Professional Development in the Hospitality Industry: A Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report details a personal skill audit and professional development plan.

Professional Identity and Practice
Personal Skill Audit and Professional Development
Name of the student
Name of the University:
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Table of Contents
Introduction:...................................................................................................................................3
LO1................................................................................................................................................3
P1Examining the key benefits of on-going professional development for different stakeholders
within a specific organisation.....................................................................................................3
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a
specific organisational context...................................................................................................5
LO2................................................................................................................................................7
P3 Assess own abilities, skills, and competencies for a specific job role..................................7
P4 Reviewing a range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development........................................................................................................11
LO3..............................................................................................................................................15
P5 Constructing a development plan to enhance chosen skills and competencies within a
specific work context................................................................................................................15
LO4..............................................................................................................................................20
P6 Undertaking a job interview for a suitable service industry role.........................................20
Person Specification:...............................................................................................................20
P7 Reviewing the keystrengths andweaknesses of anapplied interview process...................22
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................25
Reference List..............................................................................................................................26
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Introduction:
Professional Development(PD) is a concept that mainly aims to grow and develop effective
professional skills along with their execution and practice within an organisation. This can be
accomplished using a wide range of expertise and competencies (Terentyeva et al. 2016).In
general, PD is established to improve efficiency in terms of better learning abilities and
However, drawing the attention of diligent and loyal employees who perform not only to improve
their personal PD but also to strive to the target goal of the company is the key to the overall
success of any business organisation. On today’s date, brand new concepts are being
inaugurated in every field. Hence, in order to be on par with potential competitors to mitigate
competition and rivalry, professional development needs to be incorporated in every field. The
huge attrition rate in an organisation remarkably disrupts productivity and delivers a negative
impact on the profitability of the unit. The best possible way to preserveemployeesis to
inevitablyencourage and uplift professional development activities within the organisation. That
way, not only improvement in performance will be observed but will also be achieved that
benefits the organisation to a large extent.
LO1
P1Examining the key benefits of on-going professional development for different
stakeholders within a specific organisation
A shortcoming in skills and professional abilities has been prevalent among business people,
educator all over the world. Success or failure of any company depends upon employee
performance. But instead of waiting for the right candidate, development of PDs internally aid a
business person in achieving better results over time.There have been plenty of researches
conducted globally regarding the intention of attaining PDs for a successful career in tourism
enterprises (Lyons et al. 2016). Also, there have been many cases to explore the inter-
relationship between PD benefits, its' shortcomings and committee involvement along with
leadership actions (Wilson, Furman and Orozco, 2018).
In general, there are many significant benefits of PD in an organisationthat cumulatively operate
to acquire changes in an organisation resulting in better outcomes (Kaplanfinancial.com 2018):
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Let us discuss a 2-star hotel based in the UK, namely the Meininger hotel, Hyde Park.This
hotel provides some of the best possible amenities at an affordable rate. However,they work
together meticulously to incorporate better services within the organisation. Implementing
professional development in the said organisation can have certain benefits as following: Increase Retention Rate: Offering PD training and knowledge transfer sessions to the
employees make them feel that the organisation care for them and their career
development. PD skills will make them more efficient as far as performance is
concerned. Only when such concepts are introduced, the dropout rate will reduce and an
organisation will be able to retain their potential candidates for a prolonged period. Refined Productivity: PD not only contributes to the skills, competence and aptitude of
an employee but also enables knowledge exchange and interaction. This way, novice
employees can grasp new ideas and innovative perspectives and can implement the
same in a particular project in his company. Boost up Confidence: From PD sessions, an employee gains notable confidence in the
work they do. Employees would automatically become more self-reliant and confident
when they are able to perform effectively. This, in turn, leads to better job satisfaction in
the organisation. Therefore, authorities must ensure to offer the employeesa wide range
of opportunities to evolve and mature professionally. Especially in hotels cross-training
programmes and able mentorships are always solicited which highly prevails in the
Meininger hotel. This way, they will become more versatile and prominent players in
your organisation. Increases the reputation of the organisation: The main objective is to let your guests
and customers know the availability of highly skilled professional employees working for
the hotel. By means of PDs, this aspect can, however, be ensured and a subsequent
positive status and reputation of the hotel can be obtained. Also, this should be kept in
mind that in any organisation, hotel Meininger in this case, the employees are
considered to be the chief brand ambassadors and sole representatives. Hence,
developing professional skills is of utmost importance because, in any public gatherings
and meetings, they will represent and reflect the hotel customs and the better they
exhibitthe bright side of the hotel, a better image is being given upon customers. Development of credibility: In any organisation, employees do not like to perform with
poor sets of skills and expertise. Everyone comes to a new company to explore, learn
and executing the same in work (Center 2017). The conventional tradition of check-in
and check-out makes work pattern mundane and an employee loses interest over time.
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Allowing them to be exposed to PD capabilities help them in building credibility by virtue
of expanding their expertise.
P2 Investigate professional employer expectations of skills and competencies within a
specific organisational context
When an organisation, the Meininger hotel, in this case, attempts to incorporate PD skills
among the employees for improved productivity and career progression. It must have certain
expectations from the employees to ensure that their attempt in inculcating the basics of PD
skills and competencies are being utilised by them and becoming beneficial in the long run
(Tsitskari et al. 2017)
With the constant changes in work patterns, technologies and conditions, there comes a serious
need to change or modify approaches, which the performance is based on. Positive attitude and
motivation are two of the most talked about expectations that employers have from the
employees (Cyphert and Lyle 2016). Apart from them, there are certain expectation
determinants that exist like performance, problem-solving abilities, decision-making abilities,
time management and punctuality.
Among the settled expectations, written and verbal/oral communication is of utmost importance.
The ultimate goal of any hotel industry is to draw the attention of prospective customers to fetch
profitability to the organisation. However, that can be best achieved through excellent
communication skills.Both oral, as well as written communication skills, are fundamental to the
development of essential pathways for thinking, evaluating and above all learning. It is that
particular agglutinating agent that keeps all the essential components of a successful
organisation together.In this regard, several studies have been conducted to minutelyanalyse
and probe the expectations from the overall performance pattern of employees in different
organisationsby their specified employers (Akman and Turhan 2018).
Another important domain of expectations comes from an employee’s critical and analytical
thought process. Critical thinking largely increases an individual’s presentation skills.
Comprehensively, thinking helps to ameliorate several ways in which we generally tend to
express our visions and ideas to society. In acquiring a thorough knowledge pertaining to the
critical analysis ofdata, logical structures and analytical method validation of certain methods in
an organisation, logical thinking plays the most important role. It is an indicator of self-
reflection.By understanding the proficiencies expected by the employer, employees must also
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align and engage themselves with the basic organisational needs and find ways to how the
needs can be fulfilled to provide customer satisfaction (Mackay 2017).
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LO2
P3 Assess own abilities, skills, and competencies for a specific job role
In this regard, let me consider myself as a front desk receptionist of the Meininger hotel in the
UK.Among the most important duties that I perform in the hotel, welcoming guests upon their
arrival, booking prior reservations, monitoring checking in and out of the guests, issuing them
room keys, and dealing with a clearance of settlements and payments deserve special mention.
Furthermore, my job role is also to provide guests with appropriate information apart from
dealing with their problems and queries and coordinating with them timely.
Swot analysis is a structure which enables an organisation to develop professional strategies on
the basis of certain aspects(McDONALD 2016).
Personal SWOT analysis:
Strengths:
 Positive attitude:In case of unforeseen
circumstances, keeping a positive
attitude helps a lot.
 Punctuality.
 Enthusiasm.
 Dedication.
 Multi-tasking.
 Multilingual: Have a proper knowledge
of Spanish and Japanese languages.
 Creative idea generation.
 Respectfulness.
 Diligence.
Weaknesses:
 Impatience.
 Communication.
 Writing skills.
 Being extremely straight forward.
 Lack of team working skills.
 Lack of knowledge of technological
advancements.
 Dealing with too many risks.
 Incapable of taking criticism
sportingly.
 Impulsive.
 Paying attention to immaterial
details.
 Short-sighted.
 Easily bored.
 Lack of execution strategy.
 Lack of knowledge of foreign
languages.
Opportunities: Threats:
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 Initiation of a novel venture as an
Entrepreneur.
 Travelling across the globe.
 Learning foreign languages that are of
supreme importance and in extreme
demand.
 Being a part of certain internship
programmes.
 Lack of sufficient funding to initiate
a new venture.
 Competitiveness.
 Unable to speak more foreign
languages like French or German.
 Limited boundary: not knowing
enough people and lack potential
sources to expand territory.
Table 1: Personal SWOT analysis
(Source: Created by the Learner)
VARK Analysis
VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/write and Kinesthetic sensory determinants that are used
for learning knowledge and information. These four determinants are also referred to as
modalities that depict about an individual in detail. VARK analysis is considered to be one of the
most popular and favoured representations ever introduced (Durães, Bajo and Novais 2017).
VARK analysis style is extremely important in understanding the significance of self-assessment
and the result of this learning style is as follows:
Figure 1: VARK Analysis Test Results
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(Source: Durães, Bajo and Novais 2017)
The result clearly shows that I prefer Auralor Auditory learning pattern. Aural learning style
basically says I prefer having any new information that is being heard/listened or spoken. I get
to learn the best through group discussion, seminars, extempore. This style of learning also
includes speaking loudly so that every piece of information is clearly audible and every word
reaches the brain.
Secondly, my expertise relies on the kinaestheticstyle of learning. I prefer learning new things
on the basis of perceptual inclination (Hsu 2016). Furthermore, the result says that I prefer
learning things with the whole body movement approach as it would successively help me to
sense and comprehend any troublesome piece of information during the course of my learning.
However, I can improve this skill by involving in any team activity and cumulative performances.
I lack in reading/Write and Visual learning styles and can develop these skills by following strict
adherence to internet related activities including word, excel, power point, spending more time
with dictionaries that give me a huge number of words and phrases to improve my vocabulary.
To improve my visual skills, I need to deal more with graphical representations, maps, charts
that narrate much information.
Traffic Light Skills Audit:
I have taken the Traffic Light Skills Audit test because it will help me gain an understanding of
the areas I have more knowledge and the ones I lack skill and expertise.
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Figure 2: Traffic Light Skills Audit Results
There are certain determinants and these are time and self-management, numeracy skill,
information literacy, written communication, oral communication, critical and problem-solving
skills. The result of this test helps to acquire an understandingof the portions I need to put more
emphasis on and which area is my strength.
P4 Reviewing a range of learning theories and approaches used for personal and
professional development
When it comes to personal and professional development within any organisation, taking the
assistance of certain proposed learning theories are taken into consideration.To neutralise the
diverse requirements of different individuals, specific learning goals are implemented to ensure
that each and every learning style is being covered. Here is the list of a few most popular
learning theories that have special importance:
Kolb’s Learning Theory:
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David Kolb introduced his learning theories in the 80s. He is of the opinion that that learning and
acquiring knowledge from learning necessitates the accession of conceptual information
capable of being applicable to a wide range of situations taken into account (Tomkins and Ulus
2016).
In his theory, the impetus for the generationnovel, innovative concepts is chiefly provided by
new experiences (DeCoux 2016).
Figure 3: Kolb’s learning theory
(Source: Smith 2016)
His theory can be categorised experiential learning theory/style(Smith 2016)and learning
style inventory.
Advantages:
 Enhances Critical Thinking.
 Improves problem-solving and decision-making abilities.
Disadvantages:
 Experiential learning style has its own limitations and cannot be applied to many
situations.
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