Whirlpool Case Study: Developing Individuals, Teams & Organizations

This report analyzes the development of individuals, teams, and organizations, using Whirlpool as a case study. It explores professional knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by HR, including communication, creativity, and problem-solving. The report details personal skill audits, professional development plans, and the differences between organizational and individual learning, training, and development. It emphasizes the need for continuous learning and professional development, highlighting its importance in recognizing talent, setting goals, and providing resources. The report also discusses the experiential learning cycle and its application in continuous professional development, emphasizing its role in increasing employee retention, building confidence, and succession planning, ultimately contributing to high-performance work systems and competitive advantages. The report also covers different approaches to performance management and the importance of high-performance work teams.

Developing Individuals, Teams and
Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Professional knowledge, skills and behaviour ...................................................................1
3. Difference between organization and individual learning, training and development.......4
4. Need for continuous learning and professional development ...........................................5
5. HPW contributes to employee’s engagement and competitive advantages.......................7
6. Different approaches to performance management............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The individual and team development helps to organization success. High performance
work team refers to group who are goal focused individuals with specialized expertise and
complementary skills (Coenen and Kok, 2014).
The present study is based on case of Whirlpool which improve high perfromance work
system and strategic changes to sustain company. It is a multinational manufacturer of home
appliances and technology research centre around the world.
This report will explain appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviour
required by HR. It will evaluate personal skills audit and develop a professional development
plan to identify knowledge and skills. It will explain difference between organization learning,
training and development.
MAIN BODY
1. Professional knowledge, skills and behaviour
Professional Skills: An ability and capacity acquried through delibrate, systematic and sustained
efforts are including in professional skills. This skill acquire to smoothy and adaptively carry out
complex activities. There are many skills required in professionlism such as :
Communication Skill: HR consultant gives advice for effective communication at
workplace. Effective communication skills helps to increase professionalism in organization. In
the Whirlpool, effective interaction between team members and HR consultant helps to gain
experiences, thoughts and ideas by team work. With the help of interaction, it creates new ideas
in workplace (Solnet, Kralj and Baum, 2015). HR is ensuring that all memeber are transparent
communication in Whirlpool.
Creativity: It is essential and high valued skills in company. With the help of creativity,
HR professional getting new innovation in Whirlpool. In the company, HR consultant is giving
adivce for creative skills which helps to develop self confidence and ability. Effective creative
ideas helps to increase professionalism. With the help of, creativity skills, they are solving
probelms and making decisions in Whirlpool.
Problem Solving: HR consultant is giving guidance for solving probelms. With the help
of this skill, HR is easily and confident making decisions in Whirlpool. HR concultant is
involving team member in solving problems. HR facing company crisis and support high
preformance culture

Professional behaviour: It is form of good manner in workplace that is linked primarily to
respecful and well mannered conduct. HR consultant is giving advice for improving productivity
in company (Rudy, and Gordon, 2018). There are many principles of professional behaviour
such as wokring as friendly but not familiar, respectfully communcation with employees, leading
as reliable but not autocratic.
Collaborative: HR consultant is giving guidance for collabrtaive work by team. Wiht the
help of this traits, team member are more committed for effective work. This help for solving
problems of organization.
Encourage Challenges: It is an essential behaviour trait of HR manager in organizatrion.
HR consultant is giving advices of encourging employees for solving problem in Whirlpool.
Team members are also committed for facing challenges in Whirlpool. HR consultant gives
advice for facing challenges such as commitment, collaborative working.
Professional knowledge:
A person who has professional knowledge to produce or analysis ideas and information
of company. There are many knowledge such as customer and personal services, education and
knowledge etc.
Education and Training: HR consultant is giving advices of company regarding traning
and education. They are giving clear instructions and guidance regarding training and
development of employees at Whirlpool. (Currie, Burgess and Hayton, 2015). HR consultant is
giving knowledge of training and education in terms of transparent communication, involving in
probelms solutions etc.
Decision making: HR consultant is giving suggestion for making decision of Whirlpool.
They are suggested some techniques and methods for implementing policies in company.
2. Personal skill audit and develop professional development plan
With the help of professional development plan, HR consultant supports high
performance culture and commitment. Through personal skill audit, HR consultant is giving
advice for develops their skills and knowledge for solving issues of Whirpool.
Strengths
I have creativity skill which help to solve
problems of company.
I am collaborating with my team members in
Weaknesses
I am unable to manage my time for
understanding difficult situations.
I am unable to determine some methods of

problem solving. solving problem.
Opportunities
I will develop my decision making skill.
I will improve high performance culture of
workplace.
Threats
I am afraid for managing employees'
performance in company.
I am not maintaining effective team work.
Professional development plan:
S. No. Skills Achieved Time frame /
deadline
Job role
1. Time management Skill I will manage time by
reducing distraction.
1 week This skill help
me for solving
crisis of
Whirlpool.
2. Communication Skill I will join professional
training session for
communicating with
employees.
2 weeks This skill help
me for sharing
information,
ideas and
thoughts in team
work for high
performance
culture.
3. Collaborative work I will collaboratively
work with team member.
1 month. This skill helps
me for
transparent
interaction with
team member.
4. Leadership Skill I will follow leadership
style for effective team
in Whirlpool.
1 month. This skill helps
me for giving
training of team .

With the help of personal skill audit, I will manage my time for completing task. I will
improve my communication, so that I feel comfortably interacting with number of people. I will
also improve creativity and innovative skill, so that I will give appropriate suggestions and ideas
for making decisions in team. I have learnt that all skills are reflected on personal behaviour. I
will improve my decision making skill regarding solving crisis of company. I will engage team
members for solving problems.
3. Difference between organization and individual learning, training and development
Organizational learning: It implies for the process in relation to creation and transfer of
knowledge within an organization. In other words, business units conduct training session for
personnel with the motive to enhance their competency and proficiency level.
Individual learning: When individual makes effort in relation to developing interpersonal
skills the n it falls under the category of individual learning. For this purpose, individual
undertakes books, access internet and attend seminars & conferences as well.
Organisational learning Individual learning
The importance of organisational learning is to
resolve dilemma of imparting intelligence of
employees in Whirlpool.
The importance of individual learning is to
build skills and knowledge of an employee in
Whirlpool.
The benefits of this learning is to develop and
encourage the goals and objectives of
Whirlpool.
The benefit is to increase self-efficiency of
employees in Whirlpool.
It is important to Whirlpool flexibility and
adaptation.
It is important to develop potential of
individual (McCleskey, 2014).
It is beneficial for team learning and building
capacity of team.
It is advantageous for improving high culture
performance of Whirlpool.
It is good for system thinking and developing
ability to understand changes in Whirlpool.
Benefit of this learning is to reduces outcome
and improve capabilities.
It is important for sharing vision and collective
commitment.
As compare to organizational learning, it is
important for increasing motivation and

confidence.
Difference between organizational and individual training and development:
Basis Organizational Training and
Development
Individual training and Development
Meaning It is beneficial for entire
organization for improving work
culture.
It is good for developing skills and
knowledge.
Focus It is focused on overall
productivity.
It is focused on individual productivity.
Benefits It is good for reducing errors and
mistakes of employees.
It is advantageous for increasing job
satisfaction.
Objectives The aim is to reduce turnover
and absenteeism.
As opposed to organizational training,
aim is to higher work performance.
Purpose The purpose is to pool talent of
employees in Whirlpool.
As compared to organizational training,
purpose is to build personal awareness.
4. Need for continuous learning and professional development
Continuous learning: It is important for increasing experiences to new situations. It is beneficial
for knowing about new methods and techniques. Continuous learning is increasingly important
for success of company because of changing economic situations. It helps to increase capacity of
individuals and organization. It gives support for development of groups in firm (Importance of
continuous learning in the workplace, 2018).
Importance of continuous learning in workplace:
Recognizes Talent: With the help of continuous learning, HR consultant recognizes
talent of Whirlpool. It also helps to know about strengths within team and create custom learning
programs. It also helps in positive career development and uncover hidden talent. Through
learning, employees is solving problem of company.
Set goals: It is important to set goals of benchmark progress of employees. With the help
of continuous learning, it is easy to achieve goals of individual as well as organization. HR

consultant is utilized incentives in order to rewards team member who is achieving or exceed
goals of Whirlpool. HR consultant organizes programs for development, so that employees
contributes in achieve goals of organization.
Provides resources: It is essential that provides suitable learning materials within
organization. With the help of resources, it is increasing self-improvement. It also helps to
improve performance of employees at workplace. HR consultant gives support and provides
resources of employees for solving issues in Whirlpool.
Importance of continuous learning at Professional development:
With the help of continuous learning, increases professional development. It ensures to
continue and to competent in profession. It assures capabilities keep pace with current standards
of other in same work. Professional development is to maintain and increase knowledge and
skills. It helps to increase interest and experiences in company. There are many benefits of
continuous professional development such as:
Increase retention: With the help of professional development, HR consultant increases
retention of employees in Whirlpool. HR consultant is giving advice for growth for career
progression and increasing long term interest of organization (Rosenberg-Lee and et.al., 2018).
Build confidence: HR consultant is providing training opportunities for professional
development to build confidence. It also helps to increase credibility and gain new skills in
company. Employees confidence assists sustainable performance of company. HR consultant is
conducted off site meeting for interacting with team member and built confidence for better
working.
Succession planning: With the help of continuous development, it is easy for planning of
success . HR manager organizes professional development programs for training of employees in
Whirlpool. Through professional programs, it helps employees need to progress and increase
master skills. HR consultant conducts seminars and programs for succession planning of team
members.
Therefore, HR consultant provides continuous learning and professional development for
increasing work productivity and performance of employees. With the help of learning and
growth, employees are contributing in sustainable performance of company. It also helps for
facing challenges and problems. Continuous learning assists to improve efficiency and
effectiveness of team work. It helps to achieve goals and objectives of individuals and firm.

Experiential learning cycle theory is applying for implementing continuous professional
development. In this approach, four stages are included such as concrete experiences, reflective
observation, abstract concept and active experiment. This concept helps to reflect observation of
new experiences (McLeod, 2017). This concept helps for effective learning for employee
performance. With the help of effective study, it used to test hypothesis in future conditions
which is resulting in new experiences.
On the other side, Honey and Mumford learning styles is model for finding correct
learning style or preference. There are four styles included activists, theorists, pragmatists and
reflectors. Professional development plan and learning cycle theory helps for setting goals and
improving performance. It also assists to achieve business objectives. PDP helps to increase
knowledge, skills and behaviour. With the help of PDP, company achieves goals and objectives
of business. Through experiential learning cycle theory, it increases learning goals and
accomplish sustainable business performance objectives.
Illustration 1: The Experiential Learning Cycle
Source: (Kolb's Learning Styles and Experiential Learning
Cycle, 2017)

5. HPW contributes to employee’s engagement and competitive advantages
High performance work (HPW) is the practice of management that increase productivity
and profits of company. It is an approach that aims to stimulate more effective employee
engagement and commitment in terms to achieve high level of performance. HR consultant is
focused on this strategy which is pursuing more voluntarist intervention framework. It is also a
system to improve capacity to effectively, attract, select and develop and retain high performing
personnel (Sessa and London, 2015).
Engaging Employees: The system of HPW is implemented in Whirlpool for engaging
staff and ensuring awareness of workers. Involving employees for communicating mission and
vision, sharing information, decision making and performance compensation. Employees
engagement helps in making decisions of firm. With the help of HPW, HR consultant improves
performance of employees at Whirlpool. Through HPW, workers are highly engaged in
designing and implementing policies and procedure in firm. This system supports employee’s
ability to influence decisions. Through this system, HR consultant makes efforts for more
engaged members for solving issues in Whirlpool.
Competitive Advantages: HPW system helps in attaining competitive advantages. It is
important source of competitive advantage in business environment. High performance work
approach helps to increase productivity, effectiveness, innovation, quality in organization. This
system helps to involve employees for competitive advantage in organization (Kennedy, 2016).
Whirlpool decided to change HPW system for improving high performance culture .
Therefore, effective execution of company is assisting competitive advantages. With the
help of HPW, companies are improving productivity and profits of business. Benefits of HPW is
to sharing key information such as financial, strategic and performance data which contributing
in competitive advantages. Therefore, HR consultant is more focused on high performance work
system for engaging employee of Whirlpool. This system is also helping for achieving goals.
There are many benefits of HPW for employees as well as organization. It is
advantageous for effective performance of employees at workplace. It is good for company in
terms of employee’s involvement in the firm (Van De Voorde and Beijer, 2015). This system is
beneficial for staff in terms of making decisions, improving productivity and effective
performance. This method helps in improving organization’s performance. HPW system is
beneficial for competitive advantage which means higher financial result of organization.

6. Different approaches to performance management
Performance management of worker is the keystone of any company's success. Through
employee contribution, business owners are measuring and assessing performance of workers at
workplace. Employee performance depends upon number of factors such as conducive work
environment, compensation, bonus system, job satisfaction and company policies. There are
major approaches of measuring performance in Whirlpool.
Comparative Approaches: It includes ranking an employee's performance with respect to
that of other in group. On basis of highest to the lowest performer, employees are ranked. With
the help of comparative approach, team member are improving their performance.
Attribute Approaches: In this approach, workers are rated on basis of specific set of
factors such as problem solving skills, team work, communication, creativity and innovation. HR
consultant follows two methods such as graphic and mixed rating scale in Whirlpool (Jiang,
Chuang and Chiao, 2015). This approach helps to improve high performance work practices in
Whirlpool.
Behavioural Approaches: This approach consists of series of vertical scales for different
concepts of job. HR consultant adopt BARS and BOS techniques in Whirlpool. These techniques
help in effective behaviour of employees in Whirlpool. With the help of behavioural approach,
team members are working more collaboratively to solve business problems by listening to each
other.
Result Approaches: This concept is simple where in company assess employees on basis
of worker performance results. HR consultant adopt Balanced Scorecard technique for effective
team work in Whirlpool. This method focuses on four position such as financial, customer,
operation, learning and growth. The second technique is Productivity Measurement and
Evaluation System (Kennedy, 2016).
Quality Approaches: This concept focuses on improving customer satisfaction by
decreasing mistakes or faults as well as accomplishing continuous services creation. The
advantage of this theory in which includes such as assessment of both workers and methods,
problem solving through team work, use of multiple sources to evaluate performance and
involvement of both internal and external factors.

Approaches of performance management supports high performance culture and
commitment. In critical evaluation, comparative approach helps to promote high managerial
positions. This indicates positive impact on employees' performance. In contrast, attribute
concept is not assessing accurate best to the worst performers (Jiang, Chuang and Chiao, 2015).
Therefore, comparative approach is beneficial for measurement of employee’s performance.
Judgement:
High performance work system leads to improve employee’s engagement, commitment
and competitive advantages. This concept is beneficial for increasing productivity and
performance at workplace. HPW is giving for involving more employees in competitive
advantages. This system beneficial for improving high culture performance.
CONCLUSION
From this report summarized that HR requires appropriate professional skills, behaviour
and knowledge in organization. It can be concluded that professional development plan and
personal skills audit helps in achieving business objectives. It can be discussed that difference
between training and development, organizational and individual learning.
Furthermore, it can be completed that HPW leads to support employee engagement,
commitment and competitive advantage. In order to that different approaches to performance
management for support to high performance culture and commitment.