Category: Personality Development

Introduction

Managers are often charged with the responsibility of steering organisations forwards towards the achievement of objectives. As they purpose to ensure that the organisation attains its overall objective, they plan, organise and direct the staff effectively according to their individual capacities and skill.

This proper arrangement of specific works according to the appropriate skills available in the organisation eventually leads the organisation to accomplish its goals easily and with minimum use of financial resources.

However, the manager also needs to continually develop his or her skill so as to be able to effectively supervise and manage the staff working under him. This paper covers in detail the personal development of the manager, looking in particular at the personal planning, resource requirements, evaluation of the development plan as well as the supporting and promoting of the welfare of the staff.

Ability to Asses and Plan for Personal Professional Development

Importance of continual self-development

Continual self development is an important aspect of growth and improvement in executing managerial duties and performance because it improves on the capacity to fully meet and eventually even surpass the organisational objectives. This is important for my own growth as a manager as well as for the overall betterment and performance of the organisation through sustaining of skills as well as expertise in order to make change be realised (Armstrong, 2009).

It will also make it possible to structure a self-approach to a continuous programme to sustain the development process. With this capability, it would be possible to take control of my future career, directing it accordingly through an action plan to ensure the ultimate objective is achieved. Thus, the continual self-development cycle if followed diligently will ensure a greater job satisfaction with even improved career flexibility (Boyd, 1976).

Assessing skills and comparing with roles and organisation objectives

Skill assessment is an integral part of the continual self-development programme because it would enable one to realise the weak areas that require improvement as well as the identification of strong points and capabilities. In skill assessment, a Personal Career Portfolio will be maintained based on flexible pro-forma system. This record will thus help in the systematic tracking of performance capabilities and failures as well as record annual performance of continual self-development exercise (While & Attwood, 2000).

The skill assessment process begins with the setting of annual targets that aim directly at accomplishing the set objectives of the organisation. This initiative of proposing the appropriate targets lies with either the manager himself or a group of managers heading the organisation.

Once the organisational targets have been set, the individual management, leadership skills and roles necessary for the attainment of these targets will need to be derived accurately such that it becomes a possibility to attain the targets with much ease (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006).

At the end of the said period, the managers performance will be evaluated against the targets and existing deviations noted. A report detailing each of the failure or deviation will be drawn, giving reasons as to why the actual performance did not attain the set goals. A recommendation on corrective measures that will eliminate the existing gap between actual and set targets should be done with the help of an expert so that it does not produce a biased appraisal (Black, 2004).

Identifying development opportunities

Through a well structured development mechanism, it is possible to identify all the necessary development opportunities for a manager. These mechanisms include the structuring and detailing of a personal development process that aims at improving the career.

This will reflect the entire information about particular skills that a manager has while giving a full account about those areas that require effort. A personal development vision will be helpful as its analysis will make it possible to determine the manager’s future career plans (Brown, 2009).

An annual development plan will be mandatory in establishing development opportunities because it will give systematic actions that need to be executed in order to attain the overall goals and objectives (Armstrong, 2011).

Constructing a personal development plan

The identification of development opportunities can only be achievable after a manager notes down clearly where he needs to be in terms of his career and also be able to think critically. The noted down needs will serve as a structure guide which require reflection at every stage.

To begin with, the manager will need to undertake a skill audit to be able to tell exactly where his capacity and capability lies. This is an important stock taking stage that will systematically try to analyse the strengths as well as weaknesses of the manager. The best model that can be used to help out in the stock taking process is the SWOT analysis. This method will summarise strengths and weaknesses of the manager and also showcase other important aspects or areas like the opportunities and threats (Rughani, 2001).

Once the evaluation process is done with, it would be the perfect chance for the drawing up of an action plan. Apart from setting targets, the action plan will also come handy in identifying and documenting a well thought out strategy. The qualities of this action plan should be such that they are specific in their objectivity and not too general to confuse the manager himself. They should also be measurable such that the manager can break down his entire work into measurable bits.

This will make it possible to measure what can be done in a week or say on a monthly basis. The action plan should also be achievable, meaning the set objectives should be such that it is possible to attain them rather than having ambiguous targets that can hardly be achievable.

They also need to be realistic in the day to day lifetime. Unrealistic action plans will be of no use since it would imply achieving the set targets is next to impossible. Finally, the plan needs to be bound, meaning there needs to be set deadlines by which specific targets and activities should be accomplished (Contrell, 2010).

Ability to Plan for Required Resources for Personal Professional Development

Identifying the necessary resources for personal development plan

It is not possible for a manager drawing out a personal development plan to successfully determine the resources he requires unless he draws out the action plan first. The action plan will determine the ultimate objective of the personal development and also lay down the procedures and necessary requirements that will make the target achievable. Among the necessary requirements will be the resources (Lunenburg & Irby 2005).

These could vary from financial to material resources but the bottom line is the manager should be able to determine the exact resources required for the development plan. Resource determination begins by carrying out a summary analysis of the self-assessment report carried out in the previous stages. This exploration will help the manager to accurately determine the resources he or she needs to be able to effectively carry out continuous personal development of career.

The self-assessment results communicate individual strengths, interests, values and even preferences together with the skill development needs. With the help of a professional in the human resource field, the manager can go through this analysis and identify areas that he has poorly performed in and which require urgent correction in order to make amends. From this analysis, it will be possible to derive the resource requirement necessary for the corrections (Young et al, 2008).

Developing a business case to secure resources

As part of the development of a business case for managers, it is necessary that all the possible pitfalls are analysed and ready answers be prepared as well as the alternatives. The manager needs to carry out a review of the organisational issues as well as political issues which may hinder the project from realising its ultimate goal.

A review of the policy as well as that of the business process structure would also be necessary so that the business case does not lie outside the set limits. Where there exists a policy for oversight and stewardship of data, then it would be necessary that the manager uses a cross functional group that has been purposefully assembled for the organisation’s enterprise resource planning. This would particularly come in handy for purposes of informing the directory implementation (Zwikael & Smyrk, 2011).

Once this is done, the manager can now proceed and develop his business case. A business case involves cost implications as well as benefits that might accrue to the institution. The manager needs to develop the accruing benefits with all the functional users together with the consumers and assemble all costs. This should be done with the assistance of other staff whose input on the overall strategy will be very instrumental in its success.

The business case must be discussed with all the company stakeholders to find out how the project can be made more refined and beneficial both to the objectives of the firm and to individual performance of the manager. The executive support should also be sought because it will be vital in securing funding as well as in the developing of appropriate organisational policy to support it (Rughani, 2001).

Ability to Implement and Evaluate Personal Development Plan

Processes required in implementing personal development plan

The implementation of a personal development is a process that takes place in various stages. The first stage is the contextual analysis where the manager focuses his attention on the relationship that exists between the set standards and his development practise of his profession. Here, there is need for the manager to think about where he works, what his priorities are for maintaining an up to date in his management and leadership functions as well as in his approaches of executing the roles (Cameron & Quinn, 2011).

The second stage is the analysis of the manager’s needs and goals. The priority areas of the manager can effectively be analysed using relevant forms of evidence learner feedbacks, evaluation of the impact, observations and appraisals given if at all the manager’s performance was benchmarked by an independent person or body.

The manager also needs to make an objective and critical assessment of his own self in terms of the necessary needs and goals for the coming period or year that will fully address all the identified areas that require development (Streeter, 1994).

After successfully analysing the needs and goals, the manager can next develop an individual plan that will address the needs identified. In developing the plan, the manager should carefully think about the activity type as well as the exact focus that would directly be effective for him.

The created professional development plan should give priority to the rationale for each of the identified activities, give the time limits within which the targets and objectives should be achieved, enumerate the outcomes clearly, and finally enumerate the expected measures of success.

The next stage would be the professional development log where the manager now carries out all the activities that have been identified in the plan while ensuring that all the activities completed are recorded accurately. The dates of completion should be noted as well as an indication of the duration of time spent during its execution. The manager also needs to include a reflection on his progress together with the differences that the activities are causing to him, to his colleagues and to his immediate staff.

The fifth stage is the professional development record where the manager puts together a summary of all the significant activities that made an impact in the manager’s practise. This will be evidence enough that the manager has taken the required hours indicated on the personal development plan to perform his managerial roles and duties and crucially show the impact of what has been achieved.

The sixth and final stage of the implementation process is the reflection phase where the manager basically carries out an analysis of the practise and its overall impact. Apart from reflecting on his personal professional practise, the manager also needs to study the impact on colleagues as well as on staff working under him. This analysis will act as a prompt for the cycle to follow next and will form an integral part of the manager’s learning log for the current year (The Institute of Learning, 2009).

Personal development plan impact evaluation

Evaluating the impact of the personal development plan particularly on the achievement of all the defined roles as well as the organisational objective is an important aspect in the implementation process. However, before this happens the manager ought to have established his target achievement in advance before measuring the extent of his performance.

In the planning stage, therefore, the manager will be required to establish the kind of difference he wants to make and also identify the person he wants to make the impact to. He also needs to establish a timeline by which the difference will have been made. The manager’s thoughts of the prior picture, evidence as well as data will also be important to draw right at the outset of the planning. Finally, the manager should also ask himself about the kind of pictures and evidence he needs to achieve at the end of it all (Arnold, 1997).

In conclusion, the manager needs to evaluate now the actual difference that he will have achieved. The table below shows the direction from where the manager will be working from:

Source: Guidelines for your continuing professional development

The evaluation process to be concluded by the manager needs to have a ‘so what’ question. For instance, the question could be posed thus, what difference has your professional development activity made on your management practise and to the workers in general?

However careful a manager is during the initial stages of the plan, there is never a guarantee that the plan will go on as planned. It is important that all the unintended and surprising outcomes be reflected upon to offer evidence of deep learning such that it could be proved the plan has actually spurred more critical thinking together with further action. The manager should rethink about what he can do differently and in a changed manner if he was to do the same activity all over again (Mentzas, 2003).

Ability to support and promote staff welfare

Organisations can hardly exist without human beings or the workforce. It is the workforce that needs to be organised and placed accordingly in order that they may execute their duties as expected for the eventual achievement of organisational objectives. However, apart from being members of staff, the workers also have their own personal life issues that afflict them in their day to day life. These factors could negatively affect their output thus hindering the attainment of organisational objectives (Sheldon & Yoxon, 2002).

It is important therefore for any manager to give priority to staff welfare and issues if at all organisational goals and objectives have to be attained with minimum interference. Equitable and fair staff remuneration, staff benevolent fund, staff unions and other legally acceptable bodies that represent and address staff issues should be encouraged by the management and engaged into dialogue more often so as to understand clearly problems that workers are going through.

This in turn will motivate the workers and they will be discouraged from spending much of their time trying to resolve their own personal issues rather than put together their collective efforts in performing their roles in the organisation (Govindarajan & Natarajan, 2005).

In dealing with a staff welfare issue within an organisation, the worker’s representatives should be given chance to dialogue with the management as they are more close to the workers than the managers. Once the workers’ representatives have briefed the management on a developing issue, it is upon the management to seek alternative solutions from the representatives and use it as a guide to formulate the final solution plan to be adopted by the management.

It is not healthy to ignore the workers or dismiss their contributions wholesomely because on many occasions they could be having wonderful suggestions that if the organisation can only refine a bit, then it could turn out to be an amicable solution. However, the interests of the organisation should always be protected from plans that negatively affect the overall objectives.

Once the views of the workers have been obtained, the management team can discuss them and analyse their weaknesses from the organisation’s perspective. Changes can be proposed and applied to iron out any existing challenges and eventually come up with an acceptable solution plan.

These should then be communicated to the workers’ representatives in advance before being adopted fully by the management. The reason for this is to harmonise the positions of the organisation, which is represented by the managers, and that of the workers through their elected representatives.

The staff welfare responsibilities can later on be communicated to the teams using various methods and means. One of the methods through which an organisation can communicate these responsibilities is by giving the team leaders and managers the direct responsibility to inform members of his team (US Government Printing Office, 1995). This is a more effective method as it will take less time for each of the team members to receive the information.

Alternatively, the organisation can resort to use of notices as a means to pass the information to the team members. However, although this method could equally be as fast as the use of team leaders and managers, it is not as effective since workers will read the notices at different times and also interpret the message on their own, giving a general varied interpretation of the same message by varied staff.

Personal Reflection

Continuous personal development is an integral part in the growth and overall performance of any organisation. This is because it aims at adding skills to both managers and workers for purposes of improving their general performance and thus the objectives of the organisation. An effective personal development procedure and plan should begin by assessing current skills and capabilities before determining the areas that require improvement.

The necessary resources required for the development programme should be identified through a SWOT analysis that will make it possible to identify all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats. At this stage, it is important to draw up the personal development plan whose constructs should include the opportunities, skills required, areas where an individual has exhibited strong capabilities as well as any available threats that could have been identified.

The plan should be specific, measurable, achievable, and realistic with time limits so as to make it possible for the development objective to be achievable. The implementation phase should follow next, where each of the set out plans should be followed systematically so as to achieve the intended skill development. An evaluation to measure the extent of the development should be done to determine the extent of the plan’s effectiveness.

List of References

Armstrong, M., 2009. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice, 11^th edition. London: Kogan Page.

Armstrong, M., 2011. How to be an even better manager: A complete A-Z of proven techniques and essential skills. Eighth edition. London: Kogan pages.

Arnold, J., 1997. Managing careers into the 21st Century. London: SAGE.

Black, R., 2004. Critical testing processes: plan, prepare, perform, perfect. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Professional.

Boyd, B. B., 1976. Management-minded supervision, second edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Brown, R., 2009. Careergonomics: A practical guide for mastering personal development and employment success in the 21st Century. Bloomington, IN: Author House.

Cameron, K. S. & Quinn, R. E., 2011. Diagnosing and changing organisational culture. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.

Contrell, S., 2010. Skills for success: The personal development planning handbook. Second edition. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Govindarajan, M. & Natarajan, S., 2005. Principles of management. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

Lunenburg, F. C. & Irby, B. J., 2005. The principalship: vision to action. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Mentzas, G., 2003. Knowledge asset management: beyond the process-centred and product centred approaches. London: Springer.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2006. Skills upgrading: new policy perspectives. Paris, France: OECD.

Rughani, A., 2001. The GP’s guide to personal development plan, Second edition. Macham Road, Abingdon: Radcliffe Publishing.

Sheldon, C. & Yoxon, M., 2002. Installing environmental management systems: A step-by-step guide. London, UK: Earthscan.

Streeter, W. T., 1994. Personal development plan: A guide to accomplishing your dreams. California, CA: Baypointe Publishing.

The Institute of Learning, 2009. Guidelines for your continuing professional development (CPD), [online]. Web.

US Government Printing Office, 1995. Occupational outlook handbook. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

While, R. & Attwood, M., 2000. Professional development: a guide for general practice. Dallas, TX: Wiley-Blackwell.

Young, G. C. et al, 2008. The talent development planning handbook: designing inclusive gifted programs. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.

Zwikael, O. & Smyrk, J., 2011. Project management for the creation of organisational value. New York, NY: Springer.

Introduction

An IDP (Individual Development Plan) is a tool that is essential for personal growth. As Abraham Maslow puts personal development is a desire to turn out to be more and more of yourself, to become everything that your potential can achieve. As such, a personal development plan helps an individual to scheme a plan to reach full potential. In that connection, this plan will outline a route path to being a competent manager of all times.

Management is a dynamic practice that requires skills and abilities that are also dynamic. This is due to various emerging organizational trends and issues, as well as the ever-changing behavior of human resources. In addition, with the changing world, roles and situations change prompting a need to concentrate on certain areas, and to draw a plan that provides direction for further training and advice.

The plan, should, therefore, not act as a sense of security in the management career path but it should be subjected to gradual review and updates. This will facilitate the incorporation of newly acquired skills and areas of weakness that need to be enhanced.

As a future manager, there are certain areas that require development. Some of the areas include; communicating, decision making, leadership, prioritizing, valuing and supporting others, motivating, analyzing, delegating and reporting.

On the other hand, areas that require skills like planning, monitoring, information management, problem solving, evaluating, consulting, reviewing, thinking strategically and presenting information represents the strengths that are evident in the development process of being a future manager. The plan will discuss these weaknesses and strengths in details later.

For a development management plan to be successful, it must stipulate the set career objective of the individual. In light of this, my career objectives are highlighted as. below.

Career objective

My primary career objective is to be part of a workforce dedicated to the achievement of organizational goals and objectives while providing an opportunity for skill enhancement and of ensuring that scarce resources within an organization are fully utilized and its management done appropriately.

The other secondary objectives include; to improve the body of knowledge and skills on areas that are critical in carrying out the roles and functions as a manager.

This will be in line with conducting research so as to establish the gap in skills and abilities that exist in the management arena. Furthermore, my other core objective is to be the leading manager nationally as well as globally in terms of management of human resources, innovation and creativity.

Management Strengths

My strengths in management are visible in areas that require skills like planning, monitoring, information management, problem solving, evaluating, consulting, reviewing, thinking strategically and presenting information. Planning is a major function in management. In light of this, I have skills and abilities in goal and objective setting. Goal and objective setting is a vital ingredient in any planning function.

This is coupled by the knowledge that I have in the planning process steps that involve; creating mission statement, assessing the current situation, stating goals, evaluating the gap between current position in goals, specifying assumptions about the future, creating the plan, implementing the plan, and eventually, evaluating the results.

Moreover, this is strengthen by the understanding of factors that influence planning such as technological development, market development, economic factors, financial resources and personnel resources (Rughani 91).

Monitoring and evaluation skills are necessary in any management function. As such, the skills that I have acquired in monitoring and evaluating of organizational performance indicate my ability and capability. The skills have been acquired both in class and through workshops and seminars that I have attended.

The other skills and abilities that I possess is the ability to solve problem. A considerable number of individuals spend a lot of energy and time in going around problems and less time in trying to solve the problem. As such, good problem solving abilities and skills empower managers both in their personal and professional lives. It is rare for problem solving skills to come naturally; rather they are nurtured and learnt.

Through the knowledge that I have acquired and my ability to deliberate with issues pointed out in the exercises, it gives me confidence to handle and solve any problem that may arise in an organization.

This I can achieve through developing innovative and creative solutions, developing practical solutions, applying a variety of strategies in solving problems, showing initiative and independence in problem identification and solving. To me every problem provides an opportunity for development, thus I should be keen in seeking solutions to the problems.

Strategically thinking is a crucial element in strategy formulation and execution. The process of strategy formulation entails looking at the organization’s grave issues as well as establishing how the strength and skills of the organization will aid in addressing the grave issues.

This will be coupled by brainstorming that will necessitate investigation and evaluation of the possible strategies. In that connection, it makes it necessary for me to employ the skills that I have in strategically thinking in strategy formulation, as well as its execution.

Information management is one of the strengths. Recent times have witnessed an increase in the utilization of modern technology in the provision of services in various sectors. One of the areas in which such technology has been useful is in human resource department.

The skills that I have in relation to technology and human resource computerized information system will be of immense help in maintaining human resource records of an organization.

Consultation together with reviewing existing policies and procedures are among the key skills and abilities of a manager. A manager needs to consult widely in relation to matters and issues of an organization.

This coupled with routine review of existing policies and procedures. In line with these noble skills, I can consult properly and carry out reviews with minimal difficulties or challenges. This forms part of my management strength that I foresee.

Likewise, in terms of information presentation I have a wealth of skills that can aid me conduct a good presentation of the company performance and future plans. This is strengthened by my speech eloquence and attractive voice.

My presentation is clear and audible, and by extension it is augmented by good report writing skills and research paper writing. The knowledge that I have gained in relation to research writing and format will be helpful in my presentations.

Management Weaknesses

Managers require nearly all the skills in order to perform their duties efficiently and in an effective way. However, a time they lack on some of the perquisite skills, as such as a manager to be, I have identified some of my weak points. According to me one of the weaknesses that I have is poor listening skills. This is evident by my often lack to ask clarity in issues I come across.

In light of this, research indicates that it is essential for managers to ask clarity questions to draw the ideas and opinions of employees. Most of the conversations that occur in an organization are an iterative process. This is a weakness that I find it difficult to admit, but most people argue that indeed I am a poor listener.

The other weakness is my continual demand for perfection. In everything, I do, I insist for perfection. As such, the demand for excellence is a bad thing in management since workers cannot do their work in perfection. The need for thorough job may ruin the morale of workers and damage relationships in the workplace.

This has creating an atmosphere of discomfort I have managed to it through using courteous language and apologizing. However, I am aware of the weakness I have found it difficult to tame it. To curb this problem I should develop requiring and relating skills, thus I will help workers to grow professionally, and at the same time deliver great results and performances.

Insights Gained from Management Exercises

Management is a function of an organization that is universal, purposeful, multidisciplinary, and a continuous process. With the changing global environment, the way management is done has also changed.

The exercises have enabled me to get an insight on certain actions such as; development of a marketing framework, that is, as a manager it is essential to identify customers for your products, as well as know how to market the services and products being produced in the organization. Management entails also the management of product and services.

More so, the other insight that I have gained is the need for a policy that covers the health and safety of the workers. When an organization has got an efficient and effective health and safety policy it stands to benefit from good health of workers. This is because the policy will help the organization curb against injuries, and at the same time strengthen the reputation of the organization among its suppliers and customers.

In addition, the exercises have helped me point out the need for having additional finances in the organization, as well as the selection of a number of finance sources and finance providers who will assist the organization in funding the proposed activities. Finance is a source of livelihood for the organization, and ensures smooth running of the business operations.

Moreover, there is also the need to encourage and nurture technological processes in the business. This means that the business should get the necessary technology and make sure that it utilizes it in a more profitable manner. Therefore, technology is a requisite for today business success, and as such, every manager including me should embrace new technologies.

The other insight I gained is how to manage a budget. It is necessary to prepare a budget and as such, it should be reconciled with the actual outcome of the operation. It is therefore, essential to capture unforeseen circumstances in the budget to gather for any inconveniences.

Areas that Need Development

As a future manager, there are certain areas that require development. Some of the areas include; communicating, decision making, leadership, prioritizing, valuing and supporting others, motivating, analyzing, delegating and reporting.

The areas that I have identified need some improvement to polish up the necessary skills and abilities. As such, I should focus more on developing them through learning and undertaking personal actions. These areas indicate the abilities and skills that are deficient and need to be improved.

As a future manager, it is essential to identify such areas as earlier as possible so that before the actual time, I will be well equipped to face the challenges and difficulties that accompany these management operations.

The deficiencies do not imply a point of weakness, but a point that need to be strengthened and enhanced. The development of these skills should be put in an order of preference, and in line with inter-linkages that are present in them.

Most of the managers who register poor results do not address their areas of need, and as such, they blame their employees for poor performance. It is essential to point out these areas so as plan for a training program that will address the deficiency, and at the same time learn new ways and methods of performing those tasks. It is, therefore, necessary for me to register for further training on these areas.

Personal Actions

From the areas identified above that need to be developed further, I need get some advice and brush up on certain skills that will enable me perform these tasks with excellence. These are some of the personal actions that I will take to improve skills and abilities.

The first action is to encourage innovation in the organization. In case of excellent performance in this, I will be able to make certain that an innovation strategy that is well communicated and align with the overall objective of the organization exist.

Motivate individuals within the organization to come up with viable ideas for new services and product development; ensure availability of resources such as time for idea generation, idea development and idea testing.

Moreover, evaluate business plans and cases as well as approving those, which are viable and at the same time monitor their progress. In that light, I should ensure that developers and originators of any ideas are recognized for their achievement (Daft 67).

In order to improve further, there is need to seek advice on how to design a business strategy, techniques for identifying and implementing opportunities. There is also the need to identify and manage risks and how to give a constructive feedback concerning ideas to individuals and teams.

It’s important also to establish how to evaluate development plans, as well as business cases, and finally, how to put in place systems necessary for reporting and measuring to relevant parties.

The second action is to plan change. This will result in excellent performance that will equip me with skills such as the ability to assess the gap present in the current and anticipated state of procedures, structures, systems and roles.

Other actions includes the ability to assess the benefits and risks associated with plans and strategies as well as come up with contingency arrangements, ability to ensure that plans comprise of short-run wins and long-run deliverables.

The the ability to develop systems that are useful in monitoring and evaluating progress is also another one including the ability to build up a communication strategy that facilitate proper feedback; and the ability to identify support and training needs and at the same time plan how to accomplish those needs.

In order to record improvement, it may be necessary to seek advice concerning; the main methods and models that can be used to manage change effectively; effective techniques for planning; theory as well as application of performance curve or change; and how to understand teams behavior and team building techniques.

The third line of action is to lead change.

A proper accomplishment of this task will lead to the attainment of skills and abilities such as being able to communicate my future vision, the need for the change and at the same time the benefits associated with the change; ensure that planners and implementers of change identify with their responsibilities; set and organize in order of priority the objectives for change; identifying and communicating properly the strategies that will be utilized in achieving change; communicate progress and at the same time celebrate achievement; and identify and provide solutions to impediments of change.

For an improvement in this area, it is also prudent to seek advice on the main methods and models that are necessary for an organizational change as well as their weaknesses and strengths. Advice is also required in application and principles of risk assessment, how to employ different behaviors and leadership styles for varying situations and the resource.

Others are bureaucratic and political barriers to change, and the ways to deal with such barriers, how to apply the different forms of communication in dissimilar situations; and the expectations of the shareholders as well as their influence on the process of change.

The fourth action is to manage a program of projects. This action will ensure acquisition of certain abilities and skills such as, being able to ascertain that everyone involved in the program can link the program to the strategic targets.

Considering all important needs and at the same time translate targets into efficient, effective and practical actions and ensuring that every individual is certain of the program’s critical aspects are other actions.

There are also the ways of dealing with contingencies; control and monitor the program in order to achieve the stipulated objectives in terms of time and budget; make recommendations that points out good practice together with areas that need improvement; and finally, inform everyone involved on essential issue and at the same time the outcome of having the program practically.

In order to record improvement, I will seek advice on; the difference between program and project management, as well as the role that a program manager plays; techniques, tools, processes and principles for managing programs; the techniques, methods and basic principles of overall quality management; how to assess, monitor, plan, motivate and manage people; how to evaluate and manage risk; and ways of managing change within programs and projects of an organization.

The firth action is to implement change.

A successful accomplishment of this task will mean that I am able to; create a vision plus all supportive targets and operational plans, as well; communicate regularly by use of all different forms of communication; come up with different leadership styles and utilize them to appropriate people and situations; support and advice community members especially in terms of change and setback; and encourage individuals to pioneer and show willingness in their area of expertise.

In order to improve further, advice can be sought on; how to design a vision which is compelling within a given area of responsibility; how to source for and utilize feedback from people; types of challenges and difficulties that may arise and how to overcome them; and how to create and maintain, as well as the benefits of a culture that boost innovation and creativity.

Summary and Conclusions

This personal development plan is a tool that will smooth the progress of development as a manager. The accomplishment of this plan should be guided by timelines that must be adhered to and followed to the later. The development in skills and abilities should both be learned and nurtured coupled with a sign of willingness.

The weaknesses must be translated to strengths and opportunities that will propel the achievement of business targets and mission. Given the nature of the plan, it should be personalized and internalized in order for it to fetch the required outcome. Personal actions and advice are also necessary for the total achievement of the requisite skills and abilities.

In conclusion, it is of essence for any trainer undertaking management to prepare a guideline that will ensure that he or she develop the necessary skills in the line of responsibility. This will help in developing a career path that is successful because of the knowledge and insights that anyone gain from brainstorming the necessities for a whole round manager.

Works Cited

Daft, Richard L. Management. New York: South-Western, 2011. Print.

Rughani, Amar. The GP’s guide to personal development plans. Abingdon: Radcliffe Publishing, 2001. Print.

Appendix

Exercises Performed and Summary of Results

Introduction

Zain is one of the largest telecommunication companies in the Middle East. Over the past two decades, the firm has managed to become the regional leader in the telecommunication industry. Its success has arisen from appreciation of best management practices. One of the aspects that the firm has incorporated in its strategic management practices entails becoming the employer of choice in the region. Thus, the firm is cognizant of the importance of developing its workforces’ talents.

As one of the firm’s managers, I am charged with responsibility of leading a team of 6 employees. The line manager has requested for a personal development plan prior to the firm’s annual appraisal. The personal development plan will form the basis upon which the firm will undertake talent development.

In this paper, a personal development plan [PDP] is outlined. The objective of a PDP is to detail the various activities that an individual intends to undertake in order to improve his or her talent, knowledge, health, and employability hence promoting one’s career. A discussion of the skills that I intend to develop in the course of executing my duties is given. This has been attained by ensuring that the intended personal development objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

An implementation plan for the identified personal development objectives has been developed. The resources and processes necessary for the implementation plan and the impact of the PDP on achievement of role requirements and organizational objectives are assessed. Moreover, the contribution of staff welfare responsibilities towards attainment of the overall organizational objective is discussed. A discussion on the relationship between staff welfare and organizational objectives and the process of assessing the staff welfare are conducted.

Finally, identification of actions to be taken by the manager in dealing with staff welfare issues , the method of communicating responsibilities to staff members and the records should be maintained to demonstrate that staff welfare is supported are explained.

Personal development plan

As an employee of Zain, I intend to develop a number of skills that will enhance attainment of my career as a manager. In the course of the year, I intend to focus on five main competence areas which include ability to understand internal and external business environment, leadership and people skills, planning and analytical skills, communication and influencing skills and leading and managing skills. The chart below illustrates the SMART framework outlining the personal development goals identified.

Implementation of the personal development plan

To achieve the outlined personal development objectives, a comprehensive implementation plan is necessary. The identified personal development objectives are paramount in my effort to attain my self-actualization goal. Thus, it is paramount for an effective implementation plan to be incorporated. The implementation plan details the action that will be undertaken with respect to the identified goal and the resources necessary ensure that the goal is attained. Additionally, the expected duration within which the identified action is expected to be completed has been outlined.

With regard to managing and leading change, more emphasis will be put on how to ensure effective and timely communication of the intended change to team members. The communication will be undertaken in such a manner that it does not impact the employees’ productivity negatively. As a result, possible resistance of the intended change by the employees will be minimized. To effectively develop this skill, the services of the line manager will be required. Alternatively, the firm can also decide to outsource the training services without. Duration of 3 months will be sufficient for the training.

To improve my ability to communicate and influence the team members in their duties, I will be required to develop effective collaboration skills. Additionally, I will also ensure that I develop sufficient teamwork and presentation skills. Some of the aspects that I will focus on relate to influencing the employees’ attitude towards their duties and colleagues positively. On the other hand, I will ensure that I develop a high level of interaction and coordination amongst the employees. To improve the likelihood of success in influencing the employees, I will ensure that I possess effective people skills. Some of the skills that I will consider include listening skills, speaking skills, negotiation skills and being a team member. Additionally, I will also ensure that the team members’ feelings towards work and personal issues are sufficiently addressed. This will go a long way in enhancing collaboration.

As one of the organizational managers, I am appreciative of the changes occurring within the telecommunication industry in the region. Consequently, I will ensure that I lead the team members in such a manner that they are also cognizant of market changes. To develop my leadership skills, I will consider adopting transformational leadership skills. One of the aspects that I will ensure entails giving the team leaders an opportunity to execute challenging tasks. This will culminate in development of a high level of job satisfaction amongst the team members. Thus, the likelihood of the team members being more productive hence attaining team roles will be increased.

To develop sufficient leadership skills, it is necessary that I attend local events organized on leadership. Thus, the firm will be required to allocate sufficient time and financial resources to facilitate attendance of such leadership conferences. This will increase the probability of gathering more skills on how to develop transformational leadership skills.

Ensuring that the team members comprehensively understand the perspective and purpose of their roles is essential in attainment of overall organizational goals. Poor communication is one of the major hindrances in attainment of organizational goals. This arises from the fact that the team members are left unclear on the relationship between their respective team roles and overall organizational goals. Thus, I will ensure that I incorporate effective communication and presentation skills. Thus, an effective communication tools will be required. Some of the communication and presentation tools that will be considered include intranet systems and PowerPoint presentation tools. Incorporating these tools will ensure a high level of interaction between the manager and the team members thus creating sufficient understanding of respective team roles, duties and responsibilities.

By promoting effective communication within the team, the probability of a high collaboration between the team members will be developed. One of the major benefits of creating such interaction is that it will culminate in creation of synergy within the team. The conducive team environment arising from employee collaboration will enhance knowledge sharing amongst the team members. This means that team members will benefit from each other hence improving their level of satisfaction and productivity hence promoting the organization’s overall performance.

In the course of executing my managerial duties, I am cognizant of the fact that the team may experience a number of issues emanating from the staff. Consequently, an effective mechanism to identify such issues is necessary. The mechanism to be used will entail assessing the level of collaboration; knowledge sharing and identification of possible conflict amongst employees will be instituted.

The level of collaboration will be evaluated by assessing the team members’ interaction patterns. As a result, it will be possible to determine whether the interaction is healthy or there is alienation of some team members. Such a behavior may result in poor performance amongst the alienated team members due to lack of job satisfaction.

On the other hand, effective conflict management mechanisms will be integrated. One of the conflict resolution mechanisms that will be incorporated entails integrating constructive-cooperative conflict management. This will be attained by creating a pro-social environment whereby all the team members discuss their individual views regarding team goals, mission and tasks. This will play a critical role in establishing a common ground for executing the various tasks thus minimizing future conflicts. The resultant effect is that a positive team identity will be established. Moreover, creating such an environment will play a critical role in promoting creativity, innovation and knowledge transfer.

As the manager, I will ensure that interpersonal incompatibilities amongst team members do not result in disagreements that might injure the possibility of future cooperation. This will play a significant role in eliminating task conflicts hence promoting divergent views and opinions that are vital in the survival of the team. Additionally, the manager will also ensure that relationship conflicts do not adversely affect the team’s operation. This will be attained by resolving interpersonal disagreements such as animosity amongst team members, annoyance and possible tension. This will aid in minimizing anxiety and stress levels amongst team members which can adversely affect team members’ performance.

Being a team leader, I appreciate the fact that my actions should contribute towards development of each team member. To undertake effective employee development, it is vital for an organization to conduct a comprehensive employee appraisal. To aid in the process of undertaking the same, I will ensure that a comprehensive record on team members’ performance in their respective tasks and responsibilities is maintained. The record will detail a number of aspects such as the effectiveness and degree of success with which individual team members complete their tasks. Additionally, a record on the team members’ effectiveness in collaborating and sharing knowledge with other team members will be maintained. Such records will play an important role in the process of the firm undertaking its annual employee appraisal.

Conclusion

As a manager, I realize that the labor market has become very competitive over the past few decades. Consequently, it is paramount for one to ensure that he or she is competitive. One of the ways through which this can be attained is by focusing on personal development. Thus, the importance of designing a personal development plan cannot be underestimated. By implementing the above personal development plan, the probability of attaining my career and professional goals will be improved. This arises from the fact that I will be able to focus on specific areas that I consider most important in my role as a manager and team leader. By focusing on the aforementioned personal development goals, the likelihood of becoming more effective and efficient in undertaking my leadership roles will be improved.

To ensure that the personal development goals identified are achieved, I will ensure that a continuous review on the progress of each goal is conducted. The review will be undertaken after every 3 months in order to identify possible deviations. This will create an opportunity to make the necessary adjustments.

Prior Knowledge and Experience with the Module’s Key Concepts and Themes

The module that is discussed in this paper is devoted to the international business phenomenon. While I would not say that I had been unaware of it, I had never specifically studied it and hardly had ever contemplated it before I took up the module. International business (and business in general) is typically not regarded as a topic that is necessary for a healthcare worker, but I tend to think that knowledge in this sphere can be most helpful for a healthcare administration worker, which is my goal in the future. As a result of the lack of prior knowledge, my personal perspectives on the topics and concepts of the module are conditioned by the module materials as well as those that I discovered when working on PDPs, which is why I will be referring to several scholarly works to explain and support my opinion.

Personal Perspectives and Assumptions around Key Module Topics

Central to the topics of the module is the concept of globalization, and it is of direct consequence for me since without this level of cooperation and communication between the countries of the world, I might have been deprived of the possibility move to the Middle East. What is notable (and interesting) about globalization is its relationships with multinational companies that can be classified as the mutual influence which, on the one hand, enables the companies to exist, expand, and receive competitive advantages and, on the other hand, solidifies globalization processes (Rugman & Collinson, 2012).

Also, globalization is a very complex phenomenon that has both positive and negative consequences, and this module showed me that despite this ambiguity, globalization is not a positive or negative occurrence, but rather a fact of the modern world.

Another important topic of the module is the concept of competitive advantage, which is of significance for any business. In my opinion, the competition to win customers’ loyalty is capable of improving our services and quality of life. For example, it spurs the development and implementation of technologies that work towards the enhancements of quality and speed of service (Meijers 2014).

A phenomenon that also proves the beneficial nature of competition and that was also discussed during this module is the corporate social responsibility (Rugman & Collinson 2012). To be honest, business ethics has been a relatively controversial topic throughout the existence of this term (Windsor 2015), but nowadays definite improvements are visible in the field. For example, it is common for large multinational companies to get involved in projects that are aimed at resolving global issues, and an example is the IBM company with its efforts to combat HIV (2014 IBM Corporate Responsibility Report 2014).

In fact, nowadays, business ethics is a full-fledged discipline that searches for precedents, guides, and tools that could aid managers in resolving ethical dilemmas (Small 2011; Zydziunaite, Lepaite & Suominen 2013). I think that its discoveries will be of use for me when I hold a managerial position.

Finally, the module also proceeds to discuss leadership, leadership roles, and the challenges of leadership in the context of multinational companies. This topic is in line with my Goal Three that is related to becoming a capable administrator. For me, leadership will always be a very significant topic, in particular, because it is of great value for my practice. I tend to think that to become a successful leader, it is necessary to keep learning throughout one’s life, and the examples of business leadership in international business are likely to provide some lessons, especially since, as I had mentioned, there are similarities in leadership roles between business and healthcare administration.

My Practice and the Key Module Topics

The topics that were mentioned in this module and above are applicable to my sphere of practice. I am currently working as an expatriate healthcare worker, and I think that I can apply some of the mentioned concepts to my everyday activities. For instance, competitive advantages are also of consequence for hospitals’ development. Naturally, we strive to improve the safety and quality of healthcare and service mostly for the sake of the maintenance of the health of the population.

In a way, I think, it is possible to state that we ‘compete’ with ourselves to continuously exceed our own previous results. However, hospitals and other healthcare institutions also need to compete with other providers (Sheng et al. 2013): if they are public, they compete for funding, and if they are private, they try to win the customers’ loyalty. In my opinion, the typical outcome of the competition, which I mentioned above, is especially beneficial in the sphere of healthcare: the service is getting better, the customer safety and satisfaction grow, and we also grow and develop as we learn to provide better care, achieve better outcomes, and improve the life of our society. Similarly, it is the competition that fuels our movement towards technological developments that are capable of increasing the speed and quality of our work (Meijers 2014), which is especially significant since modern healthcare becomes increasingly dependent on technology (Adenuga, Kekwaletswe & Coleman 2015; Virgona 2015).

An example of this development is the concept of eHealth, which covers all the applications of information technologies in healthcare from electronic health records to e-commerce, which is also an option for healthcare as it is for any other business (Adenuga, Kekwaletswe & Coleman 2015).

Another topic of the module, leadership is also being discussed very closely in healthcare since the responsibilities of healthcare workers and their leaders require exceptional leadership skills (Zydziunaite, Lepaite & Suominen 2013). We are championing the ideas of transformational and shared leadership (Gabel 2013; Somboonpakorn & Kantabutra 2014), but we also recognize the difficulties of leadership as well as the fact that there is hardly any universal recipe for it, which is why additional information on the topic is most important to me as a future healthcare administrator.

Strategies to Achieve my Plans

My plans for the future are connected to business and international business in a certain way: I am setting up a new hospital in the Middle East, and, given my background, that of the country, and my plans for the future, this practice is likely to be correlated with this module’s concepts. The module is only loosely connected to my First Professional Development Goal, which is rather narrow and mostly focused on healthcare competencies, but the Third one deals with the administrator role, which means that business topics are very useful for it in the majority of cases.

Here, the module can be classified as the exploratory and educational part of the professional development strategy that involves reviewing relevant literature, taking notes, and learning new information on management and business. In this respect, my PDPs are also very helpful: they allow me to synthesize this new knowledge, which otherwise would be overwhelming and hardly manageable, and even apply it to real-life examples like the IBM company or the case of e-commerce, which I regarded closely in the context of business. Now I am planning to connect this concept to the sphere of healthcare, which I began to with the help of the article by Adenuga, Kekwaletswe, and Coleman (2015).

The module is naturally connected to activities that develop my core skills, and even though I will not claim that I have greatly improved during the course of one module, the cumulative effect of writing, communicating, and researching is noticeable. In this respect, my education is a part of my plan for personal development. Apart from that, I intend to proceed to work with my weaknesses, and in this respect, my communicative skills (primarily, temperance in communication) are being developed.

Also, when searching for information on business ethics, I discovered the work of Small (2011) who is applying the terms of ancient philosophers to the challenge of ethical conduct in the sphere of business and management. In particular, the author dwelled on concepts like wisdom and temperance. I plan to work through this paper and, possibly, search for more literature that discusses this approach. In my opinion, the fusion of ethics and philosophy has a great potential, which can be expanded by researching other philosophers, including more modern ones, to provide an international and intertemporal picture of philosophy and ethics. Also, my personal interest in temperance might be contributing to this intent.

Finally, I tend to think that there is no such thing as excessive knowledge. This module provided me with the opportunity of gaining a deeper insight into the workings of the world that surrounds me, and I plan to apply it to my practice whenever needed, especially with respect to competitive advantage, technological advancement promotion, and leadership. Also, I do not know what opportunities will present themselves to me, and I do not rule out the possibility of changing my plans after some time of being a health care manager. As a result, I am not certain that I will not be directly involved in the international business at a point of time in the future.

Potential Areas for Personal Development and Growth

From the point of view of personal development, I mostly adhere to my previous strategies of core skills improvement and knowledge expansion. In particular, the international business module contains a number of topics that are of universal importance and interest, and I believe that I might benefit from personal development in these areas of knowledge. Naturally, my personal development is linked to the professional one: in particular, my interests are connected to healthcare, which directs my usual research and defines the background knowledge that I use to assimilate the new one.

Also, I tend to think that a knowledgeable manager who is politically, socially, economically, and educationally aware with respect to global events is likely to be more valued as an employee and more successful as a leader. As a result, I see the potential areas of development in proceeding to discover more information on topics of interest (for example, leadership) with the help of the module and considering its application to healthcare administration. These exercises can also assist me in practicing research, synthesis, and analysis. Therefore, the module and its topics offer me an opportunity of educational growth, which, as I have mentioned, I plan to use.

Reference List

2014 IBM Corporate Responsibility Report 2014. Web.

Adenuga, O, Kekwaletswe, R & Coleman, A 2015, ‘eHealth integration and interoperability issues: towards a solution through enterprise architecture’, Health Information Science and Systems, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-8, via EBSCOhost database.

Gabel, S 2013, ‘Transformational Leadership and Healthcare’, Medical Science Educator, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 55-60.

Meijers, H 2014, ‘Does the internet generate economic growth, international trade, or both?’, International Economics & Economic Policy, 11, 1/2, pp. 137-163.

Rugman, A. & Collinson, S 2012, International business, New York: Pearson.

Sheng, M, Chang, S, Teo, T & Lin, Y 2013, ‘Knowledge barriers, knowledge transfer, and innovation competitive advantage in healthcare settings’, Management Decision, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 461-478.

Small, M 2011, ‘Developing wisdom and moral duty in management’, Journal of Management Development, vol. 30, no. 9, pp. 836-846.

Somboonpakorn, A & Kantabutra, S 2014, ‘Shared leadership and shared vision as predictors for team learning process, synergy and effectiveness in healthcare industry’, International Journal of Innovation and Learning, vol. 16, no. 4, p. 384.

Virgona, T 2015, ‘Towards an epistemological understanding of healthcare informatics; academic backgrounds of the faculty’, Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, vol. 10, no. 1-2, pp. 1-5.

Windsor, D 2015, ‘Economic Rationality and a Moral Science of Business Ethics’, Philosophy of Management, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 135-149.

Zydziunaite, V, Lepaite, D & Suominen, T 2013, ‘Leadership styles in ethical dilemmas when head nurses make decisions’, International Nursing Review, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 228-235.

Introduction

Motivating employees is a crucial and complicated task for managers. However, employee motivation is an important tool for achieving organizational goals. Therefore, without motivation, it is difficult to complete organizational tasks. Often, people have regarded money as the greatest motivator for employees, but money only motivates people to a limited extent. Therefore, managers may use other motivational methods to motivate their teams. This paper explores some of these motivational methods, in the context of an organization that is undergoing restructuring (downsizing). Therefore, the motivational approaches for this paper apply to an organizational restructuring context where a manager prepares employees to embrace a set of proposed organizational restructuring strategies.

Leading by Example

Westwood (2010) says that motivation starts with leaders. Indeed, motivating employees, by example, is perhaps the most effective method that most employees can learn from their managers. Westwood (2010) also says that great leaders should demonstrate effective leadership through their actions. Her view stems from the fact that about 80% of organizational actions stem from only 20% of the actions that most managers demonstrate (Westwood, 2010).

Therefore, those managers who fail to motivate their employees often fail to pay attention to their actions. Consequently, Westwood (2010) advises managers to pursue several strategies of improving their actions, as a way to motivate their employees.

Some of her suggestions include focusing on long-term goals, being self-aware of their actions, and focusing on activities that provide good results, as opposed to those that do not exhibit the same results (Westwood, 2010). In her view, the best leaders are consistent, always try to improve what they do, and always strive to be the best they can be. In the same context, Westwood (2010) suggests that those managers who fail to motivate their employees should not blame the employees, but instead, act positively as leaders.

Comprehensively, if managers demonstrate a strong commitment to do their best work in the organization, they are bound to have the same effect on their employees. Similarly, if managers act like they are not motivated to do their best work, their negative work attitude is bound to rub off negatively on their employees as well. Therefore, in the context of this paper, it is crucial for managers to exude excitement about the proposed restructuring efforts in the organization. Through their positive attitudes, the employees will also find a reason to be positive about the organization changes as well.

Connecting Employee Efforts with Organizational Growth

It is important to draw the link between employee contribution and the overall growth of an organization. For example, managers may show their employees practical examples of how employee contribution supports organizational growth. More specifically, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) say it is crucial for managers to show how the organization benefits when an employee excels in a certain task. For example, as the organization undergoes its restructuring exercise, the managers may demonstrate to the employees the importance of the restructuring exercise, and their roles in the process. For instance, the managers may show the employees that the company’s downsizing strategy aims to improve the corporate environmental performance of the organization.

The employees may therefore see that the overall goal is beneficial for the organization and their well-being as well. This way, the employees may understand the link between their roles, the roles of the managers, and the overall performance of the organization. Therefore, they will find a sense of purpose and direction regarding the overall growth of the organization. This will equally give them a strong sense of motivation to work.

Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) supported the above assertions through a research study, which explored the implications of meaningfulness to improved organizational performance. In the study, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) found that positive psychological experiences and employee creativity improved when employees understood that their work in the organization was purposeful, engaging, and significant.

The above understanding has received immense support from previous studies that showed the willingness of people to derive meaning from their lives and work. Therefore, if people do not see how their efforts work to fulfill an overall “good” in the organization, they get demoralized to work. Regarding this assertion, Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli (2009) say, “Meaningfulness in the workplace helps shape individuals’ motivations and augments by promoting a sense of growth in the workplace” (p. 361).

The claim for the above assertion traces its roots to the identity and social identity theories. These theories exemplify the need to belong to a specific group of social identity (Cohen-Meitar & Carmeli, 2009). The theories also demonstrate that the social categories where employees work greatly influence their motivation levels and work perceptions.

Through the above understanding, it is easy to see how employees derive meaning from their performances because “meaning” manifests when the personal identities of the employees merge with organizational performance, or their membership to an organization. As described above, it is the duty of managers to define the meaningfulness of work so that the employees become motivated from the perceived prestige of working for the organization. This may happen when the managers connect employee efforts with organizational growth.

Coaching and Training

Helping employees to understand what they are supposed to do with the organization, and what the managers expect from them, is also an important step in boosting employee morale. If the managers address the individual needs of employees in the organization, such as their expectations of every employee, they support the career growth of the employees, thereby having a positive impact on how the employees feel about their work.

Zuyderduin & Obuni (2010) say it is very difficult for employees to remain motivated at work if they do not completely understand what the managers expect of them. The importance of coaching and training has sufficed through different studies. For example, Zuyderduin & Obuni (2010) say that coaching and training prove to have a positive impact on improving nursing retention rates in Uganda and improving the quality of care in the same regard.

The same study established that in a developing country like Uganda, an increase in wages did not primarily motivate the nurses; instead, the opportunity for professional development motivated the nurses (Zuyderduin & Obuni, 2010). Coaching and training therefore provide an example of professional development opportunities for employees. Through this analogy, pursuing career-enriching practices, like coaching and training, improves employee motivation.

Conclusion

After weighing the findings of this paper, the role of managers in motivating employees surface as the most important criterion for realizing impressive human resource performance. The roles of managers in coaching, mentoring, leading, and linking employee performance with organizational growth stand at the center of employee motivation. It is therefore prudent for managers to focus on employee development needs and career growth needs as they exemplify the importance of organizational restructuring, and the roles of the employees in such an exercise. This way, the employees will be motivated to work harder to achieve the organizational goals.

References

Cohen-Meitar, R. & Carmeli, A. (2009). Linking Meaningfulness in the Workplace to Employee Creativity: The Intervening Role of Organizational Identification and Positive Psychological Experiences. Creativity Research Journal, 21(4), 361–375.

Westwood, C. (2010). Leading by Example to Aid Personal Development. Nursing Management, 17(2), 22-23.

Zuyderduin, A. & Obuni, J. (2010). Strengthening the Uganda nurses’ and Midwives’ Association for a Motivated Workforce. International Nursing Review, 57(3), 419–425.

Identification and Overview of the Instructional Program

• The organization uses Personal Development Instructional Program (PDIP);
• Builds on the skills of individual organizational personnel;
• The acquired personal skills are assets to the organization.

It has been established that the organization applies the personal development instructional program that aims to improve the skills of individual members of the organization. The improvement of skills is expected to have critical implications on the performance of the organization since the capability of organizational members enables them to perform their tasks with proficiency and efficiency.

PDIP is based on four aspects:

• Planning;
• Designing;
• Implementing;
• Measuring.

The PDIP is based on four aspects of instructional processes, including planning, designing, implementing and measuring the impact of the program in accordance to the performance of the learners. Planning is associated with the identification of the concepts being learned, definition of context, analysis of the audience and stipulation of the aims of the study. The designing part is meant to come up with the content which enables the achievement of the stipulated objectives. After designing, the content and plan are implemented to instill the skills on the learners. Lastly, the program requires the assessment of the progress in order to determine whether the process is beneficial or not.

Analysis of the Program

Scope of the Program

• Changing Skills;
• Career Development Skills;
• Communication Skills;
• Interpersonal Relationship at work;
• Business Social Skills.

The personal development program for the organization is meant to instill various general skills such as change management, career development, communication skills, interpersonal socialization, and business social skills among others. In this case, it is evident that these skills help the organization to improve the members’ proficiency with regards to how they handle the clients.

• Personal Assessment;
• Decision-Making Skills;
• Stress Management.

Personal assessment skills enable the members to understand the importance of identifying their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, they are equipped with critical skills of decision making in order to facilitate their decision making capabilities. Stress at work is also tackled in this program in order to equip the members with the required skills of managing stress and hence increasing their output.

Methodology of Personal Development

The program is based on a ladder-like process of learning. This ladder includes various undertaking such as multiple lessons to ensure continuity, designing content in a manner that enables the increment of skills, and practical application of theoretical knowledge. In addition, the process recommends the involvement of managers in the learning process in order to provide role modeling. This is reinforced by the creation of learning teams in order to facilitate sharing of ideas.

Theories Underpinning PDIP

• Experiential Learning Theory;
• Observational Learning;
• Constructivist Theory;
• Environmentalist Theory of Learning;
• Maturationist Theory of Learning and Skills Acquisition.

Having analyzed the instructional program applied by the organization, it is evident that experiential observational, constructivist, environmentalists, and maturationist theories have been applied in the organizational learning processes. As such, these theories have been integrated in various ways as shown in the next several slides.

Theoretical Integration

Experiential Learning

• The organization members acquire skills by engaging in tasks.
• Repetition of skills lead to improvement.
• Members work together to acquire inter-professional skills.

In the organization , it is evident that the members learn a lot of skills by engaging in the performance of various tasks actively. Essentially, it is noted that members acquire skills progressively as they continue being exposed to the tasks. In fact, it is critical to notice that according to experiential learning, the learners become more proficient and effective with increase in experience (Reynolds, 2009).

Observational Learning Theory

• Junior members are allowed to work with seniors to observe.
• Their skills increase with increased exposure.
• Behaviors in decision making change as they continue interacting their colleagues.

Observational learning is a first-hand method of learning in which learners are expected to make observation and use them as the basis of approaching future tasks (Elen & Kariv, 2010). This is applied when teaching learners about decision making and business social skills. By observing the managers when making decisions, the learners obtain a general insight on how decision should be made or how to interact with people in business sociology.

Constructivist Theory

• It is based on preparedness.
• Members are allowed to interact with organizational processes.
• The members are active participants in most of the undertakings.
• Builds on members understanding about the organization.

The constructivist theory is based on the fact learners acquire skills once they interact with the environment (Marinkovic, 2011). In that regard, the organization has committed to involve members in undertaking critical activities. For example, they are involved in decision making in order to train them on how they should make basic decisions in their working station.

Environmentalist Theory of Learning

• The organization uses it environment to facilitate learning.
• It has set rules and regulation.
• Members respond to those regulations and hence understands the ideologies of the organization.

The learning program has been built on set of rules and regulation which is one of the aspects of a learning environment (Case, 2012). In that regard, the learners are bound to respond the regulations in order to achieve the set objectives. With the mentioned responses, the learners can acquire skills through conditioning. As such, it is evident that the environmentalist theory of learning has been implemented.

Maturationist Theory of Learning

• The program classifies members according to their years of service to the organization.
• The classification is in compliance with maturationist theory.
• The theory is based on the fact that people acquire skills naturally as the time of exposure increases (Jerome, 2009).

In this regard, it was established that the members have been ranked according to their skills and the number of years they have served in the organization. The classification based on years of service is in line with the maturationist theory of learning. In essence, this theory indicates that people acquire skills naturally as the time of exposure and involvement increases.

Recommendation of Theories

Cognitive Load Theory

• The organization needs to apply this theory in their PDIP.
• It instills skills in accordance to brain architecture (Kirschner, 2009).
• As such, different people should be exposed to different skills according to their cognitive capability and orientation.

This theory will be of great help to the organization due to various reasons. First, it recommends the organization to train members according to their cognitive capability. If some members are oriented towards technological interests, they should be exposed to tasks that enable them to acquire more technological skills.

Operant Learning

• The organization should facilitate learning by consequence.
• Positive consequence is better in this case.
• Awards should be provided to members of extemporary performance.

This theory should be integrated in the program to facilitate the appreciation of good performance and correspondent reaction to reluctance. As such, learners who register good performance should be awarded promotion or increase in salaries in order to motivate all members to acquire more skills. As such, it facilitates competition that enables the employees to acquire more skills and help the company to become more efficient in the long run (Whitney, 2009).

Inter-professional Learning Theory

• The organization should allow different members to interact and share ideas.
• Development of new ideas and strategies will arise.
• It is the basis of innovation.

This theory advocates for the multi-professional learning and training of learners such that the members will enjoy the opportunity of sharing ideas in order to improve the organizational processes. Multi-Professional learning has been proven as one of the determinants of innovation and creativity.

Conclusion

• The organization applied the Personal Development Instructional Program.
• They apply the Experiential learning, observational and constructivist theory among others.
• However, they should integrate the cognitive, operant and inter-professional theories.
• Innovation, objectivity and motivation.

References

Case, R. (2012). Theories Of Learning And Theories Of Development. Educational Psychologist,17(9), 219-233.

Elen, H., & Kariv, S. (2010). An experimental test of observational learning under imperfect information. Economic Theory,18(6), 677- 699.

Jerome, L. (2009). Ways of learning: Learning theories and learning styles in the classroom. European Journal of Teacher Education,15(8), 219-221.

Kirschner, P. (2009). Cognitive load theory: Implications of cognitive load theory on the design of learning. Learning and Instruction,7(2), 1-10.

Marinkovic, D. (2011). Sociology and constructivist perspective: Sociological theory and constructivist meta-theory. Developmental Psychology and Learning,13(6), 109-124.

Reynolds, M. (2009). Wild Frontiers Reflections on Experiential Learning. Management Learning,9(6), 387-392.

Whitney, L. (2009). Operant Learning Theory. Nursing Research,7(3), 234-229.

Introduction

The sustainable development of businesses is important to ensure the continued well-being of the planet. However, the cornerstone of any sustainable policy is individual sustainability. Without an understanding of the benefits of this lifestyle, a person cannot properly enact change. Therefore, it is important to educate the individual on how to make their households more sustainable. It is the hope of this project to inform individual consumers of the impact they can make on their lives and why they should choose to be sustainable. This, ideally, will have the effect of exciting people to pursue sustainability, leading to innovation and greater change. Furthermore, instilling sustainability in the consumer audience significantly influences businesses through alterations of preference. For example, in the food sector, educating customers about sustainability can increase the chances of a business introducing changes aimed at improving sustainability without regard to customer preferences. Thus, different grocery store chains have already implemented sustainability by introducing composting systems and improving packaging. At the same time, consumers continue to choose food options that negatively influence the environment, such as sugar, chocolate, and palm oil. Focusing on personal sustainable development can help clients improve their business sustainability and communicate sustainability efforts to consumers.

Defining Sustainable Development and its Three Key Pillars

First, it is important to understand what sustainability and sustainable development are. The commonly-used definition comes from the UN World Commission on Environment and Development (TWI, n.d.). Their broad-scope definition of sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (TWI, n.d., para. 1). In general, there are three prominent areas of sustainability, which include environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Economic sustainability revolves minimizing production risks and their environmental impact. This is most typically seen with large companies that have to recycle their products and use renewable materials in their productions in order to decrease the damage they do to the environment (Greenly, n.d.). However, the practices of reusing, reducing, and recycling can be applied to any household and even to an individual’s product consumption.

The area of social sustainability focuses on promoting and upholding values of fairness, respect, and inclusivity. In order to decrease the need for non-sustainable development, this pillar seeks to combat discrimination, support equality, promote solidarity among people, and improve the work environment (Greenly, n.d.). There are many facets of the social pillar, ranging from fighting for global social rights to advocating for transparency in the workplace. The environmental pillar of sustainable development talks about reducing the negative impact on one’s habitat. This can be done by preserving non-renewable resources, reducing one’s carbon footprint, and – like the economic sustainability – reusing resources to avoid wasting them (Greenly, n.d.). Doing so helps keep the environment in the state it is now.

Large change begins with a small effort of an individual person or group. Personal sustainability – that is, sustainability practices of individual people – takes up half of the entire cosmos of sustainability (Parodi & Tamm, 2019). It is an important part of pushing towards global sustainability. With each individual that pursues sustainability and begins to understand why it is so important, the pressure on policy-makers and companies grows.

Examples of Sustainable Behavior

There already exist whole communities that built themselves on the concept of sustainable development. These can serve as an example of behaviors that everyone can adopt in order to become more sustainable. An example of a place like that is Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. Located in Missouri, United States, the Ecovillage is situated on 280 acres (Horton, 2020). This community lives by six guidelines that are considered by them to be vital to the sustainable lifestyle they want to lead. Cars are not allowed, and so is the use of fossil fuels. Instead, the village only uses renewable energy sources, such as solar power. All gardening and farming performed within the village are organic. Composting is used to dispose of all organic waste and other recycle. Following these rules allows the village to reduce their collective carbon footprint and preserve their environment.

Considering the businesses which promote sustainability, Apple and Ikea revised their supply chain for more sustainable options. For example, Apple switched to green energy resources by using solar power, while Ikea uses recycled plastic found in the ocean to produce some goods (Gibbons, 2019). The notion shows the audience that maintaining personal sustainability is easy even if the attempt focuses on carefully selecting products for personal use. In the food industry, revising the supply chain can lead to the discovery of non-standard ways to reduce the environmental footprint of a business. For example, an ice cream company, Salt & Straw, cooperates with local food producers and creates ice cream from food waste, such as oranges, grapefruits, baguettes, and popcorn, resulting in unique flavors (Persons, 2022). The company also encourages customers to mix the leftover ice cream to create new flavor combinations.

Plan for Personal Improvement

The inhabitants of Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage show the world that individual people can make a difference and live sustainably. Doing so would not only be beneficial to the environment and the world at large, but also to the individual as well. The following list of ten concepts has been selected as the easiest and most beneficial of the available sustainability practices (Thomson, n.d.). These can be done by virtually any person, with benefit to themselves and to the environment.

1. Saving energy.
2. Reusing and recycling.
3. Planning your groceries in advance.
4. Reducing water usage.
5. Walking and bicycling instead of driving.
6. Donating old clothing.
7. Composting food waste.
8. Switching to electronics over paper.
9. Buying locally grown products.
10. Using fans instead of air conditioning.

Exploration of Benefits of Sustainability

Saving Energy

Renewable energy alternatives are costly and, in some places, space-prohibitive. It is much easier, however, to decrease one’s energy use by turning off the lights in the rooms that are not occupied. Other methods of saving energy include using light-efficient bulbs instead of regular ones and unplugging electronics when they are not needed. This would, firstly, reduce the environmental impact of household activities by decreasing the carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Carbon emissions cause the environment to warm, which contributes to climate change. It would also have social benefits by decreasing the overall demand within a nation. This would allow for more sustainable nationwide practices and re-allocation of the unused energy for other causes. Finally, it would have a direct economic benefit of reducing the energy bill of the household.

Planning Grocery Purchases

Having a full refrigerator in case of emergencies is important, but most goods have expiration dates. Much of the food bought by people today is thrown into landfills, where it slowly decomposes, resulting in increased level of greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere. This is among the factors causing global warming. By planning grocery purchases ahead and eating what they buy, an individual can greatly reduce their impact on their greenhouse gas emission by decreasing their food waste. This also helps by creating a surplus of groceries in the stores, which can then be sold at lower prices to the less economically stable members of the community or donated. Finally, as before, it benefits the individual economically by decreasing their grocery bills.

Walking and Bicycling Instead of Driving

Car emissions are another large contributor to the large amount of greenhouse gases being emitted into the environment. In cities, where cars are everywhere, this is especially evident. Choosing to walk and bicycle everywhere – or taking public transportation – is beneficial not only to the body’s health, but also emits less harmful gases. With more people using public transportation or other means of non-car transit, the government would be forced to invest more money into these systems instead of relying on people to drive themselves. This would promote more sustainable development on a larger scale. Finally, it would decrease the traffic, smog, and other negative effects of large amounts of cars being used, which would promote a healthier environment for everyone living in the area.

Conclusion

In conclusion, individual sustainability is an important step in reducing the effect that civilization has had on the environment. Enacting small changes to one’s life can help preserve the world as it is now for future generations. These actions can be as simple as choosing to cycle to work instead of driving. Personal sustainability has a positive impact not only on the environment, but also on the individual’s health and wellness.

References

Gibbons, S. (2019). 3 ways to make sustainability a part of your business. Forbes.

Greenly. (n.d.). Everything you need to know about the three pillars of sustainable development.

Horton, J. (2020). How sustainable communities work. HowStuffWorks Science.

Parodi, O., & Tamm, K. (2019). Personal sustainability: Exploring the far side of sustainable development. Routledge.

Persons, B. (2022). The untold truth of Salt & Straw. Mashed.

Thomson, T. (n.d.). 14 ways to live more sustainably. Wessex Water. Web.

TWI. (n.d.). What is sustainability and why is it so important?

Introduction

Nearly everybody spends a lifetime pursuing happiness and inner gratification; searching for peace. A huge cluster of humanity has been plunged in vain pursuits of redundant dreams, addictions, and even other people, fervent to fill the futility that haunts them. Ironically, the only place we ever need to search is within. The inner self must blend with the outer world for our individual goals to be realized. I found out a long time ago, that I must discover the right ecology to make a perfect match between what comes naturally to me and what the world needs from me. In other words, my career mission can only be accomplished by unifying my greatest job aspirations with my employer’s profound hunger for my skills.

I envisage a spiraling climb in my professional ladder as a financial analyst, until I clinch the prized accolade of a financial manager in a banking institution. Certainly, my working milieu will afford me a chance to further discover and polish my life ambition and purposes. Blending my goals and aspirations with the organizational vision will bolster my motivation, passion, and energy for work.

The massive task that will broach my preliminary days at the workplace will be the comprehension of my intrinsic needs about my work background. Thus, I will be in a position to discard disempowering relationships and augment a gainful network of loving support to help me achieve stability and supplement productivity. Through a systematic career plan, I will be able to achieve financial abundance as I pursue my passion, making a positive contribution to humanity.

A career is not about distress and struggle; it is about living life to the fullest doing what you love (Lore, 2003:pp 67). To achieve this, I will have to hedge any limitations and bottlenecks in my career path. To utilize my creative gifts, special talents, and acquired skills I will have to delve into a thorough self-introspection to ascertain my challenges, threats, and opportunities(Levitt,2006: pp113). Being in tune with what works or does not work for me, will enhance a conscious decision on the journey to pursue self-development. Courage will be an absolute necessity, so I can take full responsibility to develop, train, and transform the self to fit in a daunting challenge packed work environment.

Taking Stock Of The Self

Self Assessment

Unearthing the self is an intimidating, yet very essential journey for all career beginners. It all starts with a simple question; where am I and where do I aspire to be? To answer this question suitably, I will have to take a deep look within and consciously decide the kind of person I am and then get my external reality to harmonize with the inner being. A deep honest look at the self will reveal my strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities (Kregler &Thuesen, 2002: pp 319).

I know for sure that being endowed with good communication skills, a factor which gives me a team advantage. Further, am a positive thinker with an undying spirit, failure has never been an option to me, and yes failure never cows me down. This makes me an uncompromising hard worker although I can get irritable at times especially when assigned work with sloppy or lazy people.

Thankfully, I have had various leadership opportunities that have aided to tone down my emotions. One time I played the role of youth leader and amassed stupendous management skills namely, organizational, planning, and people coordination. Further, working with the youth helped me to become more collaborative and patient with others. I learned how to cope with the four personality dispositions, how to mobilize resources to increase profitability, and the establishment of rapport at the workplace. Some lessons came the hard way; poor planning always led to mistakes and failure.

Hasty decisions hurt my subordinates eliciting losses. Several times I made ridiculous choices which and educed several negative feedbacks from my subordinates. Some thought that I planned too much and lacked the initiative to carry through all my plans. And others still thought I was a bit high-handed.

Individual Career Goals And Objectives

Professional growth

In the working environment, change is constant. It is only natural for all professionals to change and grow with increased dynamism at the workplace, to adapt to the market forces and trends in the sector. I would like to grow in my career by updating my academic knowledge and skills to remain at par with the market drift. Moreover, I would like to keep on upgrading my skills to avoid being phased out by new technology and developments in the market. To further hone my credibility in my professional field I will obtain special certification in accounting fundamentals and international finance. In the due course, I will plan to attain exceptional efficiency in my working environment as I maintain a harmonious balance in my thoughts, actions, and feelings.

Financial Aspect

I will seek a well-paying employer, lest I become underpaid and demoralized. In many instances underpaid workers become bitter and riotous, they lack the incentive to work willingly and independently. On the other hand, overpaid workers tend to be indolent and may not necessarily offer the value for their remunerations. Therefore, I will be keen to earn only as much as my position is worth for the organization is working for so that my morale for work will be protracted.

Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is top on my agenda as an employee; it will be the driving force behind my work output. I am not satisfied I will most certainly not perform according to the stipulated expectations. Of course, this will not be an excuse to impede my career advancement process, but I will work in a place where am at ease and satisfied with my job obligations.

Fresh Work Experiences

I would like to work in a highly dynamic environment which gives me room to grow and expand my vision. Trying out new things will help me to progress and get ahead in life (Rice, 2007: pp 214). New experiences always add to the personal richness in terms of insight and wisdom. I would like to accumulate knowledge concerning various cultures, meet new people, and familiarize myself with global business trends. New experiences will bolster vast knowledge and increase my level of tolerance to help change or mold my business perspectives (Simonsen, 2000: p125)

Job Stability

It’s only logical to work for a stable organization to ensure that my cash inflow will not be in jeopardy. I would like to work for a growing modern banking institution with a proven success record. Working with a stable institute will help me to delve into personal growth and advancement rather than worrying about my basic needs. Further, it will motivate me to exert my skills in an endeavor to realize the institutional goals.

Ideal Work Environment

I manage to work well in a team environment. When there is a heavy workload, with little or no cooperation from team members I tend to get stressed up. I hate working under pressure and detest despotic supervisors. A collaborative team environment is my ideal work set-up, planning is my key, I like scheduling my work in advance to avoid stress and ineptness. In my career, I will have to focus on how to increase patience and courage to broach offenses at the workplace.

I will have to tone down on my stringent working schedules for they can overwhelm me physically at times and stir animosity at the workplace. To minimize unnecessary conflicts I will have to work on my temper and evade work antagonism.

Am well aware that personal development is hard work, it only comes with patience coupled with determination and consistency (Kirk, 1998:pp83). There are no quick fixes to individual development; hasty fixes never last for they have no foundation. Am a person who values, organizational integrity, and transparency in the workplace. I would like to polish my inner confidence so that I can speak and act confidently irrespective of the person or situation I have to address. I would like to work on my personality so that I can become a bit daring to venture into new opportunities rather than walk on the common ineffective route.

I believe in pleasant co-existence. It is my firm conviction that everybody can be fruitful for as long as they are given a chance to grow and express themselves amicably. I aspire to inculcate the culture of free flow communication where people will be allowed to express their ideas and opinions without being intimidated. Adversity and acrimony at the workplace are certainly inevitable. Am convinced that employees and leaders can make the best out of every conflict, before reacting to any clash at the workplace it is important to step back and get the facts right to avoid biased judgment.

Conflict resolution should be done with somber minds to utilize the event as both a learning and growth opportunity. To avoid conflicts, at the workplace I desire to formulate a mechanism of focusing on my energy and circumventing chaos which always results when I lose temper.

Personal Change And Development

Confidence building

Confidence is self-assurance, with it everything is possible, and it dares an individual to make radical decisions to churn forth deep-seated positive changes. I would particularly like to work on my poise so that I can command respect from others as they see my worth and appreciate my contributions at work. With amassed confidence, I will be in a position to blaze new opportunities to propel me towards my career ambitions. My vision of becoming a chief financial manager in a banking institution will finally shine forth, as I muster the courage to believe in my intuitive abilities and assimilate them at the workplace. I will be groomed to live more consciously and summon the courage to confront the unfaceable elements of my life.

Honing my Assertiveness

Assertive people are aggressive what they determine in their minds they achieve, they are never inhibited by fear or challenges. As an aspiring financial manager, I should be in a position to spawn ideas and defend them, any kind of external opposition or criticism should not intimidate me. Assertiveness will give me an edge, so that I will be able to make decisions and account for them, commanding respect from my comrades so that my participation and contribution will not be overlooked or discarded without an explanation. Fear will be washed away as I garner authority to lead the organization and the subordinates triumphantly; a leader has got to choose for himself and live on his terms (Simonsen, 2000:pp76)

Time Management

The adage is true, time is money. A good employee must be able to manage his work and finish it within the stipulated time. I purpose to manage my time by developing a scheduled work routine. After breaking down the routine I will divide my activities into manageable tasks to enhance efficiency. Every time guzzling activity will have to be erased from my schedule. I will never submit to a mediocre mentality, rather I will choose to improve the quality of my work life through proper time management and discipline.

Leading By Example

An excellent leader has got to live by his creed, his values, beliefs, and attitudes should be exuded in the decisions he makes and the actions he takes. Perfection isn’t my point here; the point is getting into a practical positive path to steer my team members towards a stipulated goal. As a leader, I will stand out as a crusader of truth, the reality by eliminating any falsehood and escapism at the workplace. Where there is a problem I would like to confront it and possibly resolve it before it becomes a malignant impediment. I will work keenly to bring forth oneness and unity of mind to steer the other team members towards our organizational objectives.

By exercising authority, I will be able to lead others in the concession of the organizational life and make clear decisions to realize the organizational vision (Lore, 2003: pp 42). I expect to spur the spirit of courage amongst my subordinates so that they will learn to take action despite the fear of failure. Leading others by example will help me live authentically expressing my genuine creativity.

Strategies For Fitting At Work Place

Understanding My Competency

I must accrue all my efforts towards the acquisition of the vital skills for my work task ahead. Unskilled people are shaky and incompetent, since I already have the right skills for work, I will take the necessary steps to learn the fundamental techniques necessary to increase my work output. In the cases where am severely unskilled, I will establish a rapport with the management concerning training possibilities. For immediate purposes, I will be open to appeal to a senior coworker to gloom me with the new tasks allocated to me.

Appreciating Self-Worth

Self-worthiness is not necessarily feeling good about the self, it is a feeling attained after finding relevance in things that cultivates growth (Levitt, 2006:pp98). Self-worthiness will help me to commit to the goals that gratify my efforts. I will endeavor to find meaning in the organizational goals at hand to deduce job satisfaction from my daily chores.

Individual Discipline

Every strong-willed person has got the potential to fulfill his dreams in life. I will enumerate realistic goals and follow through with them by exercising self-discipline. With a work plan, it is always possible to achieve dreams and goals. Achieving my goals will bolster my confidence and help me to be more determined and productive.

Working Under threat of Failure

To achieve greatness, we must all confront our fears. Nobody attains greatness in my comfort zone; I must stretch my credulity to be able to remove any barriers and walls of resistance against my career goals. I will allow myself the freedom to fail because failure will allow me to learn when am wrong (Kirk, 1998:pp143) Failures broached at the workplace will increase my chances of success as they will help me to work and adjust my plans. When I fail and fall I will rise again after experiencing the true sense of my competence.

Conclusion

Success is failure turned inside out; unless we stretch ourselves out of comfort zones we are not in a position to grasp our true potential. I will be willing to compromise, adjust, and take risks at the workplace to find out what works or does not work in my career. Running from fear doesn’t work; I will confront my fears and learn through mistakes to be able to achieve my full latent. I know with all the certainty that I will live the life I have always desired. My rigorous planning and willingness to adapt to change will steer me to fruitful terrains as I watch in awe, my life unfolding in all its glory.

References

Kirk, J. J., 1998. Interactive Work Training for Career Development. New York: McGraw.

Kregler, O. and Thuesen, J.M., 2002. Personality Types In Relation To How we Live, and Work. New York: Dell Publishing.

Levitt, G. S. 2006. Making Your Career Happen. Your Career: How to make It Ohio: Thomson.

Lore, M. S. 2003. Changing Your Career Path and finding your purpose. New York: Fireside.

Rice, G. J. 2007. Career Choice Points. Palo Alto, CCalifornia: Davies-Black Publishers.

Simonsen, P. 2000. How To Navigate Your Career Systematically. New York:Brown Publishing Company.

Introduction

A Personal Development Plan (PDP) is cited in literature as a key step in defining and exploring one’s goals, and mapping out ways of turning the same goals into reality.

The Keynote Project (2002, p. 1) for example observes that students can use PDP to articulate the skills they are developing in the present and match the same to “opportunities in the future”.

Cassidy (2012, p. 1) provides a more succinct definition of PDP by terming it a “form of self-managed learning that is owned by the individual and enables a strategic approach to setting learning and development goals”.

In an educational setup, it would be expected that PDPs will enable students to receive feedback that will assist them in their personal and professional development, and benefit them with the feedback provided by their tutors.

In this writer’s case, PDP will be used as a tool for managing own development. Additionally, the PDP as articulated hereunder will provide this writer with an opportunity to expand on own personal, academic and professional horizons.

In other words, this exercise provides this writer with an opportunity to take stock of own position; set goals; and use the unique skills and competencies in the academic as well as the professional setup now and in the future.

Additionally, the writer will identify areas that need more effort, and as such, will intentionally pay more effort in such areas in future in order to become effective in present or future roles.

Overall, it has been suggested that PDP is important for people who need (or are forced by circumstances) to take responsibility of “their own development and follow-through” with the same (Cassidy 2012, p. 1).

Interpreted, the aforementioned means that every learner needs to use PDP not only because higher learning requires a degree of independent learner-directed learning, but also because it helps the students to identify what their learning needs are, and thus work towards fulfilling the same.

Acculturation

Acculturation has been has defined as “a dual process affecting members of two or more cultural groups as each adapts to the presence of the other” (Barjesteh & Vaseghi 2012, p. 579).

In higher learning, acculturation has become a commonplace thing as students from different cultures meet in the college environment each in the pursuit of an education.

Foreign (international) students interact with students from the host country and the first-hand contact between the two groups of students eventually means that the original cultures of either side are affected.

Notably, acculturation is important in group or team dynamics since members need not only get a task done, but also need to work well together as suggested by Tidd, Bessant and Pavitt (2005, p.1). Without students understanding and respecting each other’s cultural differences, chances are that team work would not be successful.

Barjesteh and Vaseghi (2012, p. 580) name language shock and culture shock as main factors that contribute to psychological distance among international students.

Language is especially important for such students because as Schumann (1986, p. 385) notes, verbal interactions enable communication and negotiations among people from different cultures.

Trawinski (2005, p. 14) further notes that the ability of a learner to benefit from academic input depends on their ability to understand and convert materials taught in class (most likely in a second acquired language) into meaningful information.

For such students to benefit from course materials, Trawnski (2005, p. 18) argues that the communicative, integrative and expressive functions of language have to be efficient from both sides of the message divide (i.e. the message sender and the message recipient).

This writer went through the full course of “the process of acculturation” as defined by Brown (1980 cited by Barjesteh & Vaseghi 2012, p. 580). Specifically, the writer underwent the euphoria stage where excitement took precedence owing to the newness of the college environment.

Next was the culture shock stage where the writer felt a sense of intrusion as the reality of the new surroundings, cultural differences and the loss of familiar signs and social symbols as suggested by Yue and Le (2012, p.134) started becoming a reality.

Cultural stress then took over and during this phase, the writer started a gradual recovery of self-identity also understanding, accepting and being accepted by others.

By the time of this exercise, this writer has attained full recovery as suggested by Barjesteh & Vaseghi (2012, p. 580) whereby, the writer has adopted, assimilated and accepted the new culture. Additionally, this writer has developed a new identity, which arguably fits well into the college environment.

The full recovery stage is especially essential in learning since this writer can now comprehend different types of communication in the host culture; however, the writer is still working on his verbal communication skills as indicated in the Skills Audit Report in Appendix A.

The verbal communication skills are especially important in teamwork since they affect the writer’s ability to take up leadership position, his presentation skills, and his ability to communicate effectively with the team members.

True to Lakey (2003, p. 111), people from diverse cultures “successfully acculturate themselves to the degree that they learn to code and decode messages in a way that they will be recognised, accepted, and responded to by an individual or group which they interact”; and while this writer can confidently state that he has been successful in decoding messages communicated to him, coding his messages in a manner that enables effective communication to his colleagues is still something that he is working towards.

Team work and presentation skills

Based on the Belbin’ Team roles personal inventory as illustrated in Appendix B, this writer scored highest in IM (Company worker/implementer) by acquiring 14 points, and in PL (Plant) by acquiring 9 points.

Following Belbin’s (1993) roles on the corresponding individual types, it is thus apparent that the writer’s positive abilities include self-discipline, hard-work, practical commonsense, and the ability to organise.

The corresponding allowable weaknesses indicate that the writer lacks flexibility, and is unresponsive to “new or unproven ideas” (Belbin 1993, n.pag).

The high score in PL (Plant) are further indicative that the writer has additional positive qualities that include knowledge, intellect and imagination. The corresponding allowable weaknesses as indicated by Belbin include an inclination to pay no or little attention to practical details and/or protocol.

As indicated in the Skills Audit Report (Appendix A), this writer’s main weaknesses are in leadership, presentation skills, and in verbal communication.

In the writer’s own perspective, the three weaknesses as interrelated owing to the fact that the inability to communicate effectively affects his presentation skills, and this invariably dents his confidence towards being a capable leader.

As indicated in Appendix A however, the writer seeks to improve his verbal communication skills, and this will directly affect the presentation and leadership skills as well.

Reports and Academic Journal Comparisons

Despite the weaknesses noted above, and the indication that this writer is best suited as a company worker/implementer and plant position, it is common knowledge that finding a “perfect” person is impossible in real life.

As such, the writers’ strengths and weaknesses although creating the impression of an imperfect learner/job applicant, also indicate that this writer’s qualities of being organised, knowledgeable and meticulous make him an ideal candidate for a team where all the nine skills as indicated in the Belbin model are necessary.

Team-based management systems are increasingly considered necessary for enhancing the productivity and effectiveness in organisation as indicated by Gündüz (2008, p. 460), Partington and Harris (1993, p. 694) and Katzenbach and Smith (1993, p. 111).

Similarly, and upon entering the postgraduate programs, and on proceeding further to the professional environment, this writer expects to be part of bigger teams as working alone in the current team-based workplace environments is to some extent, outdated.

A team is defined as the “small group of people who make contributions to the common goal, who perform in accordance with the goals, who depend on each other with the mutual feeling of responsibility and who have complementary skills” (Gündüz 2008, p. 461).

In other words, this writer’s skills would need to compliment those of his team mates for purposes of attaining a common goal. The team roles of the writer as indicated in Appendix B “describes how suitable the member is for the team” as indicated by Belbin (2010, p.120).

On their part, Fisher, Hunter and Macrosson (1998, p. 284) observe that team roles as stipulated in the Belbin Model should be used universally (even outside management teams).

Notably however, Aritzeta, Swailes and Senior (2005, p. 20) observe that “Belbin did not report the theoretical foundations of his theory”, and as such, the theory has a limitation. Some critics like Broucek and Randel (1996, p. 403) further argue that the Belbin model is based on an anecdote.

Despite the omission of not basing his model on any theoretical ground, Aritzeta et al. (2005, p. 21) observes that the empirical formulation of Belbin’s work can still be linked to established theories.

Among authors who support the Belbin Model are Fisher et al. (1998, p. 284) who observe that although there are dominant team roles for each individual, it does not mean that he/she cannot play other team roles.

The major factors that determine the roles that a person can play in a team include their intelligence, extroversion or introversion, stability or anxiety, and dominance or lack thereof (Fisher et al., 1998, p.285).

The aforementioned factors affect how teams interact, and their level of productivity, while team roles obtain the balance needed for team members to work harmoniously and productively.

Notably, and as indicated in the Skills Audit Report, this writer still needs to work on his verbal communication skills, his leadership skills, and his presentation skills if his contributions to a team will be realized.

Without the finding a solution to the three weak areas, this writer acknowledges that the team roles of being an implementer or a plant that generates ideas through imagination or innovation, cannot be realized without the appropriate communication skills.

Personal Planning and Action Plan

The requirement of this writer’s role as a team player

In the global environment where this writer (and others) lives in, it would be expected that working in teams would expose one to people from different cultures.

In the management field therefore, it is essential for this writer to concentrate on finding solutions to the three weak areas identified in the Skills Audit Report (Appendix A), and finding ways to overcome the threats identified in the SWOT analysis report (Appendix C).

In the latter, this writer identified homesickness and the global competition in the workplace as the main threats.

To overcome them, this writer will therefore need to gain skills and knowledge that will give him a competitive edge over others (i.e. in case of the global competition), and will also need to find ways of overcoming the homesickness (e.g. by calling friends and families) often.

This writer will also need to find solutions to the major weaknesses facing him and intends to do the following in order of sequence:

1. Become a better communicator.
2. Become better in presenting ideas and innovations.
3. Become a leader.

As indicated in the Skills Audit Report (Appendix A), this writer’s main strengths include time management skills, self-motivation, and the ability to work well in teams.

The writer’s strengths are further evident in the Skills, Knowledge and Attitude (SKA Analysis) (Appendix D), where time management, office skills, decision-making skills, and flexibility are his skills strong point.

Additionally, this writer is knowledgeable in researching and has experience working in his specialty.

Attitude-wise, this writer is a realist and as shown in Appendix E (Learning Style Questionnaire), the writer has three dominant learning styles namely activist, reflector and theorist. On self-evaluation though, this writer is more convinced that the reflector and theorist learning styles are more applicable in his case.

A SMART action plan

Specific goal: To be a better communicator, presenter of ideas and innovations, and a leader in the next two years.

Measurable: To communicate eloquently in the English language; to make presentations to my peers in college and colleagues in the workplace; and to assume emergent leadership positions in college and/or in the workplace.

Attainable: Practice my communication skills more alone or with the help of a privately acquired tutor; practice my presentation skills with a friend with the view of perfecting them in readiness for a bigger audience; and vie for leadership positions in college and/or in the workplace.

Relevance: The goals are meant to counter the weaknesses identified in the Skills Audit Report indicated in appendix A.

Time-Bound

Conclusions and Reflection

As inferred in the above sections, this writer is not only studying in a culture that is different from his own, but is also likely to continue with the same working in the global environment where people from different cultures meet to work for same organisations.

As such, as one who intends to obtain a leadership position in future, this writer realises the need not only to understand what is communicated to him, but also to communicate efficiently to others.

It is for such reasons that this writer identifies the inadequate verbal communications skills, the inadequate presentation skills, and the lack of leadership skills as the three main weaknesses that he needs to improve on.

Notably, and as indicated elsewhere in this PDP, an improvement in one (i.e. verbal communication) will probably have an undeniable effect on the other two, since this writer has the knowledge in his area of specialty, with his main hindrance being in his inability to communicate effectively.

As a realist, this writer acknowledges that the vision to become a leader can only be attained after successfully becoming a better communicator and an adept presenter of ideas and innovations.

After all, leadership is earned, and such can only happen if one is clearly understood and supported by others. Additionally, leaders commune the mission and vision to their followers, something that would not happen if one is not able to communicate effectively.

References

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Appendices

Appendix C: SWOT analysis

Appendix D: S.K.A analysis