Assessment

Length: 2000 words plus presentation

Task

Rational work attitude and self-management is critical to career development, resilience and job satisfaction. In this assessment you will be examining the concept of Psychological Contracts, your values, and your Locus of Control.

We all have attitudes and these may play a role in how we live our lives and experience our work. They may also play a role in how well we perform at work and how they influence our behaviour (and how others perceive our behaviour). Recognising how attitudes affect our work is valuable if we can also see that we can have a role to play in influencing our attitudes or how we behave as a result of them.

You will need to read the module on ‘Rational work attitude and self-management' and the associated readings.

Then develop a presentation, using either the ‘So What Matrix' or the ‘Five Point Outline' from Module ‘Business Meetings and Presentations', that address the parts below. You will present this in class in the week that the assessment is due.

You will provide the report for your presentation and the references in a word document up loaded to Turnitin.
You must use a range of academic and practice based references to support your views.

Part 1. Psychological Contract

Explain and explore the concept of Psychological Contract. Relate this to your experience in a workplace/university. Discuss if you have ever experienced a breach or a confirmation of the psychological contract?

Thinking about somewhere you work or have worked- What contributions does/did the employer/organisation want from you? What do/did you expect from the employer/host? How does/did the balance seem? If you can/did perceive some imbalance explain this in your reflection and think about the likely implications for you and/or for the employer.

Reflect and recommend: If you were/ are a manager what would you do to manage the Psychological Contract to ensure a positive workplace culture.

Part 2. Instrumental and Terminal Values

Explain and discuss the concept of Instrumental and Terminal Values.

Reflect upon your values. Use Rokeach's list from the corresponding table in the 'Rational work attitude and self management' module. Think about which ‘terminal' and ‘instrumental' values you have and how they relate to each other. Use the notes in the module to help you think about what your values are (the things you find important and/or good). Rank your values.

Discuss how and why clarifying your values can lead to job satisfaction. Give some specific examples from your own experience.

Explain and discuss how would you use this information in a job search? Give examples of an organisation that would fit your personal values and why. (You can use screen shots of web pages or examples of mission, vision and values statements or purpose statements)

Part 3.Locus of control

Explain and discuss the concept of Locus of Control.

Conduct a literature search around the relationship between Locus of Control, self - esteem, self -efficacy and job satisfaction. Critically evaluate what you have found. (You should look at 3-4 academic papers)

Reflect on your results and draw some conclusion in relation to yourself.

Part 4. Conclusions and Actions

Finally Summarise your learnings and provide an action plan that that will allow you to use this material to assist you in your career and personal development. (this should have at least three actions)

You should present this as a report using the following format and upload to Turnitin.

• Title page; ( excluded from word count)

• Table of contents; ( excluded from word count)

• Introduction ; (excluded from word count)

• Body of the report addressing the issues listed above and broken down under the three sections;

• Conclusion and Actions; and

• References

Part 5. Develop a 5 min Presentation that summarises your key learning and action and post to the discussion board.

You must use either the ‘So what matrix' or the ‘Five Point outline'

Rationale

This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:

• be able to critically reflect on and evaluate the application of theory in a workplace setting.

• be able to apply knowledge of contemporary thinking in employability skills, career planning and development to enhance personal skills applicable to the work environment.

• be able to develop practical competence through personal professional experience by participating in work placement.

• be able to evaluate personal development across a range of professional practice skills.

Understanding these concepts and exploring them in relation to yourself is a very important step to understanding your attitudes in the workplace (an in general) and in helping you to have job satisfaction.

Critically reviewing these concepts and developing a clear view of them for yourself will allow you see where you have room to grow.

Developing a presentation helps you to practice presentation skills and hones your ability to summarise the key points in an engaging way.