By Sidra Anjum ..Academic [Link] Portfolio. As part of my academic requirement.

Teamwork:
Teamwork is an action that is performed in the form of team towards one common purpose. Teams can be everywhere, in the organization setting, in playing ground, in education environment or among students. Team does not mean a specific team; it means to have number of people working altogether under one umbrella having one common purpose. Team work eliminates the impact of I word as everyone in a team has to think collectively for the good of all rather to place one selfs first. In case of leadership, leader of a particular team has to haul together towards team goal. All of us worked as team member at some point of life and conduct interactions in order to meet the team objectives. Everyone face some experiences both good and bad while working in team environment. Good teamwork portrays the team synergy so that the combined effort of team members exceeds the sum of the individual efforts. Well structured team shows that mutual understanding and responsibility towards the team objectives. Teamwork enhances the performance level far better that individual contributions and effort. In working environment, Group members always place their personal goals second and group objective or overall companys goal first. One more important thing in forming a team is familiarity and understanding level among team members. Without mutual understanding and commitment with each other, team goal cannot be achieved. There are so many examples where teamwork is essential to practice like sports where cricket and football teams require good teamwork. This shows that how group member has to ignore their personal milestones and keep focused towards one common team goal. If we talk about Pakistan cricket team, there has been very recent incident that can best differentiate the difference between team and teamwork. Pakistani cricket team players Salman Butt, Muhammed Arif, And Muhammad Amir were accused because of prioritizing their own personal interests over team interests. So in this case, team does not assure the

achievement of team purpose, in fact it depends on the ability of team players sincerity and ability to work together in a team. We can also see so many examples in organizations using TQM in their processes. Teamwork is the heart of successful TQM application, where one person or group of people is responsible of carrying out the TQM process and everyone in the organization group has to contribute to meet the requirement of TQM as continuous improvement. If teams are managed properly during the process, it improves the process and brings free exchange of new ideas that could result into good implementation. Teamwork plays significant role in TQM organization in fostering trust, improved communication and development of new culture rather that doing individually. In this era of dynamic environment, every organization demands the candidate to have ability to work in a team. I have faced so many experiences regarding this issue whenever I went for an interview. Every employer expected me to have ability to work in team. It doesnt matter for them anymore that you were a good leader or punctual worker in the past, their first concern is how one can better work in a team. Research teams are another example of teamwork where people from every part of the world gather the information collectively to develop the solution of the problems. And their research solutions are not the part of their individual efforts but the mix of different researchers effort. Role of leader is very important in a team, who represents, manages and directs that team. Wearing a same uniform does not guarantee the good team and unluckily goal setting cant even ensure the good performance level. It is the responsibility of a team leader to have awareness about the chuckholes and hurdles that may cause delays and incapacitate the continuity of teamwork. I have learnt a very good lesson about teamwork from various Hindi movies like Swades, Chak de India and Football. Where it is shown that team management and teamwork is very important in order to win the ground. If we keep on following our personal interests first, team formation cannot provide the desired results so teams should place their team objectives in first priority. Every step of day to day life involves teamwork, husband and wife works as team to run their family and to feed their children. They go to office and

work as team to achieve the organization goals. They get back home and take their children for picnic as team to give pleasure to their children. The restaurant manager forms a team of staff in kitchen, who prepares food, the staff of waiters and waitress to serve food, and staff of cleaners to clean the space. Everybody works in team to achieve one different goal.

Cultural Diversity:
Cultural diversity is a system of shared values, religions and norms. Culture depends on the various elements like social structure of a region, religion, values, education system, history, and geographical structure. It can be referred as the variety of cultures and religions in a particular region where people interact with each other and somehow respect each other cultural differences. Britain is one of the common examples of this aspect as they have been facing cultural diversity from so many past years and even currently they are taking benefit of culturally diversified countries in the world. Today the food, music and clothes, everything is influenced by different cultures that we experience during the stay in Britain. Curry is one of the favorite foods of Britain people but its an Indian food. In Britain, the first curry was added in 1773. Britain is full of diverse cultures and has ethnic minority of above 4 million. People who live in Britain can enjoy and value its cultural heritage. Since I am here in London, I have been experiencing so many cultural differences around me. I always dreamt of this to meet people of different culture, having different values, traditions and languages. I faced both good and bad experiences until now. The good thing was the opportunity to meet people of different culture, understand their culture and respect their values and can be able to develop good relationship with them. On the other hand, I faced one problem that sometime bothered me a lot especially during interviews and jobs. Employers required me to follow their dress code that might against our religion values. Overall, its good to be here in every perspective. People of different countries face different weather condition, sometime extreme weather conditions like cold weather conditions throughout the year. There are so many other things that differ among cultures of different countries. In some countries when people go for some party stuff they are liable to pay for their own food items because they believe that its a burden

for one person to pay for all. On the other hand, In Pakistan and India the person who invites is liable to pay for all. If I talk about Pakistan, there is also a caste system and certain religious beliefs that are highly promoted by the people of Pakistan. There are social classes like high class, medium and lower. High class rich people do not like to talk to lower class community. They maintain some distance and use to avoid them while sitting and standing at the same place. Cultural diversity can be a very good element for any countrys progress if they respect and use it in positive way. History has been influencing culture for so many years. There are so many regions which were invaded by British; they follow their values to some extent. Pakistan was once the part of India and British also ruled on our country for centuries so that we still have some elements of Indian and British culture in Pakistan. After 62 years of independence, Pakistan is still facing entirely different cultures in it as one nation. Every small or large community is having its own culture and philosophy of living. Pakistan has diverse cultures but they dont know how to deal with this, people does not show any tolerance level and understanding towards other cultures within the country. Any decision regarding any traditional event always becomes headlines of the news, less in positive way and more in negative way. UK is much more diverse than Pakistan so when I planned to come to UK, so many people tried to warn me about the behaviors of British people towards Asian citizens. But I have not experienced any bit of discrimination of being Asian. I observed that the people who belong to this place have much awareness and education of dealing with the people of different cultures. I have been here for three months now and the best thing I found is their way to deal with the people from different culture that shows their respect for other cultures as well. I have so many friends who belong to different countries. This is an amazing feeling if you are studying in different country with the people from different nations. During my course, I learnt so many things and behaviors that I have to show while dealing with the different people. Our instructor gave us different class exercise that helped me knowing about my personality traits so that I could make better social arrangements with the people from different culture. In this way, I can better understand my friends, their feelings, tolerance level, and emotions in certain situations. In the first class of this course, our instructor made our groups by herself to promote communication among us and this was one of the best things she did. I got a chance to work with the people from different culture other than my friends so I could be able to interact with my whole class. Presentations and class

participations also helped me eradicate my hesitation in totally diverse environment. Sometime I faced some problems while working in a group but I also learned great things about dealing in cultural diversity.

Time Management:
Time Management is an important part of our daily lives. It brings discipline in our living style. Time we say is infinite, it never waits for anyone, it cant be stopped and stored, if it is once gone, its gone. People use time as a measure to manage among durations of different tasks. It helps in keep tracking the activities duration and helps in managing among different events. Time Management plays an important role even in our professional life. Time Management does not mean only something need to manage in day to day life. But it has an important impact in business point of view. As project manager, supply chain manager, and just in time activities, good time management skills are very necessary to learn. If time management is properly done, it helps in planning business activities and meet deadlines for tasks to be performed within that specific timeline. During my job, I learnt many things about time that how important it is and what consequences could happen if it is not taken seriously. We had to meet the order fulfillment within required delivery time once the order is placed. And if we failed to do so, that result in loss of customer. So time management is first step to consider if one should meet the deadlines. Its truly said that time is money because if we do not take timely actions, our company may lose project and it will cause financial lose. Due to fast dynamic environment, time management became an important element for every individual whenever we go for interviews, companies wish to know about your time management skills that how well u can manage your time in case of short span of time for projects. Time can be a strong and powerful tool for any business if they have good time management skills. There are so many things that cause time wastage like lack of planning, procrastination, interruptions, lack of delegation, unusual meetings, fire fighting, long distance travelling, untidiness, and no time-off. For me I face procrastination, long distance travelling and lack of delegation. Our course of personal development helped me a lot in this issue. During this course period, our instructor gave us lectures on problem

solving skills, time management, and leadership and coaching, teamwork, and others. So with the help of those lectures I could able to find the solutions to chuck out those time wasters. I started studying during travelling time and I put my course schedule in first priority so that whatever I do, do it in best way. Its good to be punctual and I tried my best to be punctual during my course period. Sometimes I faced some bit of problems of being a night owl but I sorted out with the time. In Pakistan, Time Management is not so important in all places. Our culture tell us a different story like if we are in a hurry or busy somewhere and u ask your friend to wait or leave, he/she will consider this attitude as rude. And even in working environment, people usually dont feel anything bad if they get to work late. In weddings and functions, being late going is considered as norm. So the importance of time differs in different cultures but no one can deny the importance of time management in broader context.

Problem Solving and Decision Making:

Decision making and problem solving skills are important for life and every business. Problem solving skills involves decision making and good decision making leads to good management and leadership. There are so many techniques and tools to practice good decision making with good decisions. Everyone in this world has his own level of decision making ability so people use to more focus on improvement in quality of their decisions. Some people face problem when they take decisions over different available options. Some make assessments regarding the issue or problem and act according to those assessments. Problem solving and decision making are interrelated skills because both need good creative mind for taking effective decisions over options and choices. Brainstorming acts as useful tool in result of good decision making. People also use SWOT and PEST analysis for the solutions of their problems. Decision making involves various skills: creative mind, ability to identify available options, good judgment, Determination about judgment and its proper implementation. So if one can follow this in a proper way, he/she would surely earn good problem solving skills in result. Some decisions are of simple nature and some keep complex relationships among available options. Simple decisions could be buying a new item,

taking a new job, or some kind of selling decisions and decisions more of personal nature. For other type of decisions, brainstorming is used to develop options to take decisions and problem solving.