Free «Programs Analysis: Personal Growth and Development» Essay Paper

Life transition from college environment into the employment market comes with numerous challenges. It is a transition from dependency on one’s parents to self-sustainability. One learns to manage his/her own expenses with the available income from employment. In most cases, one cuts down a part of his/her college expenses to match his/her current income. In other cases, one may increase expenditures if his/her income exceeds the amount parents could provide with during the college years. Single workers with dependent children face a tougher challenge when they join the job market because they have to balance between work and family issues (Reynolds, 2005).

New workers face a number of challenges, either work- or family-related, depending on whether they have dependent children or not. However, it is important to note that not only single workers face challenges, but couples face the same or even more complicated issues as well (Williams, 2000). This discussion narrows down to personal growth and development which is the main challenge faced by new workers. The reason I chose to discuss this issue is that I am about to graduate from college, and therefore it would be of a great relevance as I prepare to join the job market. Personal growth and development takes different dimensions, and therefore different people will have various perspectives in relation to personal growth and development.

In general, personal growth and development is a blend of many life aspects, which include improved quality of life, career advancement, and overall effectiveness and responsiveness both at the workplace and in the family. Personal growth and development is not spontaneous; it is rather gradual as a person moves from one stage of life to another. It means that from the time of birth and throughout one’s life, each stage defines a certain level of personal growth and development. It is therefore important to note that transition from one stage of development to another brings a big challenge of effectively dealing with new life issues while struggling to abandon unnecessary habits held in the previous stage.

For new and single workers, the challenge of personal growth and development is different from working couples. It also applies to single workers with dependent children. In the case of single workers with dependent children and working couples, personal growth and development is required at two distinct levels: at the career level and the family level (Williams, 2001). On the other hand, single new workers have no family pressure issues, and therefore they are mainly concerned with personal improvement in relation to their careers and overall quality of life.

Personal growth and development is a big challenge to working couples because each of partners has different ideas and would wish his/her personal ideas to be prioritized. In other words, each person has a different understanding of personal growth and development. Since quality performance at the workplace highly depends on the family comfort, overall effectiveness of couples at the work place is low (Williams, 2001). It is important to note that many couples would not agree on the proportion of each one’s income directed towards taking care of children. This is because the urge of personal growth and development drives one to focus more on his/her own quality of life, assuming that the other partner will cater for children. The whole family feels this effect in the end when both partners realize that none attained personal growth and development. However, if couples have a common understanding in relation to personal growth and development, their cooperation will enrich the development of the entire family.

Recently employed workers are interested in their overall quality of life, and therefore the issue of personal growth and development pushes them into improving their performance at the workplace. This is due to understanding that personal growth and development depends on the level of career advancement. Subsequently, career advancement comes with increased income hence improved quality of life. Notably, the urge for personal growth and development therefore encourages new workers to work harder with the sole vision of career advancement and performance improvement. Realistically, new workers and working couples face the challenge of balancing work and family issues with the urge for personal growth and development. It is therefore important to develop relevant programs to address this challenge.

The most appropriate programs would be personal growth programs. Such programs should be universal regardless of whether it is new workers or already working couples. These programs will help workers differentiate between workplace and personal life goals. They will also teach them that both goals are dependent on each other and one cannot fully attain personal goals without attaining workplace goals (Reynolds, 2005). Such programs include self-awareness, workplace wellness, and capacity building on management and communication.

Other useful programs would be work-family programs. These programs are mostly appropriate for single workers with dependent children and working couples. It is unfortunate that such programs are absent in many human resource departments due to the assumption that couples are experienced and can easily balance between family and work issues (Reynolds, 2005). Such programs will therefore help working couples walk through the dilemma of managing family and workplace issues simultaneously. With good management of such issues affecting both family and work life, workers will easily cope with the challenge of personal development. However, it is important to start with personal growth programs before one can advance to family-work programs. On the other hand, in the case of working couples and single workers with dependent children, both types of programs can run simultaneously