Professional Development and Identity in Organisations

The assignment covers a report on professional development and identity in organisations, including the benefits of ongoing professional programmes and the importance of implementing innovative ideas. The report also examines the strengths and weaknesses of interview processes, providing insights into applicant perception and minds.

PROFESSIONAL
IDENTITY AND
PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1. Key benefits of on-going professional development for several stakeholders within the
particular organisation............................................................................................................1
P2. Analyse the professional employer satisfaction of competencies and skills within the
organisational context.............................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Measure own skills, abilities and competences for a particular job role..........................4
P4. Learning theories and approaches which is used for professional and personal
development process..............................................................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. Development plan in order to increase selected competencies and skills within the
particular work context...........................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Job interview for a suitable service industry role.............................................................8
P7. Key strength and weaknesses of an applied interview process........................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity is a sort of social identification in which each individual have
different profession such as medicine, law, business along with this they have particular degree
by which they considered as a profession members. Professional identity is based on the different
type of individual's duties, responsibilities, norms, values and ethical standard all are the type of
practices which is defined as the particular profession. Wherein, professional practices are
knowledge which is used by appropriate profession. These kind of practices mainly refers to the
duties, roles and responsibilities in which individual behave within the workplace. This present
report is based on Virgin Holidays within the Sir Richard Branson's (virgin group). This
company was formed in the year of 1985 and this headquartered in Crawley, West Sussex, UK.
Along with this report discussion will be made on professional development within the different
stakeholders as well as skills, competencies and approach will get covered (Barley and Kunda,
2016). At last development plan with the transferable skills which comes under the service
industry will get covered effectively.
TASK 1
P1. Key benefits of on-going professional development for several stakeholders within the
particular organisation.
Virgin holidays, is a travel and tourism business which operates in the UK in order to
provide effective services to their customers in a proper way. It is a successful organisation
which was established in the 1985 that offers different kind of services in several places such as
Middle east, India, Africa, Australia. Apart from this, company has won each and every
particular industry and consumer's travel award within the UK. Therefore, in order to make
effective organisation this company needs to develop professional development to achieve their
desired goals and objectives as well as conduct few programmes to its shareholders. There are
some key benefits for stakeholders, those are listed below:
Benefits for stakeholders
In order to make regular professional growth plan which can be considered as the on
going learning process which helps to individual in order to improves their competencies,
knowledge and skills to gain lots of achievements within the workplace in an effective manner.
Therefore, it is very important for every individual within the industry so that they can overcome
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their weaknesses and able to build strong ideas and plan for their organisation. There are some
benefits, which are given below:
Develop confidence and credibility: According to this benefits, Virgin Holidays is able
to provide lots of training and development programmes for their stakeholders so that they can
get knowledge and also able to increase their confidence towards the work within the workplace.
Wherein, credibility helps them to achieve their new rewards and certificates from the company.
Increase retention: As per the present world, there are different type of organisation
who always not remember about their important skills and employee's jobs. At that time Virgin
Holidays should conduct several programmes in order to promote some professional skills in a
proper way (Bruss and Kopala, 2013). With the help of this company can get good feed back
from their workers or employee's as they are getting opportunities to prove their self and this
concept also helped them make their log term goals and planning within the competitive
advantage.
Improved efficiency: As professional development provides several kind of new skills
and knowledge but it also focuses on the staff members opportunities in order to gain their
objectives during the training period of time so that they can learn something from others and
able transfer or share their experience within other people in the industry.
Create easy success planning: Professional development is the very good opportunities
for every shareholders in order to achieve their goals and objectives effectively. In reference to
the Virgin Holidays they are applying this effective tool to trained their workers or employees
towards their working efficiency within the organisation. Therefore, it is necessary for them so
that they reduce the knowledge gaps between the organisation and employee's able to have long
time career in this company. This selected professional plan programme is helpful for employee's
which accomplish the employee's requirement and their needs to encourage them towards the
company's work.
Better decision making process: According to the on-going professional development
for different type of stakeholders, Virgin Holidays company is able to give so many type of
learning concept to their workers so that they can enhance their knowledge and skills to achieve
their goals. This is very beneficial for every employee's within the firm so that they can take
better decision even able to apply their innovative thoughts within the organisation. Therefore, it
is necessary for every employee's and workers in the industry.
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As per the above analysation of benefits it can be said that Virgin Holidays applying all
these benefits in their working or management process so that they can easily achieve their goals
in a proper way. With the help of professional development, employee's and stakeholders can get
improve their skills and knowledge to achieve its goals. So that these benefits will helps a lot to
this organisation and they are bale to take right decision at accurate time.
P2. Analyse the professional employer satisfaction of competencies and skills within the
organisational context.
According to the present scenario, it has been determined that every company required
more and more employees in order to run their business in a smooth manner so that they can
achieve their competitive advantages. In reference to the Virgin Holidays, workers and
employees comes under the travel and tourism sector who always looking to achieve good profits
and revenue for the organisation. Therefore, this is based on the performance of employees. For
example: if the customer supportive manager will talk their clients or customer's than he requires
lots of skills and knowledge like good communication skills, listening skill, proper knowledge of
the company feature and so on so that he can easily interact with them in an appropriate manner.
With the help of this they can fulfil customer's demand accordingly. In context to this selected
industry employee's need to adopt several skills such as decision making skills, problem solving,
communication skills so that they can satisfy their customer's without any issues effectively. This
concept will enhance their organisation's value and sales revenue properly. There are few skills
which is followed by the employee's of Virgin Holidays, those are given below:
Problem solving: This is very important skill for the employee's of the Virgin Holidays
with the help of this they can overcome the issues within the organisation in relation with travel
and tourism sector which is very graceful because from this customer's can get more and more
satisfaction. In order to improve this skill company needs to provide several kind of professional
programmes to learn better concept of problem solving in every individual's mind so that they
can think different and able to achieve competitive advantages within the environment of
business (Chamberlayne and Bornat, 2014).
Positive attitude: As per this customer support executive is required to have positive
attitude within the company as well as for customer's so that they can easily influence them. In
context with the Virgin Holidays, employee's and customer's support executive need to have
positive behaviour than it will affect to customer's in a positive way. But some times employee's
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and customer's support executive are not able to deal with clients so that it heavily impact
customer's as well as organisation negatively. Therefore, workers are needed to adopt positive
attitude, with the help of this they can face any kind of situation within the industry and able to
solve their customer's issues in a effective way.
Effective communication: It is very important and attractive skills in which employee's
or their sub authorities can interact with each other in a proper way. That's why in the present
world every individual should have proper communication skills to interact with someone. In
reference to the Virgin Hotel, customer's support executive should have proper style of
communication in order to influence their clients and also has capability to fulfil their demand as
per their thinking. It will increase the firm's productivity as well as value within the market.
Listening skills: This is another necessary point or skill as well by which customer's
support executive can fulfil the clients demand at the right time. In context to Virgin Holidays ,
employee's should have good affectivity of listing customer's problems and should be able to
resolved them. On the behalf of this they can get their oriented goals and target.
TASK 2
P3. Measure own skills, abilities and competences for a particular job role.
According to the specific job role that customer's support executive within the
organisation such as Virgin Holidays, now it is required to have lots of skills and abilities. On the
other side, I looked that I have capabilities in order to becoming the customer's support executive
in the Virgin Holidays but somewhere I have to considered in some areas in which I am weak but
here I need to improve myself so for this I will change my skills which can be good for
organisation effectively (Crocket, 2014). Now this time, I observed that every individual needs to
adopt different kind of skills so that they easily communicate with others as well as capable to
finish their work within the specified time. By observing all these things I can say that every
individual has different aspect and skills as per the manager's expectation of Virgin Holidays.
With the help of this sort of knowledge I can improve my self and able to apply new innovative
actions on my strategies. Apart from this, selected organisation has already very good employee's
who are capable to face any situation within the workplace in order to achieve their goals and
objectives effectively.
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On the other side, during the higher competition, Virgin Holidays is looking forward to
select and recruit good customer's support executive on the basis of their rules and policies. Well
if would like to fill your applicant seat in Virgin Holidays, than it will be needed me to have
more and more effective skills according to the company's requirement in the post of customer's
support executive. In reference to the present time, I have used personal skilled approach in order
to define my working ability in order to become customer's support executive in Virgin
Holidays. There are some skills assessments, which are given below:
S No. Capable in: Score Desired ratings to
fulfill requirements
of Virgin Holidays
Strength (positive
numbering) & Weakness
(Negative numbering)
1 Problem Solving 7 8 -1 (Weakness)
2 Communication 6 4 2 (Strength)
3 Presentation 5 6 -1 (Weakness)
4 Time Management 5 8 3 (Strength)
5 Interpersonal Skills 6 9 3 (Strength)
P4. Learning theories and approaches which is used for professional and personal development
process.
Learning theories and approaches are very much useful for an individual in order to
improve and change their personal skills and professional skills which all are required in Virgin
Holidays. In relation to this there are some theories and approaches are given below:
Humanistic learning approach: This approach helps to reduce the stress of an
individual within the organisation (Edwards and Dirette, 2010). In reference to the Virgin
Holidays, they are applying this approach by this employee's of this firm can improve their
behaviour as per the company's demand. Apart from this, it is also helpful for staff members and
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people because through this they can implement on their new ideas within the organisation
without any problems to impress their managers and subordinates.
Behavioural approach: This theory always determine the large range of ideas and
thoughts which is mainly desired by the employees in order to perform instantly and who are
able to give solutions of each problem within the organisation. According to the Virgin Holidays,
this approach is much helpful for every individual in order to make their effective goals towards
the organisation. As per this company is able to get good profit and revenue with the help of
employee's or workers in an effective manner.
Social learning theory: According to this theory, every people can learn something from
others within the society as well as able to learn from the social culture like values, beliefs,
norms and ethics. In context to the Virgin Holidays, it is effective because by this they can
conduct different types of programmes like personality development, professional development
and so on. By which employee's can get motivated and able to increase their working skills in an
proper manner (Elman, Illfelder-Kaye and Robiner, 2015). On the basis of this manager of this
organisation always conduct these type of programmes so that he can get success to enhance
their employee's value effectively.
Cognitive approach: It is related with the psychological theory that always determines
the thinking process. According to the Virgin Holidays, manager always used this sort of
approach in order to know the consumer's perception. After analysation all these think than
manager develop better services for them. On the basis of this, employees and manager of an
organisation is able to enhance their profits as they are fulfilling needs and demand of
consumers.
TASK 3
P5. Development plan in order to increase selected competencies and skills within the particular
work context.
According to the present scenario, the proper development plan is prepared by using the
different types of strategies, objectives, training processes all these aspects will helps me a lot in
order to attain my targeted goals in a proper way within the particular duration of time. With the
help of this I can improve myself and it will increase my level of confidence within the company.
There are some points are given below:
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Ability Needed Activities Resources Time Changes
Needed
Communic
ation Skill
For increasing this skills,
more information is
required for me in order
to communicate with
other people. For
making this better I can
join coaching for
improving my language.
For better resources I
need few books,
journals, articles and
direct resources.
2 months
time is
needed to
change
this skill.
As I feel shy in
my nature then
this skill will be
changed my
opinion and I
will able to talk
with everyone
easily.
Time
Manageme
nt Skill
It will be needed for me
to develop time for each
and every minute
activity or any kind of
tasks that may be I can
perform well in the
Virgin Holidays (Kram,
Wasserman and Yip,
2012).
For increasing this skill
I am needed to take
help and learn from
others by which I can
use my smart skills in a
different manner.
Within the
4 business
months
this skill
can be
increased
within the
particular
time.
I am able to take
help from other
people in order
to manage work
according to the
organization.
Problem
Solving
Skill
For enhancing this skills
I can totally use my own
skills in order to solve
company's issues and
thinking which helps in
developing the good
With hep of Training
& development, case
study, aptitude test,
stimulation, reasoning
etc. I will able to helps
myself as well as
I required
6 months
to adopt
this skill in
particular
time.
I am able to
make good
decision within
the some time in
order to adopt all
resources for
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situation within the
business.
strong in problem
solving.
solving problems
and issues
effectively.
TASK 4
P6. Job interview for a suitable service industry role.
In reference to the Virgin Holidays, they conducted interview for me for particular job
role that is customer's support executives. If I got selected their than there are lots of
opportunities for me by which I can make better skills in an appropriate way. This organisation
works internationally at higher level of market than it can be possible that I can face some kind
of challenges in order to achieve my desired aims. When I will end my evaluation process than
might be possible that I can go in technical round wherein, I have to face few tricky question,
issues which will be asked by the interviewer so that can influence me in a negative manner just
because I am weak in technical programmes if I got selected directly from first round than HR
round might be possible for me as I cleared my first round and had great experience which will
motivating me within the Virgin Holidays.
Apart from this I have another strong skills that my own academic background with my
past experience effectively. With the help of this I am able to get better opportunities in the
present and future (Lamote and Engels, 2010). As well as I can get higher level within the
company and able to achieve my all targets in a better way.
There are some questions which had been asked in to my interview, those are given
below:
 What is your name?
 What is the difference between smart work and hard work?
 What do you know about Virgin Holidays?
 Tell me about yourself apart from the CV?
 What do you know about the customer's support executive role?
 Why should I hire you?
 What is your strength and weakness?
 How was your last experience within the organisation?
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 What is your expectation from the salary?
 Who motivates you the most?
P7. Key strength and weaknesses of an applied interview process.
Strength of interview process
It is one of the most important thing which is very effective in front of others in which I
had good skills at the time of interview and I was very much confident. I gave answers in very
attractive way by which interviewer was impressed and I also feel comfortable their to
communicate with him. Apart from this I cleared my interview with effective knowledge and
skills in a proper way (Miller, 2018). With the help of good knowledge I was happy to gave all
answers quickly. This is all because I have already completed lots of interviews that's why I have
lots of knowledge. The main thing is that I never faced such kind of issues in relation with
anxiety while giving my interview.
Weakness of interview process
According to this, some time I feels like I not capable for gave any answer as because I
feel shy so that I was able to give expatiation about some topics. The main weak point is that I
had fear about my result during my interview so that I loosing my confidence from my
performance activity. But in the some situation I have participated in the different way at the
time of interview but not so well to gave answer properly. Furthermore, I started shivering while
giving interview, so that it affects negatively my overall performance.
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CONCLUSION
From the above representative report, it has been concluded that, professional identity
and practices are the very much effective process of each and every organisation in order to
prove themselves. In this present report, Virgin Holidays chosen as an organisation, in which
customer's support executives plays vital roles within the company in order to make good
relation with the customer's and fulfil their demand time to time. Wherein, development plan
helps a lot the employee's to enhance their competencies and skills effectively. Along with this
learning theories and approaches are very helpful for this company with the help of this they can
make their organisation better to impress customer's. Key benefits of ongoing professional
programmes gives many benefits to the stakeholders in order to implement innovative ideas with
the firm. Lastly this report covered strength and weakness of interview process to know the
applicant perception and minds.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barley, S. R. and Kunda, G., 2016. Contracting: A new form of professional practice. Academy
of Management Perspectives. 20(1). pp.45-66.
Bruss, K. V. and Kopala, M., 2013. Graduate school training in psychology: Its impact upon the
development of professional identity. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice,
Training. 30(4). p.685.
Chamberlayne, P. and Bornat, J. eds., 2014. Biographical methods and professional practice: An
international perspective. Policy Press.
Crocket, K., 2014. From narrative practice in counselling to narrative practice in research: A
professional identity story. International Journal of Narrative Therapy & Community
Work. 2004(2). p.1.
Edwards, H. and Dirette, D., 2010. The relationship between professional identity and burnout
among occupational therapists. Occupational Therapy in Health Care. 24(2). pp.119-
129.
Elman, N. S., Illfelder-Kaye, J. and Robiner, W. N., 2015. Professional development: training for
professionalism as a foundation for competent practice in psychology. Professional
Psychology: Research and Practice. 36(4). p.367.
Kram, K. E., Wasserman, I. C. and Yip, J., 2012. Metaphors of identity and professional
practice: Learning from the scholar–practitioner. The Journal of Applied Behavioral
Science. 48(3). pp.304-341.
Lamote, C. and Engels, N., 2010. The development of student teachers’ professional identity.
European Journal of Teacher Education. 33(1). pp.3-18.
Mellin, E. A., Hunt, B. and Nichols, L. M., 2011. Counselor professional identity: Findings and
implications for counseling and interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Counseling
& Development. 89(2). pp.140-147.
Miller, K., 2018. The evolution of professional identity: The case of osteopathic medicine. Social
Science & Medicine. 47(11). pp.1739-1748.
Sims, D., 2011. Reconstructing professional identity for professional and interprofessional
practice: A mixed methods study of joint training programmes in learning disability
nursing and social work. Journal of Interprofessional Care. 25(4). pp.265-271.
Online
Learning Approaches. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/learning-approaches.html>.
Learning and Teaching: Theories, Approaches and Models. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
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