Whirlpool's Restructuring Strategies

The report discusses Whirlpool's crisis in 2011 and its subsequent restructuring efforts. The company focused on transparent communication, commitment to goals, and employee development programs, including organizational and individual learning, training, and development programs. The report also explores the application of learning cycle theories for professional development and competitive advantage.

Developing Individuals,
Teams and
Organisations

Table of Contents
Developing Individuals, Teams and Organisations.........................................................................1
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P1: Professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR professionals.......1
M1: Detailed professional skills audit.........................................................................................2
D 1: Detailed and coherent professional development pan for achieve business goals..............2
P2 Analysis of completed personal skills audit...........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3.Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development:.....4
M2 Learning cycle theories.........................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P5 Contribution of HPW to employee engagement and competitive advantage........................7
M3 Benefits of HPW ..................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P6. Performance Management:........................................................................................................8
M4. Evaluation of Performance Management............................................................................9
D2 Valid synthesis of knowledge and information in reference to HPW.................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In various organisations, development of individual, team and organisation is view as
solution to a problem. The best organizations continuously develop the capabilities of their
people through mentoring, selective assignments, targeted training, and other means. As
development of individual helps in developing a good team, a good team always helps in
developing overall organisation. The main aim of particular report is overall development of
team, individuals and organisations through various HR practices. The success of any
organisation depends on its ability to continuously expand and improve the collective and
individual capabilities of its people. The present report is based on restructuring of Whirlpool's in
North American Region, with the help of employees High Performance Working (HPW)
practice. High Performance Working is about creating a culture where there is transparency,
open communication and where employees understand accountability. The project covers the
topic like skills and behaviours of HR professionals, difference between organisational and
individual learning, training and development. Apart from this, the need for continuous
development and contribution of HPW to employees are explained (Caroline Martins and Meyer,
2012).
TASK 1
P1: Professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR professionals
Human resource management responsibilities needs an overlapping set of skills and
capacity. To manage the people of company is toughest task for HR professionals and it needs a
skill set and competency for managing these peoples. As a HR consultant of Whirlpool's, it needs
a lot of HR competencies and skills, which are as follows:
Knowledge: Being an HR professional, there are different kinds of knowledge that one
should posses, which are as follows: Knowledge of business: The knowledge of business is must for a HR professional, one
should be aware about the different businesses of company like Whirlpool. Knowledge of International HRM: As in today's globalisation time, working for
international company like Whirlpool, HR should always be aware about the practices
follows in international HRM, for the betterment of company.
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Behaviour: Behaviour means code of conduct that is follows by an HR professional in
organisation. As an HR consultant of Whirlpool, there are conducts that need to be followed,
these are as described below: Ethical Behaviour: For an HR professional, confidentiality is a major issue for HR. As
an HR consultant of Whirlpool, one should use the information of companies’ employees
and companies HR policies for the company betterment.
 Fairness: The HR professional should always be fair while recruiting the staff for
different position of the company. As Whirlpool is a big name, so while recruiting the
employees for the company there should not be partiality.
Competencies / Skills: in today's competitive world, being an HR of Whirlpool, it is
essential for the HR to possess certain competencies for overall development of company as well
as personnel. The following are capacity that are as follows: Strategic thinking and analytical skills: An HR professional should be able to formulate
the strategy for the company and its employees. The HR of popular company like
Whirlpool must be able to solve the analytical problem and should be able to make the
strategy for smooth functioning of organisation.
 Leadership and Management Skills: The leadership and management skill is
compulsory for the HR, as to manage the things in efficient way. As an HR of Whirlpool,
one should be able to apply the different theories for the overall development of
Individual, Team and Organisation (Carter and et. al., 2011).
M1: Detailed professional skills audit
There are various different kind of professional skills, which helps a company to evaluate
the performance of its employees and take corrective action where needed for improvement of
their performance. These skills like leadership, change management skills and decision making
skills, which helps an HR for overall development of the organisations. As an HR consultant of
Whirlpool, it can be seen that HR imply the HPW (High Performance Working) which
demonstrate the overall improved performance of employees.
D 1: Detailed and coherent professional development pan for achieve business goals
Whirlpool was going through the restructuring phase, so as an HR consultant of company
whirlpool, they followed the practice of HPT (High Performance Team) to achieve the business
goal. As HPT, assessment process helped the employees towards the shared commitment
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towards the vision and extraordinary goals of business. In this process, team members
communicate a consistent message about the team's vision and goals throughout the organisation.
It allows the transparent communication and shared accountability for results among the
employees.
P2 Analysis of completed personal skills audit
Skills audit is the process of assessing the employees’ skills via questionnaire or one to
one, and then identifying potential knowledge gaps that might affect the long-term plans of the
company or growth of the individual. HR leaders plays a key role in ensuring employees
maximise skills future and other development opportunities to achieve their personal growth
targets and aligns individual learning goal with that company. Organisations have hidden talent
or untapped talent at all levels, so it is important for companies to undertake a skills audit or a
review of the employees. Companies need to assess the skills of their talent pool related to the
strategy to identify skills gaps that need to be address, combining new or existing internal
training programmes. This can be seen that Whirlpool adopted the High Performance Team,
assessment process that helped the company to achieve the goal. As team has an appropriate
forum for constructive debate and discussion about the issues facing the company. The follow up
scores demonstrate that in fewer time Whirlpool's business, the HPT process improve the
organisation performance and enhanced the team's ability to deliver exceptional results.
Professional development plan for the job role:
Management Backup: Skill audits cost time, money and resources so a strong backup
requires from the management. Therefore, Whirlpool has big name with strong financial support
and for HPT assessment management has supported the employees to perform efficiently.
Create Scope: As scope is created for employees skills for assessment, Whirlpool staff
focused on five core dimension that is shared accountability, commitment towards company
vision and mission, transparent communication, constructive conflict and mutual respect.
Competency Framework: It establish a network between the individual and organisation.
It includes the integrated knowledge, skills, judgement and attributes that required to perform a
job effectively. Whirlpool case also shows that, with the help of HPT employees started sharing
the commitment towards common goals.
Training and Development Session: Skill based training and development programmes
should be conducted for the improves team functioning. The Whirlpool has also one-day
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development session in which staff agrees on avoiding of personal conversation at the weekly
staff meeting. The special off site meetings were arranges so NAR staff could thoughtfully and
creatively address strategic issues (Eriksson, 2013).
Ranking range of self-assessed score:
High Medium Low
9-8 8-6 6-1
Serial
Number
Skills and Competencies Self-assessed
Score
Score from others Variances
1 Education 9 8 1
2 Problem Solving 9 7 0
3 Decision making Authority 9 8 1
4 Team Building Capability 7 8 -1
6 Time Controlling Ability 6 8 -2
7 Information Technology
Assistances
9 5 4
8 Communication skills 8 8 0
According to the above table, it has been clear seen about the self-audit that shown negative
variance, which are considered as my strengths, and positive variances those are measured as my
weakness. The above table is showing the range of self-assessment score of my personal skills. It
means that the number 9-8 represent high rating, whereas 8-6 tends to represent medium rating
and 6-1 belongs to low level of skills rating.
Strength Weaknesses
One of the biggest strength is time
management skills that is comes from my
mother, which is core base of mine. According
to me, HR manager would make sure that
activities performed by employees could be
Sometime, my communication ability would be
major factors that results in creating maximum
issues while managing the resources of the
company.
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accomplish within a stipulated time limit.
Another crucial strength is my reliable
education. I am master in management degree
human resources skills.
The key weakness is my information
technology ability. According to me, I have not
enough skill in areas of IT.
Personal development plan – According to this particular process of establishing
motive as a HR wants to attain the overall measure, which would be done by using PDP
plan.
Sr.
No
Learning
Objective
Current
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunitie
s
Criteri
a for
judgin
g
succes
s
Time
Scale
Evidenc
e
1 Information
Technology
As it has been
found that, my IT
skills are not
perfect, as I am
not known with
certain HR
software.
In order to
increase the IT
skills I have to
work on
various HR
software that
are used within
an
organisation.
It can be fulfil
by using
appropriate
training and
classes with
Professionals.
Team
membe
rs.
6
mont
hs
Judgeme
nt and
indicatio
n of IT
instructor
s.
2 Decision
making
As per the Self-
audit, I have
average ability
when it comes to
decision making.
In order to
increase the
level of
quality.
Proper
guidance from
experienced
personnel
regarding how
to retain calm
during work.
Higher
-level
manag
ers will
assess
my
ability.
3-4
mont
hs
Judgeme
nt of top
level
managers
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TASK 2
P3.Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development:
Organisational and individual learning are both important for the overall growth and
development of the company but both has different aspects. Learning can be achieve through the
gaining new facts, ideas and improvement in skills and it should be continuous process.
Whirlpool was facing crisis in 2011 so it giving focusses on restructuring, timely decision
making, efficient, effective and cross- functional collaboration for the development of company.
For individual training and development, Whirlpool identify the needs of employees and
according to that follow the training and development process for the growth of employees.
There are differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development
that are follows:
Organisational Individual
It is collective learning process in which group
based and individual learning experience
concern with the overall improvement in
organisational performance. Whirpool learn
through the crisis and after it gives focus on
improvement through restructuring to
overcome from the crisis.
In this learning process individual experience
and development is consider for the growth of
company. Management of Whirpool avoid the
personal conversation with employees to
increase the productivity in work and it was the
learning for the individuals to avoid the
personal talks in work.
Organisational training is concern with the
whole development of organisation through
various training process and it is long-term
process.
In this training process, employees get an
opportunity to develop its skills and
capabilities as per the role in the company.
Organisational development can be done
through follow plans, policies and objectives
according to the need of company. For the
organisational development, Whirpool was
focusing on the commitment, goals, transparent
communication and constructive conflict.
Individual development can be done through
learn new skills and tech tics and implement it
in the work. For individual development
Whirpool was addressing individual needs and
avoiding personal conversations and focusses
on the group development so that individual
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performance can also be improve.
Organisational and individual learning, training and development are both very important
to achieve the goal of the company. Without individual training and development, an
organisational development is not possible because organisation is consist of individuals. If
organisation want to develop itself then individual development is also important. Learning can
be possible through acquiring new skills and process and acquire the new changes if needed. For
Whirpool learning should be continuous process so that company will not suffer from crisis in
the future and it will achieve sustainable growth (Gibbs, 2013).
P4. Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance
Learning is important for individuals as well as for the company. Learning should be
continuous because we cannot predict the future means what will happen in future, we do not
know. Learning is continuous process and day-to-day activity an individual can learn so many
things. Learning is continuous process because skills and capabilities are needed to be update
according to the need. Knowledge and experience are also improve through the continuous
learning. For consistent growth and development, continuous learning is very important for the
individual as well as the company. After facing the crisis in 2011 Whirlpool, know the
importance of contiguous learning. It learn and restructure the organisational system and change
the policies because without continuous learning company cannot achieve its goals in future
(Hooper, and Potter, 2011). Needs for continuous learning are as follows:
Remain relevant:
This need focusses to remain relevant in your industry with up gradation in your skills.
For professional development, it is needed for Whirlpool to adopt changes according to the
environment because technology is continuously changing so it is important to remain valuable
by learning new skills.
Prepare for the unexpected:
Future is full of uncertainties so its need to adapt the unexpected changes. By
continuously learning, a person can find new opportunities in its work and it will help in
professional development.
Competence leads to confidence
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Learning new skills and things will help in boost confidence. If confidence will increase
then individual will ready to take new challenges and this thing will help a lot in professional
development. As at the time of restructuring of Whirlpool, employees come together for
achieving the company's goal, which boosted their confidence (Lowman and et. al., 2012).
Sparks new ideas:
Continuous learning help in getting new ideas because mind will able to find new
solutions or ideas. New ideas helps to done a task in more effective manner and in professional
life its helps a lot.
Continuous learning: As per a process in which staff are trained on regular basis. This
particular procedure is related to individual and not to entire organisation. This concept can assist
in increase the overall ability of employees and their knowledge. Practices of this particular
process like attaining feedbacks and regular sessions can increase employees to learn regularly.
Proficient advancement – This is a more extensive idea which incorporates capable
improvement of workers of an association. Skilful improvement comprises wide variety
Specialised training, formal training and impelled disposing through bosses and different
supervisors. Practices of expert advancement incorporates preparing and coaching utilizing
specific showing methods, specialized projects and some progressively.
All the above-mentioned concept of continuous learning and development can be used by
organisation such as Whirlpool with the motive of drive sustainable business performance. In
order to correct the issues that are faced by this organisation some of the below mentioned
concepts are taken into account.
Critical thinking – Continuous learning is a procedure in which employees are prepared to
confront future possibilities and difficulties. An organisation used to upgrade critical thinking
abilities of their representatives utilizes this procedure. During the time spent constant learning,
representatives can pick up experience, which causes them to take care of authoritative issues.
Respond to technology: With the proper use of continuous learning styles, employees to
learn about new technologies, which assist Whirlpool, and to effectively implement them to
provide reliable training to their workforce regarding usage of those technologies.
M2 Learning cycle theories
Learning cycle theories helps to implementing continuous professional development.
These theories learn that how an individual can develop its skills and contribute to the growth of
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the company. These theories are able to change the life of an individual. These theories consist of
invention, expansion, application and extension. Invention is needed to get something new in life
and it can change and develop the life of professional person. It also help in expansion means
expand the new things according to the need of person. Application is also important because if a
person does not apply the invention and expansion in its work then it useless. Therefore,
application of new skills is important for the professional development and through it business
performance objectives will achieve. If employees are professionally developed then
performance of business will automatically increase (Lyras, 2011).
TASK 3
P5 Contribution of HPW to employee engagement and competitive advantage
High performance working is about the creating an environment where there is
transparency, faith and open communication for all. It is a general approach to managing
organisation which aims to stimulate more effective employees involvement and commitment in
order to achieve high level of performance. It has become the very important as a source of
competitive advantage in competitive environment. With the help of HPW it helps organisation
to maintain market position by being innovative in new product designs. The researchers says
that, companies who adopt the high performance working has increased the productivity of
employees in compare to those companies which does not adopt this. It can be seen in Whirlpool
case also after adopting the HPW the employees reports higher job satisfaction, motivation,
involvement and greater opportunity for innovation. The implementation of HPW practices with
in an organisation impact in a positive way in order to organisational growth, lower staff
turnover and more creativity at workplace. The whirlpool at the time its restructuring applied the
HPW in organisation which help the company that all the employees come together for the
common goal of company. On restructuring time of Whirlpool, it would require well informed,
timely decision making and effective and cross functional collaboration so high performance for
business expansion. As competition was also there for Whirlpool, so to take competitive
advantage innovation and productivity also requires. So high performance working allowed
Whirlpool employees a decentralised structure, flexible working, providing employees
opportunities to learn new skills and enhance the skills they have. And overall it results for
whirlpool to take the competitive advantage through this HPW (Martin, 2011).
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M3 Benefits of HPW
HPW focus on employee involvement and reflects commitment to creating an
organisational culture base on the commitment of employees rather than control. High
performance working is a practice that create competitive advantage and enhance the overall
performance of organisation. It ensure low staff turnover as it can be seen, at restructuring time
of Whirlpool the employees comes together for company rather than
leaving the company. HPW more focus on the quality and innovation of product rather than its
cost. This encourage employees for sharing the information among each other, so deviations can
be removed (Truss Shantz, and et. al ., 2013).
TASK 4
P6. Performance Management:
It is a process to analyse and manage the performance of an organisation, departments
and employees of the company. It is an activity which ensure that objective of an enterprise are
met with an effective and efficient way. Total performance of a company can be developed by
rising the performance of an individual. Performance of an employee is start when he enters in a
firm or end when he quit the job. As a HR consultant in Whirlpool, a report had to be presented
at the annual Confederation of British Industry workshop to show performance management
which can support high-performance culture and commitment. The approaches of performance
management are as follows:-
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(Source: Approaches for measuring performance of employees, 2018) Behavioural Approach- This approach deals with the behaviour of an employees towards
the work and their team members. If an employee is fully dedicated on his work and
helps to achieve the goals and objectives of a firm then he get promotion or reward.
Behaviour of a person is automatically connect with his performance (Vincent, 2014). Result Approach- In this approach whirlpool company rate their employees by
performance results. This technique is very useful to motivate employees for improve
productivity and measure feedback. It focuses on learning and growth of a company. Quality Approach- This approach is focuses on the quality of goods and services as well
as overall organisation. It helps to improve the customer satisfaction by eliminating errors
and provide them better service. By using this approach, whirlpool can use of various
sources to evaluate the performance of employees. It cover both internal and external
factors for improving business. Attribute Approach- In this technique, employees are measured for their unique qualities
or skills like problem solving skills, way of communication, their creativity and
participation in teamwork. Whirlpool company give rate to their employees as per their
set of parameters as high, medium or low.
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Illustration 1: Approaches for measuring performance of employees

 Comparative Approach- This approach is used by the whirlpool company when they
evaluate the performance of one employee with others. When any employee get highest
rank in this measurement then he should be rewarded and give him proper training and
promote on a higher position.
M4. Evaluation of Performance Management
It is necessary to evaluate performance of employees for development of an organisation
and improve effectiveness and efficiency of employees. Organisation can assign a task to every
employees and evaluate the behaviour, dedication, quality, competitive spirit and result. When
staff of a firm perform better task then chances of getting success is more. So, Whirlpool
company analyse and evaluate these approaches and take a judgement that performance
management is an effective way to support high-performance culture and commitment
(Wickramasinghe and Widyaratne, 2012).
D2 Valid synthesis of knowledge and information in reference to HPW
The high performance working is practice applied by the HR in company for the
employees betterment. As this practice applied by the HR on the basis of the knowledge and
informations that HR have regarding the employees. This High Performance Working helps the
employees to enhance their skill set and improve productivity. So it is essential for HR to have
better knowledge of employees skills so according to training can be provided to the each
employees. In this, employees shows their commitment towards the achieving the goal and
taking competitive advantage through innovation.
CONCLUSION
As per the above report, it has been concluded that in the year 2011 Whirpool was facing
crisis and the condition of the company was critical in that period. To meet this situation
company changes its business strategies, focusses on restructuring. Whirpool also focusses on
transparent communication, commitment and goals and for that company has provided
organisational and individual learning, training and development programmes. For professional
development it apply the learning cycle theories which help in competitive advantage and
organisational growth.
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