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CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION FINAL REPORTExecutive SummaryThe aim of this report is to provide a reflection, discussion, and evaluation, as well as a critical analysis of my cooperative education journey. In the report, I demonstrate my ability to write a business report and give a well-crafted review of my competency in the form of learning goals, my chosen contemporary issue, and any other issue relating to my career ambitions and the direction of what needs to change for me, both presently and in the future. The report is an effective platform for me to showcase what I have picked up along the education journey, how it applies to my current position, and how it will play out later in my career. My chosen contemporary issues, life-work balance in the age of remote working, is also important because I feel that the present global changes are forcing significant shifts into the way people work and relate to their work environment. The main question that informs the discussion is how businesses, especially those in the real estate industry, can include a balanced work-life structure, while sustaining competitiveness and ensuring that employees are all-rounded and developed in personal realms. I find that there is a need to focus on a working and balanced work-life environment in the future of work for the benefit of the employee and the organization.

Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION FINAL REPORT PAGEREF _Toc75011584 h 1Executive Summary PAGEREF _Toc75011585 h 1Introduction PAGEREF _Toc75011586 h 2Personal Reflection PAGEREF _Toc75011587 h 2Graduate Profile and Career Plans PAGEREF _Toc75011588 h 4Work-Life Balance: Benefits to Employees and Employer PAGEREF _Toc75011589 h 6Benefits of a Good Work-Life Balance PAGEREF _Toc75011590 h 6Ways to Implement Work-Life Balance PAGEREF _Toc75011591 h 8Challenges in Creating Work-Life Balance PAGEREF _Toc75011592 h 10Implications to My Organization PAGEREF _Toc75011593 h 12Conclusion and Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc75011594 h 13References PAGEREF _Toc75011595 h 15

IntroductionIn this final report, I will give a reflection, discussion, and evaluation, as well as a critical analysis of my cooperative education journey. Specifically, I will demonstrate my ability to write a business report and give a well-crafted review of my competency in the form of learning goals, my chosen contemporary issue, and any other issue relating to my career ambitions and the direction of what needs to change for me, both presently and in the future. The report is meant to be an effective platform for me to showcase what I have picked up along the education journey, how it applies to my current position, and how it will play out later in my career. My chosen contemporary issues, life-work balance in the age of remote working, is also important because I feel that the present global changes are forcing significant shifts into the way people work and relate to their work environment. Ultimately, I demonstrate a need to focus on a working and balanced work-life environment in the future of work.

Personal ReflectionI work for Zhengzhou Country Garden Hai Long Zhi Ye Company as a market analyst. The company specializes in real estate and partners with restaurants and other hospitality industry players for purposes relating to real estate. My company partners with restaurants all over China and other hospitality participants including hotels to acquire and manage properties both in the construction phases and later in their maintenance. My role in the company is to provide market analysis for different real estate markets within the country for purposes of advising our clients and for managerial decision making intentions. My background as an economics major requires that I lead my team in conducting research, collection of data and its analysis, monitoring economic trends, and developing forecast reports for my organization in the real estate industry that focus on restaurant construction and sales. Real estate markets are very versatile and are affected by the slightest of changes in the national market as well as other external elements such as the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic. It is important that I am able to provide relevant information to my superiors in relation to how different changes in the market lead to various types of impacts on our company. Previously, at the start of the cooperative education program, I was only a part of the team as a market analysis. In the course of the program, I have been promoted to head of market analysis. What has changed is that I am now in charge of an entire department in the market analysis department. My role now includes managing and leading a team of other market analysts, to help in achieving the same goals to management and our clientele including conducting research, collection of data and its analysis, monitoring economic trends, and developing forecast reports for my organization in the real estate industry that focus on restaurant construction and sales.

My knowledge as an economics major has been of tremendous importance in my role as a market analyst. Particularly, I have been instrumental in my company in providing various types of reports including reporting on economic forecasts relevant to my organizations industry and competitive landscape in the real estate market vis-à-vis other firms that focus on restaurant construction, sales, and management. In my capacity as an economist and the job description of a market analyst, I am mandated with the functions such as making forecasts based on data collected from various sources, conducting research, and running simulations. Even then, I have had gaps in my knowledge. Specifically, there are some market trends that are difficult to relate to economic or financial predictors. For example, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still unknown and largely rely on speculative information. Such gaps have also been present in the way I have used my economics backgrounds to describe the changing real estate market for restaurants in China following a decline in the tourism, travel, and hospitality sector.

When I began working for my current organization, my main role was an assistant to the then senior market analyst. My roles were largely limited to observation of market trends, without an extension to analyse or interpret data. At this point, I only relied on my knowledge from my major in economics. I expected that the role of interpreting and analysing market trends was similarly easy. However, my initial thoughts were largely flawed. The interpretation and analysis part is the most critical in market analysis because it informs the decisions that the entire organization adopts in relation to the movements within the industry and external to it. My expectations were deeply flawed and I found out that every situation is unique to a specific market, client, industry, and period. I overcame these issues by observing and actively learning from my seniors. I was introduced to newer models of working that applied to the organization.

Today, I feel that my performance and progress have been remarkable in all aspects including my ability to make market trends observations, interpret the data, analyse it, and link it to my organization for faster decision making. One of my main issues was that I used what I had learnt in the classroom and thought the results always match what is on paper. In the real life organization, I quickly learnt that there was a big difference between theory and practical application of economic concepts, including observations on market trends and other analysis details. As part of my improvement, I have engaged with different individuals with more experience than I have in an attempt to learn more, enrolled in personalized training programs, and actively requested to be a part of the organization’s various training projects. For example, when I started working, my experience in using mathematical concepts and software such as SPSS in interpreting data was not very reliable and was based on what I had gained in my classroom training. At present, I have honed a majority of these skills in a way that I lead a team of other market analysts in my department in reporting, analysis, interpretation and writing recommendations and other forms of market analysis. My skills are now more effective and reliable, including a noticeable covering of the knowledge gaps that I had before. My job currently has developed more to one of a warning nature to the central planner in the organization on issue identifying with market patterns, what can be generally anticipated on the lookout, and how to go about various progress periods as we notice and respond to advertise developments. Presently, I am surer when introducing reports, and I have refined my abilities to incorporate a capacity to utilize further developed programming and to lead a whole group of different investigators for the organization. I can unquestionably report that my abilities are balanced to fit the business and association necessities of each top market investigators.

Graduate Profile and Career PlansLike expressed before, my major is economics. My background in economics is a perfect fit within my role in my organization as a market analyst. The knowledge achieved from my studies in economics and the variant concepts are all applicable in my organization where my research skills on economic issues are mandatory (Marchau, Walker, Bloemen, & Popper, 2019). As a part of economics, my role involves conducting surveys and collecting data as part of my job description. Analyzing data using models is also a necessary part of my role, a part made possible by my background in economics. One of the greatest benefits of my major in economics is the facilitation to allow presenting research reports to different stakeholders on different matters and the interpretation of data so as to forecast trends external to the industry or within the market.

In my job as a market analysist, my experience in financial aspects empowers me to prompt my managers and other significant chiefs on issue identifying with market drifts, the macroeconomic climate, the microeconomic elements, and a mix of these issues and what they mean for the capacity of our customers to partake on the lookout. Further, economics is presented as an avenue to enable both quantitative and qualitative analysis of different issues in different fields (Korhonen, Honkasalo, & Seppälä, 2018). In the industry that my organization operates in, such economics concepts are of great significance because they inform policy makers of the direction to take based on market research and other important factors that are considered. Therefore, knowledge from my economics major is relevant in guiding me as a market analyst for my real estate company, Zhengzhou Country Garden Hai Long Zhi Ye Company. The knowledge gained has continuously allowed me to identify and implement economics concepts including research, collection, and analysis of data, its interpretation as well as presentation to clients.

Economics concepts and the knowledge therein ensures that resource usage is at optimal levels that lead to improved results and performance. From the assessment made by Chung & Van der Lippe (2018), workers are the best assets to an organization, guaranteeing that they are useful is in this manner a main concern to meet different objectives identifying with the reality. According to Le et al. (2020), such research offers an evidence-based position that sound work-life adjusting is critical not exclusively to representative wellbeing and connections, yet in addition in the improvement of their definitive presentation, and usefulness. In addition, Amin, Griffiths, & Dsouza, (2020) express that focussing on attaining a work-life balance would facilitate the growth of a healthy talent-pool for newer recruits in various fields, thus boosting the income of and the retention rates. In financial aspects, the idea of balance between serious and fun activities applies in the formation of ideal conditions for working such that yields the best results for both the association and the individual laborers. As representatives get this equilibrium, they can work better and offer more to the association.

My goals included being inquiring, open, and agile thinker able to seek out and address complex problems, being adept at working in changing local and global contexts and environments, and being an effective communicator. Now, I feel that I have achieved these goals and exceeded them significantly. For example, my ability to solve problems as an agile thinker has enabled me to get a promotion to head an entire department. A critical part of my journey has been learning. When I started out, I did not have the abilities that I have gained now. I was not an effective communicator and I was not very adept to a shifting local and global context. Currently, I know the role of change in every situation. The main gap I recognized in my financial matters discipline is the weighty dependence on monetary models, numerical and factual standards, and logical translation. One of the primary qualities I have accomplished is being a cooperative person. I’m ready to utilize this solidarity for my potential benefit to advance expertly and to help other people in my group. For instance, I understood that a portion of the gathering individuals have helpless information investigation abilities, yet their qualities lie in different fields, so we work together to cooperate towards singular qualities to support the whole group. This demeanor and strength has assisted me with ascending through the positions as a youthful forerunner in a difficult climate. Be that as it may, I need to chip away at being a pioneer inside the said shared endeavors. I understood that I am to a greater extent a quiet benefactor, an issue that I need to chip away at to understand my maximum capacity. Quite possibly the main things that I am ready to do right now is work in groups, collectively, and in a joint effort with others and society to accomplish various objectives. I have made being a cooperative person one of my primary qualities and utilized it to help my association meet its objectives. Combined, these elements will inform the decision I make towards my career as a lead market analyst.

Work-Life Balance: Benefits to Employees and EmployerThe main question that informs the discussion is how businesses, especially those in the real estate industry, can include a balanced work-life structure, while sustaining competitiveness and ensuring that employees are all-rounded and developed in personal realms. In the words of Kelliher, Richardson, & Boiarintseva (2019), work-life balance system is an important element of a healthy working environment. The ability to maintain such a balance is applauded by Zaiga et al. (2020) as an effective means to reduce stress and aid in the prevention of a burnout in while working. It also helps to kill monotony of doing the same job many times over. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a shift in how people work and relate in the job market leading to remote working, with the same demanding job requirements and responsibilities in together with working at home (Anwer, 2020). The effect can be overwhelming to any individual. In this regard, it is important to see how a work-life balanced structure can be introduced as people work more online and remotely without compromising the quality of work relations and personal benefits.

Benefits of a Good Work-Life BalanceIn my organization, a balanced work life relationship is beneficial in a number of ways. It leads to increased productivity, lower absenteeism, a happier, less stressed workforce, improvements in employee health and well-being, a more positive perception of you as an employer, and greater employee loyalty, commitment and motivation. Additionally, Zaiga et al. (2020) found that a good balance between work and life enables workers to be more in control of their work and their life, leading to greater control and more productivity. From a perspective of a department head, and a manager within the marketing analysis section of my organization, work and life balance also presents several advantages to employers. Skountridaki et al. (2020) also noted that the flexible work practices and agile work-life policies helps an organization to measure any increase in commitment and accountability from the employees, creates better communication and teamwork, improves employee morale, raises the commitment and engagement levels of employees, leads to reduced organizational stress, lowers the recruitment costs and staff turnover, and allows better and effective reaction to changes in market conditions. For example, a balanced work-life relationship will create programs such as shift work, flexitime, and part-time working to help an organization remain operational for more hours without making employees work unnecessarily long hours. Additionally, a balanced work-life relationship enables an organization to meet seasonal peaks as well as troughs in the business, thus boosting competitiveness.

A balanced work-life relationship is one of the ways that is recognized in economies as proper management of scarce resources to yield better results and remain competitiveness. Economics concepts and the knowledge therein ensures that resource usage is at optimal levels that lead to improved results and performance. From the assessment made by Chung & Van der Lippe (2018), workers are the best assets to an organization, guaranteeing that they are useful is in this manner a main concern to meet different objectives identifying with the reality. According to Le et al. (2020), such research offers an evidence-based position that sound work-life adjusting is critical not exclusively to representative wellbeing and connections, yet in addition in the improvement of their definitive presentation, and usefulness. In addition, Amin, Griffiths, & Dsouza, (2020) express that focussing on attaining a work-life balance would facilitate the growth of a healthy talent-pool for newer recruits in various fields, thus boosting the income of and the retention rates. In financial aspects, the idea of balance between serious and fun activities applies in the formation of ideal conditions for working such that yields the best results for both the association and the individual laborers. As representatives get this equilibrium, they can work better and offer more to the association.

Work has an important part in the life of an employee. The procuring made guarantees that they can support their ways of life, including basic components like endurance, and other fundamental necessities. Be that as it may, there is a need to accomplish a balance between fun and serious activities (Putri and Amran, 2021). Without the said balance, the current quick moving and capricious business world is probably going to overpower the worker. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, it is getting progressively hard for representatives to isolate their own lives from work. For instance, Anwer (2020) found that individuals actually browse messages, plan, get and make business class, or even talk about work issues at home during individual time. While this is useful for the general exhibition of a representative, it likewise implies that they don’t have individual time. Bringing one’s work into the individual may prompt ongoing pressure and diminished execution (Amin, Griffiths, and Dsouza, 2020). To shuffle the requests of a changing workplace and the need to have utilitarian individual carries on with, the idea of balance between fun and serious activities is important to make the presentation of each individual better. At Zhengzhou Country Garden Hai Long Zhi Ye Company, the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the manner in which we work. Especially requesting a few assignments to be finished at home and thusly, obliterating the harmony among work and life viewpoints. Consequently, there is a need to take a gander at how this equilibrium can be re-established.

Work has a significant part in the existence of every worker. The earnings made guarantee that they can support their ways of life, including basic components like endurance, and other fundamental necessities. Be that as it may, there is a need to accomplish a balance between serious and fun activities (Putri and Amran, 2021). Without the said balance, the current speedy and flighty business world is probably going to overpower the representative. As the global COVID-19 situation has shown, it is getting progressively hard for representatives to isolate their own lives from work. For instance, Anwer (2020) found that individuals actually browse messages, plan, get and make business class, or even examine work issues at home during individual time. While this is useful for the general presentation of a representative, it additionally implies that they don’t have individual time. Bringing one’s work into the individual may prompt persistent pressure and decreased execution (Amin, Griffiths, and Dsouza, 2020). To shuffle the requests of a changing workplace and the need to have useful individual carries on with, the idea of balance between serious and fun activities is important to make the exhibition of each individual better. At Zhengzhou Country Garden Hai Long Zhi Ye Company, the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the manner in which we work. Especially requesting a few errands to be finished at home and hence, obliterating the harmony among work and life angles. Subsequently, there is a need to take a gander at how this equilibrium can be reestablished.

Ways to Implement Work-Life BalanceDifferent organizations will have different ways to implement the idea of balancing the work and life relationship. However, standard practices include the creation of flexible work schedules that are conscious of the need for an employee to have time outside of the traditional work periods and practices. For example, Ipsen et al. (2021) point to the need to incorporate flexitime, job sharing, part-time working, and working from home. In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, such schedules have highlighted their relevance to ensuring continuity of an organization. Companies that already had a working flexible practices and schedules adjusted quickly to the demands of a world where human interaction was limited (Aubry, Laverty, & Ma, 2021). In contrast, organizations that have traditionally maintained conventional work practices and schedules have struggled to remain operational throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, employees have had a hard time adjusting to the demands of the new environment.

Image 1: Remote versus office employees

Table 1 above shows that workers who operate from home are relatively unhappy, more anxious, overwhelmed, and have low motivation to work because they lack a balance. To create an environment that enables the employee to enjoy a balanced work-life situation, Cooke & Jing (2009) recommend the implementation of unpaid career breaks or paid sabbatical schemes based on what a firm is willing to provide, allowing employees to have extra days off work in case of an emergency or any other issues, creating a choice between paid or unpaid arrangements for having time off, providing holiday purchase programs to allow employees to have additional holidays together with their annual entitlement, ensuring that employees have access to parental, inclusive of maternity, paternity, and adoption leave in addition to the statutory minimum. Options can be made more flexible by giving the employee the choice between higher pay and longer leave. It is also recommended that an organization ensures that it creates family/employee events to ensure that a relationship is made between family and the organization where applicable. The overall aim of these suggestions is to make the work environment more attractive, so that employees do not feel constrained by the demands of a strict and traditional system. Iage 2 below shows that the number of hours worked by an employee will have a substantial effect on their performance. For example, from the table, employees in Japan and South Korea are relatively unhappy compared to other nations like the US and the UK/

Image 2: Employees working more than 49 hours per week

Challenges in Creating Work-Life Balance`Creating a life-work balance is one of the greatest ideas of the 21st century, aimed at ensuring that the employee-employer relations remain positive where every entity gains from the work interaction. That said, Kawase et al. (2013) point to the many challenges that emerge in the effort to achieve a balance between work and life. First, the main challenge that every organization faces is unrealistic demands from both employers and employees. Unreasonable demands may be present at work or in other arrangements required to maintain a balance. For example, there are arrangements that eat into personal time, including weekend or evening meetings, and the technology overload that require employees to remain working even when at home. These aspects are mentioned by Xiao & Cooke (2012) to be critical catalysts of employee pressure at various organizational levels. The demands of personal life also add pressure to work, because there is a need to create more time so as to accommodate friends and family, and these demands ay be eating into working time. For example, a single mum working at a company near where her child goes to school will use her work time to pick up the child from the school or drop them there during work time. In another example, a father who is forced to take evening classes in a training program organized by their organization eats into personal/private time. Other unrealistic demands include where expectations are set by others without proper consultation. Overall, having to many demands for both work and life is an impediment to the implementation of the said work-life balance.

Lack of control is another major challenge to the implementation of a balanced work-life relationship. Lack of control creates pressure, because it leaves the employee hanging without knowledge or control of the decisions made (Chandra, 2012). It becomes quite difficult for employees to deal with uncontrollable workloads or the insecurity that the situation creates relating to their organization. In personal circumstances including illness, school demands, exams, issues with children, and other personal demands can lead to the feeling that one has zero control, thus creating a stressful environment. To respond to this challenge, a different internal response is required such as creating an emergency and personal space for such situations. Table 1 below shows how the situation can be remedied through increased elements that create control.

Table 1: Summary of ways to use HR policies and programs to increase work-life balance

Unsupportive relationships are also a major challenge for the efficient implementation of a work-life balance. According to Bouzari & Karatepe (2020), unsupportive relations at work, aversive behaviour, and failure to get credits create an unproductive, hostile and difficult work environment while making employees feel isolated. Additionally, Ratnesh, Ali, & Sinha (2019) felt that unsupportive relations at home, where there is a negative environment regarding helping each other or considering other people and their issues create frustration and, often, unhappiness. For the organization, the solution for unsupportive relationships is always related to effective people management, better communication, and creating realistic expectations. At home, the same elements are applicable through better communication and formulating expectations in order to reduce the pressures of meeting unrealistic demands.

Other challenges can be narrowed down to include a lack of resources, unhelpful attitude, a lack of skills, and high stress levels. Poor resource allocation and resources that are unfit for a situation affect how life can be balanced or organized. Without assistance at work or at home, it is certain that an employee will always be overwhelmed. When energy levels are low or undermined as a result of all these different challenges, it becomes harder for employees to find resilience. A lack of skills makes it hard to survive and manage the challenges that personal awareness and work demands create. A recognition of weaknesses must be accompanied by a desire to learn in order to convert the weakness into strength in areas such as leadership, communication, and practical skills (Kawase et al., 2013). Such developments lead to making an employee feel that they are more in control of their situation including at home and at work.

Implications to My OrganizationWork-life balance is a concept that supports the employees to split their time and energy and other important aspects of lives and it is the daily effort to make time for family, friends, communities, and other relevant stakeholders (Zaiga et al., 2020). In my organization, work-life balance includes the tenets of personal growth, self-care, and any other relevant personal activities from the workplace. If the demands or a balanced work and life relationship are satisfied then employees are more actively engaged in the affairs of the organization. In my organization, the human resource management function focuses on individual needs and aspirations to create a variety of options that would more effectively create an effective work-life balance. For example, the HR department is supportive and creates a conducive work environment through allowing nursing mothers to have personal breaks during the day for the purposes of meeting the needs of young children. My organization has developed a system of flexibility as a part of the work environment that is focused on creating a sense of commitment through giving employees enough personal time to ensure more creativity. Additionally, HR policies in my organization also look at the health and wellbeing of employees and foster their commitment and support through giving enough time for family norms. In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, my organization introduced and reinforced working from home, flexible working schedules, and internal training on how to cope pressures at home while working from there.

The implication to my organization is that quality work-life balance relies on organizational policies as well as practices that are uniquely adopted for the organization. The main consequence is that my organization has implemented policies that have led to better communication between employees and the organization. From a personal point of view, leave policies have positively affected the quality of work-life balance for all employees to a significant extent.

Conclusion and RecommendationsThe discussion defines work-life balance as a concept that supports the employees to split their time and energy and other important aspects of lives and it is the daily effort to make time for family, friends, communities, and other relevant stakeholders. Different organizations will have different ways to implement the idea of balancing the work and life relationship. To create an environment that enables the employee to enjoy a balanced work-life situation, the implementation of unpaid career breaks or paid sabbatical schemes based on what a firm is willing to provide, allowing employees to have extra days off work in case of an emergency or any other issues, creating a choice between paid or unpaid arrangements for having time off, providing holiday purchase programs to allow employees to have additional holidays together with their annual entitlement, ensuring that employees have access to parental, inclusive of maternity, paternity, and adoption leave in addition to the statutory minimum. However, several challenges emerge. The main challenge that every organization faces is unrealistic demands from both employers and employees. Lack of contro