Introduction
Conducting a self-critical evaluation is an integral part of learning to identify strengths and weaknesses, to take an interim pause to assess one’s successes, and to design further educational paths. Such reflection should be perceived as an opportunity for future growth, so the practical value of reflective analysis is exceptionally high. This paper will attempt a self-critical evaluation of the knowledge, skills, and lessons the author has learned during the study. The analysis involves critical reflection, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas for further development, and designing a subsequent educational route.
The paper’s overall purpose was to explore the problem of knowledge management in organizational culture. Although the semester’s educational materials indicated that organizational culture is based on two levels (surface and deep), in the context of the group project, I would describe organizational culture as the participants’ attitudes towards each other, the existence of shared and perceived values, and the patterns of interaction with each other. As a result of the project activities, I would not distinguish two levels of organizational culture but would say that there is only one, varying between organizations.
Critical Reflection and Analysis
Strengths
The workshop held on March 16 focused on learning about knowledge management in groups, an essential team management skill in the workplace. Six people were represented on our team, each taking on different roles during the project, contributing their ideas and opinions, and contributing to the overall progress. Such educational practices have been shown to increase team engagement and positively impact student achievement and motivation (Prada et al., 2022; Planas-Lladó et al., 2021). This was also evident during the group project, as, in my opinion, the students were more active and involved in decision-making and sharing their opinions when we were formed into groups. Having a goal was another essential attribute of such teamwork, as the articulated, clear, and precise goal that we had as a team helped us to define the project route and move towards it.
The project showed both the strengths and weaknesses of such teamwork. Among the strengths were successful communication, increased engagement, and differentiation. First, as I observed during the team activity, each participant discussed opinions. We gave each person some limited time to hear their opinions, which positively affected their motivation to participate.
Secondly, successful communication was also a strength of the workshop held. The active involvement and the temporary opportunity for each participant to have their say positively impacted the project activity’s communication component. In a group of six, each of us had the opportunity to talk to each other in a general discussion; all combinations of pairs communicated with each other. Raappana and Horila (2019) and Eisenberg et al. (2019) show that communication in group activities is fundamental, and any errors and failures in the interaction between participants can lead to a drop in workgroup performance.
The third strength I discovered in my self-reflection on the workshop was the differentiation of labor. Each of the six participants in our group had their own roles and responsibilities, and we contributed to a common goal: accumulating and discussing knowledge management practices in the workplace. For example, my personal responsibilities included preparing slides on “How can knowledge management support organizations,” “Knowledge workers,” and “How was knowledge management developed,” while other group members prepared other slides. The result was a presentation on knowledge management in which each participant created individual slides.
I also created an interactive quiz, which we then used to test what we had learned. The game conducted, although it had its limitations (discussed further below), generally produced good results, and the motivation of the ‘staff’ was a prize of a chocolate bar for correct answers. Thus, different, non-repeatable activities seemed to be a positive element of this team practice. Moreover, the opportunity to have personal responsibility for the tasks stimulated one to complete them qualitatively and correctly, as one did not want to make mistakes when there was collective and individual responsibility.
Limitations
The group activities had weaknesses that could be seen as opportunities to improve the quality of work in the future. The main challenge was related to the technical component, as I was unfamiliar with the Kahoot platform. “Kahoot!” is an interactive online educational platform where games, quizzes, surveys, and other interactive activity options can be created (Wang & Tahir, 2020). When I created a quiz to test the participants’ knowledge in our group, I hoped the quiz would be successful and that all participants could participate.
However, I could not show all participants the quiz due to technical errors, my unfamiliarity with the platform, and time constraints. Specifically, the screens in the classroom did not display the questions from Kahoot, creating a problem because participant engagement dropped dramatically. None of the students wanted to listen to the questions by ear, so the quality of such a quiz was low. However, I did not notice any other limitations or weaknesses, so overall, I consider this group activity quite successful, except for the Kahoot part.
Areas of Development
Several areas of further development have been identified for me that would help me to work as an individual professional and within a working group. Firstly, it would be helpful for me to learn how Kahoot works so that I could seamlessly manage interactive activities in the future and understand how to correct technical errors quickly. Indeed, no staff speaker is immune to unforeseen technological errors (Battistelli et al., 2019).
However, it is part of the job of the responsible and executive employee to be able to navigate and resolve problems quickly. This competency would enable reactive and coherent action even when errors occur. A competent speaker reacts quickly to accidents and unforeseen circumstances and adjusts to them, which increases participant engagement and creates a lighter, more reactive team atmosphere. This is an area I would like to develop in the future so that even when issues cannot be shown on screens, I can manage the engagement and activity of my listeners.
There is another area that I would like to develop further. Although communication within the work team was successful, and none of us suffered from a lack of attention or importance, I would like to learn how to increase communication value within the group. At the beginning of the project activity, much of our time was spent assigning roles, selecting slides, and discussing other organizational details of working together. While this is a crucial initial step in any team activity, we took too much time because we faced extensive discussions. In the future, I would like to see more rigorous and planned communication management: this would help save time and better spend every minute of discussion.
SWOT Analysis
For a more detailed and in-depth analysis, a SWOT analysis is suggested to show the strengths and weaknesses of the project activities, future growth opportunities, and threats. The SWOT analysis matrix is shown below:
Conclusion
Project activities are an essential component of learning and work activities. The studies discussed and cited in this paper have repeatedly proven that the success of teamwork depends on factors such as successful and established communication, participants’ motivation to work, personal and collective responsibility, and active involvement. In the workshop, our six-person group developed a knowledge management topic. Each student contributed to the common goal: individual slides were prepared, which were then compiled into a single presentation and an interactive online quiz to test their knowledge.
The strengths included successful communication, active involvement, and delegation of responsibility. The workshop demonstrated that when each team member has their own area of responsibility, it positively impacts overall progress. No conflicts were observed, and all “employees” performed well. On the other hand, the workshop was not without its shortcomings: these included a lot of time wasted on redundant organizational discussions and technical errors. Overall, the workshop can be considered a success as the objective was achieved, and despite the limitations, all participants were satisfied.
Bibliography
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Wang, A. I., & Tahir, R. (2020). The effect of using Kahoot! for learning – a literature review. Computers & Education, 149, 1-22. Web.
