Answer 1.

If I could describe my life as a student in a word, I would call it satisfactory. I

born and brought up in the eastern part of Nepal and received primary
education in the local school in the village. However my parents have lived in
a village and are not highly educated, they are very supportive for children’s
education. Their only means of happiness has become their children’s
progress and education. I still remember that day when I passed school
leaving certificate in the first division. That news had brought huge satisfaction
to my parents. After completion of the primary schooling, I moved to city for
higher education. In the beginning, city life was not easy to cope. The sudden
change of location had troubled me for long time. Those were released after I
had admission in one of the reputed school in Kathmandu called Podmadaya
High School for my secondary education. But, my progress in education was
not satisfactory in secondary level education in the beginning of city life. I had
inferior complexity which hindered in my progression and achievements. I was
an excellent student in the primary school and that kind of complexity had
never observed before. But, when I came to city, my simple living style did not
actually fit with sophistically lived friends and my unreasonable attachment
towards brands and expensive products eroded my sincere interest in
education and achievements. Many times I ended up playing cricket and
roaming around with city guys. Due to the zero time management skills, I put
myself into the study tables for hours before exam and sat for the test with
anxieties and fear. However, I got through the secondary education and
joined college for further education.

I got all way through certificate level to master’s degree in English literature in
the same college known as Ratna Rajya Laxmi College. The disease of
inferior complexity had vanished while studying in the certificate level. I was
very popular among friends. Whether it be organising events, college tours
and games, I used to stood first in the class. However, I was not that much
interested in studies. Actually, I was not entirely satisfied with the teaching
methodology of the college. As a student, I used to understand better when
classroom are more interactive and things are explained to me in an
interesting way. This was not the tradition in that college. There were many
students in the class and one by one attention was impossible to provide for
each students. Finally, I made up to the bachelors degree and master’s
degree and then started my working life.

I learnt many things from secondary and higher education. I learnt to plan and
organised things and also my sound knowledge in English language provides
me opportunity to work in the tourism industry. I am happy with my working
life and advancement in career. My career progression was important to me,
which has started with the front office role in a tourism sector after my
graduate studies and followed by office assistant and tour executive. My
experience with Yeti Tours and Travel, a reputed tour and travel operator, can
be defined as an eye-opening which opened my eyes to start and run my own
businesses. I opened a Travel agency, known as Queensland Travel & Tours
and operated as a sole business. I also opened an English school to
communicate my passion with the English literature which is still functioning
well with 650 students and is managed by my wife. My passion of
understanding and operating business grows in the later stage of life and I
made a decision to study and learn business in the UK.

I am a kind of optimistic person and desire to attain success in life. I believe

life is a journey of self discovery. I born as a peasant, grew up and taught
English literature, and discovered myself as a businessman. My thirst of
exploring new areas of life and learning opportunities has never satiated.

Answer 2.

In an organisational context, personal audit is concerned with the assessment

of competencies and characteristics of a personal working in the organisation
to meet overall organisational goals and objectives (David, 2007). The
purpose of the personal audit is to identify ones strengths and weaknesses,
which provides a better measurement of personal and professional priorities
and can be used to improve individual performance in the future (Internal
auditing & business risk, 2006).
Every person has personal inventory which includes abilities, attitudes,
interests and values and can be used to analyse strengths and weaknesses.
It is very important to find a match between ones strengths and the expected
job role. Certainly, the more we know about ourselves, the easier will be job
search or job interview or even writing curriculum vitae. This will not only help
to identify personal strengths but also help to make a contribution in the job.

Career Planning Series of University of Houston note that personality and

attitudinal strengths are the two most important factors which determine ones
happiness and success in the job. Furthermore, such personality and
attitudinal strengths are classified into several categories such as: able to
concentrate, enthusiastic, punctual, able to manage stress, friendly, quick,
accurate, quite etc. (see pp. 2)

I am a kind of realistic, kind, adaptable, self-motivated and determined,

reliable, risk-taking person. Knowing that my strengths lie in the ability and
passion in taking risk, my chosen goal is to explore the uncertainties, study
and analyse the alternatives and make decisions to invest. I have obtained
very good results while investing in businesses in Nepal. I had also proved my
reliability and self-motivation while working with travel and tours and Hotel. In
addition, I am also kind, adaptable, gregarious and reliable person.

On the other side, I also have some weaknesses. Time management has
always been a problem for me. However, I have improved a lot after coming in
the UK. I also get nervous and around new people and takes time to cope in
their cultural settings. I am also a sensitive and too helpful person. I often take
things to heart when things are left undone or dong in wrong way. My too
helpful and too friendly behaviour had become problematic to me in previous
jobs and work experience which often left me undone to my own projects
while doing college assignments. The table below provides the list of
strengths and weaknesses as person.
Strengths:- Weakness:-
1. Realistic 1. Poor time management
2. Kind 2. Getting nervous with new people
3. Adaptable and culture
4. Self-motivated 3. Too helpful and Sensitive
5. Reliable
6. Risk taking
Answer 3

Present a SWOT analysis of yourself in the context of your career pursuits in

management and leadership.

SWOT analysis

Personal SWOT analysis consists of identifying and assessing individual

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is important for the
organisation and employee to conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis can
help to maintain competitive advantage in the organisation specially, during
layoffs or rightsizing in the company. According to Mallory (2000), as cited in
Dougherty et al (2008) during hard time in the company, a SWOT analysis
can be a great idea to discover unique qualities among the employees.
Employees or associates can turn layoffs or rightsizing situation in an
opportunity to effectively market themselves as potential candidates by
conducting a personal SWOT analysis to evaluate their technical skills, career
goals and management strategies (ibid). Therefore, in the context of career
pursuits in management and leaderships, personal competitive advantage is
necessary to develop, which starts with the personal SWOT analysis.

Personal SWOT Analysis:

In the past, SWOT analysis is mainly used by companies. They use SWOT
analysis recognize their strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities
and threats. By following exactly the same idea, employees and associates
can do their SWOT analysis in relation to their careers. This will not only
provide the analysis of knowledge but also the ability to effectively speak an
employees worth to a company. This will help associates to prepare
themselves for management and leadership positions and other new positions
out the organisations (Dougherty et al., 2008).
Strengths

Identifying strengths is often considered as the easiest task in personal

SWOT analysis. But, it can be difficult if a person does not maintain honest
and realistic evaluation while constructing a SWOT analysis (Dougherty et al.,
2008). My strengths in relation to the management and leadership’s career
prospects can be my knowledge in management and leaderships, analytical,
problem solving skills and human skills which I gained partly by education and
partly by job experiences at various places.

Weaknesses

As pointed by (Buhler, 1997), personal weaknesses are not easily identified

that strengths as they are not visible to the employee or SWOT analyser at
the first glance. But, once it is identified, steps should be taken to improve it.
In regard to the career of management and leaderships, my weaknesses can
be effective time management skills and computing skills, especially my
understanding in spreadsheets and other useful computer programme.

Opportunities

Buhler (1997, pp 11) notes, “opportunities are identified by scanning the

environment to see what is available” Identifying opportunities is an important
for associates or employees in the case of layoffs or rightsizing. Scanning the
environment can help employee locate the opportunities of his area of interest
when current position will terminate in the process of rightsizing or layoffs.
Eliminating weaknesses and matching strengths to opportunities can create
personal competitive advantage (ibid). In regard to the career of management
and leaderships, my opportunity analysis will not be limited to only one
industry. I would be looking opportunities in wide variety of industry because
nowadays ‘skills are transferable in wide variety of industries’ Dougherty et al.,
(2008).
Threats

Threats are those challenges or obstacle that may hinder career objectives. In
this respect, obstacles can be the behaviour of supervisor in an ASDA store
who does not always support with the employee’s view. This will create the
hindrances in the process of employee’s growth in the organisation. Matching
weaknesses to threats can formulate personal competitive disadvantage
which need to be eliminated to remain competitive. Therefore, identifying
threat is also important to identify the areas of improvement and guard from
future threats. My threats to pursuit the career in management and
leaderships can be my financial situation which may create hindrances in the
process of gaining further management and technical skills to remain
competitive. Similarly, supervisor support, experiences, and family
responsibility can also deter my path to success in management and
leaderships.

Answer 4

Planning refers to the choices of action and which is constrained by the

resources. Planned objectives in personal life cannot be achieved without
effective time and resource planning. Therefore, it is very important to allocate
time and plan resources to meet the planned objectives (Mullins, 2005).

Generally there are two basic approaches for time management. The first
approach involves hope that there is enough time to do everything. People
adopting this time management strategy will end up of having no time at all in
anything and become stressed. The second approach of time management
involves taking control of time. People who follow this time management
strategy will finish tasks before deadline and benefit in many ways. Controlling
time therefore helps them to reduce unnecessary anxieties and stress.
Therefore, time management is an important skill which involves using time
wisely to become organised, efficient and stress free. Due to the poor time
management well feel stressed that is we have to do all in short period of time
which led us to fall behind the responsibilities and we feel like not having
enough time for anything. Time management is very much concerned in
today’s organisations where managers are trained with effective time
management skills to reduce wastages. Like a business plan plays vital role in
meeting organisational goals and objectives, time and resource planning
plays important role in personal life to achieve personal short term and long
term goals and objectives. Time and resource planning guide can be
described as list of methodological and ordered set of plans which helps a
person to realise his/her set goals and objectives by inter personal and
professional development. It includes various resources, activities,
achievements and time frame (ibid).

Mullins (2005) argues that when a person has specialised goals, it is very
important to become aware of time and make good use of available resources
and, only combination of effective time and resource management and
planning will lead to the greater performance in the task. He notes that these
factors are milestones to personal success. In this regard, time and resource
planning guide can be an important tool to achieve my short term and long
term goals. A brief report is provided below:

Year Activities/resources Achievements goals

Sep PgDip class, assignments/ Knowledge and Enrolment in
2009 course works (3 module) expertise gaining MBA
programme
(mid term goals)
Feb PgDip class (3 modules) Successful Enrolment in
2010 completion in 3 MBA
modules
April PgDip class (rest modules) Knowledge in Enrolment in
2010 management and MBA
research
Aug/Sep • PgDip completion • Enrolment Post Study
2010 in MBA Work
opportunities
Sep • MBA start • Knowledge (medium term
2010 sharing goal)
and
education
April • MBA completion • MBA
2011 dissertation

June- Internships Good on the work -

July 201- experience
June Completion of PSW Develop potential
2012
Aug Search for career jobs New experience Start a project
2012 in job hunting manager job.

Figure: Personal time and resource planning guide.

Answer 5.

Write a brief description of management styles and analyze where you would
fit in best and what you would require to be a highly effective management or
business professional, with abilities to lead others to greater professional
development within an organization.

Management styles mainly refer two important aspects of managing people.

First, it indicates which personal style should managers use to guarantee
success in the organisation? Second, it seeks to find the most effective
approach of managing subordinate’s work. The answer of these questions,
however, have been extensively research, is not found yet by management
gurus. They argue that there is no single idea of management as the best
approach which is considered to be the best, may not fit in all kind of
situations. However, the general consensus of management which began with
command and control mechanisms changed towards more participative and
consultative management approaches. (CMI institute, n.d)

Therefore, management style is concerned with how the managers use their
manner to exercise their authority in the work place and make sure that that
will achieve best objectives. Basically, it is related how mangers plan and
organise their work and job functions and how they correspond their action
plan to subordinates. In this regard, the key parts of management styles
consist of attitudes and behaviours of managers (ibid).

Some of the best know Models of Management styles as provided by the

Chartered Institute of Management are as follows:

1. Behavioural management

These styles of management, which are primarily focus on behaviour, are

developed by Rensis Likert in the University of Michigan. It comprises four
different styles of management namely: exploitative / authoritative, benevolent
/ authoritative, consultative and participative.

In authoritative/exploitative style managers has little trust to their subordinates

and get the work done by using punishment and fear measures. In
benevolent/authoritative management the mangers has some trust with the
subordinates but also uses fears and punishment measures to accomplish the
tasks. Whereas, consultative and participative management styles are more
of democratic nature. In consultative management style managers shows
confidence towards its subordinates and seeks their opinions and ideas in
decision making process but hold decision making power with them.
Participative management style is more democratic than consultative style. In
participative management a manager trust their subordinates fully and seeks
their active participation them while setting goals (ibid).

2. Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X and Theory Y is based on the beliefs of Douglas McGregor on

manager assumptions towards human nature. Theory X is sort of autocratic
management style which suggests that ‘human being have an inherent dislike
of work so they need to be directed and controlled if they are to achieve
objectives’. Whereas, theory Y is more of participative and consultative
nature. It sees work as natural part of life through which human being gains
satisfaction and motivated towards work when they will be given respect and
recognition in the organisation (ibid). McGregor notes that however both
theories could be used, theory Y is the best option for managers as it leads to
the high level of motivation and job performance.

3. The managerial grid

The managerial grid is developed by the Robert R Blake and John S Mouton
in 50’s and 60s. It identified two drivers of managerial behaviour: ‘concern for
getting the job done and concern for the people involved’. The managerial grid
seeks to find how these two concerns affect the individual’s management
styles. Such management styles are provided in nine by nice grid which
consists of five basic management styles (ibid). They are:

1. Improvised management: consists of low level of concerns about the tasks

and the people. Job is getting done by doing enough.

2. Authority obedience: consists of high level of concerns for both people and
the tasks. Job is getting done by using traditional controlling measures which
can damage relationships of managers and supervisors.

3. Country club leaderships: consists of high level of concerns towards people

but low level towards to job. This style may create warm and friendly working
environment but at the high cost.

4. Team management: consists of high level of concern towards the tasks but
low level towards the people. It has potential of high achievement and
considered as ‘most effective style of management’ (ibid).

5. Middle of the road management: consists of moderate level of concerns for

both tasks and the people. This style however, tries to obtain the balance
between work and performance, end up by generating status quo rather than
the completion of the tasks and success in the organisation

In relation to behavioural management, I would fit best to the consultative

style of management. I do believe in consultations with subordinates but, also
think that the decision making power should remain with the management.

In relation to the McGregor X and Y theory, I support Y theory of

management. I firmly believe that work in natural part of daily life and human
being wants to gain satisfaction on what they do. Satisfaction in work is very
important for the success of the organisation and, as an employee I will be
satisfied with the work when I get respect, recognition and opportunities in the
organisation.

In regard to the management grid theory, I see myself fitting into the Time
Management theory of management. I believe that both concerns: concern to
the tasks and performance, is important for the success of the organisation.
However, concern to the tasks should be the primary concern of the
managers. Unless the task is completed success cannot be achieved and,
there should be no doubt that profitable company can only take care of
employees concern.
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