Essay Writing Service

Essays We Developed: Check samples developed by our writers ...

> Here you will find an extract from a sample essay written by one of our writers from the field of Economics. We have posted these papers online to give our customers a general idea of what kind of services we offer. Please remember that all essays posted on this website belong our company and can be used for educational purposes only.

> Economics: Individual Performance In Organization

> Requirements: Summarize overall strengths and weaknesses and using this information, complete an Individual Development Plan. For each of these profiles, relate how you would capitalize on your strengths and improve on your weaknesses. You develop should be an action plan with timelines and expected results toward improving your overall capabilities as an individual performance in organization.

Include in your Individual Development Plan the results from and analysis of: 1. Leadership style and effectiveness, 2. Team member capabilities, 3. Communication style, 4. Individual performance capabilities.

> Project Developed:

Introduction.

The corporate world has always been perceived as a sector offering some of the best opportunities (in terms of career and personal development) for individuals having the traits and the will it takes to succeed. However, the admired flair and the glossy appearance attached to it would at times allow some unscrupulous and outright mediocre managers free-ride on the glory that others had labored to secure. Clearly, it's the visionary managers who really had the idea and the inspiration over and above their Ivy Leage MBA education, it's the strategic thinkers who made the sector blossom. Now, I would never attempt to downplay the importance of the millions of small businesses that have contributed billions to the nation's net worth growth annually. And nor would I deceive myself into overstating my own capabilities. Yet, each and every one of us has some edge that they would do wise to build upon in setting their life goals and even lifetime plans like career and ongoing education. No one can accomplish it all if only for lack of time: there's twenty-four hours in a day no matter how much more time you might want.

In writing up an individual development plan, I therefore would start off by setting an objective or a set of objectives that could be of huge importance in spanning my lifetime. Rather than providing a wishful-thinking list of all there is I would like to be, I will outline a major goal and shape the detail around it. If one is identified, the other objectives as well as specific steps will likely need to be set so as to support it. They should be treated as auxiliary to it, and as complementary between themselves rather than independent.

Long-Term Objective.

I feel within myself certain potential capabilities that could best be utilized in the area of business consulting. These abilities are not necessarily strong already, or for that matter stronger than any other's. In comparative terms, though, they are my potential fortes that point out a direction in which I would rather (and perhaps fastest) move and where I could achieve a successful and happy standing. In particular, I guess I would choose consulting in the field of strategic management. Now, an occupation like that does sound very challenging (and quite ambitious), as it really takes a top-notch expertise in a number of areas. I do realize I'm going to have to work very hard in order to build the resources it takes to make a difference in the field chosen. I do also feel, though, that this particular choosing might turn out something extremely rewarding and stimulating, which outcome would seem to justify the investment and the commitment.

Zooming in on Objective.

A professional business consultant must possess a rich background and a solid work experience in a relevant area. He or she must also have developed an edge which makes them stand out and qualify them to really have the moral authority to advise to others in building and maintaining their competitive advantage with whatever resources available. While the more renowned consulting companies have on staff an army of specialized experts depending on the job's nature, there exist some extremely complex problems that call for a group of experts to cooperate and complement each other in coming up with the ultimate solution. Without question, team work is essential here. While it is an all-necessary prerequisite (which makes the largest consultancies stand out because they can afford to have a full-fledged staff), it is far from sufficient, as oftentimes a problem will involve some versatility and overlap for effective communication. Strategic management is exactly the area where versatility and an ability to see the 'big picture' is all-invaluable.

Technical Constraints and Prerequisites.

I realize I will need to plan an ambitious learning program to encompass the core of business-relevant education. Some of the critical areas I will likely need some training could be as diverse as accounting and corporate finance, fundamentals of marketing and marketing management, organizational behavior and production/operations management, and information systems to name just a few. I will also need to master effective communication skills, which constitutes an integral part of interpersonal and problem-solving mechanism of team work.

Timelines.

Although I will not be in a position to outline my entire career well into the future, I do intend to provide a tentative time schedule to allocate the scarce resource of time among the concrete short-term steps required to secure the strategic objective.

Individual Resources: Budgeting.

In order to implement a major investment project, which my career objective most certainly is, I will need to examine my inventory of resources--strengths (edges) and weaknesses, well-pronounced propensities and desirable qualities yet to be developed. First and foremost, it is absolutely vital to identify the necessary and sufficient resources involved, then compare these against those possessed. Even if some traits are lacking, an explicit and clear knowledge of these limitations points out the unambiguous direction for improvement. Not so with weaknesses unrealized, though. Therefore, knowing (and learning about) oneself is extremely important. It would be a fallacy to predict that you "know" yourself solely because you are predictable for yourself. For one, you might not in fact be as predictable in situations you've not found yourself in: you never know what choice you'll make until you face a problem. What's more, it is very important to know yourself explicitly and not just intuitively, which involves a very precise type of knowledge--literally identifying patterns and elements, as well as taxonomies as to whichever ones are opposites and whatever mixed types result from elementary or pure types. Finally, apart from weaknesses or relative inadequacies, it could pay stating whatever ambiguities or uncertainties might apply to planning. Similarly, anytime I'm not sure how do I go about implementing this and that, I should say it.

Leadership Patterns.

According to a widely used classification, leadership comes in three distinct (yet perhaps complementary rather than alternative) forms: vision, structure, and accountability. The visionary leader tends to view problems as opportunities (potential for improvement), and mistakes as one source of learning. He or she is reasonably tolerant to ambiguity and is not risk (or reform) averse. I like to think of myself as identifying, at least potentially, with these people who are creative and critical thinkers open to alternatives and challenge. Much in line with their maxim, I feel excited most of the time about developing a vision of a big picture, yet my weakness lies in disregard for detail, knowingly or otherwise. That could be a serious constraint if I was to plan a consulting career in a field such as audit. Hopefully, though, it could be less than relevant in strategic management, so I wouldn't waste my time resource seeking to meet this non-binding constraint. One thing I cannot bypass, though, is that pretty much the same weakness will likely compromise my ability to actually implement my plans. So, I should switch part of the focus away from optimizing my strategic plans and more into seeing it right through. In other words, I should pay more heed to short term planning (which in a sense involves more focus on detail).

The pure visionary leader type will encourage involvement on the part of all active team members, and will stand ready to incur the cost of experimenting. That's a big problem with me, as my perfectionism just won't let me delegate some responsibilities to others who in my opinion could screw up some important part or stage. I do realize that in organizations, the top manager cannot possibly afford that much centralization of decision making or problem solving, as that would result in huge waste of time while some managerial resources would remain idle. I know my priority is learning to delegate and mind the ultimate top performance, rather than individual pieces of it. I do realize that's in fact what team play is about: creating a top team of mutually supportive members each viewing the others as important partners and individual work as just an input not final product, no matter how perfect it is. Although these considerations appear quite reasonable to me in the long-run, I find it very difficult to trust others commitment for pedagogical purposes when the cost of failure (mistake) is huge. So, I will need to resolve this controversy between my being a long-term team player yet a committed individualist in the short-run.

Another leadership type is structure-driven, which suggests a strong team player, reliable rule observer, and a valuable problem solver. While the first part of this description does not exactly qualify me (and might be more or less necessary to develop, depending on what functional role I will end up playing), the second part clearly pertains to what I would like to identify with. I was quite surprised, though, to learn that this particular type refers to people who are apt synthesizers of various viewpoints capable of identifying and resolving conflicts. As far as the problem-solving aspect is concerned, that might apply to me, yet less so when it comes to practical ability. Although it might pay to build a stronger implementing capacity here, I do not believe that could be either relevant for conceptual type work or be conducive in mingling with the vision type which appears more appealing to me. It would seem that, while structure type leaders act to cement the organization's performance and team spirit, it's the visionaries who really give it a spin.
Finally, the accountability persons tend to motivate others by enthusing them with a strong and lasting sense of duty, and volunteer to delegate and monitor. They feel they must secure the ends by all means, though they do manage to pick the win/win solutions. They set well-defined performance benchmarks and make constraints binding, which has a positive effect on team work. All of this, goes without saying, makes a difference when it comes to timely delivery of a quality consulting project as a joint effort of many experts. However, I am a bit skeptical I would want involvement in managerial functions with an emphasis like this. Moreover, the unconditional and means-indiscriminate end targeting could actually involve occasional wastes and even managerial myopia. For instance, a better bottom line might only be assured at a much higher risk--so that performance will be much more uncertain and possibly costly in the long-run. If such leaders are prone to cooking more Enrons, I would think twice before planning to build qualities like these.

Communication Styles.

There are the two extremes: the passive and the aggressive. The former involves a lower self-esteem and perception of relative rights and importance. It translates into a sense of personal inferiority and failure to seize the initiative. It also distorts the incentives compatibility in that a person says different thane he feels, and regrets favors he has done due to being incapable of saying no. The other extreme makes one downplay the importance of other's jobs and consequently of their rights. Perceived functional inferiority of others makes the leader very reluctant in delegating responsibilities, hearing alternative opinions, or allowing to seize the initiative. While the passive type, I hope, does not characterize me in major ways, I would hate to think of becoming an aggressive, authoritarian type manager either. Yet, as I have mentioned earlier, my perfectionism and conservativism in switching the means (solutions) might look quite akin to that. This makes my to-improve agenda grow, as I will need to fight these weaknesses that yield devastating losses in the long run no matter what cost they might occasionally spare. Myopic attitude is perhaps the most dangerous limitation in strategic management and consulting alike.

The third type can be thought of as a balanced tossup in between the two extremes, or indeed as a standalone pole. It describes a leader with adequate self-esteem and recognition of own as well as others' strengths and limitations, and results in an optimum delegating of responsibilities for top synergy. It's called an assertive style, and some qualities I will have to learn and characteristic of it are good communication and interpersonal skills, ability to persuade, and to get my ideas across effectively and without suppressing others' opinion. A consultancy team involves a group of high-expertise players, in which light an overly opinionated and individualistic (let alone aggressive or authoritarian) stance on the leader's part is counter-conducive if at all applicable. The leader, of course, is not a purely administrative figure either, and his or her ambition is being able to see the big picture that only he/she can obtain--but not unless they manage to organize the research process of others.

Summary.

The above-stated considerations will now be organized in a synopsis or an operational plan (using a top-down approach), with tentative timelines attached.

(1) Long-Term Objective: A career in business consulting, emphasis preferably being on strategic management.

(2) Details:

(a) Multi-facet research and analytic work involving high-level and versatile expertise and possibly a solid work experience in at least some of the areas.
(b) A tentative scope of competences involves, yet is not restricted to, disciplines as diverse as accounting, corporate finance, marketing management, operations management, economic analysis and quantitative methods, as well as functional familiarity with information technologies.
(c) Although one alternative is to hire the multiple specialized experts and secure adequate team work, that does not make for personal cross-training and adequate education.

(3) Education.

Since I already know a career of my choosing, I can confidently choose my major, and I do have some idea of what curriculum I would rather undertake. It will like comprise a well-rounded structure of subjects (the ones pertaining to the key competences) about equally sharing in credit obtained. That will take a total of about four years, to be supplemented with graduate-level education after a few years' experience.

(4) Experience.

Experience per se should be treated qualitatively, rather than in terms of years worked. By that, I mean it's the knowledge and expertise as well as flexibility and ability to learn/adapt that counts in the end. Certain resumes might feature a twenty-year experience as a bookkeeper that wasn't very opportune in terms of personal development. Upon graduating college, I plan the following:

(a) Work for two years in the corporate finance department with a non-financial company. That would give me a feel for ways in which this function complements other core themes, such as sales, marketing, budgeting, and organizational behavior.
(b) Work for another two years in projects involving cross-departmental team work. That would clarify my knowledge of each department's specifics, by better realizing the distinctions and sources of conflict.
(c) I will need that experience before enrolling in a reputable MBA program, to fully appreciate the more advanced tools to be learned and utilized every bit.

(5) Graduate-Level Training.

An advanced training will be needed as a next-level iteration of skill building, as I believe that learning is in fact cyclical rather than purely sequential, and should therefore be ongoing.

(6) Operational (Short-Term or specific) Plan: Inventory and Budgeting of Resources.

(a) I will need to learn skills which would solidify my overall capacity as a visionary leader: fight perfectionism, delegate responsibilities, critical and non-myopic selection through alternative solutions and means, and tolerance for mistakes to assure learning for the whole of the team. I plan to hone these skills over the course of the next two years, though as I said before, it is okay if the individual timelines overlap ...

Research & Writing Service: Order your own custom-made essay ...

If you are ready to order your very own, professionally written essay, just click on this custom writing link to submit the request form. We write essays on all topics and subjects. Don't wait to the last minute, use our writing service today!

> Need an Essay? Order It Now!

Available Live Support: 24/7 immediate customer support ...

For more information regarding our writing services, please contact our customer support. We are happy to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

> Customer Support Page

> Telephone Hotline

> Frequently Asked Questions