MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET: Learning and Development Plan

This report is a Learning and Development Plan (L&D Plan) for a Master's student in Project Management, focusing on a career in Public Relations. The report begins with a self-introduction, detailing the student's background in journalism and mass communication, internship experience with Belle, and subsequent master's studies at The University of Sydney. The student then analyzes megatrends and challenges in the PR industry, highlighting issues such as misinformation, lack of strong communication strategies, and budget cuts. The report discusses the importance of ethical conduct, crisis management, and the role of social media in brand communication, drawing on the student's experience at Starbucks. The L&D plan outlines career goals, emphasizing the need for continuous learning, business literacy, and strategic communication skills. The report incorporates a 5-stage model to analyze personal competencies and identify areas for development, aiming to build a successful career in PR by understanding global cultural and political aspects, and developing strong research and communication skills. The report also outlines the importance of ethical principles in Public Relations.

Running Head: MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Name

1
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
Learning and development plan often act as road map for the employees to help them
shape their own career in the right direction and acquire the necessary skills required for
sustaining in this dynamic business environment (Beausaert, et al. 2013). Learning and
development plan is supposed to follow a desired course of action with specific time and
resource management to help individuals understand what their unique qualities are and what is
the demand of the market trends which require them to acquire more training and skills to
succeed in their respective fields.
Being a student of arts background, I have always felt that one needs to be expressive
enough to reach to the larger mass and if one is good at it, that individual should always use it as
his or her strength and move further with that choice for building up his career goals. After
completing my bachelors in Journalism and Mass communication from Curtin University, I
could understand that being a student of mass media I have learnt to see life in a broader
perspective. The course materials, the ways of teaching was never bound to any books or lecture
notes but was more about learning and analyzing how the real world operates, how powerful is
the media and with what intensity does it shape our opinion and I could finally comprehend why
media and its power to communicate to the mass is so profound and widespread. After
completing my bachelors and interning with Belle, as their lifestyle content creator which is a
lifestyle magazine publishing house I realized that the power of press is often regulated
manipulated and shaped by varied other factors existing in the society. During my internship
days, Belle had sponsored an event which was a beauty pageant for the teenagers which was an
initiative by Lakme, the cosmetic brand. Though the event was not much of a success as there
were huge problems of financing and sponsorship, however the Public Relations Officer

2
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
assigned for the event made sure that the event got complete coverage in the media and left no
stone unturned to makes its promotional huge success. It was specifically after that one single
event which made me more interested to look into the aspects of mass communication and public
relations rather than sticking to pure journalism. It made me realize that my potentials and skills
to communicate well can definitely bring me business and that was my beginning in the world of
Public Relations. After working as a freelancer with few big and small events company
managing their promotional aspects I finally opted to for a master’s degree in The University
of Sydney, Australia. The course duration was of two years which specifically dealt with
analyzing how the Public Relations Industry Operates, who are the major stake holders in a
business, what key roles does a Public Relations Officer (PRO) play in the company and most
importantly how does a PRO heal the corporate wounds whenever a company faces any
operational or managerial crisis. After the completion of this two years course I was placed as
the Corporate Public Relations officer of Starbucks, the coffee house chain.
Being employed with Starbucks, I have witnessed how important is the role of
communication to help the brand reach to its target market in the right manner. This is exactly
the reason why big brands and employing and substantially investing in brand communication
techniques. Being a Public Relations professional, I could identify certain key challenges that
this profession holds. The first and foremost challenge is to communicate with integrity yet
utmost professionalism keeping in mind both the business goals and the ethical and moral
objectives of doing business. There have been number of instances where it has been a proven
fact that if the right approach was adapted by the company in communicating its message it
could have saved the brand from tarnishing its market image. Being associated with Starbucks,
which is an example in itself when it comes to crisis handing and crisis management has indeed

3
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
helped me to gain the right kind of exposure in handing such tricky situations. During the racial
bias incident which was in the year 2018, made a big news in the whole industry and I had
witnessed how my seniors who where in the crisis management team handled the whole situation
with utmost urgency and caution. During the racial bias incident which led a huge cry all over
the social media the first and foremost step that the whole PR team was asked to take is to type
an exceptionally well written apology message and spread it all over the social media. Apart
from seeking sincere apology various stores of Starbucks was closed as it was the order of the
top management to close down all stores around the country and provide a racial bias training to
all the staffs to avoid any such shameful incident in future. This incident that I was an integral
part of made me realize the actual challenges of this profession more in today’s time where any
incident or information does spread like a wildfire because of the twenty four seven social media
presence of the brand. In today’s dynamic business environment the core challenges of being in
this profession is: Public Relations is often treated as falls exaggeration of events or messages
because of the loss of credibility of varied brands. In the age of social media the spread of
misinformation is a big problem. Varied companies still do not hold a strong communication
strategy or a team of professionals who are liable to handle such crisis situations if required.
They often hire PR agents from external agencies who are into much aware of the whole scenario
or lack the in-depth understanding of the brand’s life cycle. Thus, in case of successful strategy
implementation it is treated as failure of the PR professionals who remain clueless how to
strategies the whole incident in case of any emergency. This also happens because most of the
professionals might not have a proper academic background pertaining to this specific field and
are selected without much scrutiny or knowledge about the same (Theaker, 2016). The situation
is getting worse because the big brands are significantly cutting down their budgets leading to

4
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
poor financing of the public relation departments. They often restrain from taking professional
assistance in promotional campaigns to keep their budget low and managed with the available
internal staffs and resources. Being in this profession I have also realized that people often have
a very wrong perception about what this profession actually stands for. They often take this
profession to be a mere story teller’s job which is full of false claims and unjustified and
irrational advertising of a brand without any credibility or factual scrutiny of data. One of the
other core challenges in this profession is the fragmentation of media and increased loss of trust
among the audience as the line is being continuously blurred between editorial content and
advertising. Today the world of business is changing at a rapid rate and it is no more sufficient to
just concentrate of the needs of the local regional or national markets. The PR professionals
constantly need to strategies communication plans for the international market as well. This is
another major challenge as the professionals need to have a sound knowledge about the changing
socio-political and cultural aspects of the business in every land and the rules, laws and
regulations that needs to be abided by the firm. It requires PR professionals to build strong
connections with the news men of those countries to get the publicity.
As every profession is guided by certain set code of conduct that helps to establish a
general set of guiding principles that would help the professionals abide by it. Being a Public
Relation professional there are certain key principles of behavior and practice that needs to be
adopted to help this profession receive its actual worth and respect. The Public Relations
Society of America has set certain code of conduct that must be observed by individuals who
practice this profession. However, in real practice what actually needs to be ensured is promotion
necessarily does not need to be a mere exaggeration of facts or figures but establishing the
integrity of the brand. Truth and Honesty are the two primary pillars of bringing professional

5
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
integrity among all those engaged in this specific profession. Being associated with Starbucks, I
have learnt that during any crisis situation the first and foremost step is to have an open mind and
a very strategic approach in dealing with the crisis rather than bringing irrational emotions in
between business. The crisis needs to be approached in a real time basis and with utmost
objectivity. Starbucks has always received an A when it comes to their crisis management and
the reason is that the communication professionals emphasize in telling the truth rather than
hiding it with colorful lies. Thus the main code of ethics would be to stand out as a
communication professional who realize and acknowledges the power of media as well as
utilizes it for the benefit of the society and not for spreading misleading information to the mass.
Thus to bring it in a nut shell, the code of ethics that must be identified and applied by a Public
Relations Officer would include:
 Acknowledging the efforts and importance of the internal publics (Stakeholders,
Suppliers, vendors) of the organization by maintaining proper communication
with them
 Understanding the demands of the external publics (media, government
customers) of any organization and maintain a cordial relation with them.
 Strict avoidance of spreading misinformation or manipulative content which are
far from being real just to seek media attention.
 Public Relations aims at developing a mutually cordial relation among the
stakeholders, therefore it’s very important to build mutual trust and understanding
among the media personals and the brand.
 Public Relation officers are expected to abide by the media laws and ethics to stay
relevant to the society.

6
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
 The professionals must exist and perform their duties without any fear or favor.
The greatest personal competency required to remain relevant in this profession is the
thirst of learning new things, and updating oneself about the new effective business and
communication strategies. Core knowledge about business literacy also stands immensely
important which incorporates both writing and in oral communication. Today another significant
attribute which has emerged with the changing landscape of the media is the use of social media
for building the brand image. Business houses have realized the power of social media and
therefore it requires conscious effort and analysis in developing communication strategies for
social media handles which would cater to the target audience as well as sustain the image of the
brand.
For every individual to grow and sustain it’s very important to possess a good
understanding of one’s own competencies and skills and accordingly develop the weaker aspects
to succeed. Thus my personal analysis includes the following aspects: profound understanding of
the global cultural and political aspects of the society where the company operates, a strong
research and development skill to analyze and strategies communication strategies relevant to
every business situation. In order to analyze one’s own competencies the 5 stage model (Redick,
et al. 2014) can be incorporated, which includes varied different stages of an individual’s
realizations regarding his or her shortfalls and positive attributes:

7
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
Stage 1:
Unconscious
incompetence
Stage 1:
Unconscious
incompetence
Stage 2:
Conscious
incompetence
Stage 3:
Conscious
competence
Stage 4:
Unconscious
Competence:
Stage 5:
Shared
Competence
I was completely
unaware of the
fact that business
communications
needs to be more
factual and
loaded with data
and does not
merely rely on
words of grace
and persuasion
until I joined
Strabucks where
I had to device
communication
strategies for its
CSR initiatives
I was completely
unaware of the
fact that business
communications
needs to be more
factual and
loaded with data
and does not
merely rely on
words of grace
and persuasion
until I joined
Strabucks where
I had to device
communication
strategies for its
CSR initiatives
I am aware of my
not so strong
research and
development
skills which are
very essential in
this profession
I was always
very conscious
and aware of my
strong
communication
skills where I am
confident enough
to strike a
conversation
with any
stranger.
I never knew I
had the ability to
handle any crisis
situation with
patience and
remain sound
and act
responsible until
I had to face real
crisis situations
and
communicate
constantly with
the media during
the racial bias
crisis which
occurred in
Starbucks.
This profession
has helped me to
learn how to work
as an effective
where I have had
many interns under
my supervision
and guidance in
various small and
big projects and
we have been very
successful in
working as a team
sharing our own
knowledge and
experiences with
each other
Thus, from the above matrix it would be very easy to prepare a complete SWOT Analysis
(Addams & Allred, 2015) of oneself to determine my core strengths existing weaknesses
available opportunities as well as what could be potentially threatening to this particular

8
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
profession. SWOT analysis is a very important aspect of preparing a learning and development
plan.
Strengths:
 Effective communication skills
 Sound judgment skills
 Highly creative
Weakness:
 Lack of proper research and
development skills
 Lack of proper knowledge regarding
legal aspects of business which is
very necessary of maintain
international PR communication
 Not a multi-tasker
Opportunities:
 Trying to enter new markets where
the brand has not yet developed itself
 Freelancing with other big and small
events
 Attending workshops and press
meets for gaining more exposure
Threats:
 New joiners who are more updated
with managing social media profiles
of business houses and has a stronger
domain in social media marketing
and digital analytics
 Growing amount of misinformation
being spread by media which is
altogether affecting the integrity and

9
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
objectivity of this profession.
Thus from the above analysis it can be easily accessed which are the key areas of
improvement to remain relevant in this profession. Today the business environment is changing
and in every new second a new firm is entering the business market. Therefore to remain
relevant in such a stressful and competitive scenario it is very necessary to conduct a compete
and detailed analysis of oneself in order to understand one’s own potentials as well as better
match one’s professional requirements with personal attributes.

10
MASTERS OF PROJECT MANAGEMNET
References:
Addams, L. H., & Allred, A. T. (2015). Business communication course redesigned: All written
and oral communication assignments based on building career skills. Academy of
Educational Leadership Journal, 19(1), 250.
Beausaert, S., Segers, M., Fouarge, D., & Gijselaers, W. (2013). Effect of using a personal
development plan on learning and development. Journal of Workplace Learning, 25(3),
145-158.
Redick, A., Reyna, I., Schaffer, C., & Toomey, D. (2014). Four-factor model for effective project
leadership competency. Journal of Information Technology and Economic Development,
5(1), 53.
Theaker, A. (2016). The public relations handbook. Routledge.