Reflective Report

My industrial placement commenced with European Management and Marine Corporation (EMMC) in the month of July, delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. Before arriving at the workplace I had several expectations of what the place would be like, however the reality was quite different. My job title is an Intern/Trainee and I am expected to complete various tasks as a part of my responsibility. This placement was achieved through informal channels rather than formal channels as I was against the idea of a placement whereas my family were for it. Due to my strong family values I decided on taking up the placement.
As goes with most things, you either like them or don’t. The same goes with my placement, there were several things I liked in the organization while there were those few which I disliked. I had expected a large sized bureaucratic organization but ended up with a small sized flexible one. I hoped to be working in a large organization where there would be numerous departments with a large work force. To my surprise, I preferred working in a small organization as it has more flexibility where different employees wear different hats at different points in time. This also gives everyone the opportunity to gain skills in an informal manner by being able to learn others jobs however according to Weber prevents functional specialization and lacks impersonal implementation of rules and policies. An ideal post-bureaucratic situation as described by Heckscher is one in which rules are replaced by dialogue and responsibilities are assigned based on competence in an organization with open boundaries . This wasn’t exactly what I experienced in EMMC, the differences being that there was minimal attempts made to gain feedback from employe...

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...ndividuals tend to solve problems and reach goals by figuring out the means themselves.
The company lacks a well-defined organizational structure resulting, at EMMC its more of a flat structure where all office employees are accountable to the General Manager rather than their line managers; most employees are confused regarding who their line manager is! The confusion is evident from the fact that employees aren’t aware of who to phone if they’ve taken an off day. I was equally confused between phoning the head of the accounts department or the HR support employee. Later I realised that it made more sense to call the head of my accounts department as she maintains the Holidays planner. Had I not looked through the various files and folders on the system I wouldn’t have reached this conclusion and not every employee is going to do the same.

Works Cited

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