Foundation of Development Studies: Exploring Individual Growth and Development

This report delves into the multifaceted concept of individual development, examining its significance in personal and professional growth. It explores the key elements of development, including commitment, engagement in action, and cultivation, highlighting their role in enhancing skills and achieving goals. The report also discusses the importance of personal and professional development, emphasizing the benefits of self-awareness, improved focus, increased motivation, and career advancement. Furthermore, it analyzes external factors that influence individual development, such as governmental policies, inflation rates, and education systems. By understanding these concepts, individuals can gain valuable insights into their own development journey and identify strategies for personal and professional growth.

FOUNDATION OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
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Executive Summary
This report explores the meaning of individual development, and its significance in personal
and professional development. The various elements of development along with its aspects
helps in understanding about the ways by which individual can enhance their personal as well
as professional development skills. The benefits of personal and professional development
have been discussed in details. The individual can gain self-awareness and develop new skills
that will allow them in enhancing their career opportunities. The various external factors that
have major impact on personal development of individuals have been discussed in this report.
The learner will gain knowledge about the importance of development procedures.
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
What is Development?...............................................................................................................5
What are the important aspects of development?......................................................................5
Importance of development in case of personal and professional development........................7
Elements of Personal Development...........................................................................................8
Elements of Professional Development.....................................................................................9
External Factors Affecting Development Process...................................................................11
Conclusion................................................................................................................................12
Reference List..........................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Development has been defined by a number of individual resulting in a number of meanings,
the term is considered as complex, ambiguous, elusive and contested. Individual development
is a process that allows individuals to identify about their goals and purpose and as per their
goals, the individuals practice personal and personal development plan that assists them in
enhancing their skills. This report will evaluate about the concept of development and
elaborate about its key elements. This report will allow the learner to understand about the
importance of development and elaborate about the significance of development in order to
achieve the goals and objectives that are set by individuals.
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What is Development?
Individual development is the activity that helps individuals to improve their awareness and
identify about their personality. Individual development allows individuals to enhance their
talent and potential, that assists them in building human capital and helps individuals to gain
more employment opportunity. At times, it is noted that the developments are not visible
immediately but the process helps in creating situations that allows the continuation of that
change. The development helps in bringing positive change in the individual and improves
the quality of their life. The individual is able to plan about their short and long term goals
and with the help of development programs, the individual is able to achieve their goals and
objective by enhancing their personalities (Clifford et al., 2015). Many aspects and tools
assist individuals in personal and professional development. The individual should continue
the practices that allow them to learn about new skills and developments.
What are the important aspects of development?
Few of the important aspects of personal development have been discussed below:
1. Focus: Many relaxation techniques are available that can help individuals to increase their
focus and concentration. Focus is essential for personal development, as it will allow
individuals to work towards their goal in order to achieve it (Renninger et al., 2014).
2. Discipline: Discipline is necessary for personal development; discipline helps the
individual to maintain a balance in their life. A disciplined individual works as per a set
routine and is focused in engaging in activities that will enhance that helps in implementing
their goals and objectives.
3. Addressing Diversity: A proper development plan allows individuals to identify their basic
learning requirements and assists the individuals in addressing these requirements so that they
are able to develop new skills that will help them in increasing their performance and value.
They will be able to carry out their responsibilities in an efficient manner. Development
programs help individuals to evaluate themselves in a non-competitive surrounding that assist
them to gain knowledge about their strengths and weaknesses so that they can specify areas
that require self-development.
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4. Nurturing Innovation: The learning and development programs allow the individuals to
interact with other professional and other individuals. This wills allow the individuals to gain
experience and improve their positivity by avoiding mistakes that are committed by other
individuals (Morgan, 2017). Individuals can learn from the experience of other individuals.
This enhances the individual’s innovation process as they can approach a situation in
different way that will help them in avoiding the mistakes that was encountered previously by
some other individuals.
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Importance of development in case of personal and professional development
Importance of personal development:
Self-awareness: Self-awareness is the beginning of personal development. Personal
development helps individual to understand about the personality, beliefs, values and purpose
that are important for them (Cottrell, 2015).
Improved focus and effectiveness: Personal development helps individuals in gaining clarity.
The individual gains a sense of direction, as personal development assists the individual to set
their priorities. The individual has a clear objective and can take decision that which task will
be beneficial in ord4er to get the best result.
Increased motivation: When the individuals have clear understanding about their objectives
they are more focused and motivated towards their goals and objectives. Personal
development encourages individuals to work and engage in activities that will allow them to
achieve their goals (Akbari et al., 2015).
Importance of professional development:
Maintain the current standards: Professional development allows individuals to keep pace
with the new developments and trends that will help in enhancing the performance of the
individuals (Megginson and Whitaker, 2017).
Skills Improvment: Focussing on the professional development can facilitate the individual
to improve their own skills and understand the various aspects of professionalism.
Teamwork: Professional development assists individuals to contribute towards their team, as
the various skills and knowledge that are gained by the individuals helps them in
understanding about their teammates and allows them to help them by guiding their teammate
to work in a better method (Cornelissen and Cornelissen, 2017).
Professional skills: According to the profession of the individual professional development
helps in protecting and improving the quality of life of individuals. Professional development
enhances the career opportunities of individuals.
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Elements of Personal Development
Three basic elements of personal development that assist individuals in order to improve their
professional as well as personal life are
 Commitment
 Engagement in action
 Cultivation
The engagement and commitment in action are the factors that assist individuals to stay goal-
oriented, motivated and self-directed towards leading a principle-based life that will help in
the growth and development of the individual (Hernández et al., 2017).
Personal development commitments and engagement in action
These are the basic commitments of individuals towards their dreams and goals (Fullan,
2014). The more individuals are committed to their goals and objectives, the more they will
gain as their output as the commitments will help them in engaging in actions that will allow
the individuals to implement their goals and remain focused at cultivating themselves so that
they are able achieve their objectives.
Continuous engagement in a particular chosen activity will allow the individuals to gain more
knowledge and understanding about the activity and the ways it is affecting the individual
and people associated in it. However, if individuals are committed to their goals and are
engaged in actions to implement their goals but are not cultivating their skills, then they may
not be able to achieve their goals in a proper and efficient manner and their time and energy
is completely wasted. The cultivation aspect of personal development allows individuals to
integrate the rest of the components into a coherent framework that would help them in
enhancing their knowledge and skills so that their goals can be efficiently achieve and they
are able to develop and grow.
Cultivate aspect of personal development
Cultivation aspect helps individuals to gain new skills. The individuals should keep learning
about new skills and practice their existing skills on a regular basis. The habit of cultivation
will generate beneficial results that will provide solid backgrounds for development and
create self-awareness, so that the individual is able to identify their strengths and enhance
their performance (Redmond and Dolan, 2016).
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Elements of Professional Development
An individual should focus on six major factors in order to select an effective training course
that will help in their own growth and development. In the procedure of professional
development, the contribution of the organization is also essential. This means that it is
essential for the organizations to focus on how they can focus on the skills and knowledge
development of their workforce.
1. Leadership: The organizations should select an appropriate leadership skills training
program that will teach their employees and managers the basic concepts of leadership. The
managers must be able to motivate and encourage their employees so that they can enhance
their skills and work to achieve the goals of the organization. At the same time, it is essential
for the employees to undertake these training programmes and try to disperse that knowledge
effectively (Voogt et al., 2015).
2. Communication: Communication is the most important skill that is required by all the
professional bodies. The organization should focus on their training program that helps the
employees to improve their communication skill; this is the most important area of
professional development. Along with this, the employees should also focus on improving
their communication skills on a daily basis.
3. Change management: Due to increasing competition the business, environment is
continuously changing, so in order to adapt to the changing environment organizations need
to bring new changes in their business. The changes are required to be managed in a strategic
way. The organization should incorporate a change management course that will help
managers to learn about how to mitigate resistance and thus will increase their professional
development skills.
4. Motivation: Organization should always encourage and motivate their employees, as
motivated employees are more productive and works towards the goals of the organization.
Authorities should incorporate programs or course that will help their leaders and managers
to understand about the different ways by which they can motivate their employee so that
they are encouraged to work with their full potential that will increase the business of the
organization. However, it is also essential for the employees or individuals to be self-
motivated. This ultimately helps the individual to work towards his or her goals and achieve
them successfully (Korschun et al., 2014).
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These few factors can assist an organization in developing the required professional skills
that will help in professional development of their managers and employees. Professional
development will improvise the skills of their professional bodies that will enhance the
performance of the employees and the productivity of the company will increase.
The employees should take proper training that is provided by the organization so that they
can enhance their skills. The employs should practice the skills and implement them in their
activities that will increase their professional skills.
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External Factors Affecting Development Process
External factor have major influence on the personal development of individuals, some of the
factors have been discussed below:
Governmental policy: Governmental policies can influence the personal development of
individuals. The government is responsible to maintain the stable condition of the country
and all the business firms and the citizens of the country depend on the governmental policy
for their operations. The governmental strategies results in the economic conditions of the
country. Thus, the factors of employments, education system policies and income as well as
availability of products and services can affect the living standards and personal development
of the individuals (Frank et al., 2015).
Inflation rate: Inflation plays a vital role in personal development; if the education services
of a country are expensive, most of the citizens will not be able to afford good schools and
learning programs that will influence the personal development of individuals. If the rates of
services are high, some of the individuals will not be able to proper education which might
affect their career in a negative manner.
Education: Education plays a vital role in shaping the personality of the individual; it
enhances the thinking capacities and increases the learning opportunities of individuals. If the
economic condition of the country is not suitable, the country will not be able to provide
adequate education to their citizens. Poor education system or low availability of affordable
education can creates hindrances for the individual (Keating, 2014).
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Conclusion
This repost helps in understanding about the meaning of development. The various element
of development have been discussed in details. The learner will have a thorough idea about
the ways by which individuals can implement person development that will help them in
growth. The concept of professional development has been explored in this report. The
significance of development in order to improve the lifestyle of various individuals has been
mentioned. The assignment will help the learner to gain knowledge about the different
external factors that affects the development process of individuals and the ways by which
they can overcome the issues in order to enhance their development process.
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Reference List
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Clifford, P.S., Fuhrmann, C.N., Lindstaedt, B., Hobin, J.A., Hendee, W.R. and Hendee, W.R.,
2015. An individual development plan will help you get where you want to
go. Anesthesiology, 123(5).
Cornelissen, J. and Cornelissen, J.P., 2017. Corporate communication: A guide to theory and
practice. Sage.
Cottrell, S., 2015. Skills for success: Personal development and employability. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Frank, A.G., Ribeiro, J.L.D. and Echeveste, M.E., 2015. Factors influencing knowledge
transfer between NPD teams: a taxonomic analysis based on a sociotechnical approach. R&D
Management, 45(1), pp.1-22.
Fullan, M., 2014. Leading in a culture of change personal action guide and workbook. John
Wiley & Sons.
Hernández, A.G.T., Pedroza, A.V. and Valdés, J.E.G., 2017. The Impact of Socio-affective
Elements on the Academic and Personal Development of University Students. In Conference
Proceedings. The Future of Education (p. 423). libreriauniversitaria. it Edizioni.
Keating, S.B., 2014. Curriculum development and evaluation in nursing. Springer Publishing
Company.
Korschun, D., Bhattacharya, C.B. and Swain, S.D., 2014. Corporate social responsibility,
customer orientation, and the job performance of frontline employees. Journal of
Marketing, 78(3), pp.20-37.
Megginson, D. and Whitaker, V., 2017. Continuing professional development. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Morgan, K., 2017. Nurturing novelty: Regional innovation policy in the age of smart
specialisation. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 35(4), pp.569-583.
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Redmond, S. and Dolan, P., 2016. Towards a conceptual model of youth leadership
development. Child & Family Social Work, 21(3), pp.261-271.
Renninger, A., Hidi, S. and Krapp, A. eds., 2014. The role of interest in learning and
development. Psychology Press.
Voogt, J., Laferrière, T., Breuleux, A., Itow, R.C., Hickey, D.T. and McKenney, S., 2015.
Collaborative design as a form of professional development. Instructional Science, 43(2),
pp.259-282.
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