Paper on self reflection

Learning during the fall 2017 semester focused on participation in the X-Culture research that we conducted as a global-team activity. Additionally, a variety of courses, such as Human Communications and Cross-Cultural Management, were required for this program. I started the project with a lot of tenacity and interest with the idea that I wanted to learn more and become familiar with a huge knowledge. I had many opportunity to think and develop both knowledge-wise and morally uprightly from the experiences I had with my multicultural team, including successes, disagreements, discoveries, and partnerships. The team's success was dependent on a number of elements, some factors including focus, time management, and participation. Next, I will show the existing direct relationships between marketing and X-Culture, ethics, legal business environments, and cross-cultural management. I will also reflect on various external factors such as legal requirements needed for conducting business, social norms, the technology utilized, and the country's demographics. I will then examine my input during the global-team project including future application, self-knowledge, and professionalism. I will present personal connections that I made between the course learning objectives and the X-Culture project. I will then show the relations of PEQ courses on Human Communication and Women in History. Finally, I will give feedback on my team and how we related to the business disciplines.



Logistical Participation Overview

My participation involved coming up with various recommendations and justification of the work, I also worked on sections 1.1, 1.3, 2.4, 3.3, as well as did the editing of the whole paper. I directly participated in the identification of push and pulled factors that were associated with the study abroad programs. I presented how these factors could be noted and how they could be overcome. I also identified that Since​ ​VSA’s​ ​target​ ​audience​ ​are​ ​students, ​ ​parents​ ​of​ ​these interested​ ​students, ​ ​professors, ​ ​and​ ​on-campus study-abroad​ ​administrators, ​should find ​a​ ​marketing​ ​medium that​ ​can​ ​target​ ​all​ ​of​ ​these​ ​individuals​ ​at​ ​once. Similarly, I recommended that there marketing through the study of abroad databases were to continue because it had proven effective on the work.

Introduction part of the project was my area of participation. I covered the industry partly by identifying that there was a rise in demand for the students who needed to travel abroad. This was based on the need for many students needing to experience the benefits of abroad studies which most of them believe could help increase the value of their CVs. There were many competitors that I identified in this course which offer opportunities for the students to make it to abroad studies. Such competitors that I gave where the CIS Abroad whose destinations for studies in Europe and Asia among other countries. Other competitors that offer abroad studies that I also gave were the Education First, and IES Abroad.

I continued to identify the customers of the abroad education to the groups of the organizations named above. The customers I gave were students between ages 18 and 31 years with a medium age of 20. I participated in the presentation of SWOT Analysis of VSA Strength where I realized that VSA provides a quality study abroad trips at a reasonable price. The programs of VSA were also sponsored by CIS-ENDICOTT INTERNATIONAL which is situated in Madrid. I also give the weaknesses faced by VSA and the various opportunities that it had including its focus on other emerging markets like China, Brazil, and India. There are also threats faced by VSA that I also participated in addressing.

Justification of the study is also a part that I participated in the project. I worked on the promotion channels where I identified some of the cost-effective promotion channels for VSA in a new market such as promotion in local universities, promotion through social media, promotion through an email blast, and promotion in local student affairs. Editing the whole paper was a task and had to make sure that our work had no grammatical mistakes and that it was well written and it covered all the topics of discussions. My indirect contributions to the team process and the final report were not that much, but it was significant for the teamwork. I was informally the team leader at times, and this post required me to inquire how everyone in the group was doing, and I had to make sure that everyone knew what they were doing and if they needed any extra help. I was also informally the editor of the entire final report since I could speak and write good English.

The estimate of hours through the project depicts how we went through the course. I spent approximately 2-4 extra hours a week completing surveys and working on our report from October 1st until December 1st so please figure out an estimate of hours total. Every week we had to complete progress surveys that we would submit our work to either individually or the group members each had to provide the same thing as a concise report We also had to grade our peers depending on how much work the contributed, if they were respected by us all, informal or formal leaders, and how friendly they were (Vas, et al. 11). The scale was based on a 0-4 scale. There were five people total in my group, me being one of them. Out of my 4 group members 3 of them were always engaged from start to finish as much as I was and one was disengaged in and out from start to finish and towards the end was not helpful at all.3 of those group members spent about 2-4 hours a week as well and the one group member spent about 30min to an hour in the beginning to no help at all, as mentioned. We exchanged maybe six emails in the beginning but had over 300 WhatsApp messages conversing about the project and our report. We never had a skype call or any virtual call, just kept it through texting in the WhatsApp.



Project-Disciplinary and Eternal Environment Reflection

There are various connections between the X-Culture project and my SOM course. First, international economic gives the general understanding of the trade and finance from an international level perspective (Elizabeth 89). It brings to the knowledge of trade theories, the role of international organizations foreign exchange markets, exchange rates and microeconomics. All these disciplines connect with the X-Culture project because it brings to the understanding how culture impacts international economics. The X-Culture projects bring students from different nations together making it easy to share and learn various business ideas. Social-cultural studies bring in the understanding of social science and how it impacts globalization (Domènec 71). X-Culture projects bring us the understanding of cultural diversity and how it supports a peaceful and just world. Thirdly, management ethics gives students the ability to analyze and identify the application of the potential, business solution to moral and ethical issues in business which we understand better through the X-Culture project which gives us the opportunity to share business ideas. Fourth, cross-cultural management helps equips us to learn how to motivate and lead some cross-cultural teams in foreign countries that we join as a result of the X-Culture. Through the X-culture project, we have gotten acquainted with business management ideas (Archie & Buchholtz 52). Organization and management also relate to the X-Culture project in that we have been able to learn many principles of individual motivation, leadership and organization designs which have made our studies more educating.

There are direct connections between the X-Culture project and external environment. Government restriction is likely to prevent some students from getting opportunities to study abroad, and this stands out as a political issue. The government is also investing in students learning aboard to make sure that they gain knowledge that can be applied in economic practices to improve the country (Ann, et al. 12). Social hindrances for instance language barrier affect the X-Culture project in case some people cannot understand other languages.

Self-Reflection

I learned that teamwork is required for a more significant success because it helps in sharing knowledge. The ethical conflicts I experience was that one team member was in and out of supporting us throughout the report then whenever the process evaluations came up every week he would message the group chat and lie by claiming that he was busy because he did not want us to lower his evaluation grade or get removed from the group. The X-Culture taught me how to work with a culturally diverse team with different time zones. The surprise was that we fit in well and we got along regardless of our different cultures. Our interaction and getting to know each other was inspiring. What was troubling involved the one group members who were not committed.

X-culture has made me realize how to work with people from diverse groups because of the diverse cultural team that we formed through the project (Kenneth 87). This experience has prepared on how to manage any business on an international basis. It has also boosted my knowledge on international and domestic sales because I have learned how to interact with people from diverse cultures.

The connections between this X-Culture project and the learning objectives of the course is that is has helped equip us with a general undressing of both domestic and international business in the diverse cultures (Hans & Probst 78). Through the X-culture project, it connects with degrees offered by the institution and gives an understanding of interacting with different college departments within the institution.

The connections between the X-Culture project and other liberal education courses in Nazareth is that it brings to the understanding of some knowledge of the broad spectrum of majors (James & Bailey 10). The culture of interaction id developed and this helps all the students in understanding each other and cooperating through the courses.

The X-Culture projects have been of assistance in understanding and enumerating the college's vision, mission, and statements of diversity and respect within the institution (Nigel 20). It guides many people through learning and acquiring knowledge on how to be together through the program and how to make sure that one becomes prosperous at the end of the program.

Team-Reflection

One of the team members was disengaged throughout the project and gave lame excuses to avoid being removed from the group. This ethical ideal represented by this student was that he was not cooperative during the project and we decided to engage him in WhatsApp charts where he gave his contribution to the work. The performance assessment made me realize that people are from diverse groups and culture and that is to why there is need to understand others for not everyone sees things in the same perspective.







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