Literature and Management: Reflective Diary
Literature and Management: Reflective Diary
Introduction
The use of different literatures in assessing and evaluating the concepts in management is one important tool for better understanding the subject matter. With the use of different literatures, individuals are able to realize the importance of management that would be crucial applications in day-to-day situations. Management encompasses different situations and ideas, such that it becomes a very important concept to take note especially in making important decisions and choices in life. With having a good and developed skill in management, one will be able to better understand his or herself. In addition, a wide variety of applications in management would be given emphasis and importance, such that one will have the opportunity and the skill to organize his or her thoughts in terms of making decisive choices.
The use of the literatures in understanding management is an important aspect to take note of because with the support and guidance of literatures, one will be able to perceive that his or her situation is relevant in the society, and that other individuals also experience the same problems and situations. Literatures also serve as guides for the individual, because this is from where he or she can obtain useful ideas or advices, if ever his or her situation is similar with the character in the literature. With this reflective diary, I will be discussing two relevant literatures that would be related to the concepts or idea of management. Reflections will be done with the use of two literatures with relevant themes, which would be incorporated or related to personal experiences. In this regard, my styles of learning, my views and opinions, and my experiences will be discussed in my reflective diary.
Summary of “The Blood of Others” by Simon Beauvoir
The novel entitled, “The Blood of Others”, was written by Simon Beauvoir in 1945. The story revolved around the lives of its two major characters, namely, Jean Blomart and Helene Bertrand. Each of the characters had difficulty in being responsible for their free actions, in living freely in their own worlds, and, in having an extremely different life from what they have.
Jean Blomart is part of the upper class society or the bourgeoisie, who is the son of a rich printer businessman. He was able to recognize the difference of his life with the rest of their workers, and because of this, he decided to rebel against his parents, leave his home, and work as a typographer for another company, similar to their family business. From this, he came to the realization that he needs to reduce his materiality, to experience a common life. Living his new life, he joined the Communist Party, then the French trade union movement, but remains to be a neutral entity in the Spanish civil war. Despite these associations with such groups, he remained neutral, exhibiting no political activity. The other major character of the novel is Helene Bertrand, who lives and acts more freely compared to Jean Blomart. She is the literal embodiment of freedom, as she does not care and is not responsible with her actions, body and the people around her. She has a childhood sweetheart, Paul, who perceives that all individuals belong to a certain class. However, Helene thinks otherwise, for she believes that all were created equal and unique. Given her perception of living, Helene only thinks of herself and her existence, thus, ignoring the consequences of her actions. Helene meets Jean, and dedicates her life to him, while Jean refuses. With this, Helene became aware of her own self, and eventually became responsible with her actions, thus, maturing in the process. To mend her broken heart, she finds a man, gets drunk and pregnant, resulting to an abortion, which was assisted by Jean himself. In this sense, Jean somehow became responsible with the actions of Helene and with her fetus. As time passes, Helene meet new friends and companions, who served her best in changing her life, especially in terms of guiding her in making choices and decisions in life. From this point, it can be perceived that both of their lives have already been changed, influencing their decisions and actions towards themselves and their community (Holveck 1999).
Reflection
From the summary, it can be perceived that the novel tackles the subject or issue of making responsible and crucial decisions in life. Jean Blomart made a crucial decision of leaving his well-off, wealthy, extravagant, and comfortable life, for a simple, more common one. On the other hand, Helene Bertrand also made a crucial decision of changing her life from being carefree and responsible, to becoming a more matured and responsible individual. In this sense, I am able to understand that the issue to be addressed here is not only about making decisive choices but also refers to other relevant ideas. Primarily, the literature focuses or encompasses the issue of feminism in the society. The issue of feminism tackles the role of women in society, which at that time is inferior to the role of men. At the time, there is a strong discrimination among men and women in the society, thus, enhancing the role, position and reputation of men in the society, while downgrading the role of women. I believe that feminism and discrimination among genders is one of the important issues I have been able to relate to the literature or the novel of Beauvoir because at present, this is still happening in the society. In the novel, the role of Helene as a carefree and irresponsible woman is being given importance because her actions determined its consequences when she accidentally got pregnant and got an abortion. In this regard, I believe that the novel was able to emphasize that women must be always aware of their actions, especially in terms of marriage and having a family. In this sense, I believe that the novel was able to stress the importance of the value of the family and marriage, thus, emphasizing the role of women empowerment in the process. In this sense, feminism and discrimination among women is exhibited because conventional and traditional men perceive women to be just important in the domestic scene. I have realized that through this novel, the author is able to stress the role of women in the society through their characteristics as unique individuals and not as domestic tools that enable men to use them as they please. With this, I can say that the strong personality of Helene deviated from the conventional view of women in the society, and empowered and strengthened the female gender in the eyes of men.
In my analysis, I believe that discrimination and feminism is one relevant concept in the evaluation and use of the approach and concepts in management because in management, certain and crucial decisions are given importance and attention. I believe that proper management involves the recognition and the empowerment of both genders, thus, making management decisions more relevant and substantial. Proper management in the workplace becomes relevant and substantial if managers would give importance and emphasis on the decisions and differences among genders. I believe that one way of obtaining knowledge in the workplace is to place equal treatment among genders. In my own experience, I can say that in the workplace, executive positions are more often given to men over women, who are perceived to be more empowered and suitable for the job. In this regard, I believe that experience and knowledge in terms of the work position must be given more importance and emphasis rather than gender and duration of stay in the company, which is often the case. With this, management becomes a failure because managers rely on their biases or subjective reasoning, than through objective means.
Another relevant issue to take note of is the emphasis of the article on the social and economic background and status of the characters in the novel. Jean Blomart belonged to a wealthy family, while Helene Bertrand belonged to the middle class family. The emphasis in their socioeconomic background determines their approach and perception of life, thus, influencing their decisions and actions in the society. The social and economic background of the characters must be given emphasis because in understanding their backgrounds, the readers will be able to understand the factors and the influences that forced them to make such decisions in life. Similarly, the socioeconomic background of each individual or employee in any organization must also be given importance and emphasis in order to make sound decisions in terms of employment and management. Each individual employed in any organization has a different social and economic background that influences decisions and choices in life. Depending on their upbringing, education, community, family, culture, and practice, individuals exhibit different attitudes, preferences and responses toward certain situations in the organization. In my own observation, I have perceived that in certain organizations, such as the business organization, certain groups of individuals exhibit different responses to situations, depending on their status and social background. I have observed that individuals having a strong and secured financial situation act more freely and more carefree compared to individuals having a tight budget and financial need. However, this is not often the case, for similar with the characters in the novel, some financially secured individuals work double time in order to maintain their status and wealth, while some lower class individuals act freely, only sustaining their daily needs. Such attitudes are important to take note of in making sound and effective decisions because in order to effectively manage an organization, the management strategy must suit the needs, attitudes and preferences of its employees. The management strategy or technique that must be employed in the organization must be able to suit even the manager and the leaders to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of the entire organization. In this regard, the decisions, actions, and responses of individual members of the organization depend on their attitude and socioeconomic background, thus, with sound and effective management, these aspects must be given importance.
Another issue that I could extract from the literature in relation to management is the fact that the idea of having an inspiration was given emphasis. The novel mentions that Jean Blomart made Helene his inspiration, for without her, Jean could have been paralyzed with the burden of responsibility all through his life (1999). I believe that each of us has the source of inspiration, which enable us to have the guts and the reason to do what we have to do. A strong inspiration comes from the encouragement of our loved ones and peers, who know us quite well. I also have my own inspiration, and I believe that my inspiration drives me to work well and to perceive life as something worth living for, despite the hang-ups and the problems I have encountered. The importance of inspiration can also be recognized in relation to management, such that inspiration serves to be the driving force of individuals or employees in any organization. In employing management strategies and techniques, the manager or leader must be able to inspire his or her subordinates in order to achieve and attain important goals and objectives in the organization. I believe that with proper inspiration in the workplace, employees would be more productive and motivated to work. In my own experience, my superiors help my colleagues and myself to work efficiently and effectively with his or her inspirational speeches and words, during meetings and conferences. Their words help us understand and perceive our importance in the company, thus, inspiring us to work harder and more efficiently. Speaking from experience, the words of my superiors enlightened me and served to remind me of my purpose in the company. If my company becomes successful in inspiring the rest of my colleagues the way I did, I believe that the turnover in the company would be lessened, thus, sustaining and maintaining the company’s operations.
I would also like to relate this literature or novel to effective management in terms of living my own life and making decisive choices. The concept of management does not only apply to organizations, but also to sustaining my own life and identity. Managing my own life is the most important decisions I have to make in order to make wise choices in life. I believe that before I participate in the overall decisions and choices in terms of my employment, I first have to assess and evaluate my self in terms of my attitudes, reasoning, emotions, and intellect. In relation to the characters of the novel, I perceive myself as someone who is in between the characteristics of Jean Blomart and Helene Bertrand. In short, I consider myself as the combination of the characteristics of the two characters, as being two extreme characteristics of an individual. In my own assessment of my characteristics, I know that I am not as carefree and irresponsible as Helene is, and not as serious and as too hard working as Jean, but in between the two. From this, I believe that I have the complete balance of both characteristics, thus, making the management of myself easier and more effective. My understanding of management is sustaining, systematizing, and organizing of one’s activities, and with this, I believe that I have been successful in managing my self, including my activities, attitudes, beliefs, and preferences. Given my imperfections, I know that I have committed a series of decisions that may have affected my perception of life or the opinion of other people about me. However, I believe that managing my self properly involves giving my self the chance to give room for improvement and to develop as an individual. Managing my own self involves my being optimistic and never having the attitude of giving up and surrendering on all the challenges that come my way. I have been through many challenges and problems during the course of my development, but I believe that because of my trust in my self, I will not be able to see through them. I know that my strategy of managing my self has been contributory to how I address my problems in life. I believe that my style of managing my self has enabled me to make wise and sound decisions, which helped me to become a better individual in the organization and in the society. With this, I know that someday I would be able to attain my success, similar to the success achieved by the characters of the novel.
The role of emotional insights and the process of creativity
The development and expression of emotions is the characteristic of human beings that set us apart from the rest of the organisms in the natural environment. Because we are able to express emotions, we are able to express our opinions and views regarding the different issues and matters surrounding us. (1996) reports that the lack of emotion is disturbing, for without emotion is to somehow being less than human. With this, I believe that expressing emotions constitute our being humans. It has been reported that emotions are powerful motivators in understanding the different aspects of human life, such that 96% of our success are attributed to our emotional intelligence, while only 8-9% are attributed to our IQ or technical skills (2006). From this data, I would to express my opinion that aside from giving importance and emphasis in developing our technical skills, developing our emotional intelligence must be given more time and effort. Aside from expressing emotions, another important aspect of being human is our ability to become creative and express our emotions through creative means, such as paintings, literature, and other works of art. Our creativity in using different means and materials also set us apart from animals and other organisms, because we are able to use our ability to feel and think at the same time. Creativity, thus, make us more human, expressive and more aware of our characteristics as human beings.
Primarily, the relationship between emotional insights and creativity involves our being human, as it distinguishes us from other organisms in the natural environment. Second, emotional insights provide us with the inspiration that influence our ability to use different means to express ourselves creatively. Third, emotions control our behavior at the level of our everyday experiences (Cornelius 1996), thus, determining our response and actions toward certain situations. Lastly, emotional insights are given importance through the existence of dreams, which enable us to become hopeful as individuals and give color to our lives. With these relationships, the role of emotional insights can be given emphasis and association with our creativity.
Our day-to-day experiences enable us to generate and feel emotions that trigger responses and reactions. These emotions are also reflected in our dreams, which somehow help us become aware of our true emotions and feelings toward a certain issue or subject. In support of the argument of (1996) is the recent work or study of (2007), who reports that dreams affect the creativity of individuals immensely, such that dreams inspire or stimulate the creative expression of individuals. The authors also argued that the use of creative dreams contribute to their ability to solve problems, discover important concepts, philosophy, and ideas, stimulate one to think or come up with new activities (2007). Examples of the authors of the activities that were inspired by creative dreaming include the discovery of the ring structure of benzene, the categorization of the different chemical elements, the invention of the sewing machine, and the deciphering of the ancient hieroglyphs in Babylonia (2007). These activities are regarded to be important achievements in the history of human kind, thus, were inspired by the use of dreams and emotions. From this, I was able to understand that effective learning can also be done through dreams and the expression of creativity.
However, effective learning should not only be associated with having major discoveries and inventions, such as the ones mentioned by the authors in the literature. Instead, effective learning must always and must always be dependent on the capability and the perseverance of an individual. In this regard, I believe that a more effective learning is dependent upon the use and the development of our own emotions and creativity. If we are able to obtain useful and relevant information regarding the world around us, we are able to facilitate our own learning. This can be done through a number of ways, including reading books, magazines, journals, and other reading materials. In my opinion, reading is one of the most useful ways in obtaining information and knowledge regarding the myriad of issues surrounding us. Learning can also be done through other forms of media, such as the television, radio and the Internet. These means of information and learning facilitate effective learning nowadays, especially with regards to the fact that today’s society is influenced by the use of technology. Learning can also be done through participating in formal and informal focus group discussions, which facilitates the generation of different information, opinions and views regarding a certain topic or issue. With this, I believe that learning could be achieved in the process, thus, providing more useful knowledge on our part. Learning is important to take note of because with learning, we are able to develop our emotions towards certain situations and circumstances. Through different experiences, we are able to develop more matured emotions that would help us cope and survive in certain situations.
The development of our emotions helps us to understand our personality and behavior better, thus, enabling us to realize and to know our selves more. Developing our emotions, from immature and negative to matured and positive helps us to think critically and wisely, thus, provide us with solutions and answers to our problems. Speaking from experience, I am able to decide wisely and much better with a calm mind and emotion because with this, I am able to assess my self and the situation much better. However, when the situation puts me into extreme anger or happiness and a decision must be made, I make sure that I am already calm and aware of my self and my situation to be able to make sound decisions and not make me regret what I did. Another important thing to emphasize in terms of using emotions and learning is the fact that learning helps me to express my self, my identity, and my uniqueness to other people, thus, making them recognize how different or similar we are from one another and get the respect we deserve. The importance of learning in terms of assessing our emotions can be seen through its application, which is creativity. I believe that if I am able to use my emotions, which I have developed through learning, I will be able to express my self creatively. I have experienced the influence of emotions to my creativity, especially when I am dealing with strong emotions, such as anger, anxiety, and bliss. In my observation, I was able to realize that when I use extreme emotions in doing something, either I succeed or fail in doing the task. However, the kind of task also depends, such that, I can use extreme anger to force me to clean the house or to finish a specific paper work. On the other hand, I can use bliss or extreme joy when making a craft or project that would involve creative ideas and designs. Thus, emotions, in fact influence the kind of tasks that can be performed effectively. Another important application of emotions in influencing creativity is the when making critical decisions in life, such as marriage, employment, ending a relationship or looking for the right direction in life. Creativity involves innovativeness, which I believe is an important aspect in addressing problems in the real world. Creativity and innovativeness can be developed depending on our emotional intelligence and our ability to perceive learning in different ways.
The relationship and relevance of the concepts of learning, emotions and creativity can also be addressed in terms of management. I can relate these three concepts to the concept of management because proper management involves continuous learning, the use of proper emotions, and the use of creativity in specific situations. In my contemplation and realization, I believe that there are certain ways on how I can relate the three concepts to the concept of management. Primarily, management must start with the individual first, such that I will have to manage my own emotions and behavior towards the simple situations that I encounter. Management of emotions, involves the management of one’s self, through self-expression, and even stress or anger management. Speaking from experience, I am more able to do my work and my tasks if I have been able to control my emotions, from an extreme negative to an extreme positive one. With a neutral emotion, I am able to focus on my work, thus, sustaining my creativity. However, in the event that I have an inspiration that produces an extreme positive emotion, I can say that I am also able to become more creative, innovative and more productive. Similarly, if I produce or generate extreme negative emotions, such as anger, I believe that I am not able to think and perform well, sacrificing the kind of work I can do if I feel otherwise. Thus, I believe that using emotions in terms of creativity is a case-to-case basis, such that my creativity depends on the source of emotion and the kind of emotions I exemplify.
Moreover, management is also involved in the process of learning that influences the process of emotional development. Management in the learning process involves critical thinking and choosing the relevant and needed information that would be useful in the development and improvement of an individual. I believe that I was able to manage my own learning process by recognizing the fact that learning, in its true essence, is not easy. I was able to go through different kinds of situations that allowed to experience and to generate different emotions. Thus, I can say that these experiences and these emotions helped me to become more creative as an individual. I have used this creativity in addressing similar situations, such that I was already able to assess my self and the situation before, thus, easier for me to go through a similar experience. My creativity comes in for I am able to assess the situation better, and implore proper means in order to solve the problems associated with that situation. A specific example I can site is in relation with financial problems. In this regard, I am now wiser and more capable to budgeting my resources, thus, making the problem with budget or finances much easier to handle. Aside from creativity, wise choices must also be done in order to make sound decisions. From this, I am able to manage my resources, thus, influencing my attitude, behavior and responses regarding the problem.
The relation of my experiences to the literature lies on the fact that I was able to understand the relevance of management to emotions and creativity. The literature emphasizes that emotions influences the creativity of an individual, thus, enabling one to address certain situations and problems effectively and efficiently. In addition, through emotions, a person is able to make discoveries or additional learning because of dreams, which would somehow bring benefit and good impacts to the society as a whole. With this, I completely agree with the arguments of the literature, such that this was able to enlighten and remind me of the importance of emotional intelligence in making sound decisions and choices in life. Moreover, emotions play an important role in learning, for with the use emotions, I am able to gain more knowledge and relevant information about the different issues and concepts surrounding me. This reminds and enforces in me that experience is the best teacher, as I am able to address other problems concerning my emotions much better, with the guide of my past experiences. With this, I am able to say that management also plays a very important role in assessing emotions to be able to achieve and express creativity. This could also be implored in the workplace, for effective management can be done through consideration of the emotions and the creativity of individuals in the organization. Effective management in the organization involves enriching and improving the emotional intelligence of employees, thus, making them realize that having high emotional intelligence fosters creativity and innovativeness. However, in the workplace, involving too much emotion might also produce or generate negative impacts, for with too much emotion, rationality is being sacrificed, thus, not making sound decisions.
With these information, I believe that the module was able to help me with understanding that learning can be obtained and attained through different means, not only through the different forms of media, but also through experience. I believe that this module was able to help me realize the importance of integrating learning, in developing my emotions maturely, and in determining the importance of the two in the aspect of creativity. Practically, this has changed my views regarding literature and management because before, I view the two concepts as being separate from another, therefore, must be dealt with separately. In turn, this module was able to help me understand my self and understand the relation of the literature to the concept of management.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, I was able to discuss two themes, namely, the public and private life divide and the role of emotional insights and the process of creativity. On a wider scope or view, it can be seen that somehow, these two themes have no relations with one another. However, during the course of the discussion and realization, both themes can be related to the bigger concept of management. Management does not only relate to its application in the workplace, but also relates to the management of one’s self, behavior, personality, and values.
I can therefore conclude that this module and reflective diary, I was able to assess and evaluate myself better, thus, providing me with additional knowledge and information regarding life. Having knowledge and information regarding learning, emotions, making decisions, and creativity, thus, helped me overcome my fears of committing mistakes in life and helped me understand myself better, which would guide me through living my own life based on the decisions I will be having.
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