W13 Co-Op Work Term Requirement

REFLECTING ON TEAMWORK IN THE WORKPLACE

The co-op work term experience provides you with an opportunity to apply classroom learning in the workplace, to discover expectations of employers, and to further develop interpersonal skills. The accounting and financial management professions have determined that personal skills such as written and oral communication, analytical skills, awareness of professional ethics, and leading and participating in groups are equally as important as technical skills. We want to start developing good reflective practices on your work term placements. As we move forward with the implementation of a Learning Model within the School of Accounting and Finance, one set of outcomes addresses collaborative or teamwork skills. Skills included in this area include: functioning effectively as a team member, developing effective working relationships, and accepting constructive feedback. Since you started your program, these outcomes have been both central in a given course and secondary in other courses. These are the themes that will be interwoven into these two work term reflections, submitted during this work term; helping you demonstrate your progress in developing teamwork skills.

In the fall term of 2011, you benchmarked your teamwork skills through the completion of three reflections. In the course of completing these reflections you received reenforcing feedback, and you were asked to identify areas for personal improvement. In the winter term of 2012, you had additional opportunities to practice and reflect on your teamwork skills in SPCOM 111. During this co-op work term, you are expected to critically reflect upon teamwork skills in the workplace, building on your past experiences and integrating work term experiences with what has happened in the classroom. The team experiences should include both formal teams that you are part of and informal teams you may end up working in (most often the team will consist of you and your immediate supervisor). The first submission is a work in progress due Monday, February 25, 2013 and should be approximately 2 pages, single spaced. The final submission, due Tuesday May 7, 2013, should incorporate feedback from the work in progress reflection and should be 5 pages in length, single spaced. Take the time to properly lay-out and organize your reflections. Make sure to review them thoroughly to minimize grammatical and sentence structure errors so that the reviewers are focused on what you are saying. Significant errors of this type will result in a requirement to re-submit. About FeedbackYou will receive timely feedback on both reflections. The feedback on your mid-term reflection is formative in nature. This feedback will affirm the value of your opinions and provide a different perspective to your experiences. The feedback on your final reflection will be both formative and summative. Like your mid-term feedback, your reviewer will again provide you with their perspective on what you wrote. In

addition, this reflection has a summative component, as you will be awarded an evaluation. An evaluation above re-submit or unsatisfactory will be required for you to receive credit for this work term.

REFLECTION # 1
Due: Length:

MID-TERM WORK IN PROGRESS

February 25, 2013 2 pages (single spaced)

Submit through your ePortfolio This first reflection will require you to look back at your team experiences to date during the AFM program and connect them to your workplace team experiences. You should incorporate in your critical review, your thoughts from the reflections in AFM 131and SPCOM 111, including those team work skills you wanted to work on. How to Proceed Please deal with all the specific questions and requirements outlined in the points below. 1. Background

Begin by describing your workplace, to provide a context for your reflection. 2. Type your name and UWID at the top of the first page. Describe the team you are working with. The team may be a formal team, or it could be the group you have worked with, either regularly or periodically, over the first half of the work term. Also, describe what you have been doing on this work term to date. Keep this section brief; limit yourself to three to five sentences.

Stages of Team Development

Look back on your notes from AFM 131, that talk about the stages of team development forming, storming, norming, performing, transforming/adjourning. Reflect on the stages you have gone through to date with one or more of your teams (the focus should be on the earlier stages) Describe specific events that have happened in the stages you have experienced to date. Compare the time spent in a given stage with the time spent in the same stage during a course. Functioning Effectively as a Team Member

3.

Reflect on the following issues to assess your effectiveness.

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Describe the individual differences between team members. Site specific examples of how you have made a commitment to your team. How have any biases come into play in terms of team effectiveness? Provide specific examples of how all team members have or have not participated How have you been a good listener?

Developing Effective Working Relationships

Consider one of the key themes from SPCOM 111: the relationship between yourself and others. Reflect back on your experiences over the past 8 weeks. Describe any workplace incidents that have been a learning experience for you. What did you learn? How will your actions be impacted in the future? What insights have you had regarding the development of effective working relationships in the workplace.

5.

Your Personal Teamwork Question

Finally, to increase the relevance of reflecting on teamwork, Create your own reflection question on teamwork. This question will be answered as part of your Final Submission.

6.

Employer Feedback

Employer feedback on your teamwork skills will better inform your reflection. Therefore, include any employer feedback. (While your employer is not required to provide you with feedback at this time, you are encouraged to ask for some commentary on your performance so far.) If need be, advise the employer that they could choose to use the evaluation form supplied by Co-op, which can be accessed at http://www.cecs.uwaterloo.ca/pdfs/evaluation-form.pdf How does this feedback relate to your earlier comments on functioning effectively as a team member and developing effective working relationships?

7. For the Balance of the Work Term Finally, having had the experience of reflecting on your teamwork skills, once again, How are you going to use your discussion of your current co-op experiences to inform your self-awareness? What areas of your teamwork skills do you want to work on (support this discussion by providing specific instances of where something could have been handled better)? Provide specific plans on how you plan to work on these areas (you will be expected to report on your progress in your final reflection).

In discussing your plans apply the SMART approach specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and target date for completion.

8. What to Add to Your ePortfolio You should ensure that the following items are added to your ePortfolio: Any feedback that you have received from your employer. This reflection. The feedback you receive on this reflection.

REFLECTION # 2
Due: Length:

FINAL SUBMISSION

May 7, 2013 5 pages (single spaced)

Submit through your ePortfolio The final reflection will build upon your midterm reflection and focus on the second half of your work term. The quality will be enhanced if you refer explicitly to your midterm reflection and feedback, and the final evaluation you received from your employer. How to Proceed Please deal with all the specific questions and requirements outlined in the points below. 1. Background

Like you did for the first reflection, begin by describing your workplace, in order to provide a context for your reflection. Type your name and UW ID at the top of the first page. Describe the team you are working with. The team may be a formal team, or it could be the group you have worked with, either regularly or periodically, over the first half of the work term. Also describe what you have been doing in the last half of this work term. Keep this section brief; limit yourself to three to five sentences.

2. Stages of Team Development Reflect on the stages you have gone through since the midterm reflection with one or more of your teams.

Describe specific events that have happened in the stages you have experienced since the mid-term reflection (the focus should be on the later stages). How has the time spent on the individual stages, since the midterm reflection, compare with the time spent prior to the midterm reflection?

3. Functioning Effectively as a Team Member Refer back to your discussion on functioning effectively as a team member. Since the midterm reflection how have you improved your effectiveness as a team member? The areas where improvement could occur are: leveraging individual differences between team members, your commitment, dealing with your biases, getting all team members to participate, and listening skills. Use specific examples to support your points.

4. Developing Effective Working Relationships Refer back to your discussion on working relationships from your mid-term reflection. Discuss a situation that either demonstrated or questioned a working relationship. If you questioned the relationship, what would you do differently now, if you were faced with a similar situation?

5. Your Personal Teamwork Question You were asked to create your own question on teamwork as part of your initial submission. What is your response to this question?

6. Accepting Constructive Feedback You may have received feedback throughout this work term, and now have received formal feedback through the Co-op Evaluation form. What did you think about the feedback you received on the Interpersonal Behaviour component of the evaluation? How did this feedback compare to your own assessment of your teamwork skills, both from your reflections in AFM 131 and SPCOM 111, along with any teamwork experiences since then? Describe how this information might explain your interactions with and reactions to individuals in the workplace.

7.

Piece of Advice

Learning happens not only by looking forward but by reflecting on the past. Thinking back on this work term, what one piece of advice would you give to 2A students on how to develop their teamwork skills over their first work term?

8.

Re-visiting Your Individual Skills Worksheet / Valuable Learning Experience Referring to the Individual Skills Worksheet (attached), re evaluate yourself and respond to the requirement you see highlighted in red. Explain what you have found to be the most valuable learning experience in terms of teamwork in your program to date. This could be a particular course, a particular lecture, a particular incident that happened during your academic terms or during your work term. How have you used that experience to date? How will you use it in the future?

9.

Improving on Your Teamwork Skills

First look back on the balance of this work term. Then going forward, identify what you can do to improve your teamwork skills. Refer back to your plans from the mid-term reflection and comment on the progress you have made. How will the feedback you received from your employer and from the mid-point reflection impact your future plans? Going forward, what areas of your teamwork skills do you want to improve on, and what are your specific plans for improvement? (again, apply the SMART approach)

10. What to Add to Your ePortfolio You should ensure that the following items are added to your ePortfolio. The formal feedback you received from your employer. This reflection. The feedback you receive on this reflection.

INDIVIDUAL SKILLS WORKSHEET Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each of the following statements about your team related skills. Rate the items using the following scale: 1 = Strongly Disagree 4 = Strongly Agree

Highlight areas of growth in the past year and a half. How do you know that you am improving in the indicated area? I need to improve my Listening skills Skills to evaluate the performance of other team members Skills to provide constructive feedback to team members Skills to receive feedback from team members Coaching skills Negotiating skills Skills to communicate with other team members Skills to manage a team project Skills to be a team leader Skills to adapt to differences in team members work styles Skills to adapt to different cultural norms of team members 1 2 3 4