Strategic Management
“Reflective Essay” guidelines
There are three sets of journal articles that are assigned readings for weeks 2, 3, and 4. Each set contains articles representing different viewpoints in a debate relevant to the strategy field of knowledge. And across the articles in each set, there is a storyline that, in some cases, depicts the evolution of the debate over time. In the reflective essay assessment, you will record your reflections on one of the three sets of readings.
So, as a first step, you will choose one of the three sets of readings. For example, if you were interested in the ‘economics’ versus ‘behavioral’ perspectives in strategy, you would choose the set of readings that were assigned for week 2. If, on the other hand, you were interested in reflecting on various perspectives on the ‘sources of competitive advantage’, you would choose the readings for week 4.
As the second step, you would read these papers carefully. I am aware that some of the articles are dense, and may not be easily comprehended. That is ok. Our interest is in the overall ideas?of the papers, rather than their intricate technical details. You should then also search for and gather more journal papers that are relevant to the topic / debate for that week. Naturally, I cannot assign ALL the relevant papers in a debate as reading material. I have picked and chosen a few key ones. Your reflective piece would be all the better if you reach out to more papers beyond the ones that I have recommended.
As the third step, I would like you to sit back and reflect on what you have read. Think about being in an intellectual cafe, conversing with the group of authors of the papers you have read. What would you say to them about their collective work. Do you think their collective work is interesting and important? Is it compelling? Is it exciting? Do you think that, as a group, they have been on the right track to finding answers to the issues they have been debating? Do you think there could be ways to integrate their work together? Is there a storyline that connects their work together? If they invite you to come back again to join them for coffee so they can listen to your deep insights, what would your comments to them look like? These are some of the questions that you might keep in mind while reflecting on the papers.
What you need to submit (i.e., your “deliverable”) is your 750 word written version of this reflection. The word count is exclusive of references, tables, etc. In the written reflection, you need to include the following:
(a) A title that that you have come up with that clearly implies which of the three sets of readings you are basing your reflection on?(b) A very brief overview of the papers you have chosen to reflect on (at the minimum, these should consist of the assigned papers). In the overview, your focus should be on highlighting the storyline that connects the papers. What we don’t want is a “he said this”, “she said that” account.
(c ) The larger part of the reflective report should be your own reflections on what you have read. You need to try and bring precision and coherency into your reflection, and also, you need to try and demonstrate deeper levels of thinking and insight. You need to say what you might do as a scholar to either extend the body of work you have just read. For example, you might suggest ways of evaluating competing arguments or standpoints in the debate. Or, alternatively, you might suggest ways to integrate the competing viewpoints in the literature into one coherent, mutually compatible view. Whatever you do, you should try hard to make unique and insightful observations. After all, this is a reflective piece and not a standard essay assignment.
Feel free to use figures, tables, or charts if they better convey your ideas. But do also describe your figures and charts in the text.
(d) Finally, you need to include full references to all the papers you have read and reflected on in this piece. Harvard style referencing is what we usually require.
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