Professional Identity and Practice

This report explores the benefits of ongoing professional development, employer expectations for managerial positions, self-assessment using SWOT analysis, learning theories for personal and professional development, and evaluation of skills and competencies for employment in a managerial position.

Professional identity and
practice

INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..............................................................................................................................................3
1. Examination of the key benefits of on-going professional development for different stakeholders
within your selected organization............................................................................................................3
2. Investigation and evaluation of professional employer expectations of skills and competencies
within your selected organization in relations to a managerial position...................................................5
3. . Assessment and evaluation of your own abilities, skills, and competences in relations to a
managerial position by using a personal SWOT analysis and identification of team characteristics you
have in line with Belbin team roles..........................................................................................................6
4. Review of a range of learning theories and approaches that you can use for your personal and
professional development........................................................................................................................8
5. Critical evaluation of your own skills and competencies to meet the employer expectation of
professional skills required for employment within your selected organization in relations to a
managerial position...............................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In today’s environment, there is intense competition in employment opportunities and
career progression as well. This competition forces employees or individual to learn every
knowledge that forms the part of requirements of a employer. This report focuses on making self
assessment in accordance of desired professional field. This report is a blueprint of directions
that an individual can follow so as to achieve desired goals in career path. To prepare this report,
chosen organization is Marriott International. Chosen professional field is financial manager.
This report will attempt to outline different requirements for a prospective financial manger and
also discusses about different sets of skills those must be possessed by an individual playing role
of financial manger in an organization. Furthermore, different learning styles have been applied
to showcase about different requirements and learning that an individual in managerial position
must have. There is also SWOT analysis of own competencies and this will assist further in
formulating an effective professional plan.
MAIN BODY
1. Examination of the key benefits of on-going professional development for different
stakeholders within your selected organization.
Professional development refers to the process of continuous learning and this is done
with a view of earning and maintaining professional credentials. These credentials further helps
in gaining an edge over students or aspirants in the same field. This process is assisting the
completion of academic course or any learning opportunity in an efficient manner. This
professional development can be catered in various ways such as, case study method,
consultation, coaching, and communities of practice, lesson study, mentoring, reflective
supervision and technical assistance. There may be some other methods too. In context of
chosen organization, there are various ongoing professional development programs taken
forward and they are not only beneficial for employees but also provide benefits to employer.
This is explained as below:
Advantages to employees:

 Intrinsic motivation: This is an act of doing something on their own and there is not
expectation of external reward for this task. If an employee getting professional
development, than this may involve learning process of that employee. This whole
process will lead to gaining interests in various fields and employee will also start doing
that task as he or she may find that enjoyable and interesting as well. This will lead to
increased efficiency of that employee and hence, a great factor for improvement in career
path of that employee.
 Personal satisfaction: To make an employee stay in an organization, the most important
factor that impacts this outcome is the degree of satisfaction that employee is receiving
being in employment terms with that organization. Ongoing professional development
can help an individual to gets satisfied as this process is giving boost to level of skill set
and knowledge aptitude of that employee. This reward is enough to satisfy an employee
and he will be able to apply for future better prospects also.
 Increased employability: As discussed above, professional development is a process
which individuals are getting learning about different requirements that are important for
an individual to possess in order to move forward and also upward in the career path.
Professional development is a process which gives addition to values and skills of an
employee, which makes that employee in more demand for other employers as well. This
is better in both aspects, financial and non financial as well.
 Added value to resume: Professional development is a process which adds skills and
aptitudes to an individual which he can write in the resume. As the resume is the very
first impression that goes to an employer, therefore, it will help that individual to leave a
very good image in mind of employer that will help that person to go through the
selection process at a convenient manner.
Advantages to employer:
 Skilled workforce: Professional development program plays the main role of improving
skill set of an employee. This will help those employees to perform better and it will give
the benefit of improved productivity and profitability to employer, this is due to reason
that employees are getting more skilled and knowledgeable person.

 Up to date knowledge: This process is assisting both employer and employee to gain
knowledge about changes in dynamic environment and this will help employer in
formulating effective strategies so that threats and weaknesses can be overcome easily. If
employer will have strong knowledge about all the factors that, it will enable them to
protect the organization from any serious hazards, such as, increased rate of employee
turnover.
 Competitive advantage through human capital: One of the most important asset of
any company, specially a company operating in hospitality industry, is human capital. As
Marriott is a firm which involves direct interaction between employees and customers. If
professional development is carried out in efficient manner, than it will lead to improved
performance of employees and finally good serving to customers. If customers are
satisfied, they will become loyal to hotel and hence, givens competitive advantage to
hotel.
 Organizational brand image: In a large organization like Marriott, employees form the
most important part of marketing about company’s image in market also. If employees
are satisfied, they will spread a good image of company in market and hence, it will lead
to building of a good reputed image of organization in market. Employees will be
satisfied if they are gaining what they aspired and expected from that organization. to
fulfill this need, professional development is the most appropriate tool.
2. Investigation and evaluation of professional employer expectations of skills and competencies
within your selected organization in relations to a managerial position.
In this report, chosen organization is Marriott and aspired role is financial manager. For
this role, following skills and capabilities are required:
 Leadership: Financial managers are individuals who bring together all the efforts of
whole finance team. Finance is the foundation of any organization and it helps in taking
on every operation. Therefore it is essential that finance managers are bringing the team
together in effective manner. Managers know how to enhance efficiency and productivity
while maintaining confidence in their ability to move the company forward. Effective
leaders demonstrate the ability to direct others and delegate tasks. Good financial

managers take charge of situations and form effective solutions to encourage trust in their
leadership skills.
 Problem solving: Most significant quality of a financial manager is that he is capable of
ensuring that problems are solved on the basis of various analyses. He has the
responsibility of analyzing budgets or calculation of risk associated with an investment
proposal. Managers have a deep understanding of the company's financial goals and find
effective ways to meet those goals without jeopardizing the business.
 Communication: Since not every person in a company understands complex financial
data or documents, effective finance managers must have strong written and verbal
communication skills. Finance managers are able to explain complicated formulas or
analysis to present information in an accessible manner. Finance managers may work
with many departments, and the ability to alter their communication style to easily
convey information is a vital skill for successful managers.
 Mathematical proficiency: The main responsibility of financial managers is to work with
large sums of money and to work in efficient and effective manner, it is important that
they are relying and knowledgeable in mathematical abilities. Another important quality
is of compiling and analyzing data. They should also have knowledge of international
finance so that they are capable to work on figures of a large organization like Marriott.
3. . Assessment and evaluation of your own abilities, skills, and competences in relations to a
managerial position by using a personal SWOT analysis and identification of team characteristics
you have in line with Belbin team roles.
In the given scenario, I am aspiring to become a financial manager and for that purpose, I
need to analyze my strengths and weaknesses which will help me to move forward in my career
path. Following table shows about identified qualities in four quadrants of SWOT analysis.
STRENGTH WEAKNESS
Communication (Verbal)
Motivation
Identification of resource
Planning
Time management
Lack of understanding of professional
standard
Less knowledge of other languages

Relationship building Decision making
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
Gain the higher position
Improve knowledge of hospitality operations
Proper management of resources
Increase level of confidence and leadership
Competition level
Changes in the policies and process
More use of technology
Difference in perception
Belbin team roles:
Dr Meredith Belbin studied team-work for many years, and he famously observed that
people in teams tend to assume different "team roles." He defined a team role as "a tendency to
behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way" and named nine such team
roles that underlie team success.
Action Oriented Roles
Shaper Challenges the team to improve.
Implementer Puts ideas into action.
Completer Finisher
Ensures thorough, timely
completion.
People Oriented Roles
Coordinator Acts as a chairperson.
Team Worker Encourages cooperation.
Resource Investigator Explores outside opportunities.
Thought Oriented Roles Plant Presents new ideas and
approaches.

Monitor-Evaluator Analyzes the options.
Specialist Provides specialized skills.
From the above table, financial manager is that team member which is playing the
thought oriented roles in a team in the hotel. This is due the reason that they are basically
planning and implementing the financial plans, they have the responsibility to monitor and
control different factors of a financial plan.
4. Review of a range of learning theories and approaches that you can use for your personal and
professional development.
There are different learning theories those can be adopted to successfully implement the personal
and professional development plan in a large organization like Marriott. Two of the significant
theories are explained below:
 Honey and Mumford learning style: it is a concept which involves identification of four
distinct styles of learning or preferences: Activist, Theorist; Pragmatist and Reflector.
These are the learning approaches that individuals naturally prefer and they recommend
that in order to maximise one's own personal learning each learner ought to:
 understand their learning style
 seek out opportunities to learn using that style

 Kolb’s learning style: Kolb states that learning involves the acquisition of abstract
concepts that can be applied flexibly in a range of situations. In Kolb’s theory, the
impetus for the development of new concepts is provided by new experiences.

5. Critical evaluation of your own skills and competencies to meet the employer expectation of
professional skills required for employment within your selected organization in relations to a
managerial position
From the above report, it is clear that what are the required skills by an employer to take in an
individual at the position of financial manager. They are Leadership, Problem solving, Communication
and Mathematical proficiency. On evaluation of myself, I found that I have the capabilities of leadership
and fluent communication skills. In addition to this, I also have a clear hand in mathematical proficiency.
To support this quality of mine I have also attempted to develop my knowledge about different theories of
finance subject. I also keep updating my knowledge set through keeping a track on any changes in
dynamic finance market. This helps me to leave a good impression on employer. Furthermore, I lack in
the quality of problem solving. To become efficient in this area, it is essential to remain calm. On the
other hand, I as an individual becomes panicky in situation of some crisis. This is only the limitation that I
have. To solve this issue, it is important for me to develop skills that will involve development of
analytical qualities in me and I will be able to develop myself as a person and also qualify for the position
of financial manager.
CONCLUSION
From this report, it can be concluded that professional development is a process which is
beneficial for all stakeholders and it can be made possible through various approaches. To gain a
effective professional development, it is important that an employee is aware of all the
requirements that employer will have from the role he is aspiring for. Furthermore, an individual
must analyze about own strengths and weaknesses so that he can successfully achieve what he
desires in career path. There are various learning theories that an individual can adopt for
personal and professional development. For becoming a successful professional in interested
field, it is important to align own skills and abilities with that of required by employer.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Korthagen, F., 2017. Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: Towards professional
development 3.0. Teachers and teaching. 23(4). pp.387-405.
Bates, C.C. and Morgan, D.N., 2018. Seven elements of effective professional development. The
Reading Teacher. 71(5). pp.623-626.
Kennedy, M.M., 2016. How does professional development improve teaching?. Review of
educational research. 86(4). pp.945-980.
Infographics, C.P., 2019. Professional Development Conference Marriott Riverwalk in San
Antonio, TX.
Osgerby, J., Marriott, P. and Gee, M., 2018. Accounting students perceptions of using visual
metaphor as part of personal development planning: an exploratory case
study. Accounting Education. 27(6). pp.570-589.
Alhaqan, A. and Smith, F., 2020. A global evidence review of systemic factors influencing
participation in pharmacy professional development activities. Research in Social and
Administrative Pharmacy.
Marriott, L. and Sim, D., 2019. Social inequity, taxes and welfare in Australasia. Accounting,
Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Geia, L. and et.al., 2020. A unified call to action from Australian nursing and midwifery leaders:
ensuring that Black lives matter. Contemporary Nurse. pp.1-12.
du Plessis, A. and Eberlein, E., 2018. The role of heads of department in the professional
development of educators: A distributed leadership perspective. Africa Education
Review. 15(1). pp.1-19.