Importance of Professional development - Essay Example

?Importance of Professional development Field of Study: Supply chain processes in the beverages industry. For an endeavor taken upon, effective guidelines and working mechanism is demanded in form of portfolio that defines proper working structure. Achieving excellence and professionalism requires proper steps that involve a hierarchical approach which includes the grass root level improvements as well as the improvements at the top tier. In the modern management world, the rules and metrics for achieving excellence have become tough, with more number of players in the market and the supply chains entailing the international players, it is a double difficult job achieving professional development, however it is only through the professional approach that the modern day challenges can be faced and mitigated in the discipline of supply chain operations ((Davis, Lockwood, Alcott, & Pantelidis, 2008). Professionalism is a metric that enables outshining and out smarting the rivals and competitors, however proper homework and adaptive strategy is needed for this purpose and it appertains to involvement of all stakeholders in the organization and project at hand. Before explaining the terms together there is a general need for defining the organizational behavior since it is an affecting variable that has direct impact on the professional development and its subsequent advantages and fruits. Organizational behavior is termed as the manner in which the organization, its components ( both the human and its deliverables ) operate and go about things. Stephen Robbins terms the organizational behavior as the aptitude of the members of the project and organization towards a task that is at hand (Robbins, 2009). The scope of organizational behavior requirements and its affectivity are very vast and applies to even the small actions undertaken in the daily routine life in an enterprise. It is these small little steps and decisions that make or break the organizational structure. While organizational behavior has is an effective body that influences human resources, strategic decision management. It is equally applicable to the field of supply chain. The aim is to find the management tips and procedures which would guide to the professional development in the field of Supply Chain. Striving for professional development in field of Beverages: Field of beverages production and manufacturing is solely dependent on the supply chain effective; through effective supply chain can the professional development be achieved. It further demands a thorough insight into the various sectors of the beverages industry where improvements and margins are possible. Considering the modern day challenges and changes that have taken place in the management field with regard to the professional development, a total revamping of the beverages industry is sought which scrutinizes the personnel , the tools and techniques, used along with the processes conducted based on those tools. Highlighting of areas that have direct impact on the improvement and deterioration of the supply chain and the beverage industry is the first step towards obtaining professional development. In modern times, the supply chain operations are conducted through state of the art technology and various other tools that have made things very fast, easy yet demanding. Like any other organization and industry, the beverages industry supply chain requires input from every individual involved. With the operational staff in the front line of actions and delivery performance, the top management have equal responsibility for ensuring the smooth operations and providing of relief and benefits to the middle management and lower staff who perform these supply chain operations. Fragility of Supply Chain: The supply chain department is the most fragile component of any organization that is associated with outside world. Achieving professional development would seek mastering this segment of the organization since it involves both the internal sources, and the external sources. The success at supply chain domain of the organization could mean professional development, while lapses and little productivity in the discipline of supply chain can have direct negative repercussions on the entire body of the organization. Field of Beverages: Certain conditions apply to the effective operation of beverages industry, these factors if taken in to account enable obtaining professional development and excellence. Factors to consideration: Logistics, Transportation, Presence of communication channels, In time delivery Trust in partners, Vulnerability of supply chain: All the above stated variables are largely responsible for effective supply chain operations, since the supply chain is an inter linked and assembly line pattern process, the delay and stoppage in one of the components could bring the entire system and supply chain to the halt. In other words, supply chain cannot see any break downs and ill performing of duties and roles by any of the stake holder. While every process is bound to natural faults and human errors, the supply chain operations demand multi tier alternates in case of breakdown of any of the component. Other disciplines and entities might do with certain delay and stoppage but supply chain management operations cannot afford break down and down time. Fruits of Professional Development: While professional development achievement might be considered an uphill task, it promises number of benefits that are desired by every member of the crew in the beverage production industry. It provides the benefits of increased productivity, low but effective input, the choice of right kind of tools which are mostly focused on the automation principles and various other benefits and rewards that are desired by every individual in the management field. With professional development, the repute of organization also increases and it brings about more investors, more capital and more revenue into the organization. Matter of adding value: All the variables and stakeholders involved in the development process, must contribute in constructive way, sticking to the plans and duties assigned, the actions should be in line with the objectives to achieve. Clear Definition of Goals and Objectives: A famous management saying goes as “identification of the problem is the half solution to the problem (Proctor, 2010)”. This in other words can be attributed to the goals definition and identification of issues at hand. It should be clear as to what to do, how to do, and what way to go about it. For example in case of Professional development, the first step would include the definition of element at hand, this would be followed by the understanding of issue at hand, once that is defined and understood, practical actions are taken afterwards. Relationship with the external stakeholders: The key to success in supply chain discipline is the cordial relationship between the two parties, lack of trust and communication would lead the progress to nowhere and would result in disarray and non accomplishment of professional development. Clearly defined working principles and mechanism should be formulated with the external parties in the supply chain and the relation should be a long lasting one since with time the associate members get to understand the demands and needs and nature of work. Roles Definition: While professional development is a inter link concept and its impact on the entire organization, therefore an input is needed from each of the member associated. The defining of roles is of immense importance and gives a vivid picture of what is to be achieved. This can be done by assigning the roles in a suitable manner, which in other words is the induction of “right man at the right place”. Properly worked out study should find out all those capable of contributing towards the professional development. Essence of Communication: The importance of communication cannot be denied in any domain of the worldly affairs, the mere existence of mankind is based on the use of communication tools and channels, in the same proportion the management related professional development cannot be achieved without an effective and efficient communication source. Communication inside the organization between the members, and communication outside the organization is of core competence and holds value of strategic importance, Communication erases the barriers that may exist between the two entities in form of the personnel or the processes. Inter departmental communication is of equal value and its importance cannot be under mined for the mere reason that it enables knowing the current state and demands of different bodies involved in the process. Mitigating the Challenges: No project is free of challenges and these challenges in way are helpful for testing the inner abilities. While in pursuit of Professional development number of challenges are bound to come in front, challenges are all those elements which do not add any value to the end product, rather result in deviation, loss of energy, resources, capital and time. Hence one of the most important task is to identify the challenges and further eliminate them. Challenges could be from internal sources, or could be from external sources, the internal sources challenges consist of the ineffective team members themselves, followed by the low production rates, in effective operational strategy, in effective working mechanism in form of process and product development. Use of right tool and technique: While the professional development is not just about the physical effort, it entails the use of updated tools and techniques necessary for achieving the objectives. Man and his sword both are equally important in the battle field. One cannot go about hoping to obtain the desired objectives in form of the absence of either of the two mentioned above. Hence the need for right kind of tool and technique cannot be undermined and compromised, these tools enable balancing the processes and the knowledge that the personnel possess in the organization. The right kind of tool adds large amount of value to the organization and its project in innumerable ways. It makes the tasks easy, it reduces the fatigue and stress both physical and mental and most importantly, it provides a clear direction towards the problem solutions. Need of an effective top management: An able top management is the core towards achieving the excellence and meeting the deadlines and objectives. They define large percentage of the fate of the entire project. The onus falls heavily on them in many ways, not just in the paradigm of personal performances rather taking the entire crew along, solving the issues if any faced, providing motivation, guidance, direction and pathway which is the most effective. It must be set as a pre-requisite for any managerial organization to put in place the competent top management since the outcome of the project largely relies on their performance. The presence of incompetent, top management members can de motivate and distract the lower and middle rank managers who might be more able to perform in a better way, Since the top management leads through delivering and role modeling, ineffective members would hardly contribute and motivate the member below them. Having defined and touched upon the organizational structure briefly, it is followed by comprehending its impact on the development and success. Common sense would tell us that effectively structure bunch of any material would yield to less effort, more productivity and improved options of success. In the context of organizations, when they are structured, the success and development is bound to come. Structuring and uniform effort has a natural tendency that has direct implications on the positive results. Organizational Behavior impact on Human Resources: The organizational behavior is inter linked with all other variables of the organization, namely the Human Resources in this case, Human resources require utmost synchronization and organized assortment of activities and plans, If an effective organizational behavior is not in place, the human resource side of the organization would wander at tangents with no specified goals and dimensions to follow, while on the other hand, conducive organizational pattern complements the manner in which the human resources operate and are guided. In short, with no organizational behavior defined, the human resources section of the organization would yield nothing constructive and hence would not add value to the end deal. Organizational behavior can also be defined in a way that it is the test of abilities, and knowledge of the personnel who are directly contributing towards the output of a particular task. Professional development depends on large number of factors; one of the core factors is the organizational behavior and response towards its achievement. A Continuous process: While it is a known fact that achieving a certain rank is easier than retaining it, professional development is the process of retaining the excellence, it requires continuous improvement and that leads to the belief that improvement processes and all those factors which contribute towards the uprising of the organization and project are made mandatory and essential part of the project. The spectrum and scope of continuous improvement falls upon all the members and components of the managerial enterprise, and no process, nor department, nor any individual personnel enjoys immunity from it. The need for Skills: Achieving excellence demands pulling something extra ordinary out of the hat, management department and organizational infrastructure is no exception to this case and requires top notch effort along with the services and utilities to be present in the organization. As mentioned above, the organizational effectiveness pursuit demands input from all the stake holders, there each of them must possess some capabilities and should have the necessary knowledge of the field in which they operate and contribute towards the end product. Trainings and Mind storming: Since no one is born with ultimate talent that would meet the challenges faced in modern times in the organizational infrastructure, for this purpose trainings should be an integral part of the organizational working, and should be conducted on regular basis and with focus on those members who are directly in the line of operations and delivery, along with those who need little bit of improvement. Mind storming would contribute towards convincing and putting of heads together. Formulation of strategy: Having defined rest of the important factors which contribute towards the professional development, the study would be incomplete without the mention of strategy; it is the process of putting plans into action with consideration of variables attached. Strategy is the pre homework to what is to be achieved and the manner in which it is to be achieved. Presence of effective strategy is the back bone towards touching the professional development. Without it the entire project and its crew would operate in tangents. An important distinction must be made between the goal definition and strategy, goal definition gives an insight into the end product, while the strategy is a step wise process which provides step by step over view of the processes to be conducted for the goals achievement. Conclusion: Having touched on the all possible factors that contribute towards the professional development, it can be stated that the professional development is achievable through lean operations that enables a litmus test of every process and every other variable which contributes in its own capacity. References: Davis, B., Lockwood, A., Alcott, P., & Pantelidis, l. (2008). Food and Beverage Management. Elsevier. Proctor, T. (2010). Creative Problem Solving for Managers: Developing Skills for Decision Making and Innovation. Taylor & Francis. Robbins, S. P. (2009). Organisational Behaviour: Global and Southern African Perspectives. Pearson. Read More