Professional Development Framework by looking at the Knowledge & Scholarly Thinking domain. This domain is a set of intellectual competencies that put the scholar-practitioner on the pathway to move from a consumer of learning for academic purposes to a critical, scholarly, strategic thinker who puts knowledge and theory into professional practice. Consider that scholarly thinking involves conceptualization, judgment, synthetic reasoning, creativity, innovativeness, a visionary mindset, problem solving, critical thinking, and the ability to accept and respond to professional critique. As you begin your DBA journey, reflect on your existing strengths, as well as areas of potential growth, to build the competencies needed to be a successful DBA scholar-practitioner. Company leaders expect DBA degree holders to be able to make time-sensitive, critical decisions using creative and critical thinking. You will need to be aware of your personal and professional strengths and weaknesses, using your strengths to improve the areas of weakness, and possess the ability to learn new business concepts and accomplish significant goals to meet the demands of employers of DBA graduates.
After an initial personal and professional assessment of existing competencies, select from the subdomains below to build your Professional Development Framework. You may also create your own subdomains, if you wish. The subdomains reflect competencies you will need to identify, research, and solve business problems.
Some subdomains of the Knowledge & Scholarly Thinking domain are:
Critical thinking.
Ontological humility.
Assumption-related decision making.
Cognition and reflection.
Creativity and innovation.
Personal branding.
You may wish to review the references at the end of the DBA Professional Development Framework Guide [PDF] to deepen your understanding and allow for a more evolved framework as you reflect on:
Scholarship & practice.
Intellectual competencies.
Specialized content knowledge & skills (business acumen).
Learning advanced disciplinary knowledge and skills.
Conducting research and scholarship.
Collaborating within and across disciplines.
Knowledge and intellectual abilities.
The knowledge, intellectual abilities, and techniques to do research.
Cognitive skills.
Includes the skills necessary for the identification, planning, and solution of problems effectively and meaningfully.
Theory.
Researching professionals should possess foundational knowledge of theories in their discipline, and deep knowledge of theories that inform their areas of specialization within their discipline.
For this assignment, answer the following questions using your Professional Development Journal [DOCX] template. (Submit the entire template. Use subheadings within the template to organize your work.)
Reflection Questions
Address the following:
How might you identify your potential for growth in this domain using what you have learned so far in this course and in your own professional life? Which of the pieces of this course caused you the most difficulty? Which seemed the easiest? Reflect on what skills this leads you to feel are your stronger skills and which need more practice. Describe.
Which 2–3 subdomains would you like to develop further? This can include subdomains not listed in the DBA Professional Development Framework Guide [PDF].
What are a few specific goals for these subdomains?
What is your plan for achieving these goals?
What strategies will you use to stay motivated to achieve your goals?
Who in your current network can help you achieve your goals?
Who in your current network might create barriers to achieving your goals?
How will you leverage the helpers and avoid or mitigate the barrier-creators?
How does your chosen specialization in this program align with your personal sense of accomplishments to date or in your future plans?
Think about employers’ expectations of DBA graduates. How does that set of expectations match with the ones you had when choosing the program? How does it differ? Does this gap between your expectations and employers’ expectations excite or worry you? Why or why not?
