FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

DEGREE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (FINANCE)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA (UITM) KEDAH
KAMPUS SUNGAI PETANI
PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICE OF MANAGEMENT
(MGT420)

TITLE : REFLECTIVE ESSAY

SEMESTER : OCTOBER 2023 – FEBRUARY 2024
NAME : NUR HANIS SOFIA BINTI JAINAL
STUDENT ID : 2023607226
CLASS : KBA2721A
LECTURER : MISS SARA SURAYA BINTI SHAHRUDDIN
INTRODUCTION

Principle and Practice for Management is a subject that I leanred in my course which
is Business Administrator in Finance. The first impression of this subject is that I thought that
this subject will be familiar to the course that I used to study management during diploma but
the management that I learned in degree will be way different that the one that I used to as
this subject is more to theory and has a tests that mean I need to study more in order to get a
good grade for this semester. During I learnt management in diploma, I was a fashion design
student and I learnt Fashion Management eventhough the similarities between Business
Management and Fashion Management are both of them have assignments. For the
assignment, I needed to create a moodboard and interviewing fashion outlet in Malaysia.
Another one was managing a fashion show for our senior which was very hectic however the
outcome was satisfying as I got a good feedback from my lecturer and they even said that
management subject was the easiest subject to get A.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNED?

From here, what I learned from this subject was that I got to learn that being a manager
needs to have an official knowledge like learn it from university to take this role to manage the
organization and there are so many things that needs to learn including leadership, planning
and much more. I was surprising that I need to learn more about communication, motivation,
and conflict deeper even though it is a simple thing that I learned from my life. For example,
in topic ‘Motivation’, there are so many theories I learned such as, Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs, Alderfer’s ERG Theory, Herzberg’s Motivator Hygiene Theory, Expectancy theory, and
process theories like Equity Theory, Four-Drives Theory, and Goal Setting Theory. Not just
that, during learning time, the lecturer also tries to relate the topic she teaches with real life
situation like in working environment and she also shared tips and advice on how to survive
in working environment in the future.

Other than that, the topic leadership also has a theory too such as House Path-Goal
theory and there is a topic about how to be a charismatic leader which makes me surprise as
I also need to learn it on how to be charismatic leader. From what I remember, there are so
many criteria that we need to have in order to be a leader based on maturity, stress tolerance,
and much more. To charismatic leader, someone must have the enthusiast in their job not for
gossiping and make sure that their employees are well imformed of the problem and needed
to change.

WHAT ARE THE SKILLS THAT I ACQUIRED FROM THIS SUBJECT?

 What I acquired from this subject is that my communication skills are improving even
though there are still flaw in myself however, not just communication but also my motivation
as it is makes me want to move forward as someone who is not familiar with the course that
have exam so it can be overwhelming for me. I can say that most of topic is related to self-
skills which I can apply in daily life, and I will use these skills in the future.

Other than communication skills, I can plan very well thanks to the topic called
planning. I know that the planning that we learnt in the class is the one that related tp the
organisation but why not I can use this knowledge and apply it on my daily life. I also surprised
that they are types and levels of planning like functional-level plan, standing plan, and single-
use plan.

WHAT ARE BENEFITS THAT I ACQUIRED FROM THIS SUBJECT?

Everything that we learn in the university have benefits to ourselves same goes to
myself when it comes to this subject where I gained some benefit here such as I started to
think critically. I am the person who loves to overthink but most of these are related to the
personal rather than the educational one however in this case, I started to think critically and
always use more time to make sure that my work will fit degree level. Even during class, the
lecturer was giving us time to answer questions and she will make sure that our answer will
be relevant featuring with critique and crisis. Many people always said that we need to think
first before we act or speak as we do not know on how it will affect people around me or
virtually which I can say it is actually one of my weaknesses however for now I always think
before I act because otherwise bad things might be happen to me.

During the learning session, there is one topic where it is all about an employee
shoulds stand up for themselves if they get mistreated by their leader or manager which
impacts me for a whole time when I tried to remember it.

WHAT DO I LIKE THE BEST ABOUT THIS SUBJECT?

What I like the best about this subject is that I love how the lecturer teached my class
and it is so entertaining. Most of the things I learned in the class can be very useful in the
future especially when I start to survive in the corporate world potentially. At the same time, I
gained more knowledge about conflict, communication, motivation, group and team in details
even there are mind map and chart involved so I can understand more as someone who
preferred visual learning. Not to mention I can say I do not feel any pressure during learning
this subject. Things that I learned about this subject can be use in any working field not only
in management as some field also needs manager too so the company’s performance are in
control.
WHAT WERE SOME OF MY MOST CHALLENGING MOMENTS AND WHAT MADE THEM
SO?

The most challenging things that I have done are doing assignments. I was lucky that
the lecturer guided me and my groupmates during our progress in making our assignments.
Other than that, I also struggling to study as I am a person who is easily distracted, self-
discipline is also my weakness as I have a very short attention span that came from my heavy
addiction of looking at the gadget for scrolling social media which shorten my attention span,
and it can be bad things for me as I only focus on it for about 15 minutes only.

My internet connection can be one of the factor on why it can be challenging when it
comes to do an assignment because it can be very slow until at the one moment, I need to
stay up for the sake of getting good internet connection.

HOW WILL I USE WHAT I LEARNED IN THE FUTURE?

I will use the knowledge that I learned not in the future, but I also can use it for now as
this subject is not just learned in the university but also once I starts to join into working
environments whether as an employee or as a manager. For example, let’s say that there is a
problem that will happen in my management, in order for me to solve the problem, I need to
plan first on how to solve it.

Talk about leadership, if I have a chance to be a leader in that one department, I need
to make sure that I will identify myself whether I have a trait for being an effective leader or
not. If I do not have the traits, I need to fix myself by boosting my self-confidence so I can
influence the employees, making sure that I can be tolerate enough to handle the stress and
last but not least, I need to be mature for example, when I feel like I cannot tolerate the stress
anymore, I will make sure that I am not expressing my tension or pressure to the other
employee because that behaviour might ruin my reputation as a leader thus I might be label
as immature leader. Other than that, I need to be supportive to my employee and always
participate to make sure that the employee will perform well and helping hands with them.

There is one more important thing, which is decision making. To be a manager, being
good in decision is a must because what we choose might affect to the company and also our
performance. When making a decision, I need to make sure that I need to be cautious in
information gathering, generation of alternatives, and evaluation of alternatives.

ANY SUGGESTION FOR IMPROVEMENT FOR THIS SUBJECT?

So far, I do not think that would be any improvement as the lecturer did a very good
job for teaching my class and it can be enjoyable as we can interact more during physical
class, and I do not need to be afraid to ask question to the lecturer as long as it related to the
topic I learned. Other than that, this subject fits all the students need for better understanding.