Prepare a reflection essay (1,500 words) based on a past experience with making or observing a finance-based business decision.

LEARNING OUTCOMES On successful completion of this assessment, students will be able to evaluate factors that impact managerial decision making BRIEF Prepare a reflection essay (1,500 words) based on a past experience with making or observing a finance-based business decision. If you had not had a past experience with making or observing a financial decision, you might select a financial decision you have made in your personal life. ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS For this assignment, research and write a reflective essay based on a personal experience you have had in the past regarding making a financial-based business decision. If you have not been directly involved with a financial business decision, you may select a financial decision made in your personal life. Since the assignment requires you to reflect on a financial decisions, you are encouraged to include any relevant numbers (may not be specific) and/or sample numbers if the information is confidential. Reflective writing is documenting the thinking process or revisiting a practical situation and reviewing your experiences through the lenses of the concepts or theories you are studying. In other words, reflective writing is recounting a particular experience and exploring how you have changed or learned from those experiences. When engaging in reflection, you begin by recalling a situation and the thoughts and feelings you encountered during the experience. From there, you explore your beliefs, values, and attitudes that underpin these thoughts and feelings. Lastly, as you study the subject, identify one or two salient points, concepts, or theories that you can relate to your situation and discuss your insights. It is important to realise that while you are writing your reflection, the story of the incident or event is not the focus. Rather you should focus on the insights you gained from re-examining and documenting your reactions and connecting the salient points, concepts or theories to real-life situations. When writing your reflective essay, you are not expected to review all the chapters in the subject prior to completing this assignment but rather focus on the relevant chapters that are indicated in the Key Information section of this brief. Additionally, a reflective essay consists of a balance between your personal observations, opinions, feelings, and beliefs and conventions of academic writing, such as crafting a thesis statement and using the salient findings, concepts, or theories to support or further explain your reflection. Reflection Essay When writing your reflective essay, we suggest you use the 4Rs Model to Reflective Writing to guide the organisational structure. 1. Introduction Paragraph (100 to 150 words) For your introduction paragraph, you should include the following: a. A hook is the first sentence that sets the tone for your report. The hook should give the reader a sense of the topic you are writing about and why it is interesting. b. Provide either background information regarding the context of your experience, a summary of any key learnings you gained or introduce any salient points, concepts, or theories you will highlight in your essay. c. Thesis Statement – Include a sentence or two that summarises the main idea of your essay. 2. Reporting and Responding – Report your experience (300 to 350 words) a. Describe your experience with making a financial-based business decision. b. Explain how you used any financial statements, ratio analysis, or other financial documentation to help with your financial analysis and financial decision. c. Include any relevant financial numbers and/or sample numbers if the information is confidential. 3. Relating – Relate or connect capabilities with your skills and knowledge (300 to 350 words) a. Determine the value of the financial statements you used to make the financial decision. How did the financial statements assist you with your decision? What other financial information would have been helpful? Included specific examples. b. Evaluate the knowledge and skills you used when making a financial business decision. Did you have the knowledge and/or skills to make an appropriate and sound business decision? What additional knowledge or skills did you need to make a sound financial decision? Include specific examples to clarify your evaluation. c. Support your evaluation using the concepts, theories, or frameworks in your readings or additional research. 4. Reasoning – Detail significant factors underlying the financial decision (300 to 350 words) a. Highlight and critique significant factors which contributed to any challenges or difficulties you experienced while making the financial decision. Explain why the factors were so challenging. b. How might the decision be made differently from another perspective? i.e. business owner, board member, manager, investor, etc. c. Support your critique and reasoning using the concepts, theories, and frameworks in your readings or additional research. 5. Reconstructing – Reconstruct future practice or professional understanding (300 to 350 words) a. Reflect on your experience and detail what you have learned. What lessons did you learn by going through this experience? b. Explain how you would deal with a similar financial business decision in the future. c. How can this subject assist you with a similar decision in the future? 6. Conclusion (100 to 150 words) a. Restate the main points you made in your reflection analysis. b. Summarise what you have learned or the change in your perspective.