Professional Development For Strategic Managers – Etihad Airways Case Study

Professional Development for Strategic Managers

Organisation Background

Discuss about the Professional Development for Strategic Managers.

Human resource acts as the backbone of an organisation. It is important for any firm to develop the personal skills and knowledge of an employee to improve their performance (Bigelow, 2014). The paper has been developed to present the personal and professional skills that are required to achieve the strategic goals of the organisation. Along with that, the study presents personal skills audit to evaluate own knowledge and capability to support the organisation in achieving the common goals. Finally, the paper will present the personal development plan that will help to improve own skills and knowledge. Along with that, the implementation procedure of the personal development plan will be discussed in order to seek success as an employee of Etihad Airways.

Etihad Airways was founded by the Royal (Amiri) Decree in the year 2003. It is one of the fastest growing airline businesses in the Middle East region. The vision of the company is to reflect as a best Arabian hospitality business in terms of culture, facility and luxury. The company aims to increase the prestige of Abu Dhabi by seeking global exposure in a changing and challenging airline business environment (Etihad Global, 2016). Etihad is known for its Training and Development Programs through which it aims to develop the talents available in the market. Etihad aims to provide the best experience to its customers with the help of the skills and knowledge of its employees. In order to achieve the strategic goals, the company employs best available talents from the market and support them with proper training and development program (Etihad Global, 2016). The Human Resource department of Etihad takes care of all needs of the employees and provide them with learning and development supports to enhance their skills and capabilities.

In strategic management, strategic managers must identify significant personal skills to achieve the target of the organisation. Through the identification of supportive knowledge and learning techniques, strategic managers need to require personal skills developments to handle the staffs and business scenario. In the case of Etihad Airways Corporation, the management representatives must have significant knowledge on several aspects to set up a unique relationship with the customers. Besides, the professional skills for a strategic manager of Etihad Airways must develop the underlying skills to achieve the strategic objectives (Al-Ali and Ahmad, 2014).

• Communication skills: Communication skills can be identified as one of the crucial strategic management skills for strategic managers to create suitable coordination with the organisational subordinates. Having significant communication strategy can be effective to share new ideas among the talented staffs as well as senior officers (Jackson, 2011). By identifying the issues of the subordinates, a strategic manager can take essential decisions to support the employees’ performance. Furthermore, effective communication channels can direct the workforce to work according to the mission, vision and objective of the company.
• Creative management skills: The ability of creative management can develop robust sustainability of healthier manner and etiquette to be implemented within the corporate culture. Creative management skills are somewhat different from traditional management skills. Hence, the organisational subordinates can be represented in a latest way to identify the goals and objectives (Klein and Weitzenfeld, 2008). Effective creative model may influence the employees to produce better productivity at the workplace.
• Leadership Skills: Efficient leadership skills have organised the subordinates so that they can be directed towards the correct directions. Leading organisational subordinates must be done by setting examples to the rest of the employees to be followed. In this way, strategic managers can handle the staffs and business representatives in an effective manner (Stitt-Gohdes, 2011). In addition to that, effective leadership strategies and tactics can deliver significant methods to support the need for the employees.
• Problem-solving skills: Significant problem-solving ability is another instrumental strategic skill to handle the workforce. Through the identification of organisational problems and issues, efficient strategic managers can evaluate best strategies according to his skills. Meanwhile, finding the most appropriate solution to the problem can save time and ensure deliberate management capabilities of the strategic managers to the rest of the human resources (Talbot, 2009).

In order to direct the subordinates towards organisational goals and objectives, some of the vital professional skills are necessary for a strategic manager. Understandably, for an organisation such as Etihad Airways, the responsibility of a strategic manager is much more than other organisational managers. Herein, the three professional skills have been analysed to be required by a strategic manager in order to support the strategic direction of the enterprise (Langley, 2013).

• Planning skills: A strategic manager must possess efficient planning abilities to support the strategic direction of the organisation. For a strategic manager, efficient planning can ensure better productivity from the workforce. For example, if a team of employees has not performance accordingly, deliberate human resource planning and training programmes can be promoted to increase the productivity of the group (Ireland, Cure and Hopkins, 2009). Meanwhile, successful strategic planning of the manager can help the organisation to head in the right direction.
• Motivation Skills: Motivation skills are other significant strategic skills to influence the performance of the organisational subordinates. A strategic manager can utilise training and development facilities as well as performance appraisal techniques to motivate the employees (Dempsey, 2016). Effective intrinsic and extrinsic reward and promotion can inspire the workforce to accomplish the given target. Evidently, motivated employees can find new enthusiasm in the workplace to deliver maximum productivity to achieve the success.
• Delegating Skills: Delegating skill is another instrumental strategic skill efficient for a strategic manager. Organisations such as Etihad Airways need to manage numerous business operations at the same point in time. Hence, the delegating skills of the strategic manager will help him to distribute duties, responsibilities and powers to the best subordinates and senior team members (Talbot, 2009). In this way, the complete responsibility and accountability of the strategic manager can be distributed among the talented workforce and senior members of the management to get the best outcome.
• Performance enhancement skills: In modern business environment, strategic managers must possess the skill of performance enhancement of the employees to deliver best services to the business customers (Colenso, 2008). A business organisation such as Etihad Airways must hire a strategic manager who can improve the performance of the rest of the executives. Such inspiration skill can motivate the highest level of performance of the subordinates.

Appropriate methods to evaluate personal skills to obtain strategic goals

In this very section, a skill audit to evaluate strategic skills for current as well as future leadership technique has been presented for further discussion point of view. Herein, some efficient strategic skills have been identified to meet the current and future leadership.

• Cultural and communication development skills: Being a multinational organisation such as Etihad Airways, the cultural and communication skills will be essential to meet the requirement of multiple cultures and diverse workforce. Working on an international platform has required significant knowledge of culture and communication style for efficient management of human resources and organisational operations (Etihad Global, 2016). Having critical knowledge of international culture can help a strategic manager building up unique communication with the target audience.
• Skills and knowledge about emerging markets: In order to meet the strategic skills for current and future leadership, knowledge about emerging markets can be identified as one of the crucial instrument for a strategic leader (Bullivant, 2015). Currently, the organisational leaders must have detailed knowledge about the BRIC countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China to fulfil the strategic direction of the organisation. The tangible strategic decision-making of the multinational companies has been significantly dominated by the knowledge of the leaders to meet the organisational targets.
• Skills to develop organisational staffs: Significant strategies and instructional models must be applied by the strategic manager to develop the personal and professional skills of the employees. In a large multinational organisation such as Etihad Airways, strategic managers need to enhance the performance of the staffs so that the workforce can improve the performance as well as productivity to fulfil the objectives of the company. To influence the growth of the market, significant training and development programmes must be conducted to create a competitive edge over the market competitors (Loew, 2014). By focusing on professional development of the subordinates, strategic leaders can ensure the outstanding growth of business.
• Skills to build up strategies to make adjustments in the complex market scenario: In today’s competitive business environment, managing the complex market situations will be evident to strategic leaders. Hence, skills to determine strategies can influence the outcome. Massive changes in the market in a short time must be dealt in a professional way to turn the results in favour of the organisation. Efficient strategic leadership skills will be so vital for leaders.

There are significant techniques to determine the learning skills that can be applied to solve issues and challenges in organisational learning. Herein, some of the techniques have been briefed to understand the learning styles that have been favoured in multinational organisations.

• Chairing meetings: By organising meetings with the subordinates, the efficiency of learning style can be judged. In the meetings and seminars, the professional knowledge of human resources can be identified through discussion on several management topics. The strategic skills of the manager must be analysed in the meetings as the manager will address the organisational issues and positives within the organisation (Harrison, 2007).
• Leading discussions: Significant discussion with the workforce can identify the knowledge resources and learning style of the subordinates. In this way, a thorough analysis of the skills of the managers can be recognised. The audit information must include the result of the discussion to identify the learning style.
• Training and development: Training and development are one of the most effective ways to identify the learning style effective for the managers (Okebukola, 2016). Significant planning of training and development programme will lead to the success of the learning style that can be effective for the overall benefits of the managers.
• Listening lectures: Listening to lectures delivered for the personal development is another technique to measure the learning outcomes. Such techniques can identify the fundamental concepts of learning to influence the learning styles such as business communication (Stitt-Gohdes, 2011).
• Reading and Analysis: Reading and analysis techniques will also be helpful to evaluate the learning styles in strategic management. Such instrumental techniques can monitor the learning styles such as communication and management of human resources effective for organisational perspective (Power, 2016).
• VARL Learning Style: Lastly, by analysing learning curves and graphical presentation, effective learning style for strategic management can be evaluated. Such model can be utilised to develop individual self-audit to identify the improvement in performance.

The personal development plan must be able to meet the SMART objective of a person. The SMART objectives to develop my personal skills have been discussed herein below:

• Specific: My specific objective is to utilise the learning resources provided by the organisation. I need to improve my communication skills and understanding of customer’s problems. A quick response to the customer’s request can help me in improving critical thinking ability (Bigelow, 2014). These specific objectives are required to work as a strategic manager of Etihad Airways.
• Measurable: The development of my skills can be measurable with the help of outcomes and success that I achieve through my personal development plan. The measurement of my success is used as a comparison for the success of the personal development plan.
• Aims: The aimed objective is to improve my personal skills for leadership. The personal development plan will aim to make my thinking ability clear and increase by understanding ability (Stephens Balakrishnan, Jayashree and Michael, 2011).
• Realistic: As the objective of the personal development plan is achievable, it is realistic in nature. It will help me in the future to serve the customers that will increase the reputation of the company.
• Timed: It is important to set deadlines for the activities that need to be undertaken to improve my personal skills. A timescale has been presented in the personal development plan.

The personal development plan has been presented in the table given below:

What do I need or want to improve	Why do I need to Improve	How do I improve	Is it organisational or personal need?	Timeline
Communication Skills	I feel Shy communicating with unknown people	Need to interact with unknown people through social media and at workplace.	Personal as well as organisational	Three Months
Understanding	I need to understand the problems of my client	Need to share problems with my mentors and trainers. Along with that, I need to share problems with my colleges as well as supervisors (Beausaert, Segers and Gijselaers, 2011).	Organisational	Four Months
Confidence	I plan too much but have no action. Hence, need to improve my confidence level.	Confidence can be built through taking right decisions and discussing them with the supervisors.	Personal	Two Months
Stress Level	I get stressed regarding small issues	Need to share problems with the supervisors.	Personal	One Month
Software Skills	I face problem with new software	Need proper training on the new software.	Organisational	Three months

Different methods can be used to evaluate the results of the individual development plan against the personal work objectives. The methods will be helpful to judge the success of the personal development plan to improve the chances of achieving the personal work goals at Etihad Airways. The methods to assess the personal development plan are discussed in details herein below:

• Set realistic goals: There is a need to establish realistic goals that can be achieved and measured in terms of success. For example, the achievement of gaining new skills can be an assessing factor for the outcomes of the personal development plan. Hence, goals must be set that can be achieved in real terms (Sennels, 2011).
• Take actions: The activities planned according to the personal development plan must be put into action to reach the desired targets (Beausaert, Segers and Gijselaers, 2011). A plan without action is not worthy of developing the personal skills of an employee.
• Be open to opportunities: Setting new goals lead to more opportunities. Hence, putting attention on the track of achieving self-development will open new possibilities for an individual (Branch and Burn, 2007). The opportunities can be used as an assessing factor for the outcomes of the personal development plan.
• Check success: Checking the progress achieved through the personal development plan helps to assess the outcomes against the personal work objectives (Druce, 2013). Hence, a regular monitoring of personal success must be conducted to evaluate the results of the personal development plan.
• Prepare Success Journal: Another effective way to determine the outcome of the personal development plan is to develop a success journal (Branch and Burn, 2007). Daily achievements must be noted to see the outcomes at the end of the deadline.

Personal learning plays an essential role in the achievement of strategic goals of an organisation. It is important to note that Etihad Airways aim to provide best hospitality experience while travelling from one place to another. Hence, the personal learning of the strategic manager affects the achievement of strategic goals of the company (Adair and Allen, 2013). The impact of own learning against the achievement of strategic goals is discussed herein below:

• Leadership Skills: As a strategic manager of Etihad Airways, the leadership skill plays an essential role in achieving the organisation’s goals. It is important to develop a good relationship with the employees and customers to understand their problems and solve their issues (Ellwood, 2011). Good management skill helps to utilise the time and schedule daily operations that increase personal efficiency and performance. It further helps to improve the performance of the organisation and achieve its strategic goals.
• Self-development: Self development is required to enhance own knowledge and skills. It helps to develop a better career and achieve personal goals (Al-Ali and Ahmad, 2014). Furthermore, achievements of personal goals lead to the achievement of strategic goals of the organisation.
• Professional Skills: Development of professional skills is required to treat the customers and employees in a better way and attend their queries with best solutions. It increases the reputation of the company and customers satisfaction level (Al-Ali and Ahmad, 2014). Hence, learning of professional skills is required to achieve the strategic goal of the organisation.

Conclusion

Analysing the need of personal skills development, it can be seen that it is an essential factor for the success of an organisation in the current business scenario. Etihad needs to develop the personal skills of its employees to improve its performance and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, the personal development plan helps the management to understand the needs of the employees and their learning style. Furthermore, it helps to improve the training and development programs that will support the achievement of strategic goals of the organisation.

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