A successful company serves as a thinking and experiencing corporation. Such organizations are seen as a high levels of information move and consciousness among all its associates. The option of information enhances the understanding and understanding of organizational weaknesses, strengths, hazards and opportunities (Reynolds and Vince 2004). The organization members can also understand the history and tactical future plans because of their business as well as full awareness of the resources within the organization and the changing competition environment. On the other hand, a thinking company is an understanding organization that has a well stipulated eye-sight, mission, aims and the business enterprise environment that are well understood by all the stakeholders. Many organizational businesses collapse because they lack both foresight and hind view necessary for understanding the current position of the business. In ensuring an organization adopts the thinking and seeing style, reflection must be a part of the organizational procedures and culture. Reflection must be included in every the organizational activities because technology of organizational knowledge can be done by any member of the organization irrespective of the particular level or the location in which s/he functions.
Reflection is therefore a process which involves spending critical time from the normal work routine where individuals or groupings think and interpret both personal or corporation issues with the aim of getting previous encounters and lessons which may benefit a present-day situation (Boud, Cressey and Docherty 2006). At the corporate level, organizations establish retreat days for its personnel as well as reflection trainings so that personnel can reflect on what their have achieved, the way they have performed, their compliance with the organization strategies, the problems and threats they may have confronted as well as the activities weaknesses and signed up strengths. Reflection allows group present ideas and past experiences into usable knowledge and actions. Representation can be necessitated by personal encounters as well as organizational performance particularly if the organization isn't get together its set in place goals and objectives.
Reflection process is very dependent on knowledge management since it deals with intangible assets that require to be created and distributed both inside and outside the organization to make a database of important information and knowledge that may be utilized later to take care of challenges in the organization. Reflection starts with raw experience which are analyzed to information then associated with relevant skills and prices to be knowledge which is main emphasis of several organizations. Exactly like knowledge management, representation involves get and recognition of ideas, information or knowledge then distributing it to appropriate individual within the organization leading to its request in a specific situation in the business. The sole reason for reflection is to create important knowledge that any firm will need in its present or future performance. Reflection is also part of organizational learning that is clearly a knowledge management facet intended to equip staff with important knowledge and skills that will increase the functions and performance of the organization.
Greenwood (2000), records that the success and growth of organizations is highly depended on learning and knowledge era (p. 126). Learning within an organizational setting is not only limited to specific knowledge acquisition but also consists of the put together learning abilities of most staff for the reason that organization. Notably, individual learning is a subset and component of group and without it, organizational learning won't exist. Organizational learning is a result of challenges that face employees in their working activities thus initiation of learning and advancement in knowledge to solve such troubles. Though, difficulties do not assure learning to occur, they incorporate with experience to provide data and information which form the basis for learning.
Generation of activities and problem fixing are the key components of reflection at the place of work. Organizational reflection has shown required environment for self directed learning, action learning, problem and challenge based learning and to a greater lengthen the organizational learning (Reynolds and Vince 2004). Managers have noticed the need of reflection in their corporation and they acknowledge that failing to mirror in the business is equal to inviting the collapse of the operation of the organization. However, organizations have failed in employing reflection strategies in a way that execution processes that go beyond individual mandate and require groups of people or the complete organization aren't usually carried out thus compromising the utilization of organizational experience and limit implementation of expected activities.
The application of representation in organizational functions has received sizeable attention within the last few decades. Organizations have created indie departments with enough resources to permit reflection process to occur and to focus on the results of the reflection procedures. The increased focus on representation has been brought on by acknowledgement of learning and technology of knowledge as components of organizational productivity and performance. Though learning and technology of knowledge may not be the sole factors that can contribute to organizational change and performance, they play an all-round function in making certain all the resources in the organization are well coordinated to understand organizational goals.
Reflection is therefore an important individuals process that involves researching and understanding earlier experiences then attracting lessons from them. Reflection is less known in work places and managers have little knowledge regarding its role and importance in the organization of activities and enhancing performance (Boud, Cressey and Docherty 2006). There were fewer opportunities for the practice of reflection at work especially because many organizations never have yet established the role that can be played by real and led reflection. However, the 21st century has witnessed increasing matter and gratitude of the role that organizational representation can play in fostering work results as well as increasing worker learning. The acceptance of representation as an integral part of organizational management has triggered different kind of organizational learning and education that are good traditional procedures of organizational learning.
Boud, Cressey and Docherty (2006) point out that profitable organizational reflection can be an adoption of the overall individual reflection that is targeted much on the utilization of previous experience to create important solution to provide and future problems as well as promoting organizational training and learning (p. 12). Effective organizational reflection has several important elements that incorporate to give a structured system to steer generation and research of activities from experience. Organizational intention and collective orientation component tries to create a distinction and a spot of convergence between individual and organizational representation. While past reflections have focused on specific experience and era of knowledge, productive organizational reflection is focused on collaborative review of encounters that lead to taking appropriate actions with and for other participants with an aim of benefiting the business as well as the whole group involved in the reflective activity. Such representation is done in times of the business and must be incorporated and address the target of the business.
Collective reflection may be achieved at different levels of the organization depending on organization management structure. Reflection might take place at the very top management, middle management level, and low level or at the tiny working groups which may happen external or internal to the business. However, collective reflection always starts off at specific level and distinct reflections are put together and actions drawn from them. This aspect of organizational reflection ensures the passions of the average person customers, the workgroup and the business are taken into account.
The other aspect of organizational reflection is its importance in integrating knowledge, learning and work. Fruitful organizational reflection can occur in virtually any location, but it's always limited to the working activities and any reflections outside it won't certainly be a practice of organizational reflection. Representation is therefore prompted by work activities though there might be selected circumstances where importance and valuable representation occur beyond your framework of working environment. Organizational representation operates in the space that is established between the relationships of work activities, the procedure of learning and making knowledge. It therefore provides the link between knowledge acquisition and its own development. Therefore, a fruitful organizational reflection will usually seek to strike a balance between learning from past experiences to generate appropriate knowledge that will assist in improving the work activities.
The relationship between the specific and organizational development is another questionable element of productive organizational reflection. Reflection in firm fosters both organizational and individual development. Organizational representation has a developmental value to the organization and the personnel because it has become part of the key organizational practices that are relied after in designing solutions to present and future organizational issues while placing the personnel at better positions to deal with organizational and specific challenges that could create a thereat in future. Thus distinguishing individual from organizational reflection may be a challenge where staff will not get special the perfect time to think about the organizational procedures. Furthermore, organizational reflection is open, dynamic but unstable process because it can happen whenever when organizations do not have procedures to steer the process of reflection. Just like other form of representation, results of organizational reflection can't be wholly predicated. In many instances, it doesn't yield the expected results but unintended results which may be used to handle another organizational issue. This sort of representation is very energetic in that a present successful refection may create an organizational hurdle in future.
Therefore, organizations count on past experience to modify the near future thinking and habit of the organization through the capability to reflect on its previous operations by identifying previous shows and activities (Kazi 2005). Organizational representation is manifested though inquiry and evaluation which involves establishing problems, deciding their interpretation and expanding appropriate solutions. According to (Kazi 2005) group reflection is a wide process which involves alteration of explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge that produces interpretive knowledge essential for enhancement of individual knowledge through revisiting common issues and problems (p. 121). Reflective practice isn't a person process but an organizational method that requires specific members of an organization to learn and adjust their activities that are essential for organizational progress and performance.
Reflection in firm is very important because of its contribution to specific learning which means organizational learning. Mixture and writing of specific learning is essential to realization of organizational learning because individual learning might not present enough experience needed to tackle identified issues facing a business. However, some company don't have appropriate specifications that can aid posting of knowledge and experience particularly when mechanisms for such posting don't are present or the rules of the organizations don't allow sharing or perhaps if the personnel have no idea how to share such knowledge and activities. Organizational management and specifically, the reflective director must device and develop appropriate methods that can aid acquisition and posting of organizational knowledge and encounters.
The reflective administrator in an organization is responsible for all processes and procedures involved in integrating and copy of new knowledge, experience, tendencies and skills within and beyond your organization. As such, the supervisor must prove to the employees that representation is an important activity that is all round and should require every person in the business. The manager must ensure that employees study from previous errors, that they really know what they think and feel as well as device procedures that will ensure that the employees understand and control the obstacles and challenges that face the organization and then develop approaches for future use through applying learned knowledge and skills. Reflective manager therefore provides appropriate environment for employees to concentrate on their past activities as well as current activities that might help in making required knowledge for use in today's organizational situation. Therefore, a reflective director in an firm takes on an important role in ensuring era of knowledge and ideas from earlier encounters, repackaging of such experience and ideas for the future use by the organization.
Though many organizations have became aware the worthiness of reflection in their functions and the many stimuli that encourage reflection, there are equivalent detractors that impede reflective practice. The most frequent challenge that encounters organization in seeking to use representation in the management of these operation is the tiny time allocated for representation and analysis. Having less importance that may accrue from knowledgeable reflection is the main reason many managers don't allocate sufficient time for employees to reflect on their activities and establishes their failures. Organizations allocate very little or no time for his or her employees to reflect on their accomplishments and performance through individual thinking or group thinking. Many organizations spend most of the time making decisions, building strategies, training and orientations. Such activities must be associated with required information and knowledge so that expected results may be performed. Representation will therefore assist in prior understanding of a particular job before such activity is accomplished so that arrangements can be made for anticipated obstacles and problems.
Organizational reflection as opposed to individual reflection is an extremely expensive process not only on time allocation but also physical resources. For reflections to be productive, reflecting users must be in a proper environment that is clear of the normal activities. Creating this environment is very costly and organizations don't usually consent to organize staff retreats to silent and conducive places that can ensure good results from representation process. However, professionals who have became aware the real importance of representation in their business operations create time and allocate enough resources for the process of representation as well as following out the results of such representation sessions
Another significant task that face software of reflection in an group include poor communication systems that an organization uses especially if an organizations uses top-down communication system. The relationship among the individuals with the organizations, the associations among different workgroups as well as the partnership between the corporation yet others hinders the creation of openness that is necessary in the reflection process. The power of dread for uncertainty could also derail the procedure of reflection. Additionally, the style of management an corporation uses may have an impact on reflection especially if the organization uses authoritarian style of management where control, management and electric power is centralized to an individual individual or group in the business.
Conclusion
Reflection is a intricate and new organizational process which involves contemplation of tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and experience to set-up new information, knowledge and ideas that can be used to address an issue within the business. Through the representation of the experience and knowledge, learning features of the staff are enhanced thus interacting with challenges and hazards becomes possible for the organization because it has well informed and knowledgeable staff. Therefore, reflection increases the organizational visualization of unexpected realities and results and how to respond to them. Organizational representation is currently attaining attention in many organizations instead of ancient times when it was regarded as of no value to the functions and performance of the organizations. Though there tend to be challenges facing software and implementation of representation strategies in organizations, positive progress in available which is mentioned by the worthiness that organizations put on information and knowledge in achieving business activities and dealing with organizational obstacles and problems.
