The use of Personal Development Plans in the workplace: A literature review

It is evident that in the current knowledge economy learning does not stop after graduation. Learning for a profession is only a starting point for learning in the profession. One tool to enhance learning in the profession is a personal development plan (PDP). Although this tool is very popular to date, there is no review study available to inform researchers and practitioners about effects and conditions enhancing the effectiveness. Therefore, we conducted a systematic narrative literature review, selecting empirical studies to research PDPs in the workplace. The purpose of this review-study was to analyze the literature on the goals that PDP assessment is being used for in the workplace, its effectiveness to reach those goals and the desirable supporting conditions that will enlarge its effectiveness. The results highlight nine clusters of goals PDP assessment is used for, namely: professional development; reflective learning; providing evidence; documenting; certification, selection, and promotion; external mobility; coaching; stimulating confidence; and organizing. Furthermore, the small amount of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of PDP assessment (N studies = 54) indicates that the instrument is effective for personal or continuing professional development, stimulating reflection and improving professional practice. There nevertheless exists a gap between the popularity of this tool and the availability of evidence of its effectiveness. Moreover, almost all studies researching PDPs took place in an educational or healthcare setting. Finally, only the support received from a coach or supervisor and the time and resources provided have been researched as supporting process conditions and were found to have positive effects. In most other included articles the supportive conditions are no object of study but are theoretically discussed and argued upon. It is clear that to inform human resource development professionals using PDPs, more studies systematically investigating the effects of the tool and the supporting process conditions are necessary