Collection of Reflective Statements

Amruth Ganesh

One of the famous Australian cricketer the world has seen is Ricky Thomas Ponting. He was captain of Australian cricket team. He captained test cricket between 2004 and 2011 and One day international cricket between the period 2002 and 2011. He is famous for his batting skills and is a right handed batsman. He is the 42^nd Test captain of the country (http://www.espncricinfo.com ‘Ricky Ponting’). Under his captainship Australia won world cups in 2003 and 2007. He was also the part of 1999 world cup match.

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Ponting started playing cricket from an early age and made his debut in 1992 for Tasmania. In 1995 made his debut in one day international match. It is not only batting skills he is famous for but also fielding and his aggressive captaincy. He is the only person who showed eagerness to lead the team when Australia was in search of replacement for the legendary captain Steve Waugh in 1994.

He is famous for his series of achievements. He has won Allan Border Medal four times (http://www.edubilla.com ‘Ricky Ponting’). He is one of the four players who have scored 13000 test runs in the history. He is the only cricketer who has bagged most test victories (48 out of 77 tests) and world cup as a captain. His Concentration on the game was amazing and never used to get distracted. Though his temperament was high during the matches, he was successful in managing his team.

In 2012, Ponting announced his retirement from test cricket one day before the test against South Africa. He played his last one day international match on February 2012 and his last test cricket on December 2012. He will always be remembered as the most successful captain of all the time.

References:

1. ‘Ricky Ponting’ Available at: [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]
2. ‘List of Ricky Ponting’s achievements and statistics’ Available at: http://www.gutenberg.us/articles/list_of_ricky_ponting’s_achievements_and_statistics [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]
3. ‘Most successful captain, but not much love for Ponting’ Available at: [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]

Reflection Essay 2: Workplace Culture

I am from India. I have worked in India for about 3 years after graduation before coming to Australia for post graduation. I can now make out some of the noticeable changes comparing both countries in terms of workplace culture.

In Australia more preference is given to balanced work life irrespective of the jobs. The average working hours per week varies around 40 hours (http://www.abs.gov.au ‘Trends in hours worked’). While in India we work for minimum 48 hours per week and sometimes it will go up to till 55 hours. Hierarchy structure in India varies from job to job and is pretty high when compared to Australia.

Staying back late in the office is common in India. In Australia they maintain strict timings and usually people won’t make it late to the office and rarely they stay back late in the evenings (https://www.canstar.com.au ‘What is Australia’s working culture like?’). The breaks given during office hours are less in Australia when compared to India where we get more break timings. The main policy which fascinated me the more is about dignity of labor here in Australia. No work is less; no work is more, is the motto here. All occupations are treated equally here where whereas in India prominence is not given that much to the dignity of labor. This is one of the main barrier that is hindering the work productivity. Usually people are respected based on type of occupation and sometimes people think twice before doing the jobs like drivers, waiters and house help.

On the whole, both countries have their own set of workplace culture. Changing the work style of a country and adapting to it takes time. These work policies should be reviewed from time to time to ensure smooth work life balance.

References:

1. Available at:
2. ‘Australia culture in the workplace’ Available at: [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]
3. ‘Cultural Differences between India and Australia’ Available at: [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]

Reflection essay 3: The evolution of social media channels

Social media is mainly a public platform to interact and connect with people through web-based technology. Social media channels contribute majorly in exchange of ideas between the people. Some of the examples are Facebook, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and so on. Today LinkedIn has more than 297 million members (http://www.digitaltrends.com ‘The history of social networking’).

Communication between the people has become more convenient nowadays through these channels when compared to earlier times. Earlier it was more tedious process to connect with people more often. The evolution of social media has made a significant impact in the recent days. It has changed the way the people communicate with each other. These channels has become boon to marketing people. Marketing in these channels are free and reaches more people globally when compared to old traditional methods. Movie promotions go viral on these channels.  It’s a good platform for new talents to showcase their skills. One of major benefit of these channels are exposure to more job opportunities and searching job has been made easier through these channels. The Sensis Social media report shows that 50 percent of users are accessing social media every day (http://www.shortpress.com “How the evolution of social media has changed Australian small business“).

On the other hand there is significant number of drawbacks for these channels. Cyber bullying in the recent times have been increased and adults are more likely to get affected by this. More addiction to this social media will likely cause depression among people. Trolling and harassment cases have also been increasing. Hacking has become another major problem these days. There is considerable amount of threat if these channels are not used properly.

Social media has become part of our life now. This has both advantages disadvantages. We always should be looking forward to make best out of this. We should not get addicted to this and should make proper use of these channels.

References:

1. ‘5 Social-Media Opportunities Businesses Mostly Overlook‘ Available at:   [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]
2. ‘Social media best practice for business’ Available at: [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]
3. ‘7 Social Media Challenges And Business Opportunities For Social Media Managers‘ Available at: [Accessed 04 Mar. 2017]

Reflection essay (Workshop 2)

In Week 2 class professor explained about the importance of communication skill. I learnt how useful communication is, in exchanging ideas and information from one another which helps us to grow personally and also professionally.

I also learnt about three different types of communication that is verbal, nonverbal and graphic communication. There are two types of communication in the workplace namely formal and Informal way of communication. Also I learnt when and where to use this particular type of communication.  During this, one guy in the class raised a question that whether gender needs to considered as a part of communication, later which professor clarified by saying it needs to be considered. Professor also taught about types of nonverbal messages and classification of nonverbal communication.

Main pillars of the constructive and effective communication are Ask, Look and Listen. One more important thing I learnt is listening is more important than speaking because we receive information when we listen. Professor stressed more on Active listening which is necessary to become an effective communicator and it also encourages the person on the other side. Also came to know about the listening funnel, forms of questioning and also types of questions. Professor made us understand the importance of seven elements of communication process and different causes for communication barriers. Social networking platforms play an important role in communication. I understood the need of behaving ethically while business communication.

Overall the session was more interacting one and professor encouraged each and everyone to actively participate in the learning and discussion. Also professor allowed us to discuss on case studies and guided us about assignments.

Case Study 1:

1. Bernie has to apologize to Nicola for not appreciating the work she has done. He must assure her this won’t be repeated again in the future and should convince her to continue working. He should ask here to be bold enough in raising her questions and clarifying them, so that it will be easy to resolve the conflicts.

2. I would suggest Bernie to have more frequent interaction with Nicola and should try to understand her concerns regarding the work. He should avoid thanking her when she is alone instead he should appreciate her work in front of everyone and should also contribute by helping her in the work, which makes Nicola more confident and will be happy to continue work with him.

3. Nicola should first listen with open mind while she is being instructed and should ask whatever doubts she has and must clarify at the end before starting up the work. She should stop talking to herself and start raising concerns if she is feeling something is not going right. This way she can work with clear mind and will be more confident.

Q2:

1.

• Maintain eye contact with speaker
• Ensure correct posture
• Be attentive and don’t get distracted
• Keep an open mind
• Respond appropriately
• Don’t interrupt or suggest in the middle
• Use mirroring of some facial expression of the speaker
• Ask relevant questions
• Try to feel what speaker is feeling
• Summarize back to the speaker
• Give feedback to the speaker

2.

3. In a workplace my active listening skill will show that I am a good listener and it also shows my interest towards the work. It makes an impression that I am respecting my co-workers and also helps me in gaining their trust. It also helps in solving the conflicts between one another by encouraging them to speak openly. It gives better insight in understanding the problems and thus enabling me to provide best and suitable solutions to it. It helps me in noting down few points regarding what happened in meeting and thus helps me gain better understanding and remember them, so that feedback can be given and questions can be raised at the end of the meeting.