Reflections~

In my first blog, I stated the importance of effective communications in workplace. Since that time, my way of thinking has changed, I realized that not only effective communication is important in workplace, it is also the key to get you to where you want to be in your life. Communication is an essential skill for successful business and personal relationships. It has an impact whenever it occurs such as when we use communication to influence every interaction in a positive way and by developing the skills needed to communicate effectively. Effective communication is the key to our success in life, in work, and in relationships. Good communication skills can reduce misunderstandings, errors, frustration, and conflict on a daily basis. The ability to connect and build rapport with other people is a foundation life skill and should ideally develop from young. In addition, developing effective communication skill is a life-long process.

From this module, I learnt a lot of skills and made new friends through projects and group discussions. Although it can be quite stressful when the module’s syllabus starts to move in a fast pace, but I have also learnt to have a better control on my time management which allows me to hand in the necessary work on time. From the past experiences, I used to feel that English course would be a boring module, but after taking this module, I realized that it is an interesting and enriching one. It has equipped me with the necessary skills in a fun and exciting ways. Skills I have learned in this module would be report writing, minutes, agenda, meetings, do’s and don’ts during interviews, presentation skills and lastly effective communication skills that was incorporated during the whole course.

Lastly would like to thank sabrina and wenjie for their patiences and understanding through out the whole project and oral presentation. ~smiles~

~My Biodata~

I have graduated from the Singapore Polytechnic with a Diploma in Chemical Process Technology (DCP), currently studying in National University of Singapore pursing a Degree in Chemistry. I was attached to a Baxter Healthcare SA as an Environmental Assistant, assisting in office work pertaining to environmental issues. During my studies years, I was working in Marks and Spencer too as sales associate handling customers, maintaining the store and documenting. Throughout secondary school days, I was an active participant of the air rifle school team. I also like to play other sports such as badminton and cycling as leisure. In the near future, I hope to be able to work in a research laboratory.

Blog 5 - Reflection on group project

In this research project, I understand that communication is very important within the team itself. Good interpersonal relationship between the group members enables the members to communicate effectively and hence working efficiently. On top of that working in a team would also need qualities such as responsibilities, disciplines, empathy and corporations. Effective report writing is one of the best ways of influencing and persuading the right people. With a well-written report, it would help to achieve desired results and create maximum impact on the audience.

During this project, time constraint was the main problem. A proper project together with a survey had to be done within a month hence schedules were tight. In addition to the time constraint, as the three of us have different timetables and amount of workloads, meeting up for discussion was hence much harder to plan. Nevertheless, our group was still able to keep up with the schedules given and complete the task in appropriate time. Our group was able to work closely and had constant communications on online messenger and after class.

With the coming oral presentation, I look forward to work with my team members again and to produce a well polished presentation. I would also like to ensure that I would be able to deliver my message in a clear and concise manner.

Intercultural Behaviour

Intercultural is very important in nowadays society, it helps us to get along with other people from other countries having different cultures. It is essential as there have been an increasing number of foreigners coming Singapore to work and invest.

One of the intercultural conflicts that I encountered during my work as a sales assistant is when tourists, who mostly come from western countries could not understand why lingerie such as briefs and panties could not be tried on. When we tried to explain that it will be unhygienic to try on, they will be furious with it and started arguing that they could do it in their own country and why it was impossible here. When they knew that briefs and panties could not be exchange, they started to disagree and started asking how they are going to purchase a correct size. Some of them would understand in the end but others insisted to look for manger to complain about it. On the other hand, Singaporean and Asian tourists would understand why such things could not allow.

It would be very hard for the western people to understand the norms in Asian countries; many conflicts are hence resulted due to the lack of understanding about the other party cultures and beliefs.

Blog #3 – Saving the one and only Earth

In this research project, I’m would like to explore on the topic of ‘Saving the Earth’. The Earth’s balance has been upset throughout the years of the human race. Growing human populations, global warming, depletion of natural resources, species extinctions and wars make this an extremely dangerous time in our history. Research has shown that the Earth’s life span might be shorten if humans still continue to upset its order. So are NUS doing their part on conservation of our Earth too?

The importance of this attitudinal survey, allows us to gauge the awareness level of students and lecturers in NUS on conservation topic. In addition, to influence them that more can be done to improve the conservations of the Earth. This survey also can be provided as a means of suggestion and feedback from the student body as well as the lecturers, allows a better overview of what more can be done.

The objective of this research report is to find out whether NUS is able to increase the awareness of the environmental problems in the university. This research will undoubtedly lead us to better understand how we can change our attitudes towards our environment and thus insure a healthy future for our planet.

For this project, the target readers will be the Campus Sustainability Committee. The potential readers are the students and staffs of NUS.

Too Blunt or Too sensitive?

Manger A and supervisor A have been working in a retail outlet together for more than 3 years. Supervisor A has been known to be very blunt and straight forward on her words while Manger A is considered to be a more sensitive person and likes to keep everything to herself. One morning, before the store is open for business, a briefing was taken place. Manger A was late and came in 5 minutes later, she apologized to her colleagues. Supervisor A responded “Manger still can be late for work?” and the rest of the colleagues laughed. No one apologies to each other and the matter was let it to rest.

Manger A was in a bad mood for a few days, she did not talk much to anyone else especially towards supervisor A. She felt upset as being a manager in the organization; she was humiliated by the supervisor in front of all her staff. She felt that supervisor A should talk to her face to face rather than embarrassing her in front of everyone.

Supervisor believes that manger was being too sensitive to be angry over a small remark and a manger should set good example for staffs in terms of handling emotions.

Questions
1) Who did you think was in the fault at this situation?
2) What could have being done to resolve problem?
3) Did they handle the problem well? Elaborate

Why is effective communication important?

Communication is the ability to share information with people and to understand what information and feelings are being conveyed by others. Effective communication is very important in work as it is a form of link between colleagues and superiors. As workplace is like a second home, hence communicate effectively between colleagues helps to improve informal relations and allows one to actually enjoy working in the environment. Lack of communication in the workplace is a problem for some workgroup teams in business today. Successful teams require effective communication in the workplace among the workers themselves as well as between superiors and colleagues as message carried are clearly noted, so that tasks can be done with minimal mistake being made.

Skilled superiors who know good communication skills are necessary for team building, to allow a closer relationship between staffs and therefore effective teamwork. Working in a team situation requires frequent and open communication between colleagues and superiors. Without effective communication, ideas, directions, and thoughts are lost or misunderstood, it may even lead to conflicts which results in poor team work. Faulty communication is the main problem arises in conflicts, which may lead to ineffective communication. Many of the conflicts in work are due to faulty communication between sender and receiver. Therefore effective communication is important during work.