Organizational Behavior: Self Assessment Reaction Paper

 “The Unexamined Life is not Worth Living” by:  Socrates                                                   150 points

Objective: To apply organizational behavior concepts and assessments as students discover, learn, grow, and improve their personal human relations in organizations.

The use of self assessments is based on the reasonable assumptions that:

1. Different people have different ways of seeing and acting in the world. 
2. These different ways of seeing and acting have consequences on our effectiveness and well-being. 
3. These differences can be identified through self-assessment instruments, and
4. Personal change is possible and desirable.  Self-assessments can significantly contribute to individual and organizational effectiveness when used wisely.  Human Relations success is not an individual matter — it depends upon our relationships with others.

Assignment:  Write a 10 to 12 page self- assessment reaction paper.  The purpose of this paper is to help you reflect on where you are right now in terms of personal and professional development, and to consider where you would like to be in the future and how to get there.

Each student will complete numerous self-assessments as outlined in the course schedule.  As part of this assignment, you will use the planning document to jot down (2-3 sentences) your reaction to each self-assessment.  As you reflect on each self-assessment, consider how accurate you think it is, why or why not, what you learned about yourself, and how you will use it in your career and in your relationships. It is critical that you complete these assessments before the prescribed due date.  We will use the assessments and reactions in class discussion. 

The compilation of your reactions to the self-assessments and class discussions will be the basis for your Self Assessment Reaction Paper.  The paper will be an individual self-reflection of your strengths and weaknesses as well as an analysis of your personality, motivations, interests and career options going forward.   Its focus is on you as an individual and an application of the course material to your own educational and professional development.   The paper should also demonstrate knowledge of conceptual material drawn from the textbook readings, use the textbook material to support your results. 

Paper Format:  Please format your paper with the following sections:

1.  Summary:  Provide an overview of your human relations skills. 
2. Begin with an introduction paragraph explaining why human relations skills are important to you AND to organizations (use at least 3 course concepts/key terms to support your answer). 
3. Next, provide your answer to the following five questions.  Each area should be at least 3-5 sentences and provide a breadth and depth of your understanding of human relations in organizations.   Please provide evidence of this as part of your answer.  Type the letter and question in bold then begin your response.

1. How would you describe yourself as a person? 
2. What workplace values are especially important to you? 
3. What personal characteristics help AND hinder you in getting along with others? 
4. What aggravates you about working with others AND what about you might aggravate others?
5. What motivates you to perform your very best on the job and to always strive for positive human relations with others?

In responding to these questions, think about any particular experiences or events that may have happened in your past to make you the kind of person you are now.   These may be events from school, job, family, social, and other situations.

2. Specific Strengths and Weaknesses: 
3. Begin with an introduction paragraph.  Provide an overview of what impact these assessments have had on your thinking about human relations.
4. Create a new paragraph for each of the ten assessments.  Number the paragraphs 1 through 10.  Each paragraph must include as a minimum the following items as it relates to the assessment. 

2. your results/score – this is the outcome of the assessment.  Depending on the assessment, it will be either a score or a descriptive word.
3. 3-5 sentences explaining your results and anything you would like to address relative to that assessment.  Be specific, perhaps provide a personal example.
4. How do your results impact your work with others? Another way of asking this question is:   how does your result affect your ability to get along with other’s in the workplace?   For example, if you scored low on the team behaviors assessment, what impact would this low score have on you working in a team? 
5. Why is the topic of this assessment important to human relations?  This is where you demonstrate your knowledge of human relations in organizations.  Use textbook material to support your knowledge of human relations. What does the book teach about the particular concept?  For example, you could write:  “The book defines active listening as…..”.   The more textbook material you incorporate the stronger your paper will be.

Refer to your written reactions from the planning document to assist you with this section.    

3. Development of New Skills: The goal of learning effective human relation skills is to make improvements based on what we discover.  

• For this section, you will describe three areas where you would like to make improvements. 

• Each of your three improvement areas will be a separate paragraph (annotate each paragraph with a, b, and c) describing what you will do differently as a result of learning new human relation skills.  You must use “I will….” statements along with your description. What actions will you take to enhance and improve your human relation skills?  Be very specific when addressing these recommendations.  For example, do not just say “listen more”.  Say something like: “I have learned that my listening skills are poor and this has caused conflict in several of my professional working relationships.  I will begin to improve my listening skills by making a conscious effort to not multi task when someone is talking to me.  I will set aside all distractions, including the TV, and give the person my undivided attention.” The use of “I will….” statements is required. You must address at least 3 improvement areas, in three separate paragraphs, where you would like to develop new skills. 

4. Self Reflection:  Think back over the material and what you learned from the course.  Hopefully, you leave the course with an understanding of what it takes to apply effective human relation skills in the workplace.  Include a response to each of these questions in four separate paragraphs.  Type the letter and question in bold then begin your response with at least 3-5 sentences.
   1. What have you learned about human relations from the class discussions and from completing the self-assessments?
   2. How will you apply what you’ve learned to your ongoing professional AND educational goals? 
   3. Think about the future.  Where do you want to be five years from now… ten years?
   4.  How will this class help you achieve your desired future plans?

General Requirements:

• You must submit your planning document along with your paper through the assignment link found in the “Self Assessment Reaction Paper” folder.  Email submissions will earn a zero. 
• The paper will be read only by me and will be graded only on the quality of the work you have done in putting it together and not on your findings. This means there must be some depth in your writing & you must demonstrate an understanding of course material to receive maximum points. 
• The paper should include the four sections identified above.  Type each of the four headings in bold and underline before beginning the section specific material.
• It is very important that you take a final look at your paper before submitting it.  Points will be deducted for spelling and grammar errors as well as not following the proper format. 
• Your final paper must be at least 10 to 12  pages, computer-generated, double-spaced, 1-inch margins (all) and 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font.  
• The file that you post must be formatted in document (the file extension is .doc or .docx) or rich text format (the file extension is .rtf).  You cannot post files that end in .wps, .wpd, .txt, etc., as I cannot open them with my application software.
• Late papers will be accepted up to 2 days late with the following penalties:
• You will receive a 10% penalty for every day that your paper is late. For example, if your paper is due on Monday and you post your paper on Wednesday, you will receive a 20% penalty for the paper being two days late.
• Papers will not be accepted if they are turned in more than 2 days late.

Grading Rubric:

            Summary:                                                        30 points

            Specific Strengths and Weaknesses:             50 points

            Development of New Skills:                          30 points

            Self Reflections:                                              20 points

            Planning document submitted:                       20 points