Professional Development and Skills Report for Crown Plaza Hotel

This report delves into the realm of professional development within the context of the service industry, specifically focusing on the Crown Plaza Hotels and Resorts. It begins by outlining the key benefits of ongoing professional development for various stakeholders, including employers and employees, highlighting its impact on productivity, employee retention, and skill enhancement. The report then investigates the expectations of employers, particularly for the role of a general manager, detailing essential skills and competencies like communication, positive attitude, team building, and delegation. Furthermore, it includes a self-assessment of the author's abilities, skills, and competencies, identifying strengths and weaknesses and exploring relevant learning theories such as behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, Kolb's learning cycle, and social learning theory. The core of the report is the construction of a professional development plan aimed at enhancing chosen skills and competencies, offering practical strategies for improvement. The assignment also includes an overview of a job interview experience, evaluating its strengths and weaknesses in the context of the applied interview process.

Professional Identity
and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Key benefits of on going professional development for different stakeholders...............1
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies....................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3Assess own abilities, skills, and competences for a specific job role................................3
P4 Learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development processes4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Construct a professional development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies. 6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P6 Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role..........................................7
P7 Key strength and weakness of an an applied interview process.....................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Professional in business defines as the person who are specialised in their field and bring
best result in the business enterprise. Personal and professional development programmes are
very necessary for the individual in order to sustain properly at the workplace. This is beneficial
for both employer and employees as it results in increasing productivity of the organisation. In
order to study this assignment,Crown Plaza Hotels and Resorts is taken which is a chain of
services and is having the headquarter in Denham, UK (Izadinia, 2013). This company was
found in the year 1970 and from their onwards it has expand its operation all over the world. At
present it is operating in around 100 countries. The following report will cover the role of on
going professional development with its benefits to stakeholders. Further different learning and
development approaches will also be discussed. At last this report will cover professional
development plan and skills required for job applications.
TASK 1
P1 Key benefits of on going professional development for different stakeholders
On going professional development plays a important role in life of an individual at an
organisation. It is defined as the process in which individual learn many thing throughout its
carrier which will help them for further growth and development. By continuous learning, it
enables the one to become professional toward their work. This helps an employee to perform
their task properly in Crown Plaza Hotel and also improves their learning ability. Moreover this
also helps in developing of some of the skills which are very essential for meeting some of the
challenges in the future (Trede and McEwen, 2012). This process in beneficial for both
employers and employees of Crown Plaza and are discussed below:
 Benefit for employers: With the help of professional on going development, employees
of Crown Plaza are able to perform their duties in the efficient manner which results as a
benefit for the overall organisation goals. Moreover this help the employers to retain their
employees for a long period which will help the company in achieving their long terms
goal and objectives. By professional development, employees are able to improve their
confidence in preforming the job which will improve the profitability, productivity of the
company.
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 Benefit for employees: Crown Plaza Hotel is providing some of the benefits to the
employees with the help of professional development (Hsieh, 2015). They are providing
their employees with proper training and development programmes which helps the
employees in developing the skills and abilities. Moreover with learning of new skills
they are able to handle the challenges more easily and also will raise their future growth
and career. Employees which are engaged in training programmes are able to enhance
their skills which will helps them to eliminate the mistakes and also helps them to
become more talented toward their work.
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies
Employers always expect their employees to complete the task on time and for that they require
some of the skills and competencies. In this report a job role of general manager is required to
study. A general managers is the one who is responsible for planning, marketing and
coordinating all the activities of a hotel. Below are the skills and competencies required for
manager which are are as under:
 Communication: The general manager of Crown Plaza Hotel have the quality of
effective communication. As through this quality they are able to resolve the issues which
arise between the employees and guest. The are always a good listener and through this
ability they are able to adapt new things at the workplace. Effective communication
enables the manager to assign some of the responsibilities to the employees so that the
overall work of hotel doesn't hampers (Xu, 2014)
 Positive attitude: This is one of the foremost skill which are required in general manager
of Crown Plaza as with the help of positive attitude they are able to face any situation
easily. Moreover being a manager it also motivates its other employees so that they are
also able to perform effectively during their hard times. With this both individual as well
as organisational goal can be achieved.
 Team building:It Is very important for the general manager of Crown Plaza to build a
effective team so that they can easily interact with guests at a time. Moreover by team
building, manager is able to reduce the stress at work and also helps in building a strong
relationship among the other members. This would help the hotel to perform well in this
competitive era and this could also fulfil the expectations of employers of Crown Plaza.
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 Delegation of task: In order to address the guest properly at the hotel premises, it is the
responsibility of general manager to delegate the task to the employees as per their
abilities (Cooke, 2012) Delegating of the task will help the employees to perform duties
effectively as by not assigning the proper responsibilities can some time led to conflicts
and misunderstanding at the work place.
TASK 2
P3Assess own abilities, skills, and competences for a specific job role
It is very essential for the individual to analyse own skills and competence in order to
improve the performance. For the job role of general manager it is very essential for me to
analyse some of the skills and make changes where required to be done. There are various tool
that will help me to know my skills and competencies and are mentioned below:
Personal skill audit
Learning Skills
Skills:
Communication
Positive Attitude
Competencies:
Team building
Delegation of task
Abilities:
Problem solving
Leadership
Target Proficiency
10
10
10
10
10
10
Existing Proficiency
6
8
8
5
5
9
With the help of personal skill audit of my own, I have found my skills and abilities and
got to know where I am lacking and where I need further improvement. Communication and
delegation of task and problem solving are the weak points of mine where as on the other hand
Positive attitude,leadership and team building are my strong point that will help me to continue
at Crown Plaza.
Below are the strength and weakness of mine which I have identified working as general
manager:
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Strength Weaknesses
 I am self motivated person due to
positive attitude which I am having
toward my work.
 I am very good at team making because
I knew at the time of emergencies it is
not possible for the individual to work.
 I am very good at boosting the morale
of employees and have the ability to
listen to every one this led to me
develop the effective quality of
leadership.
 I am hard-working and also can work
with team and also individual.
 The communication skills of me as a
general manager are not good due to
my unfriendly nature.
 Due to lack of communication among
the employees I am unable to know the
abilities of individual member and
because of this not able to delegate the
task properly.
 For problem solving, effective
communication is very must. Due to
my non friendly nature I an not able to
find proper solutions about the
problem.
 I also lack convincing and negotiation
skills.
P4 Learning theories and approaches for personal and professional development processes
After analysing the skills and abilities of me as a general manager it is very essential to
learn about some of the theories and approaches through which I can amend my personal and
professional development. Some of the learning Approaches are discussed below:
 Behaviourism: It is considered as one of the important theory of learning as it is
associated with the behaviour of individuals ( Eteläpelto and et. al., 2014). It is help to
establish cause and effect objectives. As being general manager in Crown Plaza it is very
essential to improve some of the skills and abilities which will help during the
performance. According to this approach a continuous repetatation of task helps helps to
eliminate the mistakes and improves the skills and abilities. With this approach manager
can easily perform my duties which gives effective contribution to the success of an
organisation.
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 Cognitivism: Under such type of learning theory individual are motivated by self to learn
something new. It totally depends upon the state of mind. Through this theory manager is
able to learn things because of my inner ability. General manager can also make
improvement in my existing skills with the help of this theory which overall will be very
beneficial for Crown Plaza.
 Constructivism: This theory state that an individual must always try to develop new
thoughts based on their past experience an situations ( Johnson, and et.al ., 2012)(As
being general manager in Crown Plaza, it is very essential for me to attain some of the
training and development sessions. Through this manager is able resolve some of the
conflicts that arise at the workplace and able to effectively manage the team.
 Kolb's learning cycle: It is a type of learning theory that works on four stages cycle of
learning. The stages of learning are mentioned below:
Experience: It is a stage where individual learn form the past experience at job. Here the
general manager make a deep analyse of a things which they learned while working in Crown
Plaza Hotel.
Reflect: It involves thinking about the experienced.
Conceptualise: After thinking about the past experience its a time to interpret them in the
present learning. Here managers are able to develop new ideas and implement them in their
current working.
Plan: It is the stage in which an individual applies all the experience in the present study.
It is the stage where managers are able to perform best as per the ability through traditionally
using new as well as past ideas.
 Social learning theory: It refers to the theory of learning process which tells that new
behaviour can be acquired by observing others. It state that learning usually occurs
through observation or monitoring of the facts. It explains behaviour of a person on the
basis of behavioural, cognitive and environmental influence. The manager must also look
after the working of others and implement them for the effective working of the Crown
Plaza hotel.
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TASK 3
P5 Construct a professional development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies
It is very essential to develop a professional development plan as through this skills and
competencies can be used in the best manner which will assist in determining the target (Oliver,
2013) . It is a plan which has a set of required skills and competencies which are need to execute
in order to support the career development.
Personal development plan
Current skills
and
competencies
Goals
personal/
profession
al
Developme
nt plan
Indicate how one can
monitor the progress
Evaluate the
effectiveness of PDP
Communication 2 months  I can improve
communication skills
by reading
magazines,
newspaper
 Attending seminars
 Trying to interact
with large number of
people.
 After attending
the seminars and
reading
newspaper and
magazines it
helped me a lot in
dealing with
people and there I
am able to express
my views easily
on the large scale.
 Moreover I can
effectively attend
my foreign clients
easily where
earlier I was
facing some of the
issues.
Delegation of task 3 months  I would try to monitor
the performance of an
individual employees.
 Try to assign some of
the task as per my
perspectives
 After monitoring
the performance
of n individual I
am able to know
the personal skill
and capabilities of
a individual
through which
delegating the
task become very
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easy.
Problem solving 3 months  I will try to
understand the main
problem.
 Concentration will be
improved to make
improvement in these
skill
 I need to have some
focus over the
multitasking
 After analysing
the issue I would
get time to think
about how
effectively I c an
give suggestion to
reduce the
conflicts.
 Try to involve
every individual
into some of the
activity where I
can where I can
effectively
develop the
relationship
among each other.
 By developing a
quality of
multitasking I am
able to
concentrate no my
work along with
the problem
solving of a team.
TASK 4
P6 Undertake a job interview for a suitable service industry role
A job interview refers to a meeting in which there is a interaction between applicant and
employer concerned. Here questions are asked in order to determine whether the individual suits
for a job or not (Clark, 2014) It involve a long process. Firstly the screening interview is done in
order to know that the applicant has specific qualification suit for the job. Then after this
interview is conducted in which two people interact with each other face to face.
This includes CV and Job specification which is discussed below:
Job Specification
Organisation: Crown Plaza Hotel
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Job title: General manager
Qualification: MBA( Hospitality)
Location: UK
Job Summary
Crown Plaza is a leading chain of hotel and is recruiting the candidate for the post of General
manager who can handle the conflicts and guest easily.
Roles:
Proper knowledge about hospitality sector
Managing the employees relationship
Able to handle the conflicts easily
Desirable criteria:
More than 2 year experience in same industry
Effective communicator
Attractive personality
Curriculum Vitae
Name: John
Address: A25, Opposite to church, UK
Phone no: 25975623
Carrier objective: To work with an organisation that would give me opportunity for operational
growth where I can enhance my professional skills in service industry.
Academic qualifications:
MBA ( Hospitality)
Experience:
Worked 1 year in Hotel Hilton
Worked 2 year as general manager in Rogan and Co.
Personal skills:
Positive attitude
Able to handle team and can work under high pressure
Declaration: I here by declare that above details are true my cognition and knowledge.
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Based on the above job specification John has applied for the interview for the post of
general manager. The interview was conducted by the management team of Crown Plaza. Below
is the conversation of John and the HR manager:
John: May I come I Sir?
Interviewer: Yes, please
John: Hello Sir, Good morning.
Interviewer: Very good morning, take your seat please.
Interviewer: Tell me something about yourself?
John: Sure sir, myself John presently working in Rogan and company at the position of general
manager. I am working in this hotel since 2 years. I am handling the issues of customers as well
as employees very efficiently. I have done MBA in hospitality from St. Wilfred College, UK.
Interviewer: That's great What are your greatest professional strengths?
John: Talking about the strengths, I am very hard-working and dedicated toward the work. I
have a positive attitude that enables me to handle the situations in tough time very easily.
Interviewer: OK that's fine. So why are you leaving your current job?
John: I am leaving my job because I feel that working with Crown Plaza I can improve my
interpersonal skills and can also enhance the growth of mine.
Interviewer: OK, But why should we hire you?
John : As earlier told, I am having the experience of two hotels and there I have handle my
clients very effectively and has contributed my best to the organisation. I had a experience of
communicating with large number of people at a time. Also I am quick learner thorugh which I
can easily grasp the knowledge.
Interviewer: What you consider as your weakness?
John: My biggest weakness is that I got over emotional some time and in that case some of the
people backstage me.
Interviewer: Well, It was very nice conversation with you Mr. John. I am very satisfied with
your knowledge and answers. Can you join our hotel on the immediate basis. Do you have any
questions.
John: No sir, Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to work with your organisation.
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P7 Key strength and weakness of an an applied interview process
The interview process which is undertaken by Crown plaza is structured which is
commonly used while taking interview in any organisation. Below are the strength and weakness
of an interview process:
 Strength: In structured interviews there is a set of standard questions with a proper
response. The question types are always same for every individual. In interview there is
face to face communication and also there is two way communication (Hercelinskyj and
et.al ., 2014) Through this large amount of information can be gathered in less amount of
time. By asking question faced to face it also develops a kind of relationship between
employers and employee and they feel free to answer any type of questions.
 Weaknesses: The major weakness lies in the lack of detail information as the question
ask in the structured interviews are only the closed questions. Normally the applicant
change the tone of their answer as they don't want to lose their impression infornt of
someone else (Clarke and et.al., 2015)The process of interview is very time consuming
and also cost is incurred for conducting the interview.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussed report it can be concluded that professional development is
very important for the individual in order to enhance the skills, abilities and competencies. There
are theories and approaches like learning approach and Kolb's learning cycle used for personal
and professional development processes. Moreover with the help of professional development
plan employees are able to improve there skills and performance by setting the desired target.
Effective strategies helps an individual to overcome challenges faced by an individual. At last
there were some strength and weaknesses of interview process which HR manager should
consider while choosing of the method of interview.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Izadinia, M., 2013. A review of research on student teachers' professional identity. British
Educational Research Journal. 39(4), pp.694-713.
Trede, F. and McEwen, C., 2012. Developing a critical professional identity. In Practice-based
education. (pp. 27-40). SensePublishers, Rotterdam.
Hsieh, B., 2015. The importance of orientation: Implications of professional identity on
classroom practice and for professional learning. Teachers and Teaching. 21(2),
pp.178-190.
Xu, Y., 2014. Becoming researchers: A narrative study of Chinese university EFL teachers’
research practice and their professional identity construction. Language Teaching
Research. 18(2), pp.242-259.
Cooke, N.A., 2012. Professional development 2.0 for librarians: Developing an online personal
learning network (PLN).Library Hi Tech News. 29(3). pp.1-9.
Eteläpelto and et. al., 2014. Identity and agency in professional learning. In International
handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning (pp. 645-672).
Springer, Dordrecht.
Johnson, M., and et.al ., 2012. Professional identity and nursing: contemporary theoretical
developments and future research challenges. International nursing review. 59(4),
pp.562-569.
Oliver, C., 2013. Social workers as boundary spanners: Reframing our professional identity for
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Clark, P. G., 2014. Narrative in interprofessional education and practice: implications for
professional identity, provider–patient communication and teamwork. Journal of
Interprofessional Care. 28(1). pp.34-39.
Hercelinskyj, G., and et.al ., 2014. Perceptions from the front line: Professional identity in
mental health nursing. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. 23(1), pp.24-
32.
Clarke, C., and et.al ., 2015. Sustaining professional identity in practice following role-emerging
placements: Opportunities and challenges for occupational therapists. British Journal of
Occupational Therapy. 78(1). pp.42-50.
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