Assessment #3 - 3 Reflective pieces
Purpose
The capacity to reflect is an important element of professional life. It enhances the capacity to evaluate current knowledge and to understand and accept personal weaknesses and strengths. This assignment will enable you to develop critical reflection skills and recognise the value of critical reflection in professional life.
Task Description
The assignment requires the writing of three short reflective pieces. Each piece will reflect on a specific content within the course. The three pieces in total should not exceed 2000 words.
Each piece requires you to bring together:
1. information from relevant readings
2. concepts from the relevant part of the course
3. personal experience
Turn these over in your mind and reflect on the topic, and write in the first person about your considered view.
The total word length for this assignment is 2000 words. You may choose to allocate approximately equal words to each of the three pieces.
Specific information about the 3 reflective pieces
You are required to write three separate reflective pieces for this assignment:
1. The first reflective piece requires you to reflect on "whether (or not) corporations can be a force for good."
Information: One suggested reading is Adi Ignatius' interview with Unilever CEO Paul Polman, 'Captain Planet' (2012), Harvard Business Review, vol. 90, no. 6, pp. 112 - 118. You may, however, also choose to anchor your reflection in any of the other readings from the unit.
Way of making sense: Useful conceptual background might come from the segments of the course which discuss sustainability and ethics.
Personal experience: This may be experiences you have had or experiences of other people where corporations have (or have not) contributed to societal good.
2. The second reflective piece requires you to reflect on "what does being ethical mean for you in your chosen profession."
Information: If you are already a member of a profession such as the accounting profession, the careers workbook might help you identify the values that are important for that profession. If you are not already a member of a profession the careers workbook might help you identify the profession that you seek to join. In either case you can then reflect on whether these values encourage being ethical. A suggested reading is John Mackey's 'The kind of capitalist you want to be' (2013) Harvard Business Review, vol. 91, no. 1, p. 34. You may, however, also choose to anchor your reflection in any of the other readings from the unit.
Way of making sense: Useful conceptual background might come from the segment of the unit which discusses being professional or from the part on ethics.
Personal experience: This may be experience of people, from your profession, who have (or have not) acted ethically
3. The third reflective piece requires you to reflect on how dsifferent cultures or philosophies respond to business.
Information: A suggested reading is Andrew Molinsky's 'Code switching between cultures' (2012), Harvard Business Review, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. 140-141. This is one of the eReadings. You may, however, also choose to anchor your reflection in any of the other readings from the unit.
Way of making sense: Useful conceptual background is provided by the segments of the course which discuss the history of business and being professional around the world.
Personal experience: You can draw from personal life events/experiences/situations. You may also want to discuss your own expereince workin g in different cultures or with people from different cultures.
Reflective writing records the writer’s thoughts about individual learning and experience. Whenever you use ideas from a source, reference them using the UniSA version of the Harvard Guide.
Resources
A number of resources are available to assist you with this assignment:
1. There is a comprehensive Help resource for Assignment 3 in the Assessments block on the course website.
2. Relevant elements of the textbook include (but are not limited to) chapters 3, 5, 7 and 9.
3. There will be exercises in class to assist students in understanding the concept of reflection and to provide an opportunity to practise reflective writing. This will occur before the first piece entry need be written.
4. The Learning and Teaching Unit has a number of resources specifically addressing the practice of reflection, as well as an item on reflective journals in its Assessment study guide series.
5. The online resource ‘An introduction to reflective practice’ includes a section on reflective writing and is available from the Assignment help link.
Submission instructions
The assignment must then be submitted through the learnonline site. Complete the rubrics at the bottom of the feedback form to indicate your self evaluation of the assignment against the criteria. The feedback forms are available from the learnonline site.
