Professional Development and Ethics Socio-Cultural Competencies

“What is the role of Socio-cultural competencies for the professional manager in making a positive difference to society?”

This unit of study focuses on the following areas:

• Social trends and the rise of customer centricity and pluralism
• Mega trends in individual industries, particularly climate change and energy • Envisioning of the future through environmental scanning, blue sky thinking and  scenario planning
• Definitions and understanding of the dynamics of complexity and change and impact  on professional performance
• Ethics and professional values
• Setting personal development SMART goals, undertaking SWOT and PEST analysis  and developing strategies/career objectives
• Competency assessment and delineation of competency gaps
• Compiling own plan and monitoring self-development
• Maintaining and enhancing professional competencies

This unit places major emphasis on understanding the processes of continuing professional  development and competency acquisition to take advantage of career opportunities when  they arise. Most professional practitioners associate competency with task dexterity and  job-related skills, which is referred to as ‘normative skills’. The question is how relevant and  valid normative concepts are in today’s environment of change and uncertainty.  Competence is about autonomy; self-reference and group self-organisation, i.e. the  relatively enduring qualities that empower professional people to perform well individually  and in groups despite prevalence of complexity and rapid change. It must be underpinned  by strong personal and group ethics in order to build a thoughtful and well-considered  roadmap that you can use to reach your career goals.

This unit of study will teach and focus on fundamentals of professional development. By the  end of the unit students should have learnt the fundamental knowledge and developed  basic competency in these fields:

• Understand how to conduct environmental scanning and blue sky thinking • Understand how to assemble and analyse mega trends generally and in specific  industry branches
• Learn and apply principles of ethics and social responsibility
• Define/refine your professional SMART goals and set development targets • Conduct broad competency assessment in respective areas
• Develop personal learning and development plan
• Define key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics to assess progress against plan • Compile and submit your L&D plan
• Apply L&D plan to continually improve yourself and take control of your career • Manage and enhance own professional competencies.

This unit will help the students acquire the following sets of socio-cultural  competencies:

• Generic: All competencies that are common to all professionals (including cognitive  and communication abilities, problem solving and analytical mindset) tp pursue the  career of your dreams
• Leadership: Ability to direct, motivate & manage individuals &teams. • Commitment: Ability to dedicate to tasks & to project outcomes.
• Attitude: Ability to create the right frame of mind that promotes integrity & support  for achievement of project goals within a social context.
• Self-Direction: Ability to manage within and without guidelines & processes, and to  work without supervision.
• Learning: Ability to commit to continuous improvement in knowledge, skills&  attitude, & to creating new knowledge developing skills &approaches. • Cultural Empathy: Ability to respect for & accommodate individual lifestyle, beliefs &  norms.
• Creativity & Innovation: Capacity to generate new exciting and challenging  ideas/approaches & make them happen.

This unit will help the students acquire the following sets of professional development  competencies:

• Critical analysis of drivers of change
• Insights into mega trends in general and those applicable to a specific industry  branch locally and globally
• Ability in undertaking industry-specific environmental analysis, blue sky thinking and  envisioning the future in a pro-active manner
• Ability to set and pursue self-professional development goals
• A sound understanding of definitions and different forms of professionalism related  to the industry and disciplines
• Ability to conduct self-assessment and set competency development targets • Ability to design and apply an optimal and adaptive plan to guide own learning and  development

• Ability to self-manage, continuously develop and enhance own competencies

2. Teaching Methods and Strategies 

Development of Course Objectives and Graduate Attributes 

APIC provides a learning environment that prepares graduates for their careers. In order to  do this, the design and development of learning outcomes, teaching methods and  assessment has been carefully formulated to develop a range of work-related attributes in  each graduate.

Your learning experience in this Unit has been devised to bring out the attributes shown  below. This is achieved with a careful mix of learning outcomes, teaching and learning  activities, and assessment, across the whole degree program to align what is taught and  how it is assessed. Successful completion of this unit also contributes specifically to  development of the following APIC Graduate [Transformative] Attributes:

3. Schedule of Teaching and Learning Activities 

Intensive workshop, 2 days – Reflective learning, in tandem with L&D Plan/Essay

Recommended 

The following is the suggested list of readings that can be used to supplement the material  provided on the OLS. However, students should not be limited by this list, and students  can further research their own reading by reviewing the literature journals in EBSCO.

Contents

1: Self-Introduction. 3

2: Uderstanding socio-cultural competencies: 3

3: Discussions on two successful civil engineering icons. 5

4: Comparing competencies with the icon: 6

5: Summary of the expected outcomes and improvements on making positive differences: 7

Bibliography. 9

1: Understanding socio-cultural competencies:

The different socio-cultural competencies needed for continuing my professional development includes the followings.

1. Social skills:

Social skills include skills of communication, team work, and even socialization. These are the social skills that are vital for developing a successful career in civil engineering. Through effective communication skills, I will be in a position to keep forward my new ideas and thoughts so that the higher level management could understand the basic behind the idea and trust me on moving ahead with its execution. Through team work abilities I can take the help and support of other experts who can help me frame out the best course of action through the creation of an efficient and effective design for construction. Finally, through socialization ability, I will be in a position to understand the true needs of the people and thereby develop plans to make such designs that completely meets their requirements with lesser cost inputs(Waldman, 2006).

2. Self- awareness:

Self-awareness abilities include the ability to perform analysis of self-emotional state and thereafter helping other people. Self-awareness could actually help me in evaluating my abilities and personal skills. This way I can make an assessment of my capabilities and strive towards the development of those particular skills that are required to become a perfect and successful civil engineer. Self-awareness could also help me understand my emotional stage at different point of time. This way I will be in a position to respond in the most appropriate manner with other people. The efficiency developed in dealing with the self-emotional state could help me deal with others and understand their views in a better way. This way I would be in a position to develop ideas that fit the requirements of other as well as apply the new innovative ideas and models that are stored in my mind(Dutot, 2013).

3. Communication with peers:

With the ability to communicate with peers I would be a position to adapt to the new and changing environment by perceiving the attitudes that already exists. This way I would learn from the years of experience of peers and use them as a vital component in designing my ideas and thoughts for construction purposes. For me, a successful civil engineer is one that has the ability to communicate with peers, listen to their thoughts and adapt them in their design so that the perfect piece of art could be developed which could become an icon for the society(Zowawi et al., 2015).

4. Cultural knowledge and awareness:

With the cultural knowledge I will be able to develop communication skills to deal with other people in a diplomatic manner. This way I would take into account various cultural differences. Furthermore, the cultural awareness will help me in evaluating the cultural difference and through it perceive and accept the views, thoughts, and attitudes of other people with the cultural difference. Thus cultural knowledge and awareness would help develop the ability to take wise and most appropriate action that gets the easy support of other people with a cultural difference(Saunders & Walter, 2005).

3: Discussions on two successful civil engineering icons

The two successful professional practitioners of civil engineering that became an icon of the present day world by developing competencies as part of their professional development were Dr. John Jacob Crew Bradfield from Australia and M. Visvesvaraya from India.

Dr. John Jacob Crew Bradfield is well known for displaying his extreme talents and abilities for designing and building of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Through his hard work and immense knowledge, he was able to create marvels in civil engineering. He not only created design and built “The Sydney Harbor Bridge” but also “The Underground Railway System in Sydney’s Central Business District.” This way he was the man who made use of his social skills. That is through various skills he was able to develop communication, team work, and even socialization abilities. The use of knowledge along with the supportive abilities of other people in the field helped him craft out best designs for the country’s civil engineering projects(Thefamouspeople.com, 2017).

1. Visvesvaraya who was an Indian civil engineer is well known for the construction of Krishna Raja Sagara Dam in Mandya which actually helped in converting the nearby barren land into highly fertile grounds that could be used for the farming purpose. This way his ability to think ahead of time helped in making use of barren land in such a way that the surrounding villagers were able to secure enough supply of water throughout the year that made their land fertile enough for irrigation purposes. He is also well known for constructing designing the flood protection system in Hyderabad. This way with the cultural knowledge he was able to develop communication skills to deal with other people in a diplomatic manner. Also with the cultural awareness, he used in evaluating the cultural difference and through it perceive and accept the views, thoughts, and attitudes of other people with the cultural difference. Finally with the efficiency developed in dealing with the self-emotional state he was in a position to develop ideas that fit the requirements of other people as well as apply the new innovative ideas and models that could work as public service(Thefamouspeople.com, 2017).

4: Comparing competencies with the icon:

Upon comparison with the competencies of these two successful professional practitioners, I find myself in a phase of learning. I clearly understand that I need to make consistent efforts throughout my life to become like them. However, I consider my ideas good enough to follow the footsteps of these great people.

Like Dr. John Jacob Crew Bradfield, I have in my mind various new ideas and thoughts which are highly innovative. I believe that the future has lot many things yet to be seen in the field of civil engineering. Therefore I could be the one making huge participant in shaping the new world with new ideas and thoughts that were once displayed by Dr. John Jacob Crew Bradfield. I have in my mind various new age ideas and thoughts which if collaborated with the new technology would help in shaping our new world with lot many iconic buildings. I intend to make these new building structures with different and futuristic designs. Civil Engineering education and that too from APIC would make me efficient enough to convert my dreams and thoughts into reality (Thefamouspeople.com, 2017).

Like M. Visvesvaraya, I want to work for social benefits. I am aware of the problems of people in Australia, which are more related to conserving water and saving electricity as these are available in limits. Therefore I will work towards constructing such buildings that would help conserve water and replace the traditional source of generating electricity with new renewable sources. This way my constructed buildings will be self-dependent as far as water and electricity are concerned. Like this great man, I will concentrate on the social welfare of the people and give away my best of knowledge and hard work to construct buildings that will fulfill the future demands of the common people (Thefamouspeople.com, 2017).

5: Summary of the expected outcomes and improvements on making positive differences:

A reflective focus on part 2 and part 3 will help me in reaching out to my life and career goals. First, with the learning process that will be completed with civil engineering with AIPC will help me get ready with all the skills and abilities required for construction of buildings of various kinds. The education support of my teachers will help me understand the concepts and formulate such ideas that will act as life changing experience in civil engineering. The different qualities and skills will be tried to develop including social skills, self-awareness, communication with peers and cultural knowledge and awareness. These skills will help me decide the best and most appropriate course of action. Furthermore, the learning from my two civil engineering ideal, Dr. John Jacob Crew Bradfield, and M. Vivesvaraya will guide me towards the best judgment about picking and completing the projects that I take in my hand. The life time achievements of these ideal will guide to help others and work for the society(Ferrell et al., 2015).

Finally, I would like to achieve excellence in civil engineering. This will automatically help me secure a good job and better career prospects in my life. I would like to see myself as a successful civil engineer in future who is considered as an ideal for completing various social welfare construction projects(Davison et al., 2011).

Bibliography

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Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrel, 2015. New Belgium Brewing: Engaging in Sustainable Social Responsibility. In Business Ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. p.437.

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Saunders, P. & Walter, J., 2005. Ideas and Influence: Social science and public policy in Australia. Sydney: University of NSW Press.

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