Professional Identity and Practice: Thomas Cook Group Report Analysis

This report, focused on professional identity and practice, analyzes the case of Thomas Cook Group Plc, a UK-based travel and tourism organization. It delves into the skills and competencies required for HR managers and customer support executives, emphasizing the importance of communication and organizational skills. The report evaluates the benefits of ongoing professional and personal development, exploring various learning theories like behaviorist and cognitive approaches. A critical self-evaluation of the author's skills and abilities for an HR manager role is presented, using self-evaluation models. The report further considers development approaches, including decision-making examination and training sessions, to enhance professional growth. Finally, it outlines a development plan with specific targets, strategies, and expected outcomes for the chosen organization.

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK A................................................................................................................................................3
1. An introduction to, and overview of the organisation you have chosen......................................3
2. An investigation into the skills and competences expected by the employer for specific roles in
your chosen organisation.................................................................................................................3
3. An evaluation of the benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and
personal development and how it can enhance career prospects.....................................................4
4. A review of the range of different learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development................................................................................................................5
5. A critical evaluation of your own abilities, skills and competences for one of the job roles in
the organisation, using at least two self-evaluation models to undertake an audit of your hard and
soft skills..........................................................................................................................................5
6. Consideration of the best development approaches to enhance your own professional and
personal development......................................................................................................................6
TASK B................................................................................................................................................7
1. References to how elements of your plan apply underpinning learning and development
theory...............................................................................................................................................7
And...................................................................................................................................................7
2. Clear and achievable targets, strategies and outcomes of learning and training you will need to
work in your chosen organisation....................................................................................................7
TASK C................................................................................................................................................8
1. Produce a detailed and coherent critical reflection of the interview process and your own
abilities during this process..............................................................................................................9
2. A review of the key strengths and weaknesses of the interview process you experienced..........9
3. An evaluation of the job interview process and the obstacles and challenges you had to
overcome..........................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity is a term, which is used by individuals for explaining that how the use
to precise themselves in their professional life. For an individual it is very important for them to
judge their performance and also make changes accordingly, so that their skills and performance
can get improved. This report is based on Thomas Cook Group Plc, which is one of the leading
travel and tourism organisation in UK. This report will help in detailing about the skills and
competence required by HR manager and customer executives of them (Brooks, 2016). This is
because the organisation is working a no loss no gain conditions, but now they want to increase
their margin ratio. Along with this, a discussion will take place on benefits of training and
development sessions used by organisation for improving the performance of their employees. Also
theories will get discussed which will help in developing the skills of employees working in
organisation.
TASK A
1. An introduction to, and overview of the organisation you have chosen.
Thomas Cook Group Plc, is one of the biggest hospitality and travel organisation of UK. It
was founded on 19th June, 2007, by the merger of Thomas Cook and Sons with MyTravel Group
Plc. They use to provide their services and has owned ample number of tour operators and some
European based air lines in United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia and Balearics. Along with this,
the currently organisation is at the condition where they are not able to make any type of profits in
their favour, and working in a situation where they are at no profit and no loss condition. For
coming out of this condition, it was very important for them to make some strategies and plans
which help their employees in improving their skills . This will help them in performing in better
manner, so that Thomas Cook Group Plc can attain some profit ( Clark, 2014). So, for improving
the performance of their employees, they start providing proper and essential training and
development sessions to them, so that their skills get enhanced and also performance of them can
improved.
2. An investigation into the skills and competences expected by the employer for specific roles in
your chosen organisation
The important job role for an organisation like Thomas Cook Group Plc, are their Human
Resource manager and also their support executives. As it is very important for travel and tourism
organisation to maintain their team and also to make proper communication with their customers.

The basic skills required in HR manager and customers support executives of Thomas Cook Group
Plc are as follow :-
Competencies and Skills required for HR manager :-
1. Organisation : It is very important for HR manager of Thomas Cook Group Plc to have
proper skill of making proper organisation in different functions of them ( Gibbs, 2015).
2. Communication : For completing all the tasks and activities, it is very much important for
them to have to proper communication skills, which will help them in making proper
interaction with their employees and subordinates.
Competencies and Skills required for Customer executives :-
1. Listening skills : It is very important for customer executives to have good listening skills,
which will help them in gaining proper information that what customer want to ask and what
they have to give them.
2. Communication skills : Along with listening skills, it is essential for them to have proper
communication skills, so that they can attract customers towards them.
3. An evaluation of the benefits and importance of undertaking ongoing professional and personal
development and how it can enhance career prospects.
Training and development sessions are very much important for an organisation, as this help
them in proving knowledge to their employees, by which they get chance to improve their skills and
also get opportunities to grow and develop themselves ( Kearney-Nunnery, 2015). There are ample
number of benefits which an organisation like Thomas Cook Group Plc can get providing proper
training and development session to their employees, few of them are below :-
1. Lead to increase in level of job satisfaction and also help in increasing their moral.
2. This help in increasing motivation of employees.
3. Increase the efficiency of different functions and process performed by them.
4. Help them in adopting new technologies in an easy manner.
5. Help in implementing innovation in working of a system.
6. Help in improving the working of each and every unit in organisation, which reduces the
cost of them.
7. Help in maintaining good relationship with employees and also help in filling the
requirements of customers.

8. Leads to reduction in employee turnover, and also help in retaining employees for long time.
4. A review of the range of different learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development.
There are ample number of learning theories, which can get applied by Thomas Cook Group
Plc, in the conditions of personal and professional development ( Marañón and Pera, 2015).
Beneath are the theories which is used by them :-
1. Behaviourist : This is the change which come in the behaviour of any person. As in toady's
world, the trend is of new technologies, therefore it is very much important for employees of
Thomas Cook Group Plc to development themselves in personal as well as professional
manner, so that they can attain these technological changes in very effective manner.
2. Cognitive : This is a theory of learning, earlier which was considered as alternative of
behaviourist theory. In this, the employees of Thomas Cook Group Plc have to make and
change their mind set from stable to a level, where they can adopt the change easily. This
help their employees to adopt the changes with ease, so that they do not face any problem,
and take effective steps that can lead them in personal as well as professional development.
5. A critical evaluation of your own abilities, skills and competences for one of the job roles in the
organisation, using at least two self-evaluation models to undertake an audit of your hard and
soft skills.
To being a Human Resource manager in Thomas Cook Group Plc, it is very important for
me to own some skills, abilities and competences, which will help me completing the tasks assigned
to me in effective manner ( Wald and et. al, 2015). Also, skills in a person is of two types, one is
soft skills and another is hard skills. Soft skills are like leadership, communication, motivation,
where as hard skills are like certifications, degree, writing skills and other. Therefore, here I am
going to detail the abilities, skills and competences which are owned by me for performing my job
in effective manner :-
1. Skills :-
 The most important soft skill for a HR manager in Thomas Cook Group Plc is to have
proper listening and communication skills, and I have good listening skills along with
good communication skills.
 Along with soft skills, it is important for me to have good hard skills, therefore I have
knowledge about different foreign languages and also have skill to motivate employees

working under me.
2. Abilities :-
 The main ability of mine is to handle and guide 30 employees at single time, with an
ease, so that they can perform their best for Thomas Cook Group Plc.
 Along with this, I can provide training and development sessions to 15 employees at
single time.
6. Consideration of the best development approaches to enhance your own professional and
personal development.
For enhancing my professional and personal development, it is very much important for me
to study different approaches and adopt them in my working. This will help me in making changes
in my working styles, so that I can increase the efficiency of different tasks performed by me.
Beneath are the approaches which I can adopt for making my own professional and personal
development :-
1. Examine your decision : For improving the efficiency and effectiveness of my working, it is
very important for me to take decision and make a mock of that. This will help me in
checking that how effectively the decision will work, when it will get implemented in real
situation. Along with this, it help in knowing the time which the system will require after
implementing the decision. This approach will help me in making improvement in the
decisions taken by me, and also lead to development my personal and well professional
skills.
2. Attend training and development sessions : Along with rechecking of decisions, it is very
important for me to attend different training and development sessions, so that I can improve
my personal and professional skills. This will help me in gaining information about the new
techniques which will help me in future.

TASK B
1. References to how elements of your plan apply underpinning learning and development theory.
And
2. Clear and achievable targets, strategies and outcomes of learning and training you will need to
work in your chosen organisation
For HR manager of Thomas Cook Group Plc, it is very important for them to make proper
development plan, by which they can get knowledge about the skills of them and also get
information that what improvement is required by them and how they can achieve it.
S.
No.
Learning
target
Present
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunities
Criteria for
Judging
Attainment
Time
Scale
1 Time
management
7 10 I have to improve my
time management
skills by attaining
special sessions and
get knowledge that
how other manager
use to manage their
time.
Senior
manager and
leader
30 days
2 Decision
making
6 10 The skills of decision
making of mine is
avaerage not very
good. I can make
decisions in normal
conditions. So for
solving this, I have to
attend different
seminars and work
shops that will give
knowledge about that
Team
member
45 days

how I can take good
decisions.
For attaining these, it is important for me to apply learning theories in appropriate manner,
so that I can get result in very few time. Beneath is the how different learning theory will help me
attaining my targets :-
1. Behaviourist : This will help me in making my mind set towards the change which is
required by me for, so that my performance get improved.
2. Cognitive : This approach will help me in making my stable, so that I can adopt changes and
also can study different useful information, that will help me in achieving my aims and
targets.
TASK C
Job Description
Job Details
Post : Customer Executive
Company : Thomas Cook Group Plc
Job Purpose
The main purpose of this is to invite applicants, which are dynamic in nature and re full of
energy. Also, the applicant must have capability to handle queries of customers and provide
proper solution for it to them.
Roles & Responsibilities
 The main responsibility of customer executive it to listen and understand the queries of
their customers.
 The responsibility of them is to provide the best solution of problem available with
them.
Mock Interview :-
Interviewer Tell me something about your self.
Interviewee My name is XYZ, and I have completed ---- in my education.
Interviewer Are you comfortable with this job?
Interviewee Yes, I can handle the queries of customers and can provide best available
solution with full comfort.

1. Produce a detailed and coherent critical reflection of the interview process and your own abilities
during this process.
The ability of mine in an interview is that, I can understand the question in advance which
an interviewer want to ask me. I can do this by listening the first question with full concentration
and by understanding that where the interviewer want to take the interview. This interview process
have both positive and negative impact on interviewer, which are explained below :-
Positive impact : This interview process help me in gaining knowledge that, where interviewer want
to take the interview by which I can trim my answers easily.
Negative impact : Answering the question before completing it can be cause to wrong answer of
question which interviewer want to ask.
2. A review of the key strengths and weaknesses of the interview process you experienced.
There are ample number of strengths and weaknesses of the interview process used by
interviewee for answering the questions in a interview. Beneath are explanation of these strengths
and weaknesses :-
Strengths :-
1. This help me in gaining knowledge that in what direction interviewer want to take the
interview.
2. Also help me in getting time to think about the answer which I have to give for next
question.
3. Also help me in impressing the interviewer in very less time by giving faster answers.
Weaknesses :-
1. Wrong answer for question will lead to negative impact on my image.
2. Answering without listening complete question will lead to show that I am over confident.
3. The another weakness of this is that, it lead to give chance for interviewer to change their
questions.
3. An evaluation of the job interview process and the obstacles and challenges you had to overcome.
The job interview explained above was very good, and I was very confident while
interviewer was conducting the interview. Along with this, I use to give question by taking my in
thinking that what I have to reply and what not, so that a I can pose some good impression on
interviewer. The major obstacle faced by me while giving interview is that, I was trying to predict

the questions of interview before, which interviewer was trying to ask me. This has pose me a
challenge that, the answer which I was thinking about the predicted question can may be right or
wrong to actual question asked by interviewer.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that, there are ample number of theories which
is used by a person, so that they can improve their skills. Along with this, it is very important for
them to make self assessment of their skills and performance, so that they can take steps for making
improvement in them. These all help organisation in attaining their goals and objectives, so that
their profitability can get increased.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Brooks, C., 2016. Teacher subject identity in professional practice: Teaching with a professional
compass. Routledge.
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.
Gibbs, P. ed., 2015. Transdisciplinary professional learning and practice. Springer.
Kearney-Nunnery, R., 2015. Advancing Your Career Concepts in Professional Nursing. FA Davis.
Marañón, A. A. and Pera, M. P. I., 2015. Theory and practice in the construction of professional
identity in nursing students: A qualitative study. Nurse Education Today. 35(7). pp.859-863.
Wald, H. S. and et. al., 2015. Professional identity formation in medical education for humanistic,
resilient physicians: pedagogic strategies for bridging theory to practice. Academic
Medicine. 90(6). pp.753-760.