Executive Education - Specialist Areas
CHaRM - Risk and Continuing Professional Development
Professionals play an ever-increasing role in society and within work organisations. Public expectations of the competence of professionals in all fields remains high, but there is increasing concern that serious societal and organisational risks are arising where professional performance is falling far short of expectation.
While there has been some research into the mistakes made by some professionals which have given rise to seriously adverse consequences (from Chernobyl to BSE), there has been little research into the development of professionals in relationship to their risk control responsibilities.
Professor Emeritus Geoff Chivers has conducted much research on learning in relationship to working life, especially at professional level, and has contributed to the development of a holistic model for professional development. This model stresses the importance of developing professionals in four well-balanced and integrated domains: the cognitive, the vocational skills, the personal competencies, and the ethic / values domains. Through professional life, meta skills of reflection, communication, analysis, problem solving, creative design, etc. also need to be continually strengthened to achieve the high performance professionals need to identify and control complex risks.
Research is now underway to identify how professionals develop the competencies necessary to control the risks which confront them in their respective fields. This research recognises that initial professional development is based on individual learning to a great extent and is sufficiently broad to enable the young professional to work in a wide variety of organisations. In contrast, continuing professional development is often team based, and set in very specific work and organisational contexts.
The roles of human resource development professionals, and the professionals specifically focused on risk (health and safety, environmental and security advisers for example) in supporting the development of other professionals (including managers) in the risk field is a research subject of special interest. Research will also focus on the development of these risk advisory professionals, in particular on the forms, extent and effectiveness of the training and development programmes which they undertake.
Bibliography
Chivers, G. (1996) ‘The Contribution of Flexibly Delivered Postgraduate Post-Experience Programmes to Continuing Professional Development in Interdisciplinary Fields’, in Woodward, I. (ed) Continuing Professional Development – Issues in Design and Delivery, Cassell, London.
Cheetham, G. and Chivers, G. (1998) ‘Professional Competence: Harmonising Reflective Practitioner and Competence Based Approaches’, in O’Reilly et al (eds) Developing the Capable Practitioner, Kogan Page, London, pp 215-228.
Chivers, G. (1999) ‘The Development of Continuing Education and Training Professionals, a Research Agenda’, in Poell, R. and Chivers, G. (eds) Continuing Professional Development in Europe, ESREA CPD Network, Sheffield and Loughborough Universities, UK and Nijmegen University, the Netherlands, pp 85-89.
Cheetham, G. and Chivers, G. (1996) ‘Towards a Realistic Model of Professional Competence’, Journal of European Industrial Training, Volume 20, No 5, pp 20-30.
Cheetham, G. and Chivers, G. (1998) ‘The Reflective and Competent Practitioner: a Model of Professional Competence Which Seeks to Harmonise the Reflective Practitioner and Competence-Based Approaches’, Journal of European Industrial Training, Volume 22, No 7, pp 267-276.
Poell, R.F., Chivers, G.E., Van der Krogt, F. and Wildemeersch, D.A. (2000) ‘Learning-Network Theory: Organising the Dynamic Relationships Between Learning and Work’, Management Learning, Volume 31 (1), pp 25-49.
Poell, R. and Chivers, G. (1999) ‘The Changing Role of Training Consultants in Organising Work Related Learning’, Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Academy of Human Resource Development, Washington DC, March 3-7 1999, pp 1061-1067.
Cheetham, G. and Chivers, G. (1999) ‘Towards a Holistic Approach to Professional Learning and Development’, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research Conference, Sark, T,J,, Chapman, V.L. and St Clair, R. (eds), The University of British Columbia, 41st Adult Education Resarch Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 2000, 549-550, ISBN 0-88865-216-X.
Chivers, G.E., ‘Towards an Holistic Approach to Professional Learning and Development’, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Adult Education Research Conference, The University of British Columbia, Department of Educational Studies, UBC, Vancouver, June 2000, pp 549-550.
Chivers, G.E., ‘The Role of Reflective Practice Interviews in Continuing Professional Develpment’, Perspectives on Learning at the Workplace Supplement, Streumer, J.N. (ed), Second Conference on HRD Research and Practice Across Europe, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, 2001, pp 163-167, ISBN 90 365 15483.
Chivers, G.E. and Cheetham, G.,‘Professional Develpment and Lifelong Learning’, Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of SCUTREA, West, L., Miller, N., O'Reilly, D. and Allen, R. (eds), Standing Conference of University Teachers and Researchers in the Education of Adults, 31st Annual Conference of SCUTREA, University of East London, Docklands Campus, 2001 ,pp 70-72, ISBN 0 9516 397 30.
Cheetham, G. and Chivers, G.E., ‘How Professionals Learn in Practice: An Investigation of Informal Learning Amongst people Working in Professions‘, Journal of European Industrial Training, 25(5), 2001,pp 247-292, ISBN 0309-0590.
Chivers, G.E., review of Marsick,V.J.(ed),‘Learning in the Workplace‘ , International Journal of Lifelong Learning, 1988, pp 235-236.
Chivers, G.E., review of Becher, T., ‘Professional Practices: Commitment and Capability in a Changing Environment’, Studies in the Education of Adults, 33(1), April 2001, pp 74-76.
Chivers, G.E., ‘Risk and professional Competence ‘,Insurance 2001, 19th February 2001, 12 pp, RMR plc, web-based conference, [WWW] Available from: www.rmr-insurance2001.com.
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