METHODICAL SYSTEM OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONNEL IN ENTERPRISES OF THE SERVICE SECTOR

Abstract

Relevance: The research is driven by rapid changes in information and technologies, the development of service industry enterprise networks, and the replenishment of staff with specialists (engineers, financiers, programmers, etc.) from the displaced persons who do not always possess adequate customer service skills. The competition among service sector enterprises is continuously escalating, and the qualifications and communicability of each employee become the characteristics that ensure an organization's steady progress. Meanwhile, aspects of continuous professional development and the enhancement of professional knowledge among service industry staff remain underexplored. The application of the "learning organization" concept principles and the systemic approach to developing professional competence in qualified service industry workers has not been the subject of specialized research.

Objective: To substantiate, based on the ideas, provisions, and principles of the "learning organization" concept, a system for developing the professional competence of service industry personnel and to develop its structural model.

Methods: The research objectives were addressed using theoretical methods, such as the analysis of scientific and methodological sources, studying the requirements of normative legal documents, which facilitated understanding the state of the researched problem and identifying directions for scientific inquiry. The comparative method was applied to review scientific approaches concerning the specified problem, particularly in foreign practices of personnel professional development; analysis and synthesis were used to clarify the peculiarities of service industry personnel activities and justify the methodical system for developing their professional competence.

Results: The characteristics of services as a process of simultaneous production, delivery, and consumption of activity results (actions, benefits, satisfaction) by a qualified worker were clarified, and based on this, the distinction in the professional competence of these enterprises' personnel from technical workers and agricultural sector workers was identified. The importance of implementing the ideas, provisions, and principles of the "learning organization" concept in domestic service sector enterprises, widely adopted in global companies, was demonstrated. The structure of the methodical system for developing the professional competence of service industry personnel was substantiated (objective, information-digital technologies, content, methods, forms, means, result, control, and correction of the development outcomes of the researched integrative personality trait of a qualified enterprise worker).

Conclusions: It was established that the main feature of modern service sector enterprises' functioning is related to the specificity of services as a result of interaction between their producer (supplier) and consumer, client. It was shown that services, lacking a clearly expressed material result in a certain object, cannot be stored for later sale, as they are a process of simultaneous production, delivery, and consumption of activity results (actions, benefits, satisfaction). It was found that in the context of contemporary external and internal challenges, customer orientation as a direction in which staff prioritizes the desires and requirements of the client and implements them efficiently, is recognized as the main policy of such enterprises. It was determined that productive, high-quality activity in the service sector is impossible without continuous learning and professional competence development of each employee. Considering the principles of the "learning organization" concept, a system for developing the professional competence of service sector personnel was substantiated based on the combination of formal (qualification improvement, internships), informal (corporate training), and informal (professional self-development) education into a single methodological construct. For the implementation of the substantiated methodical system, the creation of a training center within the enterprise structure, a department that would ensure the continuity of qualification improvement for both the directorate and qualified workers, was proposed.