Professional growth plans: Possibilities and limitations of an organizationwide employee development strategy

Citation

Fenwick T (2003) Professional growth plans: Possibilities and limitations of an organizationwide employee development strategy. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 14 (1), pp. 59-77. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.1050

Abstract
Professional growth plans, while not a new approach to employee development, are rarely mandated as standard supervisory practice. This article offers a study of widescale mandatory implementation of professional growth plans (PGPs) in Canadian school systems, as an approach to fostering continuous professional learning. Reported benefits include greater employee commitment to learning; increased employee focus on purposes for their own development; increased collegiality; and employees' sense of self-affirmation. Tensions over control and direction, between organizational desires to guide employee development and professionals' desires for autonomy, need to be worked through. But with sufficient employee-supervisor trust, dialogue, flexibility, and patience, the findings suggest that PGPs motivate dialogue and questioning that energizes collective learning and professional practice.

Journal
Human Resource Development Quarterly: Volume 14, Issue 1

People

Professor Tara Fenwick

Emeritus Professor, Education