(Solution) - Professional Identity and Practice Assignment

Professional Identity and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART A...........................................................................................................................................1
Overview on IHG group..............................................................................................................1
Skills and competences expected by the employer to perform specific role within IHG group.1
Benefit and importance of ongoing professional and personal development to enhance the
career objective...........................................................................................................................2
Implication of learning theories for personal and professional development.............................3
Evaluation of own ability, skill and competences for job roles within the organisation, by
using self evaluated models .......................................................................................................4
Best development approach to enhance professional and personal development.......................5
PART B............................................................................................................................................5
Preparation of development plan................................................................................................5
PART 3............................................................................................................................................7
Interview of assistant manger......................................................................................................7
Strength and weakness of the interview process for IHG group company.................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFRENCES............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Professional Identities of individuals and human beings are based upon individual’s
motives, values, beliefs and experiences which comes from their day to day lives (Pihl-Thingvad,
2015). Professional identity is dynamic and re structured as per change in circumstances and
different events. It simply refers to be operating as an individual perception framework for doing
professional acts along with other behavioural aspects. This report exhibits significance of
continuous or on going professional development and use of self-directed learning to improve
and enhance professional identity and career potentials. Beside this it also describes an
explanation about assessment of own skills, competences and different learning and development
approaches along with professional development plan while demonstrating a range of service
industry and transferable skill for job application in the context of IHG Group.
PART A
Overview on IHG group
IHG group stand for Inter-Continental Hotels Group plc, which is multinational
hospitality company of United Kingdom. Their hotel services are spread all over the globe for
family, friends and business travellers by providing them good quality of services so that they
find worth paying for IHG globe. Additionally, this help the company to build their loyal
customers all over the globe to fight against their rivalries. Moreover, they have operated their
hospitality business which include hotels and resort approximately in hundred countries which
has near about five thousand hotels and has welcomed huge travellers in their more than eight lac
guest rooms (Trede, Macklin and Bridges, 2012). Therefore, respective company has been
operating their business for more than fifteen years due to which they gain huge revenue which
has finally diversified the business in various countries. In addition, to make it possible IHG
group has tied a strong relationship with its existing customer by offering them valuable services
and reaching out potential customers via its website and promotional technique. Thus, it includes
various hotels are Kimpton hotel and restaurant, holiday inn, crowne plaza hotels and resorts etc.
to reach out to the various traveller.
Skills and competences expected by the employer to perform specific role within IHG group
The primary purpose of hotel and resort within the hospitality industry is to offer suitable
services to the guest who are far away from home and get a place to relax. Thus, staff of hotels
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plays valuable role in delivering or transferring the services such as clean room, amenities, food
and so on which adds up an experience in the lives of traveller and help them in making future
decision (Wenger-Trayner, 2014). Additionally, the staff of hotel are placed in different
categories like administration, support staff as well as guest service. Administration category
must carry competency skill to direct the position, roles as well as responsibility from managers
to secretaries. Whereas, support staff include the role of electrician and gardeners that have
technical skill due to which they directly take care of hotel issues so that traveller find
convenience in that place. The guest service includes waiters, chef and maids that look after the
needs and problem of staff due to which they should have ample experience and skill to
understand the requirement of customer.
The roles and responsibility of different staff differ on the basis of type and size of hotel.
Herein. IHG group which perform its business worldwide due to which they train their staff to
carry out their activity effectively. For instance, the managing director oversees all staffing and
financial issues similarly the role of housekeeper to clean the room of guest to offer them high
quality experience to customer. Due to which they should have experience in customer dealing
to enhance the coordination between staff and guest. Usually convention manger is appointed by
big hotels like IHG group, there the role of respective manager is to coordinate as well as
manage all the activities of guest such as their booking. Moreover, assistant manager plays a
valuable role within selected company by employing, staffing as well as provide training to
existing as well as new staff so that all the activities within the hotel run smoothly without
hampering its growth.
Apart from these staff the role of other staff such as receptionist and cashier is to help the
customer regarding their reservation and make them comfortable by providing them quick and
easy service. Similarly, the role of food service department that include Chef is to run the kitchen
section and fulfil the order of traveller. Therefore, different staff of different section work
together to make the valuable experience of their traveller which helps in attaining organisational
objective.
Benefit and importance of ongoing professional and personal development to enhance the career
objective
It is very essential for hospitality industry to provide continuous training and
development to its internal staff which will lead to continuous personal development to attain the
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organisational objective. Thus, the role of restaurant managers is to identify the gap between
staff's existing knowledge and capabilities and knowledge, skill or capability to be required to
fulfil the short as well as long term objective of firm. To make it feasible training and
development session are provided to existing as well as new staff to accomplish organisational
goal (Goldie, 2012)
Training and development: Training is a part of human resource activity that is used to
enhance the current skill, knowledge and skill of employees to perform future job effectively.
Training session include workshop and orientation programme which act as an opportunity for
employee to improve their knowledge. Training within IHG group hotel moves in form of stages
like initially training need is identified within hotel, then training solution are designed so that
staff can easily understand the requirement of training. Then, mangers like conventional manager
of respective hotel plays an essential role in delivering the services the training session or
solution to the internal staff thus they make sure each employee gains knowledge out of it. After
that, knowledge imparted through training session is used in real life within. Therefore, this
training session helps in the long term development of employee and successful hotels to adopt
changes and implement any strategy.
Training and development leads to professional or personal development as it helps the
organisation to adopt latest trend which help it to remain ahead of their competitors. In addition,
it enhances the capability of professional development to maintain high quality standard and
competitiveness within the hospitality industry.
Implication of learning theories for personal and professional development
Learning theories or approaches include various approaches like behaviourism and
constructivism which helps an individual to acquire, expand and retain the essential knowledge.
Thus, it includes various strategy, tool and technique to promote the learning within the staff of
IHG group hotel.
Behaviourism: It is one of the essential approaches of learning which helps in personal
and professional development by changing the existing behaviours of employee (Huston, 2013).
It includes the role of stimulus and response to change the behaviour of existing staff within the
workplaces. Therefore, this theory which is a concept of operant conditioning helps in enhancing
the productivity to productivity quick customer service for the development of professional in
the IHG group.
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Productivity: If IHG group hotel link the benefit like salary hike with the performances
or target of employee then they will remain keen to attain the organisational objective. Thus,
operate conditioning includes positive reinforcement which motivate the staff to enhance their
personality and increases the organisational productivity.
Customer service: Continuous positive reinforcement helps existing employee to
improve their capability and provide high quality customer service. This helps the company to
retain their existing traveller as employees are the face of company which helps in building the
experience of an individual
Cognitive learning: Cognitive learning require mental action to build the experience and
skill of an individual (Hercelinskyj, 2014). Within this learning takes place through the
information an individual receives with its experiences. Therefore, this type of learning can help
hospitality industry in personal development. Along with that it helps in solving real situations
arises within the organisation, bringing new concept that help the hotel to enhance their
productivity.
Constructivism theory of leadership: Within this theory an individual construct their
own knowledge or experiences (Wald, 2015). Everyone individual has their own past
experiences or perception that helps an individual to develop new idea or experience. This
approach of leadership helps above mentioned company to resolve the conflict that arises within
the work place by considering the impact of previous conflicts. Apart from that this theory helps
the hotel in promoting collaborative learning, helps in solving problem and brainstorming to gain
new idea.
Evaluation of own ability, skill and competences for job roles within the organisation, by using
self-evaluated models
Skill Rating
Hard skill
Computer programming
Degree or certification
7
9
Soft skill
Time management
Problem solving
6
7
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On the basis of my hard skill and soft skill ability, I lack in computer programming
because IHG group hotel works on different software. So I knew for that software which I will
improve with time. In case of degree my qualification is complete but there were some optional
certificate course like international certificate in hospitality business which I don't have. Apart
from it my rating is low in time management and problem solving soft competence because
respective company require multi tasking work which I haven't experienced before. Also it
require critical thinking ability on which I am working to overcome (Olausson, 2017).
Among various self evaluation model like EFQM, CQAF and so on the most suitable self
evaluation method for IGH hotel to enhancing their profitability are defined below.
EFQM Excellent model: This model is used by various organisation such as private or
public to develop the operations of the company (Pennington and Richards, 2016). The assistant
manager of respective can use this model to set the benchmark for their operations in comparison
to their competitors. Therefore, it help the company top constantly enhance its operations.
CQAF model: CQAF model stands for common quality assurance framework, this
models is an effective model for respective company to adopt. As here the role of assistance
manager is to provide training to the staff to improve their existing knowledge which can be
further utilised in favour of company.
Best development approach to enhance professional and personal development
Among various theories or approaches of learning social learning which is a combination
of cognitive and behavioural learning works wonder in enhancing the professional as well as
personal development within IHG group. As cognitive learning is based on thought process of an
employee whereas behavioural learning is based on association of stimulus and response like
positive reinforcement. Thus, social factor or combination of two theory include factors like
observation, retention and motivation to enhance the development of workforce within
workplace.
PART B
Preparation of development plan
Development plan or professional development plan are prepared by the managers of
respective organisation. As it an effective source to identify the skill of personnel and resource
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needed by organisation to attain the objective of organisation. So it is a good tool which is used
to set strategies and objective of organisation, learning outcomes for staff as well as use of
learning and training for the development of professional. This kind of plan varies between an
individual. According to me, skills like time management, conflict management and problem
solving are the areas which needs to be overcome as they come under my weakness. Therefore,
such weaknesses need to be overcome within a stipulated time frame, by making optimum
utilisation of organisation resources. Hence, for learning and training outcome development plan
is designed below:
Skills Activities which needs to
be undertake
Resources Time-
frame
Desired
improvements
Time
management
For better time
management the role of
manager is to plan
effectively within
stipulated time period,
avoid procrastination
especially that work which
is in priority list, track daily
regime, delegate work
effectively, use technology
for quick result
Formal training,
effective mode
of
communication ,
1 month Setting up the
priorities and
allocating work
according is the
desired way for me to
improve my time
management skills.
Conflict
management
The roles and responsibility
of assistant manager, to
avoid conflict is to manage
the skill as well as
performance of team
member, reduces the
interdependency of various
department on same
resources, enhance
The main
resources such as
participation in
team work,
presentation,
reading articles,
books & journals
etc.
1 months To gain desired
outcome and manage
the conflict
effectively I can
form good relation
with my team
members to enhance
the coordination
among members and
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employee engagement to
control the behaviour of an
individual. Motivating
employee to remain task
oriented by controlling
their emotions such as
anger to achieve the
desirable outcome by
maintaining the decorum of
organisation(Barkhuizen,
2016).
achieve the
organisational
objective which are
basically the role an
assistant manager
need to perform.
Hence, these skill can
help me maintaining
good employee and
management relation
by engaging co-
employees in their
task.
Problem
solving
Manager perform various
activity to solve the
problem like enhances
interpersonal skill,
maintain flexibility, remain
committed for customer
satisfaction. For problem
solving social learning
style is one of the
techniques which is used to
raise the potential of
employee by solving the
problem effectively to
attain organisational
objective to gain learning
outcome from personal
and professional
Provide practical
formal training,
simulation, case
study, solving
reasoning and
aptitude test to
acquire problem
solving skills.
1.5 month To solve the problem
the ability of manger
is to solve the
problems effectively
by taking effective
decision on time.
Along with taking
critical decision I
must make sure it
achieves the objective
of organisation
effectively by
enhancing the
productivity as well
as profitability of an
organisation.
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development.
PART 3
Interview of assistant manger
After the last evaluation process which was interview round I was shortlisted as an
assistant manager within IHG group hotel. To clear this round, I put in additional effort in
comparison to other aspirants. The only way to clear this confirmation phase, by keep on
enhancing as well as updating the personal knowledge. Like I impressed my whole panel of
interviewer by my updated knowledge and skills gained by working in same industry for one
year. Thus, apart from knowledge and skill candidate must have ample knowledge about the IHG
group hotel like their history and achievements respective company gained. Additionally, apart
from one year of experience and have done internship in respective company for few months so I
was bit aware about the internal operations of company. My training programme which was for
two months helped me a lot in cracking this interview round for assistant managers post.
Furthermore, individual must groom their skills, capabilities, abilities as well as their potential
with the passage of time. Also enthusiasm and intrinsic motivation needs to be enriched which
helps in achieving any predetermined milestone of an individual. Other than this the secondary
but valuable task an individual can perform is to reach at the respective venue before to time so
that interviewer can mentally prepare themselves for the evaluation rounds. Also they should
keep all their documents handy for the verification of essential document within accurate time
period. Thus, time management plays a significant role in improving the professional
development and achieving the goal of an individual.
Strength and weakness of the interview process for IHG group company
Strength and weakness associated with interview round are define below:
Strengths: Interview round has helped me to gain self-confidence, see the reflection of
my knowledge and how smartly I encounter the questions asked by interviewer (). Thus, this
interview round has added valuable experience in my life. Additionally, due to huge exposure,
experience, sound knowledge and skills I received in my internship phase within IHG group has
helped me a lot in grooming my personality. Along with that interview round gave me an
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opportunity to communicate with the existing employees of respective company and becoming a
part of that company.
Weaknesses: During this interview I came to know that I lack in my reasoning, so this is
the area where I need to enhance my knowledge. With the help of interview process, I come to
know about the actual skill and ability an assistant manager need to have which I was unaware
before.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that personal and professional development
is an important aspect of organisation that is taken place through continuous learning process.
Various learning theories such as behaviourism, cognitive learning and so on helps to enhance
the skill and ability of an individual to attain the organisational objective effectively. Moreover,
training and development helps not only in the development of person but organisation as well.
Therefore, on-going development helps to enrich the success of individual as well as
organisation.
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REFRENCES
Books & Journals
Pihl-Thingvad, S., 2015. Professional ideals and daily practice in journalism. Journalism. 16(3).
pp.392-411.
Trede, F., Macklin, R. and Bridges, D., 2012. Professional identity development: a review of the
higher education literature. Studies in Higher Education. 37(3). pp.365-384.
Wenger-Trayner, E., 2014. Learning in landscapes of practice: Boundaries, identity, and
knowledgeability in practice-based learning. Routledge.
Goldie, J., 2012. The formation of professional identity in medical students: considerations for
educators. Medical teacher. 34(9), pp.e641-e648.
Huston, C. J., 2013. Professional issues in nursing: Challenges and opportunities. Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins.
Hercelinskyj, G., 2014. Perceptions from the front line: Professional identity in mental health
nursing. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. 23(1). pp.24-32.
Wald, H. S., 2015. Professional identity (trans) formation in medical education: reflection,
relationship, resilience. Academic Medicine. 90(6). pp.701-706.
Olausson, U., 2017. The reinvented journalist: The discursive construction of professional
identity on Twitter. Digital Journalism. 5(1). pp.61-81.
Pennington, M. C. and Richards, J. C., 2016. Teacher identity in language teaching: Integrating
personal, contextual, and professional factors. RELC journal. 47(1). pp.5-23.
Barkhuizen, G. ed., 2016. Reflections on language teacher identity research. Taylor & Francis.
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