7CO03 Assignment Example
7CO03 Personal effectiveness, ethics and business acumen
Preparation for the Tasks:
- For task 1 you will need the CIPD Profession Map.
- Refer to the indicative content in the unit (see Appendix A) to guide and support your
- planning, learning and evidence gathering.
You will also benefit from:
- Recognising that this level of planning, reflection and recording of self-development is something new to most people. It will not come naturally. You will get faster and better at doing it as you progress through your programme. At the same time, you will find journaling growing in impact on your thinking and behaviour. So, experiment and expect to change the way you do things – that shows that you are developing.
- Putting aside a realistic amount of time at the beginning of your programme for your self- assessment and planning. Go slow to go fast.
- Reflecting on experiences or other courses outside of work that may be relevant to this unit.
- Gaining an understanding of the theories underpinning this unit and research into realpeople and organisations.
- Reading the CIPD Fact Sheets and related on-line material on these topics.
- Clearly separating your work from that of others.
- Including a wide range of sources of both learning and evidence – reading, observing, shadowing, internet research, experimentation, secondment, mentoring or coaching, volunteering, regular personal reflection and so on.
- Paying attention to how your evidence is presented in your portfolio.
Task One – Initial self-assessment and plan
At the start of your programme carry out a self-assessment of your knowledge and skill in each of the fifteen assessment criteria (listed in Appendix A). Then formulate your development plan for each one. This plan must take you to the required standard in each assessment criterion by the time you submit Task 3.
The purpose of this task is to:
▪ Identify your current strengths and the competencies you must develop during your programme.
▪ Enable you to plan and deliver your development and monitor your progress towards your learning goals.
This document will be an essential foundation for your learning.
Helpful advice:
- A template to help you is at Appendix B.
- Take a copy of the schedule for the whole of your CIPD programme and identify any modules, lectures, webinars, fact sheets, case studies, CIPD website, visits, activities etc. that might be relevant to this unit. Then build them into your learning plan.
- In the plan, try to make your learning goals SMART.
- Consider how you will reward yourself for reaching each of your goals.
- Your tutor may review your self-assessment and may give you advice on your development plan and offer interim reviews if that might help you.
- However, any mark or grade given will not form part of your final assessment for the unit.
Task Two – Learning journal
During your programme follow your development plan and record your learning in a journal. This journal will then provide you with the rich source material you need to compile your final assessment portfolio.
Identify real evidence of your competence in each of the fifteen areas and record these in your journal. Apply relevant theories and models to help you critically evaluate your performance.
By the end of your programme, you should be able to report on, have critically evaluated and show evidence of your competence in, all fifteen assessment criteria.
You choose the format for your journaling. You might keep a chronological journal – carrying out regular reflection – rather like a diary – perhaps on a weekly basis. Or you can divide your journal into the fifteen sections and record your learning as it arises, under the relevant heading. Or you may combine these formats.
Helpful advice:
- Take care. There is a lot to cover in this unit and you are strongly advised to start work early, gradually developing your knowledge and behaviour, and assembling your portfolio. If you leave your portfolio until you know which six assessment criteria to cover, you are very unlikely to pass.
- Learn from other learners. You may find it useful to work in an action learning set or similar group with fellow learners. This will enable you to share your areas of strength and weakness; learn from, challenge, and motivate each other; and enable you to find solutions to your problems.
- Learn from a range of experiences. If you are developing as a result of experiences outside work and study, you can include that in your journal. Clubs, sports, voluntary work and even home life are sources of learning and therefore also evidence. If you are not currently in an HR/L&D role, you will need to draw more heavily on these sources of learning. Again, you will need supporting evidence for what you have done and what impact it is has had.
- This unit is at Level 7 (post-graduate). It is not sufficient in your portfolio simply to describe what you have done. You must display a post-graduate approach. You will find it helpful to consider the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy – analysis, evaluation, and synthesis. For example:Assessment criterion 1: Critically assess different ethical standpoints on people practice and the maintenance of high standards of ethical behaviour.
|
Description |
Analysis |
Evaluation |
Synthesis |
|
A challenging situation in which you sustained a high standard of ethical behaviour. |
The model of ethics that you followed and why. |
The shortcomings of that model. |
How you might generalise this learning across different areas of people practice. |
|
Lecture on ethics. |
Critique of the different models or theories. |
Situations in which you might apply this learning. |
- Asking yourself ‘So what?’ at any of these stages of your thinking will often result in useful insights.
- Many commentators suggest that much of our behavioural development comes from practical experiences rather than formal teaching. Such learning is often emergent rather than planned; informal rather than formal; and unstructured rather than organised. Include these in your regular reflections. You might use a format for recording and analysing incidents from which you have learned, such as:
- You can use this document later as evidence in your portfolio.
- Your journaling will need to reflect the contemporary work and working life environment,which is often volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.
- Your tutor may review your journal during your programme.
- However, any mark or grade given will not form part of your final assessment for the unit.
|
Description |
Analysis |
Evaluation |
Creation |
|
The event. |
Who, what, when, where, how and/or why? |
What worked well or could have been better. Any relevant model or theory. |
What you learned and how you can use this elsewhere |
Task Three – Your portfolio
Your final task is to submit a portfolio of evidence of your competence in six of the unit’s fifteen assessment criteria. This will be the culmination of all your work in the unit and the mark for this portfolio will be your final mark for the unit.
Your portfolio should consist of:
- An evaluation of your competence (knowledge and behaviours) in six of the unit’s fifteen assessment criteria.
- Evidence to support your evaluation, clearly cross-referenced to each of your claims.
- A brief continuing professional development plan in each area showing how you willcontinue to develop after you have finished your programme.Six weeks before your submission deadline, you will be told which six of the fifteen assessment criteria you should cover in your portfolio. The six assessment criteria will include at least one from each of the unit’s four learning outcomes, but no more than two will come from any single learning outcome.Excluding evidence, your portfolio should consist of 4000 words ± 10% (about 650 words for each assessment criteria). The bibliography, list of reference and essential background material should be put in an appendix; they will not be included in the 4000 words.You must support the claims you make in your portfolio by providing evidence.
Helpful advice:
- Include hard evidence where you can. Feedback sheets and marks, handouts, or journal articles that you have annotated, a link to a video of you doing something that demonstrates your competence (e.g., leading a training session or conducting an appraisal meeting), a certificate, a letter, a document from your work and even a written testimonial from a fellow learner, work colleague or manager.
- Asking the question, ‘How do I know that I am competent?’ might point you to some evidence. Two examples:
o How do you know you are getting better at making decisions? Are you spending less time? Or making better quality decisions? What hard evidence is there?
o If you understand something, you can probably explain it to someone else. Hence, teaching someone else can be evidence of your learning. If they write a note to testify that you have helped them, that would be hard evidence. If you have written a piece of coursework or passed an exam, that is evidence. So are summarised notes of key points from a lecture, book, or journal article – they suggest you have got some understanding.
- Handouts on their own are not sufficient as evidence because they do not show how and what you may have learned. For example, you may own a book on Quantum Theory, but that is not evidence that you understand the theory. But if the book contains pencil notes, it is beginning to have some evidential worth. Only include handouts or journal articles if they provide real evidence of your knowledge and understanding.
- One piece of evidence might demonstrate several skills. For example, the use of statistics for a management report might be evidence of your ability to use IT, your decision making and your skills in presenting data.
- Number each piece of evidence and include that number in your text so that the reader can match your evidence to your claims.