Professional Identity, Skills, and Development in Hospitality Industry

This report delves into the realm of professional identity and practice, specifically within the context of the hospitality industry, using Four Seasons Hotel as a case study. The report begins by elucidating the importance of professional development for various stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and investors. It then analyzes the skills employers expect in different organizational contexts, emphasizing roles such as marketing managers, HR professionals, general managers, and finance and IT personnel. The report includes a self-assessment of the author's skills and competencies, utilizing SWOT analysis and a personal skills audit. It explores different learning theories, such as Kolb's learning cycle and Gagne's theory of instruction, and culminates in a personal development plan and an overview of the job interview process, including strengths and weaknesses. This comprehensive report provides a practical guide to professional development and career advancement in the hospitality sector. This document is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib. Desklib is a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY
AND PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
P1. Explain key importance of Professional Development to the different Stakeholder............3
P2. Explain the expectation of skills by the employer in different organisation context............4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P3. Assess skills and competency of the job role........................................................................5
P4. Explain range of learning theory and approaches.................................................................7
LO 3 ................................................................................................................................................8
P5. Personal Development plan to enhance the skill..................................................................8
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................10
P6. Explain job interview Process.............................................................................................10
P7. Key strength and weakness of applied Interview...............................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Professional identity is the set of meaning which explains how individual used to perceive
themselves in the Professional context. Four Season Hotel is the London based hotel founded in
the year 1960. This report explains the benefit of professional development for different
stakeholder. Further this report explains the expectation of employer toward the different
organisational context. Further this report goes on to explain the ability and skills for a job role
and the theory of professional development process and Personal development plan. In the end
report shows the Job interview for the suitable job position and the strength and weaknesses of a
job interview.
MAIN BODY
LO 1
P1. Explain key importance of Professional Development to the different Stakeholder
Professional development is the process of developing the skill which helps the individual to
maintain their professional credential by the way of attending conference, informal learning from
practices and ideally incorporating an evaluative stage.
Importance of professional development for different stakeholders
Employee: As professional development helps the employer in developing the skill which is
good for the professional use, professional development helps the employee in developing the
knowledge regarding the task to be done as Professional development helps the employee in
looking the task from different aspect and also provide skill to employee to understand the
different situation very comfortably and way to resolve it. In the organisation Four Season Hotel
also employee are having different aspect of doing different work as these is very necessary for
them as in hospitality industry way of serving to the customer used to change and for having a
competitive advantage firm need to adapt it (Zepeda, 2019).
Customer: As professional development increase the effectiveness of the employee by providing
them good skills and knowledge about the service. Professional development also helps the Four
Season Hotel to satisfy their customer as every customer has their own need and requirement in
the hospitality industry depending on their background, Professional development helps the
organisation to understand and satisfy customer need and also it helps the organisation to build a
good brand or organisation name in the eye of the customer.
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Supplier: As they are the key stakeholder in all the industry as they are the one who supplies raw
material, Suppliers are always benefited from the professional development as Professional
development emphasis on the research program which helps the quality supplier to reach the
organisation very comfortability and also helps the Supplier to understand the need of the
organisation as professional development laid to clarity of the mind for the employee (Aruna and
Anitha, 2015).
Investor or Shareholder: As they are the key stakeholder in the organisation and are very
interested in looking the growth of the business as growth of the business helps the shareholder
to grow as they are benefited in the way of dividend, as professional development helps the
organisation in growing the efficiency of work in the organisation it eventually results in increase
in the revenue of the business and increase in revenue mean that there will be increase in the
dividend of all the Investor and Shareholder. In the case of Four Season Hotel also professional
development helps the shareholder and Investor.
P2. Explain the expectation of skills by the employer in different organisation context
Employer always expect the top quality talent in the organisation as these is the main resources
which completes the day to day activity of the business. The main expectation which employer
expect from their employee in different roles and responsibility is as follows:
Marketing manager is the one promote the awareness of the organisation in the market
and Human resources who recruits the talent requires lot of skill to do it as these is the long
process task. Employer always look for the research skill of the both the position as this role
requires lot of research work as without research one cannot implicant the policy and Employer
always look for a patience person in this role as sometime it takes time to get a good result from
market but the individual need to try it on regular basis. In the Four Season Hotel also employer
conduct test to see both the above skill in the individual so that they are able to get the best talent
(Akkermans and et.al., 2015).
General manager is the one who manages all the activity of the department and
organisation and sales department are the one who try to sell the product to the customer, in the
case of these two role employer always look for a confident and full motivated person in the
organisation as these two roles need to face many problems in performing their task as manager
has to hear manage all he difficulties of the organisation and the sales department require
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attracting the customer by different strategy so person need to be confident and full of motivation
so that they can face every difficult easily.
Individual in the Finance department and in IT department always require to have a
strong knowledge about the principle and formulas and have an innovative way to complete their
task so every employer looks to have an individual who has strong knowledge of their field and
are having good innovative and creative idea to complete the work in the organisation. In the
Four season Hotel also company sees the skill in the employee by the way of interview, test and
on job training, Common skills which are seen by the organisation are Soft skill, communication,
leadership, aptitude and personality of the individual (Bull and et.al., 2016).
LO 2
P3. Assess skills and competency of the job role
As I am looking for the Hospitality role in the organisation in the organisation I need to build a
self skill so that I can prevail in the organisation, for that I have conducted the SWOT analysis
and personal skill audit so that I can find out my weaknesses and area need to work on.
SWOT
Strength
Communication skill is the biggest strength of mine as I have a proper command over my words
and I am also good at evaluating the information which eventually helps me in passing on my
view to the other as role require good communicator it is beneficial for me. Active mind and
body is the second strength of mine as it help me to respond to the situation very quickly.
Weaknesses
Presentation skill is the one skill I always think to have as I believe I lack in presenting the data
which I have evaluated tough my skill, which sometimes creates the wrong impression of mine
on the senior authority or client and I need to lean it as role always demand it. Coordination and
team work is the second weakness of mine as I always find it difficult to work in the team
dynamic (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills, 2019).
Opportunities
I have a great opportunity to increase my strategic networking as I am looking to attend different
seminar and conference which will help me in developing it and as the role demands the quality
of research and the research is the main element of the strategic development in the organisation.
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I also have opportunity to develop skill as role will help me understand the new aspect of the
business.
Threats
Looking for the new role will ask me to communicate with new people in the organisation and it
may prove hard for me to interact with them as sometime employee in the organisation does not
like to communicate due to different organisation politics.
Adapting the nature of the new department can also prove difficult for me as every department
works with different culture (Cuddy and et.al., 2015).
PERSONAL SKILL AUDIT
Requires learning Not totally sure Confident about it
TIME AND SELF MANAGEMENT
Able to complete the task in prescribed time period.
Ability to overcome the problem in different way.
Maintenance of calendar for scheduling meeting and conference.
Has knowledge of time wasting and tries to avoid that.
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
Have creative and innovative way to solve the problem.
Has the ability to evaluate the data effectively.
Ability to work in the team dynamic.
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ORAL COMMUNICATION
Able to communicate the suggestion to other about their point of view.
Ability to keep my thoughts in front of the team.
Able to question employee after their point of view is explained.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Ability to present the thoughts in written format.
Proper Idea of style for the subject.
Ability to avoid the copy of the data by referring it.
INFORMATION LITERACY: READING
Ability to source the data from different source to collect the effective
information for the organisation
Ability to evaluate the data which was sourced.
NUMERACY
Ability to make the numeric data of the compound theory file.
Able to interoperate the graph, index and picture to collect the information.
P4. Explain range of learning theory and approaches
Kolb's learning cycle
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As per the Kolb's learning cycle there are four stages of the learning cycle which touches all the
aspect of the learning.
Concrete experience: It is the primary stage where employee faces the new situation which has
not been faced by the employee in past person try to overcome the problem but find it difficult to
overcome it.
Reflective Observation: It is the stage where people like to see other who are already facing this
situation and tries to observe their working and try to learn out of them to how to dealt with the
situation.
Abstract Conceptualization: It is the stage where people used to interoperate the working which
is already done and what has changed in the situation and always try to make a relationship in
between them (DiPaola and Wagner, 2018).
Active Experimentation: It is the stage in which learner used to apply their learning and try to
over come situation by that.
Gagne's Theory of Instruction
According to this Gagne's theory there are nine steps of the learning Instruction
Attention of the student: It is the first instruction which says that their should be attention in the
student to learn anything new.
Objective information: Student should be educated about the benefit which they will be getting
after the completion of the learning.
Prior learning: Student should be recall about all the learning which they have taken till now and
importance of the previous learning in the new learning.
Present the content: Need to present the data in the presentable way so that student is able to
understand the learning more effectively and comfortably (Barker and Tran, 2016).
Provide learning guidance: Need to guide the student about the skill which they require in having
the learning, Guidance about all the resources available should also be given to the student so
that they can use that.
Elicit performance: Ask the student to perform the task and ask the student about their learning
which will help them in evaluating their work.
Provide feedback: Provide student with the feedback which has been observed in their working
and ask them to work on that.
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Assess performance: Need to see the performance of the student and need to evaluate the
performance on the basis of performance done in the organisation.
Enhance retention: Need to give knowledge to the student so that they can expertise their
learning (Kohli and et.al.,2015).
LO 3
P5. Personal Development plan to enhance the skill
Current Skills
and
Competencies
used in
personal and
professional
plan
Goals Personal /
Professional
Development Plan
ACTIVITY (Use
SMART targets)
Indicate how you have
monitored your
progress,
underpinning
learning and
development theory
Evaluate the
effectiveness of your
personal development
plan
Presentation
Skills
6 Months I have evaluated and
compare my document
on timely basis by
setting the benchmark
on the starting stage
itself. I have also asked
the senior and tutor to
check my assignment.
Tough proper training
and guidance I am able to
understand the mistake I
was doing in the past and
these has helped me in
improving my skill but I
still require carrying on
the practices.
Coordination
and team work
skill
6 Months I used to check the
efficiency of my work
in the team dynamic
and used to compare the
same with my previous
work (Poell And et.al.,
2018).
I have tried to build a
good relationship in
between the colleague
and leader which has
really helped me in
improving my work and I
have also started trusting
them which in return also
affected my work
positively.
Technical Skills 3 Months As every job requires
different technical skills
and in the role also I
will require adapting
the new skill and need
to check my efficiency
with the other person in
It has helped me to get a
better guidelines because
I used to compare my
work with other
employee as they used to
guide me about the
mistakes which I was
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the department by
comparing my
performance with the
other employee in the
organisation.
committing, which has
helped me in increasing
my efficiency.
Soft Skill 1 Month As I am already good in
the communication I
just need to be more
focused on my Soft
skill as it is what
require in the role. I can
measure it by the asking
my senior or colleague
to guide me and my
tone in the best way
(Gerken, Beausaert and
Segers, 2016).
It will help me at the time
of talking with my client
and customer as soft skill
plays a very big role in
the communication.
LO 4
P6. Explain job interview Process
Process of interview
Interview process start with the screening interview in which hirer just examine that the
candidate is qualified enough to have a job after that there is phone interview in which company
tries to cut down the pool and invite rest for in person interview after that there is a first in person
interview where the hirer just used to ask about the previous experience and availability after that
there is second interview which may last for a day long in which there are meeting and test
conducted and after that there is third and last interview in which there is negotiation about the
salary and after that there is background check and offer letter is offered (Zepeda, 2019).
CV
Clive Ross
[phone]
[e-mail]
Experience
1 year experience working as a Human resources assistant in a food manufacturing company
based in London.
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1.6 year experience working as a Manager in a Hotel industry based in Bristol.
1 year internship with a Hotel industry based in Manchester.
Objective
To serve the roles and responsibility with the best possible efforts, which are provided by the
organisation.
To serve my organisation with the best possible practices so that company can able to get the
best outcome possible.
To gain the best knowledge from the roles and responsibility (Aruna and Anitha, 2015).
Skills
 Communication
 Sourcing
 Evaluation
 Research
 Innovation and Creativity
Own Experience
I received a call from the company and the hiring manager asked me about my interest to do a
Hospitality manager role and the availability and small summary of my experience and after that
in the first round interview they asked me about the experience I explained them than they asked
me about what I think about Hospitality manager role and the skills I have learned in my
previous job and after that they asked me about my expected salary and after that I received a
call for second interview and in that there was a test to check my skills, there was oral written
and practical test and after that in the third round of interview there was a negotiation on my
salary and after that in two days I received the offer letter (Bull and et.al., 2016).
P7. Key strength and weakness of applied Interview
Interview process is the very important for the organisation and for the employee both as it help
the organisation in evaluating the employee skills and the knowledge on all the aspect which are
required by the organisation but on the same time it also affects the organisation as sometime
interview process takes to long to hire the employee. In the case of employee it helps them to
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understand the level at which they stand by evaluating there performance in the interview but
also on the other hand it becomes difficult for the lower confidence employee to pass on the
interview irrespective of their skill.
From the interview I have gone tough I have understood that the communication skill was
my biggest strength to clear the interview as I was there with my respond to the question which
was asked by the hiring manager and my confidence was also one thing which has impressed the
hiring manager as hiring manager has told me in interview also that you are having good
confidence and the last big strength which I think I measured from my interview was that I was
patient enough to handle the test on my second round of interview as the test which was
conducted by the organisation was somehow complicated to understand as they were trying to
test more than one skill at a time.
But After going tough the interview it was also observed that I was lacking in the skill
like listening as sometimes it has happened that I was interoperating the manager in their
question and it was looking very bad in front of the manager and also I think I need to be more
presentable in my written work as the written test which was given by me was not looking as
good as I was expected to do (Cuddy and et.al., 2015).
CONCLUSION
After going through above report it has been summarised that all the stakeholder is positively
affected by the professional development as professional development looks at all the important
aspect of the business. It was also summarised that Presentation and the team work are the two
main skill which is lacked by me and the Personal development plan has helped me in gaining
the same skill and the job interview has also helped me in evaluating my skill as interview
contains so many questions and the test to check my skill.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akkermans, J. and et.al., 2015. It's all about CareerSKILLS: Effectiveness of a career
development intervention for young employees. Human Resource Management. 54(4). pp.533-
551.
Aruna, M. and Anitha, J., 2015. Employee retention enablers: Generation Y employees. SCMS
Journal of Indian Management. 12(3). p.94.
Barker, T. and Tran, H., 2016. Learning From Employees.
Bull, J.W and et.al., 2016. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis
of the ecosystem services framework. Ecosystem services. 17. pp.99-111.
Cuddy, A.J. And et.al., 2015. Preparatory power posing affects nonverbal presence and job
interview performance. Journal of Applied Psychology. 100(4). p.1286.
DiPaola, M. and Wagner, C.A., 2018. Improving instruction through supervision, evaluation,
and professional development. IAP.
Gerken, M., Beausaert, S. and Segers, M., 2016. Working on professional development of faculty
staff in higher education: Investigating the relationship between social informal learning
activities and employability. Human Resource Development International. 19(2). pp.135-151.
Kohli, R and et.al.,2015. Critical professional development: Centering the social justice needs of
teachers. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy. 6(2).
Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2019. Importance-performance analysis based
SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management. 44. pp.194-203.
Poell, R.F. And et.al., 2018. How do employees’ individual learning paths differ across
occupations? A review of 10 years of empirical research. Journal of Workplace Learning. 30(5).
pp.315-334.
Zepeda, S.J., 2019. Professional development: What works. Routledge.
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