. Each Friday afternoon, we are asked to give a presentation about what we have learnt in the past week before some leaders. Such mechanism encourages me to learn more and faster, which is very helpful for my development.

What strategies does your organization have in place to encourage development, change and innovation?

1.     Reward mechanism

At the end of each year, the performance of an employee in the past year can be divided into four levels. People who are assessed as level 1 will get great annual bonus and the salary will increase at least 10% in the coming year. While those who get level 4 will enjoy little rewards and may probably face with some punishments.

2.     Chances

A lot of chances are created for those who are innovative or bring about good influence for the company by successfully implementing some changes. Such chances may include going a business trip aboard or even get promoted.

 

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Week 3: Fullan framwork, description- Lisa

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading changes in an organization of your choice.

 

Liu Meng, Lisa

 

 

 For the company that I completed my internship, 

I am going to talk about the mentor program of SAS programming skills.

 

1. Moral purpose

-Due to the specific responsibilities of our information management department, it is very important for us to deal with mass data efficiently and effectively. Thus, leaders suggest that a series of mentoring methods should be adopted to improve the performance of both the department and employees.

 

2. Understanding Change

-Leaders fully understand the changes, including the reasons, implementation procedures, influence, etc.

 

3. Building relationships

-Team building activities are held frequently. During such activities, not only colleagues feel closer to each other, but also both employees and employers can better understand the emotions, aspirations, hopes and intentions of each other.

 

4. Knowledge creation and sharing

-Actually, the department did a fairly bad job in sharing and creating knowledge due to the special function of the department. Dealing with the data correctly and efficiently is more important than creating new ideas.

 

5. Coherence making

-Such mentor program can improve the abilities of each individual worker and it also helps to clarifies the direction and goal for the employees during a number of mentoring activities. Coherence is made in that way and will finally be fitted into the culture of the company.

 

 

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading changes in an organization of your choice.

 

For the company that I completed my internship, I am going to talk about the mentor program of SAS programming skills.

 

1.Moral purpose

    -Due to the specific responsibilities of our information management department, it is very important for us to deal with mass data efficiently and effectively. Thus, leaders suggest that a series of mentoring methods should be adopted to improve the performance of both the department and employees.

 

2.Understanding Change

 

-Leaders fully understand the changes, including the reasons, implementation procedures, influence, etc.

 

3.Building relationships

 

-Team building activities are held frequently. During such activities, not only colleagues feel closer to each other, but also both employees and employers can better understand the emotions, aspirations, hopes and intentions of each other.

 

4.Knowledge creation and sharing

 

-Actually, the department did a fairly bad job in sharing and creating knowledge due to the special function of the department. Dealing with the data correctly and efficiently is more important than creating new ideas.

 

5.Coherence making

 

-Such mentor program can improve the abilities of each individual worker and it also helps to clarifies the direction and goal for the employees during a number of mentoring activities. Coherence is made in that way and will finally be fitted into the culture of the company.

 

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Week 3 activity

Reflection on Fullan’s framework for leadership

                                                                                      by Dai Xiaoxiao, Cindy

What can we learn from this framework? What are the implications in the workplace?

According to Fullan, change is too complex to be controlled, and instead needs to be understood and “disrupted” in desired directions. The more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become. Complexity means not only change, but rapidly occurring, unpredictable, and nonlinear change.

For achiever an effective leadership, the manager need pay attention to what is happening within the organization; focus on building the five core components: moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing and coherence making. Moreover, the leader should have enthusiasm, energy and hope to let all the employees”feel that even difficult problem can be tackled productively”.

As far as I am concerned, this framework is ideal for an effective leadership, if a leader follow every step and perform quite well in each step, it would be excellent. However, as the author said, change always can be very complicated; many unpredictable things might happen during the change, it is not easy for a leader to control every step, like people’s emotion. Something may be hidden and influence people’s work gradually.

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading change in an organization of your choice.

Moral purpose: means acting with the intention of making a positive difference in the lives of employees. As I talked about the change of personnel in our department, both the previous manager and the Brunch manager have told us one month before. We’ve already prepared.

Understanding change: Fullan said that understanding the change process is exceedingly elusive. It could be effective if the leader have right kinds of sensitivity to implementation of initiatives. Reculturing is an element that would leads to success.

Relationship building: According to Fullan, his basic premise is thatt if relationships improve, things get better, if they remain the same or get worse, ground is lost. Thus leaders must be consummate relationship builders with diverse people and groups, especially with people different from themselves. So in my situation, if they organize some activities in our department, we join together with the new colleague, which may facilitate the relationship building.

Knowledge creation and sharing: Knowledge creation and sharing requires a collaborative culture. According to Fullan,

•People will not voluntarily share knowledge unless they feel some moral commitment to do so;

•People will not share unless the dynamics of change favor exchange;

•Data without relationships merely cause more information glut – turning information into knowledge is a social process, and for that you need good relationships

In HSBC, the branch manager organizes a morning meeting and an afternoon meeting every day for all the employees. He encourages them to share knowledge with each other and he also gives some suggestions.

Coherence making: Organizations and processes of change are highly complex. Every situation will have its own unique structures, personalities, relationships, and cultures. It is very important for the leaders to make coherence in the workplace. In my situation, I don’t think the manager made effective coherence, because when the new colleague came with some knowledge of our department, but she was not familiar with the onging project and some details, we need always answer her questions and spend time telling her details, it increased the other employee’s burden.

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Week 3 Activities - Ben

Reflection on Fullan’s framework for leadership. What are the implications to our workplace?

From my previous experience, most of the people do not want to have a CHANGE, while they have already adapt to their own working style, with their working tools, working in the same place, with same group of people……etc. However, I also faced several changes during the past years and I agreed that a LONG TERM planning is a must for any changes, especially letting everyone have a clear focus at the very beginning is very important.

During every change, I think the most valuable element is PEOPLE, they are the one to run the system, they are the one to work on it, their feelings and response are always something which has to be measured.

In Fullan’s framewok it divided into 5 different parts for leaders.

I agreed that all the components are important for leaders, as I said, people is the most important element during changes. Especially in business world, Management’s order is known as the MUST DO item, poor management can lead to a bad feeling for employees and as a result, the failure of change. On the other hand, if a good atmosphere were built, employees are willing to work together, share their knowledge; trust relationship can then be built between employers and employees.

However, the element of Energy, Enthusiasm and Hope is something a bit subjective and difficult to measure. I believed that the concept of it is pretty good. But it’s always difficult for one to judge what level they need to reach, or how far is their target. As mentioned, a clear focus is very important, not only the company, but also individual do.

Framework is just a model, it reflects an ideal concept of being a leader, however HOW to make it practical is the most difficult and important part, I am looking forward to learning more on the practical part (Case Studies) on HOW to make it possible in the coming lessons.

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading change in an organization of your choice

For my company, as I mentioned at the last blog, the changes is about migrating databases from old systems to a new ERP system. If I put the case to the model of Fullan, I think there is something to let our management to learn from it.

Moral Purpose – I think our management did a pretty good job at this component since before the migration; all of us have to attend a meeting. During the meeting, it describe about the project, including how its work, the timeline, our responsibility for this project……etc. All of us agree that the new system can really improve the efficiency of our job.

Understanding Change – For this point, I think our management understands what we are doing and our progress. Since there is a time-line report which all departments have to hand-in every week to keep monitoring the progress of the migration.

Relationship building – This is the most difficult part in my mind, since in business world, there are always a gap between your boss and you. For our company, I can say the relationship is not bad, but people are get used with it and do not do not step up to change the current situation.

Knowledge Creation and Sharing – New knowledge was created during the progress of our change, however, the knowledge did not share as what we expect, since everything is new for us, we are not able to share if we not sure it’s right or wrong. I think a sharing section is needed during the change, as it can let all of us to have a better understanding about where we are and what is the expectation among us.

Coherence making – For this component,  I can say the coherence were made in our company, since all departments are involved in the change and every time when we meet other departments, the first topic would be discussing about the migration. The atmosphere was built during this change and people are encouraging each other to complete the progress.

 

 

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Week 3 Activities - Ben

Reflection on Fullan’s framework for leadership. What are the implications to our workplace?

From my previous experience, most of the people do not want to have a CHANGE, while they have already adapt to their own working style, with their working tools, working in the same place, with same group of people……etc. However, I also faced several changes during the past years and I agreed that a LONG TERM planning is a must for any changes, especially letting everyone have a clear focus at the very beginning is very important.

During every change, I think the most valuable element is PEOPLE, they are the one to run the system, they are the one to work on it, their feelings and response are always something which has to be measured.

In Fullan’s framewok it divided into 5 different parts for leaders.

I agreed that all the components are important for leaders, as I said, people is the most important element during changes. Especially in business world, Management’s order is known as the MUST DO item, poor management can lead to a bad feeling for employees and as a result, the failure of change. On the other hand, if a good atmosphere were built, employees are willing to work together, share their knowledge; trust relationship can then be built between employers and employees.

However, the element of Energy, Enthusiasm and Hope is something a bit subjective and difficult to measure. I believed that the concept of it is pretty good. But it’s always difficult for one to judge what level they need to reach, or how far is their target. As mentioned, a clear focus is very important, not only the company, but also individual do.

Framework is just a model, it reflects an ideal concept of being a leader, however HOW to make it practical is the most difficult and important part, I am looking forward to learning more on the practical part (Case Studies) on HOW to make it possible in the coming lessons.

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading change in an organization of your choice

For my company, as I mentioned at the last blog, the changes is about migrating databases from old systems to a new ERP system. If I put the case to the model of Fullan, I think there is something to let our management to learn from it.

Moral Purpose – I think our management did a pretty good job at this component since before the migration; all of us have to attend a meeting. During the meeting, it describe about the project, including how its work, the timeline, our responsibility for this project……etc. All of us agree that the new system can really improve the efficiency of our job.

Understanding Change – For this point, I think our management understands what we are doing and our progress. Since there is a time-line report which all departments have to hand-in every week to keep monitoring the progress of the migration.

Relationship building – This is the most difficult part in my mind, since in business world, there are always a gap between your boss and you. For our company, I can say the relationship is not bad, but people are get used with it and do not do not step up to change the current situation.

Knowledge Creation and Sharing – New knowledge was created during the progress of our change, however, the knowledge did not share as what we expect, since everything is new for us, we are not able to share if we not sure it’s right or wrong. I think a sharing section is needed during the change, as it can let all of us to have a better understanding about where we are and what is the expectation among us.

Coherence making – For this component,  I can say the coherence were made in our company, since all departments are involved in the change and every time when we meet other departments, the first topic would be discussing about the migration. The atmosphere was built during this change and people are encouraging each other to complete the progress.

 

 

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