Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organizations: A Comprehensive Analysis of HR Practices at Amazon

This report delves into the critical aspects of developing individuals, teams, and organizations within the context of Amazon. It examines the knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by HR professionals, analyzes the personal skills audit of an employee, and outlines a professional development plan. The report further explores the differences between organizational and individual learning, highlighting the importance of continuous professional development for sustainable business performance. Finally, it discusses the contribution of high-performance working (HPW) to employee engagement and competitive advantage, examining various approaches to performance management and their role in fostering a performance culture and commitment.

DEVELOPING INDIVIDUAL, TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
LO1...................................................................................................................................................4
A-DETERMINATION OF THE APPROPRIATE KNOWLEDGE, BEHAVIOUR AND SKILLS REQUIRED
BY THE INDIVIDUALS OF THE HR DEPARTMENT OF AMAZON....................................................4
B- ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLETE PERSONAL AUDIT SKILLS OF EMPLOYEE: JANE CAMBRIDGE...7
C- PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN.....................................................................................9
LO2.................................................................................................................................................10
D- ANALYSIS OF THE VARIOS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ORGANIZATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL
TRAINING, DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING..............................................................................10
E- ANALYSIS OF THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUOUS LEARNING NEED TO
DRIVE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE.......................................................................13
LO3, LO4- ESSAY.............................................................................................................................16
DEMONSTRATING THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE HPW IN THE EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT AND THEIR SUPPORT IN THE PERFORMANCE CULTURE AND COMMITMENT 16
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................21
1

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1- KOLB’S LEARNING STYLE.................................................................................................15
Figure 2- Performance Measurement...........................................................................................19
2

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1- KSB Determination.............................................................................................................6
Table 2- Professional development Plan.......................................................................................10
3

INTRODUCTION
There are certain skills and the behaviour that needs to be developed among the professionals
of the human department of the organizations which are being well explained in this report
along with their roles and responsibilities. An audit of the personal skills has been analyzed in
this report and a professional development plan has been created. Some of the difference
between the individual and the organizational learning has been well defined along with the
needs of the professional development and continuous learning in driving a sustainable
performance of an individual of an organization.
An essay has been prepared in this assignment in which the contributions of the HPW in the
employee engagement and in the attainment of the competitive advantage are defined. The
different approached of the performance management are also described with respect to the
Amazon organization.
4

LO1
A-DETERMINATION OF THE APPROPRIATE KNOWLEDGE, BEHAVIOUR AND
SKILLS REQUIRED BY THE INDIVIDUALS OF THE HR DEPARTMENT OF
AMAZON
The performance of the Amazon depends mainly on the human resource department that helps
in the promotion growth of the organization. Fulfilment of the desired objectives of the
organization is the main focus of the HR individuals of Amazon. There are some elements
namely the knowledge, skills and the behaviour that helps the HR to effectively perform their
job responsibilities.
SKILLS- The different training and the experiences of the HR helped in the development of the
efficient skills in the individuals which include the management, communication, negotiation,
technical and some other skills (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
KNOWLEDGE- The concepts of the different activities of the organization can be understood by
the knowledge by can be gained by some theories. It will help in the development of knowledge
of various legislation policies, HR practices and other activities of Amazon.
BEHAVIOUR- The ways the individuals interact with the other people help describes their
behaviour. It includes the behavioural aspects related to the role model, collaborates working
and critical thinking (Wilton, 2016).
The different roles and responsibilities of the HR includes the following-
 Conducting an effective recruitment process and carry out the screening, interviewing,
shortlisting and hiring effectively and recruit potential candidates for the organization
 Providing proper training to the employees to develop their professional capabilities
 Implementing effective policies and guidelines in the Amazon that are easily understood
and can be followed by other employees (Hislop, et al. 2018)
5

 The major role of the HR individuals is to promote equality in the workplace and offer
them various benefits like the safety and health benefits along with some rewards
 The HR individuals need to take care of the employee's payroll, employment laws and
their salaries and they need to continuously motivate the employees
 Maintaining the employee's laws for the employee grievance and to resolve the
problems of the employees (Bailey, et al. 2018)
SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOUR DETERMINATION (KSB)
Table 1- KSB Determination
HR OFFICER ROLES KSB COMMENTS
The HR Officer needs to
works in collaboration with
the other working
department in the
organization so as to fulfil
their requirements
S+K Knowledge of system is
required
Conducting an effective
recruitment process
S+K Skills and knowledge
required
Maintain the handbook and
employee records
S Skills are required
Understand training needs
and provide proper training
S Skills are required
Developing policies related
to employee performance
and the issues of the
employees
S+K Knowledge of system is
required
Establishing equality in the B Behavioural factors need to
6

organization be considered
7

B- ANALYSIS OF THE COMPLETE PERSONAL AUDIT SKILLS OF EMPLOYEE: JANE
CAMBRIDGE
The strengths and the weaknesses of the Jane Cambridge can be easily analyzed by the help of
the personal skills audit that can also help in focusing on the areas that need improvement in
terms of the knowledge, behaviour and the skills. The personal and the professional
development of the individual can take place with the help of some procedures in auditing the
skills which include-
 Defining the aims and objectives
 Identification of the risk factors
 Following a research process to improve the weaknesses (Sanghi, 2016)
 Development of a strategy to attain the objectives
 Gathering reviews and feedbacks to improvise the audit
The personal skills audit of the Jane Cambridge is shown as below which can be helpful in
analyzing the training needs-
Information Technology- There is need training for the development of the skills like the usage
of excel spreadsheet, database, specialist HR software as Jane has less knowledge in this filed
whereas she has excellent knowledge in Microdot office, email, PowerPoint and internet.
Communication skills- There is the need for training for Jane in the areas of – drafting the
employment contracts, delivering training sessions to improve his communication skills
(Gatewood, et al. 2015).
Problem-solving skills- Jane needs training in making good usage of his verbal reasoning skills,
in handling the complex data and making use of the selective information
8

Supervisory management- The lady can be befitted if some roles and responsibilities are
provided to her that will help her in gaining experience (Marchington,et al. 2016)
9

C- PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN
The professional development plan can help in the development of the interpersonal skills that
are required by the HR Professionals (Rothmann and Cooper, 2015).
Table 2- Professional development Plan
DEVELOPMENT
NEEDS
TYPE OF
DEVELOPMENT
TIME DURATION IMPLEMENTED
THROUGH
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS
Training sessions
delivery
Requires training 2 months Manager
Employment
contracts drafting
Requires training 1-2 months Manager
Interviewing skills Workshop need 1 month Staff
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
Database usage Requires training 2 months Manager
Using specialist HR
software
Requires training 2 months Manager
PROBLEM-SOLVING
SKILLS
Handing complex
data systems
Workshop needed
with training
2-3 months Manager
Effective use of verbal
reasoning skills
Workshop needed
with training
2-3 months Manager
10

LO2
Introduction
In order to evaluate and implement the learning, development and the training process it is
essential that several factors must be considered for driving the sustainable business
performance which is explained in this report
D- ANALYSIS OF THE VARIOS DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE ORGANIZATIONAL
AND INDIVIDUAL TRAINING, DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING
Learning process
The learning process can be defined as a cycle in which the organization like Amazon and its
employees are able to gain the different insights and are able to learn some new concepts. The
individual behavior and actions are directly impacted by the insights and knowledge of different
types of mental models can be gained by them by the organizational learning, The mechanism
of the organization helps in the organizational learning of employees that is used to store their
experience but sometimes this experience might get lost due to the migration of the employees
(Siemens, 2014).
Training process
It is a process in which some activities are performed for the enhancement of the behaviour,
attitude and the skills of the individuals that are generally given to the employees of the
Amazon. The employees of the Amazon are being prepared for the different job role and their
performance of the current tasks is also enhanced by training (Judrups, 2016).
Development process
Under the development process, the Amazon and its employees are being continuously
improving their work and a more sense of job responsibilities is developed in them which is not
11

restricted and the major focus in it on the career possibilities rather than the job and abilities
(Mabogunje, 2015).
Training and development are entirely different from each other as the motive of the training
so the skills and knowledge development of individual whereas as that of the development is
based on the organizational and individual choice to attain competitive advantage. The training
requires short duration whereas development needs a lot of time.
DIFFERENCES
ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING INDIVIDUAL LEARNING
It is based on the collective learning and
requires collective efforts for which
everybody must be motivated
Based on the individual learning and requires
high motivation and self-commitment
The vision is the attainment of the mutual
goals and requires seriousness in
individuals
The vision is the fulfilment of self-needs and
self-driven passion
Can be done with the help of professionals
having experience of that field (Argyris,
2017)
Non-conventional learning sources, self-study
and teaching can help in learning
Everyone has the same practices and
learning stages and requires fewer efforts
For the individual behaviour, tough decisions
are made which requires more efforts
The Amazon carefully select its employees selected and based on that training are being
provided to them so as to make them learn about how to face the different business
environment and help in skills enhancement required for the job. These skilled employees are
developed as leaders and apply different strategies for the development and the growth of the
Amazon (Dixon, 2017).
12

The different styles of individual learning include-
Kinesthetic learner- It depends on the actions, skills, knowledge and the number of repetition
that the higher the repetition the higher the learning chances (Dixon, 2017).
Visual Learner- Based on the visionary senses, the knowledge and the skills can be gained
which can be led to mastery in the skills like notes making and books reading.
The styles of organizational learning include-
Personal Mastery- In order to attain mutual benefits for the company and employees their
ambitions and goals are associated directly (Truong, 2016).
Shared Vision- In order to motivate the organization and individuals a common purpose or
vision is shared between them to attain organizational benefits.
Team Learning- Group development and wide level of learning take place in this style for which
the shared vision is reflected by the group and the Amazon can be benefitted (Willingham, et al.
2015).
Mental Models- A broader awareness related to the demand of the organization is created for
which a physiological appeal is made to individuals to anticipate them
System Thinking- It is a holistic approach in which the system constituents’ parts that are
interrelated are focused and helps in learning about how the systems work over the time and
within the context of larger systems (Aranda, et al. 2017).
13

E- ANALYSIS OF THE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUOUS
LEARNING NEED TO DRIVE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE
Amazon follows the principle of the continuous learning for the development of the workforce
and organization as it focuses majorly on the employee retention rather than hiring. It has been
ensured by the Amazon that its employees are having knowledge about the latest technologies
in order to respond easily to the varying needs of the market. The HR Officer of the Amazon
conducts different pieces of training, development programs, presentations, seminars etc to
implement the continuous learning process which can help in their professional development
as their skills are being also analyzed (Zepeda, et al. 2014). Amazon is a successful organization
because the employee skills become more valuable for the organization due to the continuous
learning.
THEORIES OF CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Honey and Mumford
There are different stages in the learning style of the Alan Mumford and Peter Honey that
includes the planning, experiencing, reviewing and concluding and it possesses similarity with
the Kolb's learning cycle. This learning style has led to the attainment of the competitive
advantage by the Amazon and enhances the employee performance along with their
relationship with the customers (Stewart, 2014).
KOLB’S LEARNING STYLE
There are certain parameters based on which gaining knowledge and learning takes place in the
Amazon based on the Kolb’s learning style that includes the following-
Concrete Experience
14

The existing experiences help in the reinterpretation of a new experience or a situation that has
been encountered (DeCoux, 2016)
Abstract Conception
A rise to a new idea is given by the reflection that can help in the modification of the existing
abstract concept
Reflection Observations
It helps in the reflection of a new experience that is done by the development of keen
observation skills and is used by the learners by virtue of experience (Shailashree, 2016)
Active Experimentation
New theories and concepts can be designed based on the knowledge of the previous theories
by which learners come up with new observations and results.
Figure 1- KOLB’S LEARNING STYLE
[Source: McLeod, 2017]
CONCLUSION
Thus, the different styles of learning, training and development along with their differences are
15

defined. The importance of the performance and professional development in the attainment
of sustainable business is also depicted.
16

LO3, LO4- ESSAY
DEMONSTRATING THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE HPW IN THE EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND DIFFERENT APPROACHES
TO THE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND THEIR SUPPORT IN THE
PERFORMANCE CULTURE AND COMMITMENT
There are certain factors in the Amazon that helps in the motivation of the employees that
includes the trust, two-way communications and the work transparency that helps in the
attainment of the organizational objectives. The operations of the Amazon organization are
maintained smoothly due to the High-Performance Working culture (HPW) within the
organization. The employees of the Amazon are engaged in different organizational activities
under the HPW that led to the attainment of the competitive advantage (Anitha, 2014).
Let us consider the example of Amazon that if there are some technological faced by the
company with the changing market due to which the quality of the products is improved and
their cost has been reduced in such case the company applies the HPW culture and will try to
engage its employees to improve their skills according to the current needs. Under the HPW
culture, the suitable candidates are selected, their skills are developed through the training, job
security and incentives based pay is provided. Various programs like the employees meeting,
work recognition, rewards and sharing of ideas are conducted in order to engage the
employees that will improvise the Amazon’s situation (Barrick, et al. 2015). In order to attain a
competitive advantage in the industry, a process of fast services and cost reduction is applied in
Amazon. The strengths and the weaknesses of the company along with the customer needs are
easily analyzed in the high-performance work. HPW helps in the attainment of economic,
individual and the individual benefits in the organization. It helps in some other benefits like the
reduced risks by of laws by complying legal duties; improved return upon the investment made
in the development and training, covers of the sickness leaves and the improved bond with the
clients (Kumar and Pansari, 2015).
17

The employees of the Amazon are engaged better in their regular works, have a high dedication
and gain a competitive advantage along with some other benefits due to the HPW in the
Amazon that led to the increase motivation of the employees and increased focus towards the
attainment of organizational success and personal goals. A healthy working environment is
maintained in the organization due to the HPW which keeps employees satisfied and happy
which led to their increased performance and in the high growth of the company (Strand and
Freeman, 2015). The needs of the market are continuously changing for which the Amazon is
adopting several strategies and implementing policies which are sometimes resisted by its
employees. But the resistance of the employees can be overcome by some ways that include-
development of a sense of urgency, new approaches and culture development, proper strategy
and vision development and communicating it to the staff, staff and employees empowerment
etc.
Collective cooperation, proper flow of information and a captive advantage are resulted in the
Amazon due to the application of high performance working in the organization. The proper
flow of information in the Amazon helps the employees in the attainment of their goals this also
helps in the communication amongst the senior and the junior employees which further
strengthen the team (Sánchez, 2015.). This high flow of the information helps the fresher's to
gain knowledge from their seniors and applies it in the workforce to improve their
performance. The high-performance working also led to the collective cooperation, high-
performance results and good teamwork. It also helps in the further evaluation of the upright
communication and team services.
Performance management and the communication help in the application of the concept of
HPW in the Amazon and in which the skills of the employees, their effectiveness and
performance are being assessed. Some of the approaches in the management of the
performance of individuals are as follows-
18

Comparative Approach- There exist certain parameters that help in the comparison of the
employees based on which they are being rated from lowest to top performer (Benn, et al.
2014).
Attribute Approach- There exist certain parameters like the creativity, problem-solving skills,
teamwork and judgment help in the comparison of the individual performance.
Result Approach- This is a passed or fail condition of the employees in which based on the
results their performance is judged.
Behavioural approach- The supervisors of the Amazon judges the individuals based on their
behavior while performing the different tasks by the utilization Behaviourally Anchored Rating
Scale model (Epstein, 2018).
Quality Approach- There are different characteristics like the quality of work, regular feedbacks
of the individuals that are required along with the system and employees for the performance
assessment.
Figure 2- Performance Measurement
[Source: Dey and Giri, 2018]
19

In order to better understand these approaches as an example of the General Electric Company
can be taken in which based on the last year performance the present performance of the
employees is being evaluated and their strengths and weaknesses are being noted down in the
reports so as to enhance their performance. This helps in the effective high performance
working culture in the company (Kumar and Pansari, 2015.).
Apart from these approaches in order to attain sustainable development within the
organization, integrated approaches are also used in the Amazon which led to the attainment of
the long terms goals of the organization. It includes-
Functional Integration- The different strategies and the policies can be implemented in the
functional integration which helps in the effective carrying out of the Amazon’s functions
Vertical Integration- In order to maintain proper flow of information in the organization this
integration extends support to the individual and the team with the help of which the
organization's vision and administration values can be easily defined.
Goal Integration- The present along with the future needs as well as the goals of the
organization are easily identified by goal integration (Barrick, et al. 2015)
Human Resource Integration- This integration helps in the various functions of the HR like the
job designing, task assessment, employee’s empowerment, employees training and employee
motivation.
These approaches that are used for the attainment of high performance working culture in the
organizations must be chosen carefully as it has their own pros and cons.
20

CONCLUSION
There are different roles of an HR Officer that they need to play for the attainment of the high
performance and healthy work culture in the organizations. The different types of learning
styles of the individuals are described in this report that helps to accomplish the individual goals
and organizational objectives. The individual learning is essential for the performance
enhancement and the further growth. An essay has been successfully prepared in which the
role of the HPW has been defined in employee engagement and gaining competitive advantage.
21

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