Whirlpool's Restructuring and High Performance Culture

The provided document discusses Whirlpool's restructuring efforts in the North American region. It emphasizes the need for well-informed, timely decision-making and cross-functional collaboration to ensure a successful transition. The Human Resource (HR) department plays a crucial role in implementing High Performance Work (HPW) practices during this period, which helps support high performance culture and employee engagement. Individual and team learning are essential for organizational development, and continuous professional development is necessary to sustain growth in a competitive environment.

Developing
Individuals,Teams and
Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviour that is required by HR professionals.............1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P2 Analysis of completed personal skills audit..........................................................................3
P3 Difference between organisational and individual learning and training and development..5
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
P5 Contribution of HPW to employee engagement and competitive advantage........................8
P6 Different approaches to performance management...............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Developing the Individuals, Teams and Organizations is a process which is managed by
the human resources manager in order to improve efficiency of business organizations. The
development of individual is related with the employees personal growth. To understand this
concept, company selected is “Whirlpool” for this report. In this case, company is facing issue of
restructuring in North American Region. So to solve this issue, the professional knowledge,
skills and behaviour that is required by HR professional is being explained under. As these skills
are self assessed by HR managers along with the difference between organizational and
individual learning, training and development is being discussed. Apart from this, evaluation of
continuous learning and development has been discussed in this report. The contribution of High
Performance working towards employees is determined in this report. Beside this, evaluation of
various approaches of performance management has been explained.

TASK 1
P1 Appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviour that is required by HR professionals
The human resource managers plays an important role in recruitment, selection, training
and development of employees. The main aim of HR managers is to maximize the employees
productivity to achieve pre set goals of organizations. Being an HR of Whirlpool's, one should
have adequate knowledge, skills and behaviour for formulation of plans and policies for
organization. These are described as below:
Knowledge:
Knowledge is awareness or understanding of something like facts, information or any
description. It can be refer to theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Being an HR
professional of Whirlpool's, one should posses the better knowledge to resolve the issues related
to employment. These knowledge are as follows:
Knowledge of Business:
It is very important for human resource manager to have knowledge of organization
business like in which sector company is dealing so according to that formulate plans. As
Whirlpool's have diversify businesses, so being an HR of company one should be aware of its
business. The knowledge of business will help the HR in formulating strategy according to
business nature (Aswathappa, 2013).
Knowledge of International HRM:
This is very important aspect for today's HR professionals. As companies are operating
its business globally so, an HR must have the awareness about international human resource
management. The Whirlpool's have its operations across the world, being an HR of company one
must be aware about international HRM. It will help human resource manager to make rules and
regulations accordingly (Hunter and Saunders, 2012).
Skills:
Skills are considered as capacity or competency of HR professionals. These skills can be
learned and enhanced with continuous working. Being an human resource consultant of
Whirlpool's, must posses below skills to take the competitive advantages. These are below:
Effective Communication:
Communication is a basic skill which everyone posses but an effective communication is
being considered to make an impact in organization. It is a communication between two or more

persons wherein the message is successfully delivered, received and understood. Being an HR
consultant of Whirlpool's, one should be able to communicate its message effectively to the
employees for resolving issues.
Motivational Skill:
Motivation plays an important role to get work done by the employees in efficient way.
And human resource manager or consultant should have this skills to motivate company's
employees and to get task achieved. As the case shows, Whirlpool's has gone in restructuring in
North American Region so HR consultant must motivate the employees to perform with
efficiency and be loyal to organization (Muenjohn and et. al., 2013).
Behaviour:
Behaviour is the attitude of human resource personal towards the company and its
employees. The HR consultant must behave in proper manner for healthy environment of
organization. The behaviour are as follows:
Ethical Behaviour:
The ethical behaviour is related with code of conduct of organization. The HR personnel
often are held to high standard of ethics because of the influence that HR has on the productivity
and livelihood of staff. Being a human resource consultant of Whirlpool's, one must follow the
ethics, as one should not disclose the human resource policies of one company to other.
Fairness:
The fairness is related with recruitment of staff in company. The HR consultant of
whirlpool's must not be biased while recruiting staff. The selection should be based on skills of
staff, which shows fairness of human resource manager.
TASK 2
P2 Analysis of completed personal skills audit
It is the process of self assessment which assist HR to identify their strength and
weaknesses. Skills audit is requires for HR to identify what skills they posses and where they are
lacking. As human resource manger provide ranking to its various skills but it is important for
manager to be honest while ranking own skills. It will help the manager to get the real result of
its skills audit. And if manager found any variance then according to that they take corrective

actions. The audit of human resource manager of Whirlpool's is developed below along with self
assessed scores, scores provided by others and its variances.
Serial
Number
Skills and
Competencies
Self
assessed
score
Score from others Variances
1 Problem solving 8 8 0
2 Education 10 9 1
3 Decision making ability 9 8 1
4 Team building ability 8 9 -1
5 Time management
ability
7 8 -1
6 IT skills 8 5 3
7 Communication skills 8 8 0
From the above self audit, negative variances are as my strength and positive variances
are my weaknesses. Based on above scenario, strength and weakness of my HR skills are
discussed below:
Strength Weaknesses
As it can be seen from above scenario my
strength is my education. I have a management
masters degree in human resource
specialisation.
The key weakness is my information
technology skills. As I think I have enough
knowledge in IT, but result as opposite of what
I thought.
My another strength is team building. As in
case of Whirlpool's, the company has gone for
restructuring so in this time an effective team
can help the company to sustain.
From above scenario, it can be seen major
problem area is my decision making. So I have
to analyse these deeply and have to identify
solution for this.
My another strength is time management. So I
think an HR should make sure that employees
are completing the given task within specific
Communication skills and problem solving
area is part of my weaknesses.

time.
Personal Development Plan: This is a process of setting up aims and objectives which
an HR wants to achieve and what should be the measures and which should be done to achieve.
Sr.
No
Learning
Objective
Current
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunitie
s
Criteri
a for
judgin
g
succes
s
Time
Scale
Evidence
1 Information
Technology
As an HR I have
to be aware about
latest human
resource
management
system. I think I
am not aware
about these
software
completely.
To enhance my
information
technological
skills in order
to achieve the
organization
goals and
using
resources at
optimum level.
IT skills can
be learned by
taking reliable
trainings.
Team
membe
rs
6
mont
hs
Judgeme
nt and
evidence
of IT
trainers.
2 Decision
making
According to my
self audit, I have
average ability of
decision making
in organization.
To enhance
quality of
decisions
which are
made by me in
business.
As taking
Guidance
from the
senior and
experienced
personnel
about how to
be patient
while making
decisions.
Top
level
manag
ers will
assess
my
perfor
mance.
2-3
mont
hs
Judgeme
nt of top
level
managers
3 Communica According to To enhance my To enhance The 4 Judgeme

tion Skills audit I have an
average
communication
skills, which I
want to improve
so I can
communicate
with more
efficiency.
skills in order
to
communicate
with more
efficiency in
organisation.
this skill I will
try to
communicate
more and
more inside
and outside
the
organisation. I
will use the
public
speaking also
which will
allow me to
communicate
with more
confidence.
team
membe
rs and
top
level
manag
ers
mont
hs
nt of top
level
managers
.
P3 Difference between organisational and individual learning and training and development
Learning has been defines as a change in knowledge that occurs as the results of
experiences. Learning is continuous process it can be achieve by gaining new facts and
information, acquiring new procedures and new skills. Changes derives the need for learning and
learning enables the implementation of new knowledge and practices to initiate change. As in
process of learning there are two parties involved one is learner and other is mentors. So in the
Whirlpool's employees are learner and superiors are mentors. There are two types of learning
which are as follows:
Organisational Learning:
The organisational learning, is an organizationally regulated collective learning process
in which individual and group based learning experiences concerning the improvement of
business performance. As it can be beneficial for the Whirlpool's to improve knowledge of
employees and performance of employees (Singh, Singh and Sharma, 2014).
Individual Learning:

Basically it is the opposite concept of organisational learning. But these are interrelated
also with each others, as organizations are only comprises of individuals. The process helps in
improving knowledge of individual.
Difference between Individual and Organisational Learning
Individual Learning Organisational Learning
 The main focus of this process is to
improve the knowledge and skills of
individual employee working in
company.
 As individual learnings can help the
employees of Whirlpool's to formulate
a bright career.
 This process is focus on improving the
skills and knowledge of overall
organisation. All employees trend
collectively not individually.
 The improved skills and knowledge of
employees will help the Whirlpool's to
achieve their goals.
Training:
It is a basic concept of human resource development. Training is concerned with
developing a particular skill and knowledge by instructions and practices. It is very useful tool
that can bring an employee into a position where they can do their job effectively. Basically it is
an element of induction which is conducted for new employees. But it is provided to every
employees according to need. The Whirlpool's can get the benefit of training at the time of
restructuring. As employees will perform their job effectively and efficiently.
Development:
Employee development is an initiative from employer to its employees, to upgrade the
existing skills and knowledge of an individual. The employee development includes both
personal and professional growth of staff. Employees are the key assets of any organisation. So
the Whirlpool's must develop and prepare their employees to face the situation like restructuring.
Overall development helps the employees to face future challenges (Rickard, Rickard and Dang,
2012).
Difference between Training and Development
Basis for Comparison Training Development
Meaning It is a process in which It is an educational process

employees gets an opportunity
to develop the skills and
competencies.
which is concerned with
overall growth of employees.
Duration It is for short time period. This is for long time period.
Objective The main objective is to
improve the work performance
of employees
Its objective is to prepare
employees for the future
challenges.
Focus Training focus on the present
need
And it focus on the future
roles.
Considered as Training is considered as
reactive process.
Development is considered as
reactive process.
Overall individual learning and organisational, training and development helps the
businesses to improve the performance and maximize its revenues.
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development
Continuous learning:
Continuous learning is about expanding the ability of an individual by continuously
upgrading skills and increasing knowledge. This is important to learn new skills as it assist an
individual to adapt changing work life and demands. There are several resources by which one
can learn new things daily like read magazines, online articles and analysis of case studies.
Professional Development:
Continuous professional development is essential because it allows the employees to be
competent in profession. It is an ongoing process process and it goes continuously throughout
professional carrier of employees. It ensure the knowledge of employees keep up to date. This
development can lead to increased public confidence of individual professionals (PRATT, 2012).
The above concept of continuous learning and professional development are used by
Whirlpool's in order to drive sustainable business performance. The company has faced crises
due to bad performance of team. So to improve these performance, management should use
above concepts. The significance of these concepts are as follows:
Prepare for Unexpected:

The continuous learning and professional development prepares the employees to face
any kind of exceptional situation in organization. As in this process the main focus is to trained
the employees for contingency situation. In the case Whirlpool's is also facing a situation of
restructuring so with the help of continuous learning and development the employees can sustain
in organisation. And they can also drive a sustainable business performance for organisation
(McKenzievan, Winkelen and Aitken, 2012).
Unlock Potential:
Potential is basically capacity of employees of doing work. As every employees has the
potential to work but very enough are able to show that potential. With the help of continuous
learning and development one can unlock their potential and can drive the sustainable business
performance with their hard work. It allows the employees to enhance their skill set, with the
increased skills set one can achieve their tasks. As employees of Whirlpool's has shown their
capacity to work while company went into restructuring, it happened because of continuous
learning and professional development.
Adapt technology:
The continuous learning enable the employees to learn about technology of company. As
companies now days uses various technology so it is important for employees to learn about new
technology to sustain in organisation. The Whirlpool's uses different software to perform
business activity, so HR should assure, employees are getting training about usage of software.
As if company will adapt new technology promptly than it will enable company for sustaining in
the competitive market. And enhance their performance.
Improves Performance:
The continuous learning and professional development assist employees in improving
their performances. The continuous learning allows an employees to minimize the error and
maximize the productivity. The Whirlpool's can use this concept to improve the performance of
its employees. And with the improved performance of employees, company can achieve their
goals (Malik, 2018).
Kolb's experiential learning theory- It is a kind of theory which is related to the
improving the skills and capabilities of the employees on the basis of below mentioned steps
which are such as:

 Concrete experience- In this employees are given a new experience in the form of
effective learning.
 Reflective observation- After applying the new experience, the employees performance is
observed so that modification can be applied.
 Abstract conceptualization- It is related to the modifying the existing abstract concept.
 Active experimentation- It is the last step of this theory in which learner is being
developed completely in terms of skills and capabilities.
TASK 3
P5 Contribution of HPW to employee engagement and competitive advantage
It is a employee management techniques followed by HR to increase the productivity and
profit of organisation. These techniques are applied systematically and fairly in organisation,
they increase employee engagement, support high performance and productivity and build
customer loyalty. As at the time of restructuring, HR of Whirlpool's implemented the high
performance working technique which helped the employees to drive sustainable business and
take competitive advantages. The dimension of HPW are as follows:
HPW- It can be defined as a process of managing the functions and activities of the organisations
in an effective manner. Eventually, the main aim of this approach is to involving the employees
in the operations of companies to achieve the high performance. Such as in the Whirlpool
company they may apply this approach.
Competitive advantage: It is an opportunity with the company by which it can create monopoly
in the market. Competitive advantages can be developed by the company in various business
operations such as production system, in selling department and so on. An organisation shall
require to do such for enhancing its profitability and long term survival.
Employee Engagement: In such, company is required to engage its employees all the time to
maintain the the efficiency and effectiveness of its workers. It is also necessary to for paying the
payments to the workers not for idle time by utilising them for some activities. It may help the
company in long term survival due to continuous engagement of employee
Commitment to company Vision:

Vision is a statement which shows the what organization would like to achieve in long
term. As it is considered that a company without vision can never achieve its goals. And efforts
of employees are also meaningless. As North American Region employees of Whirlpool's used
the HPW at the time of restructuring, which helped in growth of company. This will allow the
employees to engage in the activities to fulfil the commitment to company's vision. (Khumalo,
2015).
Resolve of conflicts:
The conflicts are main reason for an ineffective team performance. So the high
performance working model allows the team members to solve their conflicts by team meetings
and proper communication. As this model helps the Whirlpool's, employees solved their personal
conflicts and they committed towards working more collaboratively to solve business problems
by listening to each other.
Promote Innovation:
As in today's time being effective is not enough to sustain in market. It is very important
for company's to being innovative to overcome its competitors. The high performance working
allows the individuals and team members to share their innovative ideas on a common platform.
So being an HR of Whirlpool's, implemented the HPW at the time of restructuring which helps
company to get new ideas and implement these ideas to sustain in market.
Transparent Communication:
The flow of transparent communication is very important for an effective team
performance. As if employees share the information among the team frequently, than it will help
the team to know the deviations and take corrective actions. The high performance working
allows to do transparent communication among all the team members. As manager of
Whirlpool's applied this model which assist them in proper coordination at restructuring time.
And with the help of this model company's employees engaged in activities and gain competitive
advantage (Hunter and Saunders, 2012).

P6 Different approaches to performance management
Source: Performance Management. 2016.
Performance management is a process which allows managers and employees work
together, to plan, monitor and review an employees contribution to organization. It is continuous
process of setting goals, evaluating progress and provide on going coaching to employees to
meet their objectives. There are various approaches of performance management which allows
Whirlpool's to support high performance culture and commitment. These are as follows:
Collaborative Approach:
This approach allows the management to measure the performance of a team instead of
an individual employee. In this team member know and understand each other interest and share
the open communication. As in the case of Whirlpool's to support high performance culture
employees use collaborative working approach. The company appraise the team which has
worked best using this technique (Gominah, 2014).
Behavioural Approach:
This is the oldest approach of performance measurement techniques. This can be done
using the Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) technique consist of five to ten vertical
scales. Employees are ranked on each of the anchors according to performance. It will helpful in
taking corrective action in employees performance. And company can develop the high
performance work culture with improved productivity.

Result Approach:
Under this report the company Whirlpool's measure the performance of employees on
basis of results which are ascertained. In this, HR identify the result of task which were given to
the employees and use these results to measure the performance of employees. With the help of
result approach HR can conduct a training session to make understand of employees
responsibility, which ultimately leads in aid of high performance work culture.
Quality Approach:
As in this approach, the quality of work is evaluated to know the contribution and efforts
of employees towards the given tasks. It is basically focus on improvement on customer
satisfaction by reducing errors. As Whirlpool's can use this by evaluating which team has
provided better quality to its customers. The quality team performance will allow the create a
high performance work culture for organisation.
Attribute Approach:
In this approach, company measures the performance on certain criteria. These criteria
are set by the top level of management such as critical thinking, problem solving skills,
judgement and innovation. Whirlpool's can use this approach to rank their employees using
graphic rating scale. Employees are ranked on 1 to 5, where 1 is best and 5 is worst (Cuff and
Barkhuizen, 2013). With the help of given ranks employees will improve their performance in
future. And it will aid the creation of high performance work culture in company.
Comparative Approach:
The approach allows to compare the performance of employees in order to motivate its
employees. And according to that provide suitable approach. The individuals are ranked on the
basis of highest to lowest performer. There are several technique such as forced distribution,
paired comparison and graphic rating scale. The comparison will motivate the employees to
work better and set a high performance culture in organisation.
CONCLUSION
In the conclusion, it can be said that Whirlpool's has gone for restructuring in North
American Region. And it requires a well informed, timely decision making and cross functional
collaboration. As HR has implied the HPW at the time of restructuring which helps the company
to support high performance culture and employees engagement in business activities. The
individual and team learning play an important role in the overall development of organisation.

With continuous professional development an individual can enhance its knowledge and skills
which requires to sustain in this competitive environment.