Professional Identity and Practice Report for Management Students

This report examines professional identity and practice within the context of the hospitality industry, specifically using the Cardiff Marriot Hotel as a case study. It begins by exploring the benefits of ongoing professional development for various stakeholders, including internal and external parties, and investigates employer expectations regarding skills and competencies. The report then critically evaluates the author's own skills and competencies, assessing them against the requirements for a front desk manager role. It identifies key skills such as leadership, problem-solving, and time management. The report also delves into learning theories and approaches, such as behaviorism and Kolb's Learning Model, and their application to personal and professional development processes. Finally, the report discusses the importance of development plans and the process of a job interview, including strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. The reflective section examines the author's skills and competencies and how they meet the employer's expectations.

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND
PRACTICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Benefits of on going professional development for different stakeholders ................................1
Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies ..............................1
Importance of on-going professional development and associated professional skills
requirements.................................................................................................................................2
Critically evaluate own skills and competencies to meet the employer expectation of
professional skills.........................................................................................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................3
Assess abilities, skills and competences for specific job role .....................................................3
Learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development processes .3
Evaluate own skills and competences and the most appropriate development approach to
develop personal and professional skills......................................................................................5
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................5
Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific
work context ................................................................................................................................5
Relationship between development plan that applies underpinning learning and development
theory...........................................................................................................................................8
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role ...................................................9
Strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process ........................................................9
Evaluate a job interview process and the obstacle and challenges to overcome ........................9
Reflective...................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity and practice is an important part of a professionals' life to bridge the
differences that are existent while working. This assignment is a reflective in understanding the
several aspects to maintain the creditability and reputation while providing services effectually.
Furthermore, it involves understanding the theories to bring concrete changes from professional
outlooks. This also describes about interview process, its strengths and weaknesses to gain better
knowledge about its implementation for any company to hire correct people. Here, Cardiff
Marriot Hotel is considered, which is headquartered at the capital of Wales, Cardiff.
LO 1
Benefits of on going professional development for different stakeholders
Continuing professional development (CPD) is imperative for Cardiff Marriot Hotel
because it helps in maintaining credibility and reputation among the clients or customers. Such
programs help the taskforce to upgrade their skills and prepare for better positions and
performing their tasks and responsibilities accordingly. The on-going professional development
is very much essential for organisation as well as it will be able to define what the changes that
are needed for each employee are. There are several stakeholders of this hotel who gets benefited
from CPD and involves both internal and external types. The internal consists of managers and
employees whereas external contains customers, the government, investors or shareholders and
the employers.
The internal stakeholders are receiving support and encouragement in terms of improved
efficiency and credibility. It also includes attainment of career goals by improving abilities and
technical skills. Moreover, they know to manage the work and analyse the differences to use the
self directed guidelines and structured learning cycle. Moreover, the external stakeholders might
be benefited by understanding the formal policy frameworks and other related instructions.
In regard to the same, the benefits are for longer run and focus on maintaining the quality
and delivery of services to meet the needs of clients and reap benefits to the investors and the
government (Wong and Lee, 2017). Hospitality sector is one of the strongest driving forces for
generating revenues for the government and hence, Cardiff management focuses on updating
their employees skills for seamless running of operations at the workplace. Alongside, the
emergence of digitalization has helped the managers to attract new customers and help the
investors to stay with them. This has affected their overall positioning in the marketplaces at both
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local and global levels. CPD will be helpful for the employees as well as their personal and
professional development will be there on continuous bases.
Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies
Cardiff Marriot Hotel owners has a prime objective to maintain its brand image and
attract the largest pool of customers from around the world. Such CPD programs help in
improving the hiring process of this hotel by highlighting the services required like
housekeeping, marketing etc. This is useful in management of the employees efficiently and
which ultimately assist in giving high levels of quality services to customers who re visit again.
The owners further has the vision to recruit sincere, dedicated and committed employees to make
their mark in the markets efficiently. Additionally, the competencies are directly related to the
technical skills and interpersonal skills that are considered as much required skills for survival to
the existing competition.
Furthermore, the management skills are the most sought after skills in the hospitality
sector to attract new partners or investors with diversified clients. Herein, the application of
technological advancements and the cultural aspects play roles to meet the hotel's management in
fulfilling their objectives (Molina-Azorín and et.al., 2018). The requirements consist of helpful
and skilled labour force and thus, the employers' viewpoint is to maintain such employees to help
them gain more number of investors or shareholders along with customers from worldwide
levels.
Type of skills Expected Range (Out of 5) Current Range
Technical Skills 5 3.5
Interpersonal Skills 5 4
Management Skills 5 3
Importance of on-going professional development and associated professional skills
requirements
The ongoing professional development program at Cardiff Marriot Groups emphasis on
improving the skills and competencies of the taskforce to improve their skills set in accordance
to meet the objectives. This not only boosts their confidence levels but also aid in maintaining
the motivation levels. Nevertheless, it highlights the understanding of employees about the
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legislation, policies and laws of the management and makes them aware about their employers'
expectations for doing better within Cardiff Marriot Group (Jung, and Yoon, 2015). This also
includes giving training to staff to improve the productivity levels and effectiveness in order to
establish quality of work. However, this encourages constructive interactive sessions between the
employees so that they can exchange ideas and opinions. This also helps in addressing the
professional development for employees by gaining knowledge about several aspects of work
ethics and follow code of conduct.
Critically evaluate own skills and competencies to meet the employer expectation of professional
skills
On personal levels, the role of manager is required for employment at the chosen hotel. It
is suitable since the required skills and competencies match with my experience and skills set. I
am sincere, helpful and have pleasing personality to interact with new people visiting the hotel.
Moreover, I have the ability to make people work in unity and with complete collaboration for
smooth running of operations. Thus, I will be able to lead any team with confidence and
encourage complete collaboration among the members of the team. However, I lose my patience
when the work is not completed on time. With the help of these skills and competencies it will be
helpful for meeting out all expectation of professionals within hotel.
LO 2
Assess abilities, skills and competences for specific job role
Job role: Front desk Manager at Cardiff Marriot Hotel
Skills 1 2 3
Leadership 
Problem solving
skills

Time management 
Commercial
awareness and
responsible
approach

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coordination and team
building

Taking initiative 
Skills and competencies are important tools while hiring any position or designation.
However, hospitality sector has high competitive levels and thus, it is necessary for the
employers to hire skilled and competent individuals to maintain their loyal customer base
(Bharwani and Talib, 2017). There is requirement of a well versed and technically sound
manager to maintain the entire administrative work and bring innovative ideas to the desk to
attract new customers and give better options to the existing clients. The following are the key
competencies required:
 Leadership: A manager at any hospitality organization must have transactional
leadership style to establish cordial relations with the team members and also able to
instruct them properly. This would help in bridging the communication gaps and led to
formation of strong ties while working. Nevertheless, they are the representative of the
company's brand value in the market.
 Problem solving skills: This skill is important in the hospitality sector due to
uncertainties and challenges that the management face on daily basis. One must be
decisive and good in analysing the situations to maintain the harmony of the environment
and manage the bitterness that are frequent in such organizations.
 Time management: This is crucial to bring enhanced productivity at the workplace by
minimising the barriers. Good management skills are interdependent with the optimum
use of time as an element. Along with, an individual especially manager level post must
have good planning abilities to segregate the entire work to avoid any pressure or stress
levels.
 Commercial awareness and responsible approach: This is essential for the hospitality
sector because the awareness is necessary to understand the nuances of work ethics and
analyse the market forces. Along with, responsibility is another component that helps the
employees to behave in professional ways.
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Learning theories and approaches used for personal and professional development processes
There are several theories and approaches that are used for the personal and professional
development processes. These play crucial role in creating a positive image and lead the
company to follow the path of success and progression. Kolb's Learning model and
behaviourism theory might prove useful for the Cardiff Marriot Hotels to give a proper and
systematic continuous process development.
Behaviourism Theory
This is one of the learning theories which put emphasis on using logic and reasoning
objectively while making decisions and maintaining the work-life balance at professional levels.
There is a sense of responsibility that focuses to fulfil the environmental conditions to sustain the
competition. It is one of the psychological approaches that highlight the state and stimulus-
response behaviours of individuals to concern the behavioural analysis. This is refereed as
operant conditioning which depends mainly on the reinforced reflexes and are intersected with
the biologically wired response rates (Murtonen, Gruber and Lehtinen, 2017). Here, a simple
feedback systems is considered where techniques and tools in context to reinforcement has been
implemented.
This theory is useful for organizations like Cardiff Marriot Hotel to employ the principles
to engage the employees and bring improvisations in the performance management via reward
system etc. There are pros and cons of such reinforcement techniques when used by the company
to understand the behaviour of people by implementing approaches through observations. The
manager might use this theory to balance between the employees and the customers. There are
instances when the customers ill treat the staff of the hotel and indirectly exploit them which is
unacceptable and thus, the manager must use the techniques to have an open end discussion.
Kolb's Learning model
It is one of the models which is implemented for improving the basic information about a
particular area or topic. This is useful in application of cognitive competencies and abilities of an
individual through adopting a four stage cycle. These four stages include concrete experience,
reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Here, an
experience might be considered as concrete to know about the entire details in regard to specific
topic and later it is implemented through reflections and observation (Illeris, 2018). The manager
of this hotel might use the relevant experiences to gain insights on dealing with any challenging
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situation and situational crisis. The observations he made during the entire working time and use
it to make some conclusion must be based on observations and proper working practices.
Next is abstract conceptualization where the thought processes of individuals is required
to fulfil the expectations and overall utilisation of allocate resources. Moreover, the last stage is
the implementation part which is applicable to encounter new experiences and better situation in
the near future. Here, the manager must be creative with good analytical skills for making the
tasks better and easier for the employees. This would ease the burden and divide the pressure in
systematic ways.
Evaluate own skills and competences and the most appropriate development approach to develop
personal and professional skills
For the above post of Front Desk Manager, I have the following skills and competencies
which will help the organisation to flourish their productivity and profitability as well. My
interpersonal skills are excellent and I do not feel shy interacting with new people and from any
age group. Moreover, I have fluency in three languages and can be able to resolve issues and
conflicts. Along with this, I have quick decision making abilities and have good command on the
software used at the front desk regarding the reservations and booking of rooms. The skills and
competencies that I carry has been proved beneficial for me in terms of using my cognitive and
behaviourism approaches. I always apply my common sense to objectively analyse things and
surroundings and use my logic and reasoning to apply professional code of conduct. Here, the
best development approach is to attend the CPD conducted by the company. Along with, training
from several courses and upgrading skills are necessary.
LO 3
Construct a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a specific work
context
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths
 Excellent communication skills
 Good problem solving abilities
 Creative and responsible individual Ability to lead a team
Opportunities
 Gain knowledge about new
technologies' and current trends
 Establishing innovative approaches and
methods to attract customers
 Introduction of one to one interactive
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sessions
 Leading changes to maintain brand
image
Weaknesses
 Poor coordination and team building
spirit
 Impatient and loses cool easily
 Lack of initiative in reading about news
related to competitor and development
of using technologies or tools Gets deviated easily and affect the
quality of care
Threats
 Growing competition at both local and
global scales
 Availability of larger taskforce
 Referrals from outer sources
 Lack of vision to bring substantial
modifications for work development
For the manager post at the Cardiff Hotel Group, the following professional development
plan is required to have an analysis for gaining insights about the skills and competencies.
Sl
No.
Skills/Learning
objectives
Curr
ent
crite
ria
(1-5)
Description Success criteria Time scale
1 Improving coordination
and team work
3.5 I feel that different
perspectives from
my own has always
posed issues. I
realised that people
tend to argue and
later it indirectly
hampers the working
standards and affect
I started learning
about the
techniques and
tools used to
improve my team
work spirit. Along
with, I started
focusing on doing
any physical
Within four
weeks
7

the working
environment.
Additionally, I want
to improve my
cooperation to make
better relations with
my colleagues to
make the tasks
interesting and
convenient
activity to
improve my
concentration
levels which
would be
beneficial when I
am working with
different people
in a team.
2 Enhancing patience levels 3 I lose my temper
easily since I do not
enjoy clumsiness.
Along with this, I
also realised that I do
not have good
patience levels and
waiting ability
during the time of
delays or any
emergency. I tend to
make more mistakes
and this affects the
quality of my work
and leads to
ineffectiveness and
unproductive work at
the workplace
I started
exercising and
doing yoga to
conquer my mind
over more
important tasks or
things to do. I
have already
started writing to
do list to prioritise
my work of the
day. Moreover, I
started reading
spiritual books
and started
following
listening to
seminars and few
spokespersons to
enhance my
knowledge about
Within six
weeks
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this shortcoming
and improve at
quicker ways
3 Maintaining the
knowledge base and
current skills
4 I have good basic
knowledge about the
hospitality sector and
the related
conceptual
frameworks.
However, I feel that
one must reinvent
and learn new things
to survive the
competition in better
modes. This is
fulfilling and
satisfying on the
personal levels and
help in the self
development
I have started
reading books and
articles on daily
basis to gain
knowledge and
clear all the
minute doubts
and queries.
Along with, I
have subscribed
to you tube
channels and
other social media
platforms. It gives
me an update on
the latest
technologies and
update me with
the current news
as well.
Within two
weeks
Relationship between development plan that applies underpinning learning and development
theory
With the help of Kolb's learning theory, it is necessary to make a development plan to
have an upper hand in improving the skills and bring effective changes for the betterment at both
individual and organizational learning levels. The above mentioned development plan if applied
strictly then it would help in improving my working practices and help me to gain rewards and
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appraisal at the work front. Along with, I have also learnt that one must take initiatives to employ
the assimilating and converging learning styles to move ahead professionally.
LO 4
Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role
The job role is of housekeeping officer at Cardiff Marriot Hotel through application of
group discussion followed by direct interview process. These two processes would shed light on
the personality type and overall characteristics of individuals applying for the mentioned post.
The group discussion method would be done by making smaller groups of 6-7 people and giving
them topics related to few situations that are mostly common to the hospitality sector. Next is
direct interview process which includes asking relevant questions regarding the roles and
responsibilities of the housekeeping department. Additionally, it focuses on the individual's
reactions and responses in context to particular department.
Here the interview panel will be formed by keeping the managers from several
departments of this hotel into three panels. The following questions might be asked to manage
the interview process conveniently and help the interview panel to take proper decisions
regarding the post of officer.
 What is the role of housekeeping in maintaining the image of the hotel?
 What is the experience?
 Do you see yourself working in this organization?
 What are the strengths and weaknesses?
 How do see yourself working in this company?
Strengths and weaknesses of an applied interview process Strengths: This interview process is reliable due to its organized process of selecting the
candidates and gaining skilled people who are presentable and appealing. After the group
discussion, people gets eliminated if they lack the general criteria and thus making the
entire process more accessible. The panel consists of experienced employees and would
not be biased towards any job seeker.
 Weaknesses: This is time consuming and long process and might be taking the resources
in an inefficient manner. Along with, there was lack of clarity regarding the
responsibilities of the housekeeping department and misguiding the candidates which is
unprofessional.
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