CRITICAL REFLECTION

Individual Reflective Portfolio On (A Minimum Of 3) Specific Workplace Scenarios



Individual Reflective Portfolio On (A Minimum Of 3) Specific Workplace Scenarios

Scenario 1

The intentions of this scenario is to contribute reflections of an empirical account of working with critical reflection within an organisational development programme, addressing the following questions: What space is there for critical reflection in organisational development? What issues are raised for in-company developers and providers by advocating critical reflection in organisation practice?

Reflection and reflective practice have been gaining validity in recent years within higher education and workplace learning generally, particularly in the fields of professional, management and - more recently - organisation development. We are increasingly urged to reflect, in the sense of looking back on our actions and learning to consciously frame and reframe the way we interpret complex or ambiguous problems (e.g. Hatton and Smith, 1995). Reflection is argued to improve the depth and relevance of individual learning (Moon, 2000), to support emergence of self-insight and growth (Miller, 2005), to develop the transferable ideal of the reflective practitioner, and also to offer potential for organizational learning and change (Vince, 2002; Nicolini et al., 2004; Walsh and Dehler, 2004).

The account relates to a management and leadership development programme for 100 senior managers of a British public service organisation. Commissioned by the Chief Executive for the purpose of raising the authority's overall capacity and performance, the programme was provided by a university, using a team of experienced facilitators with public policy backgrounds, from within and outside the university. The main point of contact with the client organisation and their project leader was a representative from the local authority's human resources team. The contract to deliver was won after competitive tender, with the client very clear on the outcome wanted, namely to increase across the organisation as a whole the level of transformational leadership (as defined by Alimo-Metcalfe and Nyfield, 2002). Alongside this fundamental objective was a secondary one expressed in the tender specification: “90 per cent sessions to be rated good or higher”, a point with significance which we neglected to question, that will be returned to later in the scenario.

Running over two years, the programme involved a range of elements, including workshops, masterclasses and readings that explore different theoretical ideas. Core, however, were student-selected live organisational issues, presented within action learning sets that met periodically throughout the programme. Critical reflection was encouraged, particularly within the action learning sets, where each member was guided to work on an individual inquiry question (Torbert, 1999; Mead, 2006) making their own interpretation of the broad question “How do I improve my managerial leadership?”. So, for example, if one individual initially pursued the question “How do I improve my team meetings?”, they would be facilitated to ask other questions, such as:

Why am I using meetings in this format?

How am I managing?

What do I feel about what is going on?

Where is the power in these meetings?

What emotion is there?

What are my choices?

In this sense reflections went beyond the simple to encompass critical ...