Task 1: Interview skills reflection

The inspiration for role playing comes from a belief that “Imitation is an operational model of a real system that to some extent reproduces the

behavior of the real system over time”. Thus, the role play interview is an effective way of developing employability skills without receiving

penalty for our mistakes. My task as an interviewer (manager) during this session was full of learning opportunities as a result of both good and

bad circumstances. In this reflection, I will be presenting my overall experience of being a manager in addition to ways for strengthening

weaknesses for the future reference.

While building rapport, my warm tone and friendly behavior shown to build good interpersonal interaction, caused the interview to take a

positive turn. As a result of this, the interviewee was left more relaxed and confident enough to relate more about their experience and

qualification (Huffcutt, Iddekinge & Roth, 2011). But awhile, I noticed that the candidate became very timid. I immediately understood that I

should not follow the structured interviewing technique persistently but, bend towards the semi structured technique. While changing my

methods I froze for a good few seconds. Such disruptions reflect our incompetence in leading, which causes the interviewee to find us inapt for
the role (Hudak et al., 2019). I made up my mind & disregarded the questions and flexibly began asking about their personal life to initiate a fun,

relaxing and interactive environment. Furthermore, I continued this later adapted technique and began asking open ended questions with the

motive to hear more of their story and engage in a proper discussion. Incorporating flexible semi-standardized means of interview can produce

richer and textured data from the candidate in contrast to the structured technique (Ryan, Coughlan & Cronin, 2009). Thus, my ability to pick up

the situation quickly, and act according to it maintained a good flow for the most part of the interview.

The interview was going well till half way but, the sudden lengthy talk about her experience and skills afterwards bored me & I abruptly

interrupted by asking “What else can you bring to the table?” The candidate showed slight detestation but still answered the question. Experience

for a child is just something that happens to him; experience for an adult is who he is (Galinson, 1975). My ignorance towards her experiences

was equivalent to disrespecting her as a person which is what instigated the sudden detestation. One alternative for this situation would be to use

artful dodging i.e. to skillfully divert the topic without being noticed (Clementson, 2018). Nodding head constantly while listening to what she is

saying and asking “How can your experiences of being a public speaker can essentially bring benefit to the company?” would have led the

interview in a constructive manner. After this I hastily summed up the interview and asked her if she had any questions. All in all, my

undiplomatic answer mainly due to paucity of communication skills is what obstructed the interview.

Finally, through this role play session, I realized that I possessed both adaptability and critical thinking skills which definitely would help to

improve my chances of getting a placement. But these skills are not enough and in communication, patience and resilience needed further
improvement. For communication, I would be joining toastmaster, an organisation which teaches leadership and organisation. The other 2 soft

skills should be addressed by constantly volunteering for organisations such as Art of Living and Sneha’s care for Paine [Link] (2013) argues that

voluntary works enhance employment by building CV, networking also, resilience and patience; mainly by overcoming tough situations.

Reference:

1. Alonso, P. & Moscoso, S. (2018) Employment Interview Perceptions Scale [online]. Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las

Organizaciones. 34 (3), pp. 203-207. [Accessed 16 January 2021].

2. Clementson, D. (2018) Deceptively dodging questions: A theoretical note on issues of perception and detection [online]. Discourse &

Communication. 12 (5), pp. 479-482. [Accessed 7 January 2021].

3. Galinson, M. (1975) INTERVIEWING, NEGOTIATING AND COUNSELING [online]. Journal of Legal Education. 27 (3), pp. 353-

355. [Accessed 14 January 2021].

4. Hudak, K., Kile, A., Grodziak, E. & Keptner, E. (2019) Advancing Student Interview Skills: Incorporating Virtual Interview Technology

into the Basic Communication Course [online]. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 13 (1), pp. 2-5.

[Accessed 12 January 2021].

5. Huffcutt, A., Iddekinge, C. & Roth, P. (2011) Understanding applicant behavior in employment interviews: A theoretical model of

interviewee performance [online]. Human Resource Management Review. 21 (4), pp. 353-356. [Accessed 11 January 2021].

6. Paine, A., McKay, S. & Moro, D. (2013) Does volunteering improve employability? Insights from the British Household Panel Survey

and beyond [online]. Voluntary Sector Review. 4 (3), pp. 358-360. [Accessed 18 January 2021].

7. Ryan, F., Coughlan, M. & Cronin, P. (2009) Interviewing in qualitative research: The one-to-one interview [online]. International

Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation. 16 (6), pp. 309-311. [Accessed 18 January 2021].
 Task 2: Reviewing Performance

Name of reviewer: 19048005

Name of reviewee: Frankie

Date of Performance Review: November 7

Issues raised:

1. Detail the issues that were discussed at Performance review.

Recently, Frankie has been turning up late for work and was seen to be the first person to leave as well. He

even failed to submit designated work on time and made countless blunders. Furthermore, he missed his

important training program due to migraine.

2. What causes for the underperformance can be identified?

Frankie, without any rest, was seen to be working for his placement as well as part time job until very late.

Due to this, he felt extremely weary and had difficulty executing his work. He even missed an important
computer training program, which worsened his performance.

Action agreed:

A. What Smart objectives were identified?

- For 20 days, he will be working a 5 hour shift, from 10-3 until adequate staffs were employed at his part

time job.

- He will be given a significantly lower number of tasks so that he will have enough time to work efficiently

while also completing his piled up work.

- Moreover, for the remaining 2 months of his placement, I will assign him in 2 small group projects for

maximum exposure.

B. What training, development, and support were identified?

Under my supervision, Frankie would be taking the computer training program along with new interns. This

should help him to pace up his performance as well as build interpersonal skills. Furthermore, he was listed

for office counseling.

C. What follows up action is needed, by whom, and by when?

After such flexible work arrangements, no excuse will be heard and attendance will be strictly marked by his

colleague Ram for at least 20 days. Furthermore, he has to meet me weekly to get feedback on his

performance.

D. Timescale for next review?

The next review will be in 20 days.

Signed: 1904005

Date: 20/12/2020
Identify the models/frameworks you used to help inform your behavior and decisions as a Manager in

this task and where/why/how you used them.

After closely analyzing Frankie, I found an absolute necessity for performance review as it would be an

opportunity for providing him a certain direction mainly to align his goals with the organization's objective

(Alagaraja & Shuck, 2015). For the review, I beforehand, gathered all the relevant information and evidence

confirming Frankie’s underperformance so as to support my constructive criticism (Messmer, 2004).

Thereafter, I scheduled the meeting and emailed Frankie. On the review day, I thoroughly explained the

outline of the meeting and then started the conversation with small talks in order to calm him down (Semmler

& Semmler, 2013). I further assured him of the confidentiality to build trust as Boyle (2013) argues that trust

is directly linked with effective employee performance. After building a good rapport, I, in a composed

manner began conversing about the issue with concrete evidence so as to make him understand how he had

deviated from showing contextual performance to none (Griffin, Neal & Neale, 2001). After explaining my

point of view, I encouraged Frankie to disclose the root cause of his problem. I attentively listened and

showed great empathy for all his problems. According to Kamran (2017), instilling empathy towards
sensitive problems can encourage unmotivated employees. Thereafter, we decided upon some training and

additional support in order to solve these issues.

Furthermore, Frankie definitely needed objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and

timely also, known as “smart” to give him a clear direction to move forward to (Ogbeiwi, 2017). Also, these

objectives are a necessary aspect of performance management as it establishes certain expectations by

fulfillment of which would leave employees encouraged to work effectively and efficiently; absolutely

important for increasing company’s productivity. Thus, we discussed 3 major smart objectives which should

be achieved until his next performance review happening in 20 days.

 REFERENCE:

1. Alagaraja, M. & Shuck, B. (2015) Exploring Organizational Alignment-Employee Engagement Linkages and Impact on Individual

Performance [online]. Human Resource Development Review. 14 (1), pp. 17-20. [Accessed 18 January 2021].
 2. Boyle, I. (2013) Individual Performance Management: A Review of Current Practices [online]. Asia Pacific Management and Business

Application. 1 (3), pp. 157-159. [Accessed 13 January 2021].

3. Griffin, M., Neal, A. & Neale, M. (2001) The Contribution of Task Performance and Contextual Performance to Effectiveness:

Investigating the Role of Situational Constraints [online]. Applied Psychology. 49 (3), pp. 517-520. [Accessed 13 January 2021].

4. Kamran, F. (2017) Impact of leaders’ empathy on employees’ state of amotivation to work [online]. pp. 12-14. [Accessed 13 January

2021].

5. Messmer, M. (2004) Developing Effective Performance Reviews [online]. pp. 13-14. [Accessed 11 January 2021].

6. Ogbeiwi, O. (2017) Why written objectives need to be really SMART [online]. British Journal of Healthcare Management. 23 (7), pp.

325-327. [Accessed 11 January 2021].

7. Semmler, K. & Semmler, S. (2013) The Art of Making Conversation: Learning the Skills Small Talk [online]. Communication and

Theater Association of Minnesota Journal. 40pp. 9-10. [Accessed 18 January 2021].

Task 3: Negotiation skills

Negotiation is a decision making process done to reach an agreement by exploring different optimal solutions mainly to enable qualitative gain

for both the parties (Zohar, 2015). As a manager at The Bristol CC, I chose a win-win negotiation type since I was ready for compromising a
little to meet halfway in order to employ the graduate whose skill set in particular would be an asset for the company. However, my skills for

convincing the other party did not reach the par & half way through the session, my strategy failed big time. In this paper, I will be discussing

the skill set I executed during the negotiation role play with necessary plans to strengthen them in the future.

Before the negotiation, I gathered all the necessary information on what the graduate really wants and critically analysed any possible loopholes

which might serve in my favour. John & Raith (1999) argues that failing to understand the perspective of their counterparty in advance severely

increases the chance of failure during negotiation. Therefore, preparation of what they want, what they are willing to give up and at what point

they might walk away from the deal is crucially important (Teucher, Brett & Gunia, 2013). For instance, I wanted Frankie to drop his idea of

foreign travel but he insisted on wanting the opportunity to travel abroad for exposure. I anticipated this situation beforehand & had prepared

Batna as Kim and Fragale (2005) argued that negotiation with an attractive alternative significantly increases the bargaining power inclining

towards a successful outcome. However, my alternative to send her abroad only if a good business offer was presented needed a lot of

persuasion and advanced strategies to tackle induced counter arguments (Andrade et al., 2009). Thus, my pre-planning skill helped me assemble

important information necessary for successful negotiation.

Even with adequate preparation, I was unable to attain my strategy of cooperative negotiation as my alternative did not align with Frankie’s offer

as he did not give up on wanting to go abroad, making it difficult for us to reach a common ground. The probabilistic explanation for the

accuracy of the best alternative solution does not exist (Slavik, 2008). The only solution for this problem was to create another alternative by
compromising to which Mahmoodi (2012) argues that “Negotiation does not always need compromise but without negotiation compromise

could never be attained”. Thus, either way a no win situation was created as further compromise would put me in a bad position. Also, the major

contributing factor for no win situation was my incapability of maintaining a soft tone due to which Frankie became uncooperative. On top of

this, Frankie could not find inclusion of other incentive options in my alternative which further complicated the process which weakened the

motivation to reach a certain conclusion. The effectiveness of the negotiation process is amplified when people possess certain epistemic

motivation i.e. the desire to establish and retain a rich and comprehensive understanding of a situation (Anderson, 1992). Therefore, both of us

lost the negotiation with no room left for bargaining.

Finally, my failure to maintain complementary interests due to the inflexible and poorly analysed alternative induced the negotiation to take a

negative turn. Also, sticking towards cooperative strategy and not utilizing my legitimate power as a manager made this negotiation

unsuccessful. Thus, in the future, I will definitely try to select a negotiation strategy by analysing my position as a negotiator and generate more

than one alternative for a successful outcome. Also, I would like to improve assertiveness and problem solving capabilities, two major

negotiation skills by undertaking a professional training session.

Reference:
 1. Anderson, T. (1992) Step into my parlor: A survey of strategies and techniques for effective negotiation. Business Horizons. 35 (3), pp.

71-76. [Accessed 6 January 2021].

2. Andrade, F., Novais, P., Carneiro, D., Zeleznikow, J. & Neves, J. (2009) Using BATNAs and WATNAs in Online Dispute Resolution

[online]. New Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. pp. 5-18. [Accessed 11 January 2021].

3. John, R. & Raith, M. (1999) Strategic step-by-step negotiation [online]. Journal of Economics. 70 (2), pp. 127-154. [Accessed 11 January

2021].

4. Kim, P. & Fragale, A. (2005) Choosing the Path to Bargaining Power: An Empirical Comparison of BATNAs and Contributions in

Negotiation. [online]. Journal of Applied Psychology. 90 (2), pp. 373-381. [Accessed 12 January 2021].

5. Mahmoodi, K. (2012) NEGOTIATION STRATEGIES AND SKILLS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS [online]. 1pp. 12-16. [Accessed 9

January 2021].

6. Slavik, J. (2008) SEVEN ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE NEGOTIATIONS [online]. 1pp. 1-3. [Accessed 18 January 2021].

7. Teucher, B., Brett, J. & Gunia, B. (2013) Negotiation [online]. The SAGE Handbook of Conflict Communication. pp. 295-300. [Accessed

9 January 2021].

8. Zohar, I. (2015) “The Art of Negotiation” Leadership Skills Required for Negotiation in Time of Crisis [online]. Procedia - Social and

Behavioral Sciences. 209pp. 540-548. [Accessed 10 January 2021].

Training Plan
 Training Topic Communication; an important employability skills
Trainer Name Neeza Gautam
19048005
Student number

28th December
Date and Time

Training

Aim: To make the students understand the importance of communication for increasing their competency.
 Training Objectives:

1. By the end, students will be able to understand the importance of communication followed by a brief explanation of structure thought and
communication.
2. Trainees will then explore major dos and don’ts of non-verbal communication followed by a Q&A session.
3. At the end of the session, a quick fun activity as an icebreaker will be conducted.

Training Flow

Time (minutes) Activity Objective # Reason for Selecting this Challenges Resources
Activity
3 minutes Explain the importance of Objective 1 Helps them to understand Students did not remain White board and
communication especially for essentiality of silent, and thought the marker.
employment with potential communication in building lecture to be boring.
examples our professional
competency.
4 minutes Explain structure thought and Helps them to understand Students didn’t understand Computer and
communication through Objective 1 & that structuring these concepts because of projector.

formal presentation. 2 information beforehand less engagement

will prepare them further
before communicating
which builds a good
image(Wilbur, 2012)
7 minutes Describe the major do’s and Objective 2 . This activity was Points were a bit vague Computer and
don'ts of non verbal important so as to prevent with limited options. Due projector.
communication followed by errors beforehand so as to to time constraint all
post Q and A sessions fend off dispute and questions could not be
criticism (Sheth, 2017). answered
7 minutes For applying the do’s and Objective 3 This activity was important Some shy students did not 10 pens and 10 A4
don’ts an activity is organised for boosting student’s participate making it paper

“Conversation around the enthusiasm and difficult to manage the

circle” letting students ask one confidence. activity.
open ended question and
rewarding those for answering
most questions followed by a
feedback session.
20 minutes
 Task 4: Academic summary

The above training is carefully decided through training plan assessment (TNA), by which

undergraduate students need , gaps in their skills were understood mainly before deciding

upon the topic “communication; an important employability skill” (Ngussa, 2014). The first

stage of planning the session was done by identifying aims that improved student’s

competency making them realize communication’s importance and suggesting ways to

improve it mainly, to survive in this globally competitive era of 4 th industrial revolution

(Schwab, 2019).The objectives for this training were developed with bloom’s taxonomy as

this framework incorporates the process of understanding, applying, analysing and evaluating

information to develop strategies for delivering the content effectively (Hyder & Bhamani,

2007). All of the objectives were fulfilled which made this session effective. Furthermore, the

training plan was designed, keeping in mind the disadvantage of Bloom’s taxonomy i.e.

limiting student’s capability (Rahman & Manaf, 2017). To reduce its effect, the end activity

was planned which enhanced their creative as well as critical thinking skills by incorporating

cognitive processes which includes thinking, judging, and problem solving. Also, the training

consisted of a Q & A and feedback session, informal presentation as well as activities that

grabbed student’s attention and focus, motivating them to practice critical thinking even more

(Niittylahti, Annala & Mäkinen, 2019).

However, the training did not run smoothly as some of the activities scheduled in this session

had to be interrupted due to time limits. So, except for the last step of Bloom’s taxonomy

creation, the other 5 steps were achieved as students were able to recall the ways to

communicate effectively, understand its importance, apply the do’s and don'ts through the

end activity, analyse how following information theory model helped them to communicate
properly and evaluate the best learners through a small competition (Ching & Da Silva,

2017).
 Reference

1. Ching, H. & Da Silva, E. (2017) The use of Bloom’s Taxonomy to develop

Competences in Students of a Business Undergrad Course [online]. Academy

of Management Proceedings. 12 (1), pp. 108-110. [Accessed 16 January

2021].

2. Hyder, S. & Bhamani, S. (2007) Bloom’s Taxonomy (Cognitive Domain) in

Higher Education Settings: Reflection Brief. [online]. 3 (2), pp. 289-290.

[Accessed 18 January 2021].

3. Ngussa, B. (2014) Application of ADDIE Model of Instruction in Teaching-

Learning Transaction among Teachers of Mara Conference Adventist

Secondary Schools, Tanzania [online]. Journal of Education and Practice. 5pp.

1-2. [Accessed 19 January 2021].

4. Niittylahti, S., Annala, J. & Mäkinen, M. (2019) Student engagement at the

beginning of vocational studies [online]. Nordic Journal of Vocational

Education. 9 (1), pp. 25-26. [Accessed 17 January 2021].

5. Rahman, S. & Manaf, N. (2017) A Critical Analysis of Bloom’s Taxonomy in

Teaching Creative and Critical Thinking Skills in Malaysia through English

Literature [online]. English Language Teaching. 10 (9), pp. 245. [Accessed 14

January 2021].

6. Schwab, K. (2019) The Global Competitiveness Report [online]. World

Economic Forum. pp. 18. [Accessed 18 January 2021].

7. Sheth, T. (2017) Non-verbal Communication: A significant aspect of

Proficient Occupation [online]. International Journal of Humanities and

Social Science. 22 (11), pp. 69-70. [Accessed 17 January 2021].

8. Wilbur, R. (2012) Information structure [online]. Sign Language. An

International Handbook. pp. 465-466. [Accessed 16 January 2021].