Introduction

The entire assignment is based on the personal and professional development of an individual. We would study on the ways by which an individual can easily develop his personal as well as the professional traits. We would learn on the various approaches to the self-learning and the professional skills that are required to meet the organizational goals and objectives. An evaluation of the current skills in an individual and accordingly development of opportunities to meet the current and future needs would be discussed upon. Assignment would be a portfolio that would comprise of a developmental of a personal plan with short term and long term objectives. We will also critically evaluate on the kind of learning that an individual has got after following of this PDP. A presentation would be given on the work based problems, time management strategies and the PDP for an individual and its importance. This assignment will guide us on the newer ways in which we can develop ourselves personally as well as professionally. This would also discuss on the opportunities like management of time and the work based problems and the issues.

Self-Portfolio

Approaches to self-managed learning and their suitability

Self-managed learning is a process whereby an individual takes an initiative and the self-effort in developing, improving and growing himself. He can do this by defining his own objectives, gaols and the plans so that they act as the path on which the individual moves and attains the short term and long term targets. Self-managed learning is done by self so all perspectives and views are taken into consideration. It helps an individual in monitoring and controlling his output and the desired goal. The approaches whereby an individual is encouraged for self-learning are:

• Research Based Learning – A method, by which an individual searches, researches and finds out the information and acquired the learning and knowledge is said to be research based learning. This is a great tool for an individual as the person gets to know not only the text book knowledge or the learning from an observation rather he searches all modes and sources to gain a deeper insight on the subject or the topic. There are certain subjects, information and data which have never been revealed also get into clear picture for an individual (Hrebiniak & Alutto, 1972). When an individual has done a thorough research then he gains a lot of information and knowledge which helps him acquire and learn more.
• Environmental and Observational Learning – This is said to be a way in which an individual learns from his environment and the surrounding and the people who are nearby him. They may be his parents, colleagues, friends, siblings and the teachers or guides. They are said to be experience holders and have thorough knowledge on self as well as the environment. They impart the correct information and data to the individual. This could be a team based or a project learning kind of an exercise. {See more : London Academy Business Environment Assignment}

Skills required to meet organizational goals and objectives. Evaluation of own current skills and competencies against professional standards and organizational objectives.

Every organization has certain standard set for the kind and types of people they would be hiring. They have set the personal skills and professional competencies against each and every profile. In the table below a study would be carried out on the various current skills that the individuals have with respect to their mapping with the organization objectives. This study would be done with respect to my role that is HR Manager.

Current Skills and Competencies	Professional Standard	Organizational Objective and criteria	Improvisation
Negotiation Skills	Good	Excellent	1. By speaking with counselling and polite skills. 2. By speaking softly and politely.
People Skills and Grievance handling	Excellent	Excellent	1. By listening well to the people needs and requirements. 2. Discussing and even listening to their views and ways of resolving of problem.
Leadership Skills	Average	Excellent	1. By leading, guiding and instructing the team. 2. By listening and behaving democratically in resolving the people’s issues.
Organizing employee engagement and learning activities	Very Good	Very Good	1. By introducing new and developed activities for the employees working for the employees.
Time Management Skills	Good	Good	1. By making a differentiation on the URGENT Vs. IMPORTANT TASKS.
Creativity, Innovation and Technological Skills	Excellent	Excellent	1. By reading and referring to the manuals of operations and doing things differently by involvement of all people in the team.

This table is making the comparison of the current skills levels in terms of the rating (Poor, Average, Good, Very Good and Excellent) for the employee who is performing these skills as well as the organizational standards with respect to the availability and level of that specific skill. In case there is a small gap then the organization would hire and make an individual trained on it (Lieberman, 1995)

Personal and professional development needs and what activities are required for meeting them.

There are various developmental needs and activities that will help me meeting the skills where I am lacking behind as per the organizational standard:

• Doing Consistent self-learning process through research and developmental process.
• Openly discussing on the issues and problems faced in the skill inheritance with the guides and seniors.
• Doing a self-assessment and evaluation with respect to the goals and objectives.

Development opportunities to meet current and future needs identified above.

When the individuals are given certain developmental opportunities then they tend to meet the current and future defined needs, these are:

• Availability of resources for training and development through library and external faculty presence on specific subjects.
• Availability of skilled and professionally competent seniors and the colleagues for learning from the environment and others.

Personal and professional development plan to achieve your intended goal.

SKILL OR COMPETENCY	SHORT TERM OBJETCIVE	LONG TERM OBJETCIVE	PROCESSES & ACTIVITES	TIME SCALE
Technological Competence	Learning the currently operated technology	Even learning the newer technologies operated and implemented in the markets	Market Research Process, Learning from implementation and application	1 Year
Time management Strategies	Differentiating the URGENT Vs. IMPORTANT Strategies Developing and maintaining a daily writing work diary.	Learning to implement these strategies for a longer run.	Starting doing the things from today itself	3 Months
Communication and Presentation Skills	Speaking in English always.	Presenting the seminar alone that is going to be held in July 2014	Practising each day on the presentation skills. Making effective presentations with the detailed speaker notes.	1 Month
Negotiation Skills	Doing current negotiations with the vendors and the new employees for the pricing and salary negotiations.	Developing a backup of candidates and vendors for a longer run.	Calling new vendors and discussing and negotiating on the pricing.	3 Months
Team Work and Support	Contributing and supporting all the team members with self-initiatives	Making a sound and professional team which remains intact and finishes all projects in a year within the timeline.	By understanding and resolving the issues	3 Months

This is a PDP that has certain skills that have to be developed within the timelines along with the short term and the long term objectives linked with it. It will also have the processes and the activities that are continued in order to attain these objectives. The time period for the attainment of these objectives has also been listed in the last column.

This section would be concentrating on the various processes and the activities that have to carry out in order to accomplish the overall task of the personal and professional development plan. In this task we will write a report on the processes and activities that are required for the implementation of a successful developmental plan. We will also discuss on the kind of learning that we have gained in the period as per the PDP (Moorman et al, 1992).

PDP is the personal and professional developmental plan. It has various goals, aims and the objectives linked and associated with it. In order that an individual has to develop his personal and professional skills there are certain activities and processes that he needs to implement as listed below:

• Mapping the current vs. the required skills as per the organizational standards. This will help us in knowing the skill gap that has to be fulfilled and achieved. The areas where the working has to be carried out will also be defined in it. This mapping will also reveal the extent of work on it required and accordingly the processes and the time scales would be planned out.
• Setting of the targets, objectives for the short as well as long term periods. This will break the tasks into the simpler ones and making an attempt to achieve them as per the orders we have assigned them. When the tasks are broken down into the simpler parts then the mapping, implementation and even the evaluation process becomes quite easy.
• Monitoring and Controlling Process – This would basically be the evaluation method or the criteria whereby a track on the performance of an individual is being kept. This would help in keeping a control over the movement of the person as per the plan and even the consistent control on his activities.
• PDP creation, development, implementation and monitoring for evaluation – This plan would be creating a specific plan whereby there is listing of all the objectives. Based on each objective there would be listing of the level of achievement of the objectives and then implementation is done. This implementation has to be monitored so that the level of achievement as an evaluation is been done for the entire project.

See more : ECB College Understanding Learning Process Assignment

Below mentioned in the table are the developmental activities and the time scales and even the ways of doing it (Schoemaker, 1993).

Developmental Activity	Ways of achieving it	Time Scale
Effectively managing all activities as per timelines	By creating and monitoring the everyday diary.	2 Months
Learning of the Presentation Skills	Practising the presentation skills everyday by making and presenting before the mirror.	3 Months
Communication Skills	Always Speaking and interacting in English Language	3 Months

The developmental activities would be part of the actual and detailed objective and goal that one has set for him. These activities would be supported by the various ways and methods by which they could easily be achieved. These ways can be one or many based on the priority and the level of the developmental activity. Finally the time scale would keep a track of the timeline in which that target has to be achieved. This kind of documented table not only gives the guide to the individual who wants to develop himself but also his trainer who has to train him.

Critical discussion of learning against the aims and objectives mentioned in the PDP

I had developed my own plan for the various objectives and aims that I need to achieve as per the organizational standards and criteria. These objectives were broken down into the several short term and sub objectives. These were then followed as per the stipulated time period and with a specific strategy or the way of achieving them. I believe that when I had set the priority of the goals and placed them in the tabulated formats, it helped me selection of the Urgent vs. Important tasks that have to be done. This table guided me and always reminded of the plan, actions and the activities that have to be accomplished by me. When we list these goals help our trainers as well in remaining of loop of our personal and professional development. In case one is unable to accomplish the plan within the time line, it helps in making us feel that we have been left behind in our targets and objectives. By means of these developmental activities and strategies to fulfil them, a track, checklist, monitoring and the evaluation of self could be done.

Updated PDP following the above evaluation

Feedback and Evaluation process helps in making the developmental plan a more successful approach and way. It helps in self-mapping and even benchmarking the self with that of the most successful people which gives motivation and encouragement in achieving the goals. Through the evaluation, we can easily modify and change our plan so that we could attain the desired goals and objectives for the future well. We get the right evaluated assessment of the goals that we have set for ourselves and the level and amount of more work to be done on them.

Work based problem and the learning styles which can be implemented to overcome it.

Every Organization has certain work based and profile related problems. Solutions of these problems have to be derived and implemented. Solutions will help in creating a healthy and sound work culture. There are several types of communication and styles being followed by various people at different levels. Time Management Strategies help in managing time effectively. PDP helps in developing self and even evaluating performance as per time scales.

The various work based problems are:

• Lack of support and coordination.
• No training for the self-development and learning process.
• Non-Coordination and understanding between boss and employees.
• Differences in culture, ethnicity and beliefs.
• Inability to understand each other as colleagues

These problems could be resolved by following ways:

• Doing the selection as per skill mapping process.
• Making people learn the importance of team work and working with objectives.
• Development of PDP.
• Implementation of PDP.
• Taking feedback and evaluating the self-designed PDP.
• Motivating and keeping each other encouraged.
• Giving support and listening patiently.

Learning styles for the people are:

• Aggressive Style – This is stressing on self-goals and targets than others.
• Assertive Style – It has self-esteem which is quite high.
• Manipulative Style – This is basically calculating and evaluating and then taking action.
• Passive Aggressive Style – This has anger from within but passive attitude on the face of an individual.
• Submissive Style – This style encourages ignoring of conflicts.

See solution Unit 16 Managing Communications and Information

Time management strategies

The time management strategies are:

• Creating and maintaining daily diary – This would help in doing things as per priority orders and time scales. This is the best mechanism for me that would help me in managing my time well.
• Avoiding use of mobiles, telephone while doing important tasks – This would help in performing evaluation on self and making improvements as required. We will be searching for ways to develop further from the self-research as well as advice mechanism.
• Evaluating the tasks performed as per feedbacks and making improvisation – This will help in obtaining the feedback, comments and reverts from the trainers and the seniors. It will encourage regular follow of the implementation of processes and making improvisations as per comments. (Explore Organizations Behaviour – Google Assignment)

Conclusion

PDP is a developmental action plan that helps an individual action plan to be developed for the skill and competency enhancement and development. It has various objectives and goals that are mapped with the organizational standards and the objectives. It is essential that people hired for a specific profile are mapped for their skills and talent as per the specific talent that the company has been looking for in the people. It keeps track of the changes and the improvements that an individual has to bring in him. This acts as a developmental action plan for an individual that guides him to achieve the desired and expected skills, talent and the competencies (Cheetham & Chivers, 1996).

References

Cheetham, G., & Chivers, G. 1996. Towards a holistic model of professional competence. Journal of European industrial training, 20(5), 20-30. Carneiro, A. 2000. How does knowledge management influence innovation and competitiveness? Journal of knowledge management, 4(2), 87-98. Guskey, T. R. 1994. Results-oriented professional development: In search of an optimal mix of effective practices. Journal of Staff Development, 15, 42-42. Hall, D. T., Schneider, B., & Nygren, H. T. 1970. Personal factors in organizational identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15(2). Hambrick, D. C., & Mason, P. A. 1984. Upper echelons: The organization as a reflection of its top managers. Academy of management review, 9(2), 193-206. Hrebiniak, L. G., & Alutto, J. A. 1972. Personal and role-related factors in the development of organizational commitment. Administrative science quarterly, 555-573.

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