Reflection on Internship Experience

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Reflections

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Reflection on Internship Experience

Being an intern in a business organization was a dream come true. I was assigned to the sales and logistics team. While I had ideas about the whole field, I may not have been sufficiently prepared for what I was getting myself into. The experience remains one of the foundational bits in life that encouraged me into seeking further understanding in the whole field of management. I got firsthand experience on how various things easily affect businesses. Integrating the challenges then, and the lessons I have picked from my studying has helped me think more clearly through business leadership and organization.

Within the hierarchy of the organizations, most of the decisions were made by the chief executive officer who also happened to be the majority shareholder of the business. The decisions would be relayed to the departmental heads who would in turn share the same with each of us depending on what was expected of us. Very informal channels of communication were used at the organization. This stemmed from the foundational culture when the business was formed. Having been a small unit in its initial days, the members would simply meet over lunch break and have a conversation about the next assignment. There was usually no need for minutes or even memos since the issues discussed were few and far apart to be easily forgotten.

I had joined the organization a few weeks after they had received a logistics deal to manage the supply chain dynamics of a notable manufacturing plant in our region. To be able to manage the new task, they needed a bigger team than they initially had. They hired a few professionals and took a number of us on internship. While we were excited to have a paid internship at that tender age, we ended up being part of the challenge for the growing organization. Severally we found ourselves handling complicated tasks without anyone to guide us through since the other senior persons were engaged in even more demanding tasks. Eventually we lost the tender that had been given, the company got sued for mishandling orders and demands for the firm’s clients. However, it gave me a chance to learn a few things on running of businesses and formed a basis through which I perceived concepts from my training.

One aspect whose importance I have come to appreciate is the place of clear communication channels in an organization. A system of communication that is comprehensive and one that can be audited is important. The system should ensure that when communication is made, there are mechanisms to prove that the intended recipients of the communication did receive the communication and allow for the relaying of feedback. A system that does not allow feedback or facilitate it is likely to plunge as it is seen to be dictatorial and intolerant to diversity of perspectives. This was one of the things that ailed my internship organization. Most of the persons working there felt some decisions were illogical but did not relay the feedback as they felt the CEO who was also a director would dismiss them based on the difference of opinions.

I also learnt on the importance of team works. Persons in a team are unique and beautifully complement each other. As a team player it is wisdom to figure out how to gain maximally from the different skillsets within the team. One should be able to navigate through the various dynamics of teams through the storming phase till there is a coherent and working relation among the members of the team. In our earlier days as interns, I noted that some of us were able to integrate while some of us remained outsiders in the organization. The feeling of not belonging was not just on the interns only, some of the newly recruited members also felt like outsiders. The failing to belong resulted in poor consultations even when people would not correctly perceive what they were expected to do. Some tasks were left pending with no one being held accountable since most people did not know what the others were doing.

Leadership is critical in defining the work ethic and organizational culture of any business. The business failed terribly due to the sloppy work culture that had been modelled. A CEO and the top leaders are expected to not only lead through instructions but by modelling the same. Whenever there are changes and adjustments to be made, it is expected that the leaders should lead the team through. However, in our case most of the change happened during meetings but the modelling was consistently falling short of what was communicated. Severally the CEO would speak of the need of formalizing payments, but would still pick money from the finance team without the proper document trails. Eventually when money would be lost, multiple arguments and blame games would ensue. One or two persons would be transferred from one department to the other but no money would be recovered. All these challenges compounded and ended up being the very things that saw the business unable to sustain delivery of services for the huge tender we had won.

Looking back at my experience as an intern, I remain grateful for I got a chance to learn that which does not work. Going through the business course gave me a chance to compare my experiences then with the ideal. I remain certain that were it not for that experience, I may not really have grasped most concepts as well as I did.