Professional Development: Skills, SWOT, and Learning Theories Report

This report examines professional identity and practices, focusing on ongoing professional development within the context of the Hawksmoor Manchester restaurant. It evaluates the benefits for various stakeholders, investigates employer expectations regarding skills and competencies, and assess...Read More

Professional Identity and
Practices

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Evaluate the key benefits of on going professional development for different stakeholders.1
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations regarding their skills and competencies in
the context of organisation...........................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3 Assess their own ability, skills and competencies for specific job role..................................4
P4 Learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development process........5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Development plan...................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6 Undertake a job interview for the service industry.................................................................8
P7 Key strength and weakness of interview process...................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practices refers to the growth where individual develop their
personal as well as professional skills with the help of various practices. With the help of these
practices, it develop the individual's believes, values, motivation, experience etc (Beddoe, 2015).
It helps the individual to adapt these changes because it helps in developing their identity in the
professional worlds. Hawksmoor Manchester restaurant selected for the better understanding of
this concepts and it is British steakhouse and cocktail bar chain.
This report includes the various topics such as key benefits of on going professional
development and employer's expectation regarding skills & competencies. Along with this,
assess their own ability, skills & competencies for the specific job role and review a range of
various learning theories. In addition, it includes the development plan to enhance their skills and
undertake a job interview process which have their own strength & weakness.
TASK 1
P1 Evaluate the key benefits of on going professional development for different stakeholders
Organizational overview: Hawksmoor is a British steakhouse and bar chain which is
established in the Spitalfields. It includes four other restaurant in the London location and thus
restaurant founded by the Will Beckett and Huw Gott in 2006. They offer high quality butchered
beef and Hawksmoor open their second branch in Seven Dials in 2010 (Hawksmoor Manchester,
2019).
On-going Professional Development: It is a on going process of developing various
skills under the employee for the effective performance which helps in building personal and
professional skills. Top management provide various training & other development programs
which helps in increasing skills, knowledge, experience and other capabilities which are required
for the organization to achieve their gaols & objectives.
Key benefits of professional development:
Benefits to the employer:
 Skilled workforce: With the help of on-going professional development, employer get
the highly skilled workforce (Chee, Mehrotra and Ong, 2015). It further helps the
Hawksmoor manager to handle their operational activities which required to complete in
appropriate manner to achieve their business goal & objectives.
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 Up to date knowledge: Professional development help the employer to get updated with
current trends of knowledge. In the Hawksmoor restaurant, manager have idea regarding
each employees skills and capabilities. It helps the manager to divide task as per the
capability of individual.
Benefits to the employee:
 Intrinsic motivation: When employees get the various training & development program
which enhance their skills and competencies. So it further motivate the employees to
work effectively or efficiently. On going professional development helps the manager of
Hawksmoor to motivate their employees which make them able to complete their task or
achieve their business goals & objectives.
 Personal satisfaction: It is very important for the individual to satisfy themselves
because it will encourage the individual to perform their task with their full capacity.
Professional development helps in satisfying their personal needs. Manager of
Hawksmoor provide on going professional development program to enhance their skills
and ability in order to achieve business goals & objectives.
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations regarding their skills and competencies in the
context of organisation
There are various skills which required by the employer in their employees in order to
fulfil their role and responsibility.
 Business skills: It includes those skills which having knowledge regarding business
activities and their given role. Like in the Ariana travel limited company, this is important
for the assistant manager to have the proper knowledge about the travelling activities
such as knowledge about the travelling locations, vacation plans etc.
 Professional skills: It is career competencies which is a part of coursework which
required to earn master or above degree (Cox, Brett-MacLean and Courneya, 2016).
Professional skills includes the various elements such as project management, leadership,
conflict resolution and other value added skills which required to enhance their
professional career or skills.
 Soft skills: It is also called social skills which required to maintain good relation with
others with the help of various skills. It includes, strong work ethics, positive attitude,
good communication, time management etc. These skills required by the employer in
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order to achieve their goals & objectives which further helps in increasing productivity or
profitably.
 Hard skills: It includes some specific academic knowledge which is mandatory for the
specific role. It is totally opposite to the soft skills For example: for the role of marketing
manager, individual required master degree in the marketing field. Along with this, it
includes applied science, computer programming and other specific certificate for the
role.
Above mention skills required by the employer to complete their role and responsibility
in order to achieve their business goals & objectives.
In the Hawksmoor restaurant, employer required below mention skills for the role of Bar
manager and it helps the organization to complete their task and achieve business goals &
objectives.
Positive behaviour: For the role of bar manager, person required to have positive
behaviour which develop positivity in the work environment. Positive behaviour helps in facing
various challenges and give strength to others (Fredriksson and Johansson, 2014). Manager of
Hawksmoor restaurant want this skills for the bar manger role who can handle difficult situation
and perform under pressure as well.
Problem solution skills: This skills required by the employer of the Hawksmoor
restaurant for the role of bar manager who required this ability and capability to solve
organizational problems. It helps the organization to achieve their business goals & objectives in
order to complete their task. Bar manager required to solve various conflicts among the staff
members, so problem solving skills necessary for this role.
Proper communication: It is the most important skills for the role of bar manager
because they have to deal with guest. So communication is required to understand customer's
needs and desire when they entered in the restaurant. Manager of Hawksmoor, ensure that this
skills should be in bar manager because it handle all the bar activities and need to communicate
with other staff members.
Above mentions skills are required for the role of bar manager and it help the individual
to perform their task in order to achieve their goals & objectives. It will further helps in
increasing productivity or profitability of the organization.
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TASK 2
P3 Assess their own ability, skills and competencies for specific job role
Personal SWOT Analysis: It helps the individual to identify their own strength,
weakness, opportunity and threats which help in personal or professional life and make
individual better after improving themselves.
Strength: It includes all the positive components which helps the individual to grow in
their personal or professional life. For the role of bar manger, I have good communication skills
and presentable skills which required to fulfil the role & responsibility of bar manager.
Weakness: It shows the weakness of individual so they have to work on this area to
make it better and converted from weakness to strength. Individual required to overcome this
weakness (Levy, Shlomo and Itzhaky, 2014). For this role, my weaknesses is time management,
problem solving and creative thinking. I need to work on these skills to become capable for the
role of bar manager.
Opportunities: It includes the future developing skills which is helpful for the individual
to get this and improve their efficiency or effectiveness in order to achieve their business goals &
objectives. I have capability to get promoted from bar manager to restaurant manager within one
year.
Threats: It develop the issues or negatively affect the individual in order to complete
their task which help the organization to achieve their gaols & objectives which further increase
the productivity or profit margin of the Hawksmoor restaurant. Threats will increase the
competition for the role of bar manager and individual can face problems in the future.
Skills Audit:
It is the process to identify their own skills and measure the gap from the required once.
With the help of sills audit, individual is able to identify the area where they have to improve
their skills in order to fulfil the requirement. Below mention table analyse the strength and
weakness of various skills which required for the role of bar manager (Mackay, 2017). This table
includes the required skills for the bar manger role and other one is my skills which required to
compare. After this analysis, I am able to identify area where improvement required and then I
am become capable for this job role.
S No. Required skills Score Comparison with my Strength &
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own skills Weakness
1 Problem Solving 7 8 -1 (Weakness)
2 Communication 6 4 2 (Strength)
3 Presentation 5 6 -1 (Weakness)
4 Time Management 8 7 -1 (Weakness)
5 Interpersonal Skills 6 9 3 (Strength)
6 Creative Thinking 7 6 -1 (Weakness)
P4 Learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development process
There are different types of learning theories and approaches for the development of
employees. It will be used to improve their skills and capabilities which helps the individual in
order to achieve their business goals & objectives. Manager of Hawksmoor restaurant can follow
these theories and approaches for the successful results:
Learning Approach: This approach based on the ideas that learner response to stimuli in
their environment. It includes the three approaches which is discussion discussed below:
 Behaviorist: It is related to the individual who can solve the problems with the help of
their skills. With the help of this approach, employee become capable to resolve their
issues which occurs among the staff members and in the workplace. Manager of
Hawksmoor can adopt this approach in order to enhance their employees efficiency as
well as efficiency. It further helps the organization to achieve their business goals &
objectives.
 Cognitive: It is active, constructive and long lasting method to increase their brains
efficiency. It will encourage the employees which helps in learning and remember for the
longer time (O'Brien and Bates, 2015). Cognitive learning approach focuses on those
strategies which provide valuable leaning and further helps in personal as well as
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professional development. Hawksmoor restaurant can adopt this approach for the
effective leanings to their employees.
 Humanist: This approach determine the employees experience where they reduce the
stress and work pressure which negatively affect the individual. Manager of Hawksmoor
could be use this approach for the better understanding of individual's behaviors.
Learning Theories:
Gagne's Model is one of the systematic approach which which helps the manager to
provide clear instruction or guidelines regarding their task and it will be mentioned below:
 Gaining attention: At the time of providing any learning, manager have to ensure that
they get the attention of employees.
 Informing learners about objectives: Provide detailed information regarding their goals
& other objectives because it helps the individual to perform their task in order to achieve
business goals and objectives.
 Stimulating recall for prior learning: In this step, required to match new learned
information with the previous learning concept.
 Presenting the stimulus: Organization have to ensure that, they provide new information
to the learner on regular basis (Toom, Pyhältö and Rust, 2015).
 Provide learning guidance: In the each step, manager provide the clear instruction or
guidelines to the learner which help them to remain older one.
 Eliciting the performance: In this step, individual performance highlighted by the
manager which helps the organization to identify their potential.
 Providing feedback: It is manager's responsibility to provide regular feedback to the
learner or individual. So they can improve their performances according to the
requirement.
 Assessing the performance: Leaders and managers measure the actual performance
which helps in identifying their growth.
 Retention and transfer: After assessing individual performance, it's manager's decision
to retain or transfer the learner.
Above mention Gagne's model can be follow by the Hawksmoor restaurant manager to
provide systematic way of learning. Which increase the efficiency or effectiveness in order to
achieve business goals & objectives.
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TASK 3
P5 Development plan
Current Skills Professional
Development
Evaluation of progress Evaluation or
effectiveness of
personal development
plan
Time
Management
I want to strengthen
my time management
skills because it helps
me complete my task
on deadline. Further it
save the time which
increase my efficiency
or effectiveness. I want
to accomplish this goal
within 3 months.
With the help of time
management skills, I
am able to create and
keep deadlines, helps in
decision making
process, save the time,
increase efficiency,
manage the whole team
etc. This skills will be
measured with the help
of Gagne's theory.
I need to develop
schedule which helps me
to complete all the task
on deadline. It will save
time and make me
efficient which helps the
restaurant to achieve
their business goals &
objectives.
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Problem Solving I will improve my
problem solving skills
which helps me to
resolve organizational
conflicts and other
operational issues
which affect the
organization (Waring,
2014). To improve this
skills I required almost
6 months. After this I
am able to solve
problem in the
workplace.
This skill will be
measured with the help
of behaviourist learning
theory which help the
individual to make
capable to solve
problems in the
restaurant. I can solve
the issues and other
problems related to the
work place and with
guest. I will going to
measured through
behaviourist theory.
With the help of problem
solving skills, I can
manager all the issues
weather it is related to
the staff members or
guest. It helps me to
manage all the
operational activities
effectively which further
helps in decisions
making process. I can
build further strategies
after analysing previous
problem.
Creative thinking I have to strengthen my
creative thinking
process because it
required to fulfil the
responsibility of bar
manager. It helps in
analytical thinking,
organize the work,
communicate, problem
solving and able to
provide creative or
innovative ideas. For
developing this skills, I
required almost 1 year
which is long term goal
for me.
This skills will be
measured with the help
of cognitive learning
theory which increase
the individual
efficiency of thinking.
It helps me to develop
creative or innovative
ideas which help the
restaurant to increase
their demand among
the customers.
After improving my
creative thinking process
I can achieve the more in
the organization.
Struggle less and achieve
more due to my
increased efficiency, it
will increase my
confidence to take risk.
It will also increase my
earning powers and help
me to solve problems
more quicker.
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TASK 4
P6 Undertake a job interview for the service industry
Interview: It s the process which is used by the organization at the time of hiring new
employee for the vacant position. Interview process also classified into two categories such as
formal or informal and it will be discussed below:
Formal Interview: It is one on one meeting of both parties where employer ask many
questions related to the vacant position (Wiik, 2014). Interview conduct in the office on
particular date, time and place.
Informal Interview: It is a casual sitting process where both sitting in a place and having
coffee or lunch. It does not include any systematic or structure way of processing interview.
Hawksmoor restaurant conduct formal interview process for the role of bar manager
where interviewer ask some set of questions to the interviewee. Job interview process for the role
of bar manager is mentioned below:
Question 1:
Interviewer: Tell me something about your self?
Interviewee: I am XYZ and I belongs to the Seven Dials. I have done my graduation in
commerce from Oxford university and completed my master degree from the same university.
Question 2:
Interviewer: Do you have any job experience?
Interviewee: No, I am fresher.
Question 3:
Interviewer: Why you want to become bar manager in this organization?
Interviewee: Because, I always wanted to become a manager and my skills & competencies are
totally match with your organizational requirements regarding this job role.
Question 4:
Interviewer: Why should I hire you?
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Interviewee: You should hire me because I have that passion which required for the completion
of bar manager's role & responsibility. I have various skills which helps your organization to
meet with their objectives.
P7 Key strength and weakness of interview process
Strength: Formal interview process includes the some common set of questions which is
same for all the interviewee. So candidates will already prepare these questions along with
effective answers (Woo, Henfield and Choi, 2014). Interview process conducted in a specific
time and location which help the interviewee to locate and make them space to become
comfortable before going to entered in the interview room.
Weakness: Due common questions, individual already prepare it's answer from the
internet and they also ask from other candidates who entered in the room before them. In the
formal interview process, large number of candidate comes for the interview which develop the
pressure, stress and reduce the confidante. These types of interviews will take lots of time, efforts
& cost and it also possible that, interviewer not select the single candidate due to lack of skills
and ability. It become expensive process for the organization, so they have to called only those
individual who have that level of potential otherwise it waste the time as well as money for the
organization to conducting interview process.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that professional identify and practices
are required for the every individual in the organization. Because it will helps in enhancing
employees efficiency or effectiveness which helps the organization to increase their productivity
or profitability. It further helps in achieving business goals & objectives, so on going
professional development required for the organizational development. In addition, learning
theories and approaches increase the individual efficiency and with the help of development plan
individual improve their skills. Along with this, job interview process have their own strength &
weakness which provide the valuable experience.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Beddoe, L., 2015. Continuing education, registration and professional identity in New Zealand
social work. International Social Work. 58(1). pp.165-174.
Chee, Y. S., Mehrotra, S. and Ong, J. C., 2015. Authentic game-based learning and teachers’
dilemmas in reconstructing professional practice. Learning, Media and Technology.
40(4). pp.514-535.
Cox, S. M., Brett-MacLean, P. and Courneya, C. A., 2016. “My turbinado sugar”: Art-making,
well-being and professional identity in medical education. Arts & Health. 8(1). pp.65-
81.
Fredriksson, M. and Johansson, B., 2014. The Dynamics of Professional Identity: Why
journalists view journalists working with PR as a threat to journalism. Journalism
Practice. 8(5). pp.585-595.
Levy, D., Shlomo, S. B. and Itzhaky, H., 2014. The ‘building blocks’ of professional identity
among social work graduates. Social Work Education. 33(6). pp.744-759.
Mackay, M., 2017. Identity formation: professional development in practice strengthens a sense
of self. Studies in higher education. 42(6). pp.1056-1070.
O'Brien, W. and Bates, P., 2015. “Looking and feeling the part”: developing aviation students'
professional identity through a community of practice. Teaching in Higher
Education, 20(8), pp.821-832.
Toom, A., Pyhältö, K. and Rust, F. O. C., 2015. Teachers’ professional agency in contradictory
times. Teachers and Teaching. 21(6). pp.615-623.
Waring, J., 2014. Restratification, hybridity and professional elites: questions of power, identity
and relational contingency at the points of ‘professional–organisational
intersection’. Sociology Compass. 8(6). pp.688-704.
Wiik, J., 2014. Towards the Liberal Model: The professional identity of Swedish
journalists. Journalism Practice. 8(5). pp.660-669.
Woo, H., Henfield, M. S. and Choi, N., 2014. Developing a unified professional identity in
counseling: A review of the literature. Journal of Counselor Leadership and Advocacy.
1(1). pp.1-15.
Online
Hawksmoor Manchester. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.opentable.co.uk/hawksmoor-manchester>
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