Introduction to Management (Reflective Journal)

• First day of lecture: What do you expect to learn in Introduction to Management module?
• After 12 weeks: What are your feelings regarding the module? Is it important for working life?

Management can be defined as the organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives and goals. Since I never had the opportunity to take up Introduction to Management during my foundation, I have the privilege to do so in my first year of undergraduate studies at Taylor’s University. However, I did have an idea of what Management was about since I studied Commerce during my high school years in which few concepts of Management was briefly covered in Bahasa Melayu.

After the first lecture, I was expecting to learn that Introduction to Management was all about the management functions, roles and management theories. During the first lecture I learnt about the importance of managers in an organization and their roles, skills and responsibilities. The first topic was relatively easy to understand and comprehend. However, questioned the importance of learning management and the field that I intend to pursue is Accounting. Sooner or later, I realize that it is important to understand how an organization is managed in order to be a productive employee.

The following lectures I learnt a number of topics, ranging from management history and the approaches people have used in management, to how business environment and culture affects decisions made by management. After these several informative lectures, I was able to learn from blunders and mistakes made by management before and avoid them. I also learnt to use management approaches which are more aligned to the culture of the organization in order to ensure smoother and efficient management of the business.

Besides that, I also learnt about organizational structure and design. Learning this topic helped me to realize that choosing a structure based on the size and type of business is important because each business is different and unique in its own way. Motivation of employees was also another topic which I learnt and captured my interest. In this topic, I learnt that managers are responsible to motivate employees in order to obtain the best outcome and productiveness from employees. Hence, the various motivational theories which were covered during the lectures and tutorials would help me to further get an idea on how to motivate employees in an organization. Leadership is also another very essential topic which I learnt as the various leadership theories and views would give me guidance on which leadership approach to take when dealing with different employees. Another important topic which is planning was fruitful because planning would ensure better control of the business activities and helps in accomplishing business goals and strategies.

After 12 weeks, I feel that learning this module has benefited me because it acts as guidance for me on how to work in various places with different types of people. In addition, I'm also able to identify the needs that I need to fulfill before I proceed to the next level of needs. For example, according to the Maslow's hierarchy of needs I know that I need to achieve the physiological needs before fulfilling the social needs or esteem needs. Furthermore, it will also be an advantage for having the knowledge on how to manage a company as it could come in handy if I am planning to set up a business of my own in the future. I might know how to manage my business efficiently and effectively with the appropriate ways of management. In a nutshell, I believed that a person with the knowledge and skills of management are more capable in handling people, their welfare and the organization as a whole better.

 

Quantitative Methods for Business (Reflective Journal)

"Reflection of your group assignment. You need to include statistical theory/concepts that you've applied in your group assignment. You also need to share new things that you've learnt."

I was presented with a group assignment for Quantitative Methods in the 6^th week. Me and my group that consist of three other members to complete two questions that are worth 25% for this assignment. For the first question, we were given a statement “Property prices have been strong in recent years with many urban areas experiencing property price increase while newly launched homes are priced above the RM500 000 mark, according to the Property Market Report statistics. What actually determine house price?” Based on that statement, we were required to choose one type of property in a specific location in Malaysia and obtain a set of at least 60 selling prices together with their sizes. These should be real selling prices of the properties as advertised in sources such as the local newspaper or the Internet. My group members and I decided to conduct our investigation on double-story terrace houses located at Kajang.

For the first part of the question, we were required to use Excel display the summary statistics for both selling price and the size of the properties. At initial stage, it was a challenge for me to answer this question because I was not familiar with the mathematical functions in Excel. However, my tutor Mr. Wellman has provided us with an Excel Guide to help us get through this assignment. The Excel Guide showed step-by-step procedure on how to do various statistics functions. From the summary statistics, I manage to obtain mean, standard deviation, median, sample variance, kurtosis, skewness, range, minimum, maximum, sum count and confidence level. From that data, I needed to find inter quartile range and coefficient of variation for both price and size.

For the second part, we were required to organize the 60 data collected into frequency distribution. The challenges in doing this question is that my group members are I needed to divide the data into appropriate class interval. After several trials and errors, we manage to answer this question. I also learned how to do histogram and ogive using Excel.

Furthermore, using correlation and regression analysis in Excel, I was required to display the output for price and size of the data collected. For this question, I needed to calculate the correlation coefficient, significance test for correlation. I also needed to identify the dependent and independent variable, prepare and scatter plot of a simple regression model and calculate the regression equation. All of these figures were easily derived using the additional add-ins in Excel. 

For the final part if the question, we were required to write a report of not more than 800 words explaining about the data collected, interpreting the graphs and statistics including the best measure of location and spread that should be used for both the selling price and size of property. In the report, I also was required to explain if the assumed independent variable explains well the dependent variable. I was also required to identify other possible factors affecting the dependent variable.

In conclusion, this assignment has made me to explore various functions of Excel and I am also able to understand in detail about various statistic theories. Besides that, I have also understand the importance of team work and how it makes impossible things to seem possible. 

Introduction to Accounting (Reflective Journal 2)

"Reflecting on the results you obtained in the mid-semester test, are you satisfied with your result? Do you think the weekly tutorial questions given to you has helped you in your revision and preparation for the mid-semester test?"

On week 9, I did my online mid-semester test on the MyAccountingLab. The mid-semester test covered topics 1 to 8. There were 10 multiple choice questions and 2 structural questions. All questions have to be answered in a time duration of 75 minutes and everyone was given 2 attempts for this test. The questions was relatively easy because most of the questions was similar to the tutorial questions given by my tutor. On the first attempt, I obtain a 80% mark however on my second attempt I manage to obtain a 99.83%. I am satisfied with results because my hard work of completing my weekly tutorial has reflected on my results.

Microeconomics (Reflective Journal)

You are required to critically reflect your engagement with the module, such as your comments on the syllabus, learning challenges, experiences, etc… The task has to be submitted to your e-portfolio which needs to be established in advance.

Being a pure art stream student in high school, I was lucky enough to be exposed to Economics at such an early stage. This subject easily became my favorite unexpectedly despite the fact that I am weak in Mathematics. However, I realized and learnt that the basic rule of excelling in Economics is by understanding its core principles and applying it to real life situation, and not by memorizing them. 

The first lecture was interesting and I could understand and catch up easily due to some basic knowledge during my high school years. However, since it has been a long time, my Economics knowledge was a little bit rusty here and there.  Ms. Marina explained the four factors of production which is labor, land, capital and entrepreneur. When these factors are put together, it gives us a better understanding on how these inputs causes an economic profit.

In lecture 2, my knowledge expended on how to explain the influences on demand and supply and also how to use demand and supply models to make predictions about changes in prices and quantities.  Besides that, I also learnt about law of demand, law of supply, change in quantity demanded and quantity supplied, change in demand and supply and lastly about normal good and inferior good.

In lecture 3, I successfully learnt how to define, explain and calculate the factors that influence the price elasticity of demand, cross elasticity of demand and the income elasticity of demand and as well as explaining the factors that influence the elasticity of supply.

In lecture 4, this module thought me how to explain and elaborate the concept of consumer surplus and procedure surplus, the effects of a taxes and its connection with the price elasticity of demand. Furthermore, I also learnt about how price ceiling and price floor can bring about an effect to the market equilibrium. Deadweight loss and tax incidence are two new terms I picked up from this chapter.

In lecture 5, I learnt about background to demand and how to differentiate between the short run and long run production time frames, describe the law of diminishing marginal returns, and determine the increasing, constant and decreasing returns to scale. I also learnt about the preferences and indifference curves.

In lecture 6 and lecture 7, I learnt how to explain the relationship between a firm’s output and costs in the short run, derivation of long run cost curves and how to explain the relationship between firms output and costs in the long run. I also now know how to produce the short run cost curves.

In lecture 8, I learnt how to explain how price and output is determined in this market structure, define competition, explain why firms in this market may shut down temporarily, and exhibit the implication of free entry in the market structure.

In lecture 9, I learnt to define monopoly, explain how a single price monopoly and a price discrimination monopoly, compare performance and efficiency of a single price-monopoly and perfect competition and lastly understand how a regulated monopoly influences price, output, economic profit and efficiency.

In this module, I was also required to do an economics weblog as an individual assignment. From this assignment, I was able to demonstrate the ability to effectively communicate in writing the application of microeconomics, understanding various concepts and principles and also presenting and analyzing the microeconomics ideas and statement in a clear form. I learnt how to apply the concept of demand and supply to a real life situation. From my extensive research, I successfully matched the theory of my choice to the history of the infamous Tickle Me Elmo.