Personal Professional Development Plan Reflection Order Instructions: Week 8 Personal Development Portfolio
Reflecting on your Professional Development Plan
Throughout this module, you have been working towards the creation of your Professional development portfolio, a document which will stay with you throughout this programme and empower you to identify and achieve goals.
In Week 2 of this Module, you were asked to make an initial entry in your Professional Development Portfolio. In that entry, you were required to think about the potential for change being required in your own employment environment, the extent to which those changes will impact on established ways of doing things and the possible nature of your own personal involvement in the change process. Now, with the benefit of the intervening weeks of discussion, we invite you to revisit those questions again in a slightly more detailed fashion.
This week, you will complete the final phase of your Professional Development Portfolio.
Your PDP will be a document you will regularly revisit throughout your programme. Be sure to keep it in an accessible place so you can update it with new goals; reflections on your learning; and plans for further study, development, and research.
To prepare for this PDP Assignment:
• Review your PDP from Week 2.
To complete this PDP Assignment:
• Complete the last part of your PDP – Reflecting on your Professional Development Portfolio.
• In formulating your PDP Assignment, consider the following questions:
o What do you now see as the most likely drivers for change in your own employment environment over the next 3-5 years? What type of opportunity and threat will be created by those change drivers?
o In what areas of the organization’s operating practice do you believe that the most significant changes will be required? Who will be the main (external and internal) stakeholders whose views will need to be taken into account during the process of change?
o What are the core skills required of the change agent who is ultimately entrusted with the primary responsibility for achieving successful change? To what extent do you believe that you currently possess each of those core skills?
o What will you do over that 3-5 year period to remedy any perceived shortcomings in your current skills profile?
Personal Professional Development Plan Reflection Sample Answer
ODC PDP W8
What do you now see as the most likely drivers for change in your own employment environment over the next 3-5 years? What type of opportunity and threat will be created by those change drivers?
At the moment, there are various drivers for change at my company. For example, mobile devices such as phones are widely sorted clients when it comes to searching and buying fashion products (Banks 2014). This can be attributed to their convenience. Another change driver is the intelligent use of data to increase efficiency. In addition, there is the rapid expansion of multi-channel stores that integrate brick-and-mortar and electronic stores (Mawby 2011). However, these change drivers are likely to create not only opportunities but also threats. With respect to opportunities, the retail business will be able to establish a multi-channel store. This will enable customers to order and pay products through online platforms. Multi-channel stores would supplement the firm’s brick-and-mortar store. Another opportunity is that through intelligent use of data, the retail firm will be efficient because it will be able to collect information to help it in creating good buying experience. On the other, the retail company may face threats such as competition from its rivals. Owing to the fact that the fashion sector is highly competitive, there are no economies of scale for large companies (Laksmana & Yang 2015). Again, if the retail company expands than its rivals, it is likely to incur fixed expenses, which are financially unrealistic. The competition would also make the fashion firm homogenous as it will lack the incentives to differentiate its fashion items. Homogeneity minimises the necessary incentive to invest in R&D, since it will be reluctant to invest as it might think that it will be doing the entire sector (Wood et al. 2015).
In what areas of the organisation’s operating practice do you believe that the most significant changes will be required? Who will be the main (external and internal) stakeholders whose views will need to be taken into account during the process of change?
Demography: The retail company will have to considerably change its target demography. This will be important in reaching a wider clientele base. During this process, the main stakeholders to take into consideration will be customers of all ages and workers particularly, the sales people. Location is another area that requires significant changes. In the retail sector, location is vital therefore, the retail organisation will have to open more branches in high-end streets and improve its branding to remain competitive.
What are the core skills required of the change agent who is ultimately entrusted with the primary responsibility for achieving successful change? To what extent do you believe that you currently possess each of those core skills?
Some of the main skills required for change agent include trustworthiness, conflict management, coaching, facilitation, persistence and resilience, advanced communication skills, good listening skills, empathy, team building skills, and analytical skills. Furthermore, a change agent should be disciplined, well organized and flexible such that she/he is able to addressing evolving priorities and work-related challenges (Tan & Kaufmann 2015). I am able to organize employees in small groups to work towards realizing a common goal. Moreover, I have been on the forefront to resolving conflicts among employees who would rather disagree as a matter of principle. My outstanding listening and communication skills have enabled me to communicate change effectively across the organisation. Through team building, I have been on the forefront to instil confidence among employees an aspect that makes most of them have a sense of belonging and feel valued and this is paramount for the effective change process.
What will you do over that 3-5 year period to remedy any perceived shortcomings in your current skills profile?
To address my perceived shortcomings, I would improve my communication skills. An effective change agent must be able to communicate well with stakeholders. Communication plays an important role during the change process. This is because communication is critical when it comes to preparing the retail company transition from its current to future state. Effective communication is necessary in helping meet the retail firm’s objectives (Tan & Kaufmann 2015). Therefore, as the change agent, it is of great importance to be able to communicate effectively across the firm. Moreover, I would improve my listening as well as interpersonal communication skills. This would involve seeking to engage in dialogues, listen and talk only when necessary.
Personal Professional Development Plan Reflection Bibliography
Banks, S 2014, Drivers of change: Retail industry in Australia, SIES Journal of Management, 14, no.1, pp. 3-8
Mawby, E 2011, How to succeed in the retail industry. Journal of Business & Retail Management Research, 6, 2, pp. 1-12
Tan, A., & Kaufmann, WH 2015, making good change agents: Attitude, knowledge, skills. Academy Of Management Journal, 55, 2, pp. 381-398
Laksmana, I. & Yang, Y. 2015, “Product market competition and corporate investment decisions”, Review of Accounting & Finance, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 128.
Wood, Y.I., Sturny, A., Neill, L., Brown, A. & Aprea, R. 2015, “The “New World” and international pâtisserie competition”, British Food Journal, vol. 117, no. 4, pp. 1226-1238.
