Professional Identity and Practice Assignment

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND PRACTISE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART A ..........................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the organization. ...............................................................................................3
Skills required for specific job roles. .....................................................................................3
Benefits of undertaking professional development................................................................4
Different learning theories of professional development.......................................................4
Evaluation of own skills and abilities and competencies.......................................................6
Development approach to enhance own professional development.....................................10
PART B .........................................................................................................................................10
Development plan to identify need of learning and training................................................10
PART C .........................................................................................................................................12
Detail reflection of interview process for Human Resource Manager post.........................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
INTRODUCTION

Travel and Tourism industry include various fields such as transportation, travelling, food
service, planning for events, lodging etc. The services of this industry depends upon income of
customers. Tourism is a major source of earning income for various countries.
Professional development refers to continuous learning through different methods such as
coaching, mentoring, supervision etc. There are various formal and informal methods of
professional development. It helps in improving the skills, job satisfaction, morale of employees.
Professional development helps to improve the knowledge of teacher, educators etc. Personal
development refers to development of talent, improving quality of life of employees, building
human resource etc.
PART A
Overview of the organization.
Travelodge Hotels Limited is a type of private limited company. It belongs to Hospitality
company. It was founded in 1985 and its headquarter is in England, U.K. The owners of
Travelodge are Goldman Sachs, Avenue Capital Group etc. It operates approximately 560 hotels
in various countries such as Ireland, U.K., Spain etc. It offers services to various categories of
customers (Hildebrand, 2018). The targeted segment of customers include businessman, families
etc. The hotel provide good facilities, comfortable furniture etc. It has good environment and the
process of checking in and out of the hotel is very easy. It aims to offer quality services for the
price paid by the customers. In 170 hotels there are coffee shops, Bar Cafe etc. Travelodge
provides different types of rooms to customers such as upgraded rooms, super rooms etc. It
employs employees from diverse culture. There are full-time as well as part-time employees
working in the hotel.
Skills required for specific job roles.
Skills and competencies required for various job positions are as follows-
Hotel General Manager- The general manager of the hotel ensures that all the operations
related with accommodation, lodge etc. was running effectively. The major responsibilities of
manager are managing human resource, handling matters related with finance etc. General
manager of Travelodge must have management skills, business skills etc (Bharwani and Talib,
2017).
Executive chef- Executive chef of Travelodge is responsible for performing operations related
with food preparation in hotel, restaurant, and other places where the hotel serves the food. They

supervise chefs, employees that are working in kitchen etc. They must have managerial skills,
cooking skills etc (Chou, 2017).
Housekeeper- Housekeeper of Travelodge are responsible for ensuring cleanliness in entire
hotel. They clean rooms, beds, toilet etc. Housekeeper of the hotel must be physically fit so that,
they can easily lift heavy items (Korthagen, 2017).
Benefits of undertaking professional development.
Professional development of employees refers to providing adequate training and
development opportunities to the workers of the organization. So that, skills of employees will
improve and they will succeed in their career. Professional development of employees provide
opportunities for promotion.
Personal development include all the activities that aims to improve the potential of
employees, quality of life and help the employees to achieve the objectives. There are various
benefits of undertaking continuous professional and personal development they are as follows-
Professional development of employees through training and development help in
reducing the absenteeism of employees from their workplace. Professional and personal
development of employees help to improve the level of confidence of employees. Through
professional development, right skills will be developed that help the employees in becoming
more and more efficient.
Different learning theories of professional development.
There are various learning theories that helps in personal and professional development
of employees they are as follows-
Kolb's learning model-

David kolb has developed learning model in 1984. According to the Kolb's theory,
learning and development of employees is a continuous process that involves various stages that
helps in professional development of employees. Each stage of the model is dependent on
previous stage. All the stages help in professional development of employees. It involves four
stages and it is one of the most influencing model that helps in bringing improvement in
behavioural aspects and experience of employees. This model is mostly used by Human
Resource Department because the model facilitates learning and experience in employees
(Trorey, 2017).
Behavioural Theory-
As per behavioural theory of learning, employees of the organization learn new things
when there is a change in their behaviour. Whenever there is a change in the behaviour of
employees it reflects that, employees have learnt new concepts that results in professional
development of employees. There are various applications of behavioural theory such as
repetitive practise, bonus points, drill etc.
Figure 1 : The experiential learning cycle
Source : ( Kolb's experiential learning cycle, 2017)

Behavioural theory is based on the changes in behaviour of employees that are observable.
Learning in employees begins due to stimulus in the environment of the organization.
Evaluation of own skills and abilities and competencies.
Evaluation of Strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats as a Human Resource
Manger are as follows-
Strengths-
 Ability to organize all the activities related with human resource of the organization on
time.
 Proper time management such as arriving for meetings on time that are conducted on
regular basis.
 Appropriate development of mission and objectives and ability to use them for achieving
organizational objectives.
 Ability to manage and develop strategies for reducing the wastage of time.
 Ability of proper organization of tasks.
Weakness-
 Lack of ability to support and help others during difficult task.
 No proper use of reminders for remembering the date of attending meetings and other
functions etc.
 Need to consider various options of finding solution to the problems.
 Lack of ability to determine the efforts contributed in various task.
Opportunities-
 It is an opportunity to develop skills for cross questioning with other group members.
 Opportunity of solving issues of other team members.
Threats-
 Ability of other Human Resource Managers to divide the complex task in smaller task.
Need to work on it. Not totally sure Confident

TIME AND SELF MANAGEMENT
Ability to organize important task and allocation of task to subordinates.
Ability to support other subordinates during difficulty in their tasks.
Use of various reminders for remembering important dates such as date of
attending important meetings etc (Wolters, Won and Hussain, 2017).
Proper management of time in various task such as arriving on time for the
meeting.
Ability to decide mission and objectives that helps in achieving organizational
goals.
Ability to reduce the wastage of time while performing the tasks.
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Using various approaches and options for finding solution to problems.
Ability to evaluate various alternatives of solving problems.
Ability to divide complex problems in small tasks.
Ability to direct other employees for contribution of their efforts in team work.
Ability to determine contribution of efforts in a particular task
ORAL COMMUNICATION

Able to give value to the thinking of subordinates in a Group Discussion even
when not agree with it.
Confident contribute innovative ideas in group discussion.
Ability to ask questions from other group members.
Confident in describing new theories and concepts to other subordinates and
team members.
Confident in presentation of different topics to other peoples (Brink and
Costigan, 2015).
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Ability to structure a task in various paragraphs and confident in using different
symbols to communicate views more effectively.
Ability to use special points while describing a particular topic.
Ability to use appropriate writing style for my topic.
Confidence in writing an assignment without any grammatical mistakes.
Ability of organizing information while writing any topic.
Ability to avoid any chance of plagiarism by using proper references.
Ability to use sources to convince others so that, subordinates will be well
informed about the topic.
Confidence in writing reports, articles and CV as per the style and format of
formal written materials.
INFORMATION LITERACY: READING

Ability of obtaining data and information from magazines, journals, from Online
sources and internet.
Proper understanding of the information to complete a particular work before
moving to further step.
Ability to convert complicated database into easy notes while working to
complete a particular task.
Ability to identify the important points that helps in representing the author's
point of view and distinguish them with the help of examples.
NUMERACY
Ability to using numerical data that will help in achieving goals and objectives of
the organization.
Able to analyse the information that is presented in tables charts and graphs etc.

Development approach to enhance own professional development.
The best personal and professional development approach among various theories is
David Kolb's learning cycle. It is the most useful learning approach that helps in achieving
learning objectives such as development of skills, acquiring work experience, improving the
knowledge of employees etc. The model helps in achievement of learning objectives.
Kolb's learning model is also helpful for human resource department of the organization
because, the experiential theory helps in supporting the learning, experience and behaviour of
employees that results in personal and professional development of workers. It also suggests
various learning that helps in achieving the objectives of training and also help in satisfying the
needs of learners. Organization can use methods like case study, simulation for development of
concrete experience in employees (Schultz, McEwen and Griffiths, 2016). Through lecture,
discussion etc. there will be formation of concepts that will help in professional development of
employees .
PART B
Development plan to identify need of learning and training.
Objective Priority Activities to
be
undertaken
Resources Starting date
of target
Ending date
of target
Improvement
in problem
solving skills
High I have to read
english
magazines,
need to watch
english news
channels,
regular
practise for
improving
presentation
skills etc.
I need to
Communicate
with other
managers for
conducting
meeting with
them to get the
guidance for
improving
presentation
skills. I have
to attend
1/ 10/18 12/ 12/18

reading and
speaking
classes.
Improving
Time
management
skills
High I have to give
priority to my
tasks. And I
will maintain a
diary to
remember
important task
such as
attending the
meeting
(Wolters,
Won and
Hussain,
2017).
I have to fully
focus on the
task which is
continuing.
Completing
the task on
given time so
that, important
work will not
become a
regular habit.
1/1/19 1/3/19
Improving
team work
Very high I have to
recognize the
efforts of
subordinates
so that, it will
improve trust.
Need to
conduct
various
activities for
improving
team work.
Consider the
importance of
team work in
achieving
organizational
objectives.
15/4/19 10/6/19
Improving co- High I have to work I have to use 20/7/19 1/ 10/19

ordination
skills
with my
subordinates
to improve co-
ordination in
activities of
the group. I
have to
implement
new methods
and process to
improve co-
ordination in
work.
various
methods of
getting
feedback from
subordinates
such as using
questionnaire,
checklist etc.
Asking the
right questions
from team
members will
help in better
decision
making.
15/10/19 10/12/19
PART C
Detail reflection of interview process for Human Resource Manager post.
After attending a mock interview to my mentor. I have been able to identify many
components and skills from myself at the time of the interview (Reid, Bimrose and Brown,
2016). I have been able to identify following strengths and weaknesses of mine after the
interview process-
 After attending the interview I can state that my communication skills have been
improved a lot due to experience of my current job.
 I have been able to know that my body language and gesture was good enough to please
the interviewer.
 During the interview process, I have been able to know about my writing skills were well
enough to grab the attention of the interviewer.

 I was asked the questions regarding the roles and responsibilities of H.R. manager which
I was able to answer easily due to my good basic knowledge. This also made me
understand that my basics were good enough to answer all the questions.
 As also I have realized that due to my good computer knowledge I was able to crack the
computer test in the interview.
 Most of the questions were same as of my first interview so I was able to answer them
correctly which turn out to be my positive side in the process.
 By attending the interview I have realized that I have been able to answer all the general
knowledge questions and hence I have a good general knowledge skills.
 The interview also helped me to identify my greatest weakness of nervousness. Even
though I had good communication and verbal skills, I was a bit nervous and the interview
process showed me my area where I turn out to be nervous and indicated met to work on
it (Walger, Roglio and Abib, 2016).
 Interview process also showed me my another weakness that was making an eye contact.
I was unable to make an eye contact in the eyes of interviewer and hence this showed my
sign of being nervous during the process.
 The main benefit the interview process gave me was being self confident for answer the
questions being asked. The process reflected my level of confidence while answering the
questions and while attending the interview.
 Another thing I realized that my response to the questions was not quick and this too
showed my sign of nervousness to the interviewer.
 One benefit I was able to realise that I had positive attitude in all sort of problems being
created by the interviewer and thus I was able to identify this as a greatest strength in the
interview process (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
 After being asked and demonstrated about observing things, I came to know that I had
poor observational skills and I really need to work on it to get myself efficient enough for
the selection.

 Also, I was able to answer all the questions related to my profession and field as I have a
good experience of my current job and thus the process made my realize that I had good
knowledge related to my profession and job.
 After the interview I observed that I had a high stress level at the time of interview
process and realized that I need to work on this thing.
 The interview process also let me identify that I had better logical skills as I was able to
clear the logical reasoning round without any complications and hesitation (Plakhotnik,
2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is observed regarding the process of professional development
and its importance for the career growth and opportunities for an individual. The report states the
type of skills required for specific job roles in Tourism industry. Further the report focusses on
the advantages of undertaking the professional development for the individuals and emphasizes
the different learning theories of the professional development that can be used in the practice by
the employees. Report also includes the strength and weakness of these learning theories along
with the development approach to enhance Professional development. Further the report included
a development plan that could identify and what type of training and learning will be needed for
the individual for his career. Lastly the report concluded with the reflection of different strengths
and weaknesses of the individual by attending an interview and thus states the areas of
improvement and professional development for the individual's career.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals-
Bharwani, S. and Talib, P., 2017. Competencies of hotel general managers: a conceptual
framework. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 29(1).
pp.393-418.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brink, K.E. and Costigan, R.D., 2015. Oral communication skills: Are the priorities of the
workplace and AACSB-accredited business programs aligned?. Academy of Management
Learning & Education, 14(2), pp.205-221.
Chou, C.H., 2017. Investigating EFL Elementary Student Teachers’ Development in a
Professional Learning Practicum. SEARCH AND RESEARCH: TEACHER
EDUCATION FOR CONTEMPORARY CONTEXTS. p.309.
Edwards, C.C., 2016. Critical Moments in Personal and Professional Development.
Transformational Learning Experiences: A Conversation with Counselors about Their
Personal and Professional Developmental Journeys, p.649.
Hildebrand, J., 2018. Bridging the gap: A training module in personal and professional
development. Routledge.
Korthagen, F., 2017. Inconvenient truths about teacher learning: towards professional
development 3.0. Teachers and teaching, 23(4), pp.387-405.
Patton, K., Parker, M. and Tannehill, D., 2015. Helping teachers help themselves: Professional
development that makes a difference. NASSP Bulletin, 99(1)pp.26-42.
Plakhotnik, M.S., 2017. Using the informational interview to get an insight into the profession of
a manager. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), pp.1-10.
Reid, H., Bimrose, J. and Brown, A., 2016. Prompting reflection and learning in career
construction counseling. Journal of Vocational Behavior. 97. pp.51-59.
Schultz, K., McEwen, L. and Griffiths, J., 2016. Applying Kolb’s learning cycle to competency-
based residency education. Academic Medicine. 91(2). p.284.
Trorey, G. and Cullingford, C., 2017. Professional development and institutional needs.
Routledge.
Walger, C., Roglio, K.D.D. and Abib, G., 2016. HR managers’ decision-making processes: a
“reflective practice” analysis. Management Research Review, 39(6), pp.655-671.
Wolters, C.A., Won, S. and Hussain, M., 2017. Examining the relations of time management and
procrastination within a model of self-regulated learning. Metacognition and learning. 12(3).
pp.381-399.
Online-