High Performance Work Practices (HPWP)

The provided study focuses on the significance of High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) in enhancing organizational development, employee engagement, and competitive advantage. It highlights various approaches to performance management that can be applied by Whirlpool to improve their management practices.

UNIT-35
DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS,
TEAMS AND
ORGANISATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1. Appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR
professionals ..........................................................................................................................1
P2. Analysing a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and
behaviours and developing a professional development plan................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development...........................................................................................................................5
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance............................................................................................................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
P5. Understanding how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
................................................................................................................................................8
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P6 Different approaches to performance management..........................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

ILLUSTRATION INDEX
Illustration 1: Performance Management Approaches..................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
For any organization it is very important to focus on developing their individual
employee, team and organization together so that they can enhance their working performance
effectively. High-performing teams in any organization plays an important role for company and
are enabled by the effectiveness of individuals within them. It is very essential to have a good
team which can help an organization in improving their performance. Present report will talk
about Whirlpool’s high-performance working practices (HPWP) in which it explains about
appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR and also develop
a professional development plan. Study will also discuss about the analysis between
organisational and individual learning, training and development and explore factors that drive
sustainable business performance for whirlpool. In the end this report explains about how HPW
can contribute to employee engagement and competitive advantage and different approaches to
enhance performance management.
LO 1
P1. Appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals
Human resource (HR) in any organization has a very important task in improving their
quality as well as their performance in industry. To evaluate the importance of appropriate and
professional skills, knowledge and behaviour which is required in any HR, can be evaluated by
implementing High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) in organization. It is a process which
can be used for following and representing the skills, knowledge and experience that is gained
both formally and informally by HR. It is basically a record of what experience they are gaining,
learning and then applying for the betterment of firm (Shaout and Yousif, 2014).
HR manager of Whirlpool should have several qualities in him to enhance performance
management, collaborative working and effective communication to support high-performance
culture and commitment in the organization. Some qualities of HR are explained below:
 Active listening for HR, it is very important that they should listen to their employees
very carefully as this will help in making a good relationship with them which is very
beneficial in improving the performance of Whirlpool.
 Problem Solving capability: Being an HR, it is mandatory to have effective problem
solving skills. In order to accomplish any task in organization HR manager has to be
skilled at conflict management so that they can resolve any issue very easily. Main aim of
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HR should be to make their employees work together as an effective team for the
organization. Problems of employees need to be addressed faster and in apt manner in the
organization in order to maintain a healthy environment.
 Organization skills: One of the most important characteristics of HR professionals is the
ability to get organized. This can have a huge impact on the employees and organization
as well. It includes factors, such as, strong time management skills and the ability to
complete tasks efficiently. For the HR manager of Whirlpool, it is very essential to have
all these qualities within to improve their performance (Bolden, 2016).
 Multitasking: Successful HR professionals are experts on their company’s industry
which helps them in increasing their sales and productivity in industry. Multi-tasking can
help the HR manager to manage all its work properly and accurately.
 Ethically Strong: For an HR it is very important to make sure that every ethical values
are properly implemented in the organization. This will assist them in working properly.
These values are for every employee and the HR team and manager makes sure that
employees adhere to them.
 Training and development: For an HR manager of Whirlpool it is very important to
recruit skilled employees who can help them in achieving their target effectively. After
recruiting they have to make sure that HR is providing them the appropriate training and
development session so that they can enhance their quality of work.
 Motivational Behaviour: Having motivated employees can help an employee to
encourage them so that they can achieve their target on time and with effectiveness as
well. HR needs to have a motivational approach towards every employee who is working
with him (Gazzard, 2016).
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P2. Analysing a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and
behaviours and developing a professional development plan
Being HR consultant it is very important to analyse the personal quality so that it can help
them in improving their performance which can be very beneficiary for Whirlpool. To identify
the strength and weakness, it's crucial to apply a personal SWOT analysis which can help in
identifying their qualities.
SWOT analysis of Human Resource (HR)
Strength Weaknesses
There are various qualities which can help in
analysing their strength, such as,
 Effective communication skills, which
can help in establishing a good
relationship with their employees.
 Employee Development, which is very
helpful in improving the performance
of their staff.
 Organised work: This is very important
strength of the HR in order to manage
all work.
 He should possess good innovative
thinking which can help Whirlpool.
Some weakness of HR in Whirlpool is
mentioned below:
 Proper management during work load
time in organization.
 Lack of innovative qualities which can
help firm in improving their
performance.
 Poor training record of HR is another
weakness which has to be managed to
improve the function (West and et.al.,
2014).
Opportunities Threats
There are various opportunities which can be
utilized by Whirlpool in order to increase their
sales and production, such as,
 There are chances to expand their
business effectively in market.
 Introducing some new and innovative
technologies in the organization.
There are also some threats as well for the
organization, such as,
 There are various new technologies
which are trending in industry needs to
be adapted as soon as possible in order
to compete with their competitors.
 Market place uncertainties can also be a
huge threat for the organization.
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Professional Development Plan of HR
This can be very helpful in improving the qualities of HR in Whirlpool which will be
very helpful in enhancing skills and capabilities, such as;
What I want to
learn
What I will do to
achieve this
Resources or support
I will need
Success Criteria Estimated Time
Communication
skill, i.e., verbal
and nonverbal both.
To improve this quality
I will communicate
with maximum number
of employees and
different people which
can help me in the
improvement (West
and et.al., 2014).
For this I will attend so
many seminars which
can help me in
interaction.
This will assist me in
gaining confidence and
will also make me to
become motivated.
2 months.
Time Management For the improvement of
this skill I will make a
work schedule to
manage it properly.
I will talk to seniors
and other HR to know
how they manage their
work on time.
To complete all the
listed tasks before
deadline. This will also
increase my speed of
working.
2 months
Information
Technology (IT)
skills
Learning new
technologies and
software, for example,
Prezi which can be very
useful for me in making
good and effective
presentations.
Searching for new
tools and technique to
learn things properly.
This will help in
improving my quality
of work through which
I can present myself
effectively.
3 months
Academic research
and analysis skills
To improve this skill, I
will read maximum
books and Journals
through which I will
Attending various
seminars and
presentations related to
my topic of interest
This will make me
capable enough to
have a good command
on my academic
2 months
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gain a lot of
knowledge.
will be very helpful. research and analysis
skills.
Dealing with
employee relations
To improve this
quality, I will make
connections with
employees to
understand their
problems more
accurately.
Communicating with
different HR of various
companies to know
their plans or strategies
which can be helpful
for me to implement.
I will have good
relationship with my
colleagues and
employees.
3 months
LO 2
P3. Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development
Nowadays it is becoming very essential to attract and retain talent for their organization.
For this they need to provide their employees with all the opportunity in order to learn and grow
in their careers. This will also help Whirlpool in improving their overall performance. As a
result, learning and development programs (L&D) has become a crucial management tool which
can help HR and managers to increase the high-performance working practices (HPWP) in
whirlpool (Raes and et.al., 2015).
There is a huge difference between organizational and individual learning which can be
explained on the basis of their functionality, which is explained below:
Organizational Learning and Individual learning
Organizational Learning Individual Learning
 It is a process which is used in
acquiring skills and knowledge.
 Organizational learning is long termed
process and are lengthy as well.
 This process is more effective as
compared to other methods and it is not
a permanent process.
 This process is a combined form of
thinking and attitude of an individual in
order to learn from their surroundings.
 It is a continuous process.
 This process is less effective compared
to other.
 It helps in increasing individual's self-
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 It also helps in motivating employees. motivation.
For every organization it is very important to focus on organizational as well as on
individual level for getting better outcomes for company (What is the Difference between
Training and Development, 2015). The difference between organizational and individual training
and development processes are mentioned below:
Organizational Level Individual Level
Training This is a process which can help the
organization to make significant
improvements in their performance
by giving their employees proper
training. There are various other
features as well, such as,
 This is basically short term
methods which helps in the
whole processing of
Whirlpool.
In individual level it is a process which
helps an employee individually to make
improvements in his capabilities by
getting training sessions from seniors.
 It is also a short term process but
it helps in maintaining a standard
of an individual.
Development It is a process which helps in the
overall development of their
employees which can ultimately
contribute in success of firm.
In this level, it helps in giving
development training to every individual
working in the organization for their
improvement (Raes and et.al., 2015).
Some difference between training and development process
Basis Training Development
1. Aim This is specifically related to job
in firm.
This is related to the overall
performance of organization.
2. Objective To improve the work quality of
their employees.
This helps in preparing their
employees to deal with future
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challenges.
3. Focus They focus on present situation. They concentrate on future aspects.
4. Term Short term Long term
5. Motivational factor These are generally done by
trainer.
This has to be done by self.
6. No. of individuals There are many individuals in it. Only one individual is there.
7. Orientation It is job oriented This is career oriented.
P4. Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance
Continuous learning is a process in which helps in continuous improvement or expansion
in their employee's skills and qualities as well. It is basically further expanding skill-set in
response to a changing environment and new developments. This process has a huge impact on
sustainable business performance. Continuing professional development (CPD) is very essential
for Whirlpool in ensuring that it is helping in enhancing the knowledge and skills of their
employees (Payne and Calton, 2017). Continuing professional development is important because
it ensures that every staff member is continued to be competent in the profession. Some other
benefits of this process can include,
 It helps in ensuring the capabilities of their employees,
 CPD maintains and improve the knowledge and skills of staff,
 CPD can lead to increased public confidence in individual professionals and their
profession as a whole, etc.
Continuous learning in the workplace involves viewing your experiences as potential
learning and re-examining assumptions, values, methods, policies, and practices (Organizational
Learning Posts, 2015). Continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable
business performance can help Whirlpool through various ways, which is explained below:
 Keeps mind sharp and skills fresh: This process will help in getting innovative and
unique ideas for the organization and help them in achieving their target effectively.
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 Competence leads to confidence: Being motivated and confidence can have huge
impact on an individual's performance. It can lead to become successful in their career.
 More options in work and in life: Continuous learning will also assist in getting more
and better option for their future career and make their life improved.
Other that continuous learning, professional development also helps Whirlpool to make
significant improvement in their management by applying various parameters in their employees,
such as:
 Efficiency: This ability can be very useful for the employees of Whirlpool as it will asst
them in enhancing their working capabilities.
 Confidence and Credibility: These two factors can impact any business activity to a
large extent. Having confidence helps in boosting their behaviour towards work.
 Ability to influence and lead: Professional development of Whirlpool's employees also
helps them in influencing other employees as well to make them work better for the
organization (Asmawi and et.al., 2015).
There are certain steps with the help of which the PDP plan could be achieved on timely
manner and with attaining the goal which is been stated into plan. For this it is very much
important that person is been planning properly for how the PDP plan could be achieved. There
are certain steps which need to be consider for planning for the achieving all goals related to
PDP plan like that of:
Defining goal- This is the most important part which will be required that person is dealing and
setting up goals that would be helping them to know what they want to achieve.
Prioritise- Then it is required that person is setting out what need to be done on priority bases
which will be helping them to achieve their goals and objective without wasting time on
unwanted things or that which are not so important.
Set deadline- This is very much essential that person is setting the time limit for each of the
goals that they need to achieve so that they are knowing how much time is been taken to conduct
each goal. The things which are on priority should be given to most of the time from deadline
and then the rest of them.
Understanding strength- This is essential that person is knowing what their strength and
weakness are so that they could be easily conduct all task and activities as well.
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LO 3
P5. Understanding how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
High performing Work (HPW) practices are those which can help an organization to
make significant improvement or changes in their system which result in increase in their
performance. This working practices helps in Whirlpool in manage and organize their work
properly. This can be achieved through implementing various practices, such as,
 Engaging their Staff: This will help in ensuring employees' awareness in their work so
that they can concentrate effectively. Making them to participate in decision making
processes for the employee. This will make sure that they also share their ideas which can
be used by Whirlpool.
 Acquiring and Developing Talent: This involves activities and outcomes that is
associated with outreach in order to attract new employees which can contribute in their
success. Implementing practices which can focus on identifying career opportunities and
pathways for their current employees can also be a great thing for Whirlpool to enhance
their performance (Torgerson and et.al., 2017).
There is a huge importance of High performing Work (HPW) practices which can also
help in employee engagement and competitive advantage as well. Employee engagement is a
concept in which it helps in evaluating and understanding their employees in terms of both;
qualitatively and quantitatively. It is basically a parameter which is used define a relationship
between an employee with its organization. Keeping their employees engaged can have a huge
benefit for Whirlpool as an engaged employee has a positive attitude towards its organization
and its values which ultimately helps in improving their performance.
Employee engagement is directly connected with process of competitive advantages.
Both these practice leads to customer engagement, which can aid in success of their business
effectively. High performing Work (HPW) practices can help in giving training programmes to
enhance employee skills and also invests in increasing employee skills, knowledge and ability
(Ivars and Martínez, 2014). It also compensation and promotion opportunities that provide
motivation which can help or contribute in encouraging their employees. All these practices are
very useful for Whirlpool in evaluating their overall performance.
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LO 4
P6. Different approaches to performance management
Measuring employee’s performance plays an essential role for every organization as it
can affect their working pattern. Performance of an employee can be measured through various
parameters, for example, from their work profile, job satisfaction, compensation given to them,
etc. There are various approaches which can be used to improve the performance management in
Whirlpool which has to managed properly by the HR manager. These approaches help in
comparing and ranking an individual's performance with respect to others in a given group.
Some approaches are discussed in detail below:
 Comparative Approaches: This approach basically includes ranking of their employee's
performance with their co-worker in order to improve their quality of work. This ranking
based on their overall performance from highest to lowest in organization. For this
approach various methods can be used by HR of Whirlpool, such as, they can use graphic
rating scale to rank their performance, forced distribution technique in which it involves
ranking their employees, etc. For example, Whirlpool can divide their workers on the
basis of their working capability, such as, 45% are constitutes high performers, 35% are
constitutes medium performers and 20% are constitutes low performers, respectively
(Approaches for measuring performance of employees, 2017).
 Analytical Attribute Approaches: This approach helps in performance management to
focus on their employees individually for which they have some attributes towards their
work which is also known as their characteristics. This is considered as an important
component for Whirlpool in order to increase their success quotient. This approach also
helps in analysing the performance of their employees as well. In this approach,
employees are ranked on the basis of several factors, for example, their innovative
quality, problem solving skills, efforts in teamwork, etc.
 Quality Approaches: This method helps in keeping focus on improving customer
satisfaction by minimizing the impact of errors and helps in achieving continuous service
improvisation for Whirlpool. This process mainly concentrates in using Kaizen process
which is very useful for their continuous improvement. Some advantages of this approach
are; it helps in assessing both, system and employees; it helps in solving problem through
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team activity, it involves both internal and external factors, etc (Marescaux, De Winne
and Forrier, 2014).
 Behavioural Approaches: This approach is known to be the oldest method of calculating
or evaluating employee's performance in an organization. This method consists of various
verticals scales of parameters for dimensions of the job for the employee. This can be
calculated by using different techniques and practices, for example, The Behaviourally
Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) technique, which involves 5-10 parameters which is
known as anchors and helps in evaluating every individual's qualities and skills. All
employees are then ranked on the basis of that anchors according to their performance.
 Result Approaches: This is the easiest and simplest approach that can be used by HR in
Whirlpool to measure their employee’s performance effectively. The Best option to
evaluate their efficiency is through Balanced Scorecard technique which consist of 4
factors, for example, financials, consumers, operations and internals and last is from
learning and growth. Advantage of this approach is that it helps in converting strategy
into operations which is very beneficial for Whirlpool for increasing their sales and
productivity.
 Collaborative Working: This can be the best option for Whirlpool if they start working
in collaborative manner as from this it will help in improving the performance of their
employee. There are so many advantages of this process through which whirlpool can
achieve their target effectively, such as, it will help in analysing new and improved
services which is available in market. It also provides more integrated or co-ordinated
approach to beneficiary needs for their employees. From this process it becomes easy for
the HR and for the company as well to have good and improved competitive advantages.
This activity involves better co-ordination between their staff members in organisational
activities (Wareing and et.al., 2017).
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Benefits of using working performance measuring approaches are explained below:
 It helps in evaluating employee's performance in an organization.
 It also assists in putting a positive impact on employee's motivation and morale.
 It identifies their skills, strength and weakness which can be improved to increase their
performance.
 This enhances the communication between employees and its seniors which helps in
discussing their issues and problems.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that for any organization it is very essential to
maintain a good working staff which can assist in increasing their overall performance in
industry. Importance of appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and qualities of HR can
help Whirlpool in improving their work. This report has explained about the importance of High-
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Illustration 1: Performance Management Approaches
(Source: Approaches for Measuring Performance, 2017)

Perform Work practices (HPWP) and explained how it contributed to employee engagement and
competitive advantage for the organization. Lastly this study has focused and explained about
different approaches to performance management which can be used by Whirlpool in improving
their management.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Asmawi, A. and et.al., 2015. Leveraging on High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) in
Shaping Innovative R&D Culture. Advanced Science Letters. 21(5). pp.1592-1595.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook
of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Gazzard, J., 2016. Continuing professional development (CPD). How to Develop Your
Healthcare Career: A Guide to Employability and Professional Development? p.54.
Ivars, J. V. P. and Martínez, J. M. C., 2014. Implications of the use of HPWP on the performance
of the firm: a study on SMEs.
Marescaux, E., De Winne, S. and Forrier, A., 2014. Linking individual HPWP and employee
performance: organizational commitment versus exhaustion?
Payne, S. L. and Calton, J. M., 2017. Towards a managerial practice of stakeholder engagement:
Developing multi-stakeholder learning dialogues. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp.
121-135). Routledge.
Raes, E. and et.al., 2015. An exploratory study of group development and team learning. Human
Resource Development Quarterly. 26(1). pp.5-30.
Shaout, A. and Yousif, M., 2014. Performance Evaluation Methods and Techniques Survey.
International Journal of Computer and Information Technology. 3(5). pp.966–979.
Torgerson, C. and et.al., 2017. A Systematic Review (SR) of the Effective Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) Training of Welfare Professionals.
Wareing, A. and et.al., 2017. Continuing professional development (CPD) in radiography: A
collaborative European meta-ethnography literature review. Radiography. 23. pp. S58-
S63.
West, M. A. and et.al., 2014. Developing collective leadership for health care. London: King's
Fund.
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Approaches for measuring performance of employees. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.projectguru.in/publications/approaches-measuring-performance-
employees/>.
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Organizational Learning Posts. 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.nelson.com/hrmnow/saks/tag/organizational-learning/>
What is the Difference between Training and Development? 2015. [Online]. Available through:
<https://rapidbi.com/what-is-the-difference-between-training-and-development-hrblog/>
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