Professional Identity and Practice

This document discusses the importance of ongoing professional development, expected skills and competencies, and learning theories for personal and professional development. It focuses on the case of Hugo Boss, a luxury fashion company, and provides insights into the benefits of continuous professional development for employees and employers. It also includes an assessment of skills and competencies for a specific job role, a review of learning theories and approaches, and the construction of a development plan.

Professional Identity
and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Examining key benefits of on going professional development for distinct stakeholders in
the company............................................................................................................................1
P2. Investigation of professional employer expectations of skills as well as competencies
within the context to organisation..........................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Assessment of abilities, skills and competences for particular job role...........................4
P4. Review range of learning theories as well as approaches that are used for personal along
with professional development processes..............................................................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5. Constructing development plan for enhancing selected skills and competencies in specific
work........................................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Undertaking job interview for suitable service industry role...........................................8
P7. Review of strengths and weaknesses of applied interview process...............................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional is termed to be a person who is executing practices independently through
using own knowledge base, skills along with competences appropriates to earn daily livelihood.
Professional identity refers to viewpoint of an individual who is serving as professor in domain
of expertise having high expectations for applying particular knowledge together with skills.
Similarly, professional practice is said to use of knowledge and experience of particular
professor in different fields. To gain insights about professional identity and practice, Hugo Boss
is selected that is luxury fashion which is located in Metzingen, Germany which is centrally
attraction of the nation population. It was established by Hugo Boss in the year 1924. It has
around 14600 employees that work for producing work clothing, shirts, jackets, raincoats and
sportswear (Hugo Boss, 2020). Along with this, the company also supply them across the globe.
The assignment covers importance of on-going professional development, expected skills and
competences of professional employer. Further, it also includes assessment of abilities, skills and
competences of specific job role, review of various learning theories or approaches that are used
for personal as well as professional development processes, construction of development plan to
enhance skills and competences, a job interview and review of key strengths along with
weakness of applied process of interview.
TASK 1
P1. Examining key benefits of on going professional development for distinct stakeholders in the
company
Ongoing professional development is defined as the aspect in which an individual takes part to
improve the level of knowledge as well as skills that are associated with professional lives. It can
be any activity in form of formal or informal which assists in developing and maintaining
competences that helps personally and professionally throughout entire career (Brown, 2016).
Moreover, it involves a process to uplift levels related to skills, competence and many more
through interactive, independent along with participation based learning. The individual that are
engaged in the development process requires to keep records related to their attained knowledge
as well as progress that are made for reflection of own learning. In present era, all companies
carry out effective CPD so that its manpower retain reliable set of huge quality, knowledge
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together with relevant skills throughout the professional life. In case with Hugo Boss, the
importance for carrying out continuous professional development is as follows;
 Continuous professional development ensures that all the capabilities of manpower of the
company are kept at pace with existing standards of others that works in same sector
(Bukor, 2015).
 Ongoing professional development enhances existing abilities of employees of Hugo
Boss to learn in regular and quick manner so that they become better independent person.
 Continuous professional development assist organisational people to stay interested as
well as motivated through experiencing new things and applying them in real life.
An organisation has different stakeholders and the main are employers and employees.
Following are the benefits of continuous professional development to employees and employers
of Hugo Boss:
Benefits of CPD for employees Benefits of CPD for employers
CPD refines the skills and intellects of
employees of Hugo Boss which assist in
plugging any type of plugging gaps.
CPD helps organisational employers to
increase level of confidence within their
professionals as well as personal life.
CPD opens pathways for employees of the
company to make progresses in their career and
redirects to achieve higher salaries along with
better job security.
CPD helps employers of Hugo Boss to
advance their management and leadership
knowledge in their profession aspects.
CPD promotes independence of organisational
employees when they engage themselves in
various learning activities as well as follow own
plans.
CPD improves sense of understanding of
employers through which they can build and
maintain healthy relations with employees
and solve their queries or grievances on time
(Cruess, Cruess and Steinert, 2016).
CRD also demonstrates ambitiousness,
dedication and aptitude toward self improvement
among existing or prospective employees.
CPD provides wide number of opportunities
to employers to develop their professional
career and also strengths backbone of entity.
CPD helps employees to keep their academic
together with practical qualifications up to date.
CPD assist employers of company to align
training to that of goals of business.
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P2. Investigation of professional employer expectations of skills as well as competencies within
the context to organisation
Professional standards are characterised to those standards requiring performance level that
is necessary for setting position (Egbujor, 2018). Moreover, these are the threshold standards that
are mandatory for safe along with effective practice. Different organisation has different
professional standards that are governed by political systems of a nation. Following are some of
professional standards which must be adhere by Hugo Boss in its working area:
Standards of conduct, ethics as well as performance: It is the professional standards
that must be adhere by senior managers of Hugo Boss. With the help of the professional
standard, the management team will be able to promote and protect interests of all manpower,
communicate with them in effective and appropriate manner, respect confidentiality, implement
actions ethically and keep records of performances.
Standards of quality management: It is other professional standards that should be
adhere at Hugo Boss so that it can manage its quality in context to material, products, resources
and many more. With this standard, human resource professionals of the company will be able to
meet all requirements of customers along with other stakeholders while meeting regulatory
compliances concerned with products or services.
Following are the expected skills or competences that are expected by human resource
professionals of Hugo Boss:
Communication skills: It is the ability to communicate with others in either through
verbal manner or in written ways (Farquhar, 2018). Communication skill in important in Hugo
Boss as it allows employees to understand needs of customers, presenting viewpoints to initiate
strategies, remaining open-minded and solving all queries of others.
Time management skills: A skill which helps in organising and planning ways to divide
time among various activities. Effective time management skill helps an individual to work in
smart manner so that they can accomplish all activities in less time. It is important at Hugo Boss
as it assist in prioritising all activities, setting measurable goals, scheduling workings properly,
planning for future and managing workload to reach desired state.
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Problem solving skills: It is the skill though which an individual deals with arising
problems which needs quick response as well as resolution (Garbett and Ovens, 2016). At Hugo
Boss, the skill is important as it helps in recognising difficulties along with complications,
determing possible solutions, putting them into actions and flow up to ensure success.
Data analysis skills: It is the competence for using one’s analytical together with logical
reasoning for the purpose of evaluating collected data. At Hugo Boss, data analytical skill is
important among employers as it assist in exploring meaning behind figures along with numbers
in data, understating business directions together with objectives, contributions towards decision
making and present technical insights (Importance of data analysis skill in business, 2020).
Interpersonal skills: The skills that are used for interacting addition to engaging with
others are interpersonal skills. Managers of Hugo Boss hire employees quickly as per their
ability to connect with others. This is importance for acknowledging others, practice compassion,
taking interest in others, increasing client satisfaction, building trust, maintaining personal
relationships and demonstrating social awareness.
TASK 2
P3. Assessment of abilities, skills and competences for particular job role
In present world, it is necessary for organisational people to have awareness about their
own skills, competences along with knowledge that are owned and developed by them. All these
help them to perform workings as well as resolves complexities appropriately and effectively.
Skills are perceived as positive abilities of a person that assist them to proper carry out business
activities in sequential and systematic ways (Hammond, Cross and Moore, 2016). Moreover,
with the help of skills, an individual learns new things quickly together with positively. At same
time, competency states the capability of a person to perform tasks within specified duration. It
shows whether the person is capable enough to complete allotted operations in defined duration
or not. In case with Hugo Boss, it is been said that all the superior managers and administrator
emphasis on their own competences and skills in order to analyse the needs of development.
Herein, it is seen that applicants for the specific job role of Marketing Officer in Hugo Boss are
required to owe some of their skills and competences so that the responsibilities of job can be
executed effectively. For understanding effectiveness of applied candidate, senior manager of the
entity has conducted skill audit for the purpose of checking whether the candidate is suitable for
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the job role or not. In this regards, skill audit is a tool that helps in identifying and assessing
skills and competence of any person (Longan, Floyd and Floyd, 2019). With this tool, an
individual gains insights about their strengths addition to weaknesses. In this context, assessment
of skills, competence and abilities for job role of Marketing Officer is underneath:
Competences, abilities
and skills
Scores by me Score by others Differentiation
Time management
skill
9 8 1 (Weakness)
Problem solving skill 6 9 -3 (Strength)
Data analysis skills 6 8 -2 (Strength)
Communication skills
(Verbal and Written)
7 6 1 (Weakness)
Interpersonal skills 7 9 -2 (Strength)
As per the skill audit, following are strengths and weaknesses of Marketing Officer:
Strength Weakness
Problem solving skill Communication skill
Data analysis skill Time management skill
Interpersonal skill
P4. Review range of learning theories as well as approaches that are used for personal along with
professional development processes
Various learning approaches addition to theories helps in improving or developing personal
and professional competences addition to skills in an organisation (Mackelprang and Salsgiver,
2016). Following are number of learning approaches and theories that can be used by managers
of Hugo Boss to develop process related to personal and professional aspects:
Behaviouristic approach: As per the approach, new changes together with behaviours
respond quickly. It is based on the aspect that whenever new behaviour exists then it results in
developing changes at work premises. In case with Hugo Boss, the managers are emphasising on
bringing new technologies such as Chatbots so that they can solve all the queries of audiences
and influence them to purchase offered organizational products. Moreover, to understand along
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with utilize the technology, it is important for manpower of enterprise to use behavior approach
which will help in accepting all related challenges and developing responses or skills.
Social learning theory: The theory elaborates about the ways in which individuals learns
through observing others. It is perceived that employees of Hugo Boss can learn from observing
workings of their superiors and can develop their professional career. Along with this, manpower
also learns from punishments or rewards as per the pertaining conditions. Through observing
mistakes, achievements and practices of managers, subordinates can make decisions about the
work practice that they can avoid or which they should accept while executing their own actions.
Cognitive theory: According to the theory, an individual develop personal processes
through reading mind of others (Markauskaite and Goodyear, 2017). It states that learning can be
implemented successfully through understanding actual state of the other persons. In case to
Hugo Boss, employees can learn or develop their personal or professional processes through
understanding state of mind of managers or other superiors in the way they manages actions,
deals with complexities and delegates workings that will help them to enhance their current skills
for achieving great heights.
As per the above information, it is analysed that social learning as well as behavioural
approaches are best for Hugo Boss to develop the skills and competences related to personal and
professional development procedures. With these theories and approaches, employees with be
able to learn through observations and make right decisions in complex circumstances.
TASK 3
P5. Constructing development plan for enhancing selected skills and competencies in specific
work
Development plan
It is a formal tool wherein a person sets goals, tactics, strategies as well as outcomes
related to learning and training (Neukrug, 2016). Moreover, it is termed as strategic measurable
objective which an individual plans to acquire within stipulated duration. The development plan
is designed by managers for adequately carrying out planning aspects in successful manner. In
context to Hugo Boss, managers renders various training and development sessions for its entire
workforce so that conflicts are reduced through making effective usage of highly developed
knowledge base. The devised development plan from managers of Hugo Boss is underneath:
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Skill or
development
needed
Importance
of the skill to
achieve
business
success
Resources that
can be required
to develop the
skill
Evaluation of
achievements
within
improvement of
skill
Timescale Status
Time
management
skill
Managing
time for
ensuring that
all tasks are
completed on
time at best
capability as
well as
prioritising
time in
different
kinds of
activities.
A diary for
keeping details of
all tasks as well
as dates that are
organised. A
calendar to mark
what activities
will be done in
which time so to
achieve
improvements.
Through
attaining
number of
things in same
time scale along
with reaching
towards
attaining other
goals pr
objectives.
To achieve
improvem
ents in the
skill,
required
time
period is 3
months.
Ongoing
Communication
skill
Communicati
ng in verbal
or electronic
manner on
phones or
computers
for involving
with
different
companies of
customers to
share the
viewpoints
Resources
required to
improve
communication
skill are
computers for
sending mails,
mobile phones to
communicate
through texts or
calls, group
discussions to
express thoughts.
Through
positive
responses from
customers,
clients or
audiences after
sending cover
letter emails and
information that
is
understandable
to them.
The
expected
timescale
for
improving
communic
ation skill
is 2
months.
Ongoing
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or
information.
TASK 4
P6. Undertaking job interview for suitable service industry role
Interview is a communication process among two or more people wherein one individual
asks questions while other gives answer (Ulrich, 2016). After analysing CV of an individual,
recruiting manager of the entity calls the candidate for the interview and asks relevant questions
so to gain certain information that the candidate is suitable for the job position of not. In this
regards, CV of a candidate who has applied for the job role of Marketing Officer at Hugo Boss
and a mock interview are as follows:
CV of an individual applying for Marketing Officer
ERNIE LEWIS
187, Town hall, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Contact Number: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Summary: Passionate sales along with marketing professional expert who carry outs personalised
together with aggressive marketing strategies having 2+ years of expertise within the field.
Along with this, possesses packaged skills within streamlining tasks, boosting productivity and
increasing customer base.
Expertise areas:
 Customer Engagement.
 Public as well as media relations.
 Account administration.
 Strategic planning
Experience:
June 2017 to present:
 Worked as sales and marketing officer in BU Sourcing Limited.
 Developed as well as executed programs for 10 strategic premium accounts which
exceeded revenue retention together with growth.
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 Assisted managers to develop marketing strategies including advertising, event
management and many more.
Education:
Masters in Business Administration in marketing: Oxford University, England.
Bachelors of Business Administration (Hons.) in marketing: Brighton University, United
Kingdom.
Declaration: hereby, I declare that all the mentioned information is correct and accuarte to my
consideration.
Mock interview
Formal interview for job role of Marketing Officer
Question 1.
Interviewer- Describe yourself.
Interviewee- Myself Erenie Lewis. I have completed my senior education from Oxford
University and graduation from Brighton University. My belongings are from Leeds. I have huge
interest in the field of marketing. My hobbies are painting and making videos.
Question 2.
Interviewer – What work you performed in your last job?
Interviewee - My last job was at BU Sourcing Limited. In this, I was at position of sales and
Marketing Officer in which my workings were to design and implement plans related to
marketing, setting advertising strategies, making relations with audiences and researching about
emerging needs of market.
Question 3.
Interviewer - What is your expectation from the job role that you applied?
Interviewee – My expectation from the job role of Marketing officer are to further develop my
thinking and creativity in making advertisement, taking entire marketing team towards achieving
targets and making suitable content for general audiences.
Question 4.
Interviewer - Tell me one reason to select you at Hugo Boss.
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Interviewee – Sir, I have the skills and capabilities that differentiates me from others. You may
find other candidate who have some experience in such profession but cannot find an applicant
who posses skills and abilities which I have.
P7. Review of strengths and weaknesses of applied interview process
Some of the strengths and weakness related to applied interview process are as reviewed:
Strength: Interview assisted in enhancing skills and knowledge that is required in marketing
profession (Wosket, 2016). It boosted confidence level through which I was able to answer all
the asked questions smartly that impresses the interviewer. Along with this, applied interview
process also gave me valuable experience which I noticed that the interviewer was listening all m
answers in patient manner. Moreover, I also noticed that my past experience also helped me in
cracking the interview.
Weakness: in the interview process, I noticed some of my weakness also. One was I was
hesitating in giving some answers at the time when I was asked to provide reason to select me for
the vacant position. Because of this, I might have lost the opportunity but my experiences helped
me in keeping calm and properly giving answers to questions asked by interviewer.
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes that it is very necessary to develop personal and professional
skills for making successful attempts in upcoming career. All business concerns conducts
continuous professional development as it helps in building confidence level, enhancing skills
and succession planning. The necessary skills that are expected by an employer to be present in
an employee or candidate are time management skill, interpersonal skill, communication skill,
and so on. Development plan is generally prepared for uplifting exiting level of weak skills to
some beneficiary levels. Interview process helps in analysing certain strengths and weakness in
context to specific job role in any sector.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Brown, C. A., 2016. Understanding the impact of racism and sexism on the development of the
professional identity of African American women principals. The University of North
Carolina at Charlotte.
Bukor, E., 2015. Exploring teacher identity from a holistic perspective: Reconstructing and
reconnecting personal and professional selves. Teachers and teaching. 21(3). pp.305-
327.
Cruess, R. L., Cruess, S. R. and Steinert, Y. eds., 2016. Teaching medical professionalism:
supporting the development of a professional identity. Cambridge University Press.
Egbujor, M. I., 2018. The relevance of journalism education in Kenya for professional identity
and ethical standards. Globethics. net.
Farquhar, J., 2018. Knowing practice: The clinical encounter of Chinese medicine. Routledge.
Garbett, D. and Ovens, A. eds., 2016. Enacting self-study as methodology for professional
inquiry. Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP).
Hammond, R., Cross, V. and Moore, A., 2016. The construction of professional identity by
physiotherapists: a qualitative study. Physiotherapy. 102(1). pp.71-77.
Longan, P. E., Floyd, D. H. and Floyd, T. W., 2019. The Formation of Professional Identity: The
Path from Student to Lawyer. Routledge.
Mackelprang, R.W. and Salsgiver, R.O., 2016. Disability: A diversity model approach in human
service practice. Oxford University Press.
Markauskaite, L. and Goodyear, P., 2017. Epistemic fluency and professional education.
Dordrecht: Springer.
Neukrug, E. S., 2016. A brief orientation to counseling: Professional identity, history, and
standards. Cengage Learning.
Ulrich, G., 2016. The professional identity of the human rights field officer. Routledge.
Wosket, V., 2016. The therapeutic use of self: Counselling practice, research and supervision.
Routledge.
Online:
Hugo Boss. 2020. [Online]. Available through: < https://www.hugoboss.com/home>
Importance of data analysis skill in business. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
https://www.getsmarter.com/blog/career-advice/data-analysis-important-business/
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