Human Resource Management and Organizational Development: A Case Study

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DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS, AND
ORGANIZATIONS
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
LO1..................................................................................................................................................3
P1. Accessing various skills, knowledge, and behavior required to be an ideal HR professional. .3
M1. Formulation of an audit along with its detailed evaluation......................................................4
LO2..................................................................................................................................................5
P3. Analyzing and contemplating differences in learning, training between organization and
individual towards effective development.......................................................................................5
P4. Examining role of continuous learning and according to professional development to
instigate sustainable business performance.....................................................................................6
M2. Applying life cycle theories to understand the importance of continuous professional
development:....................................................................................................................................7
D1. Establishment of a professional development plan...................................................................7
LO3..................................................................................................................................................9
P5. Underlying elements behind High Performance Working System and contemplating its real-
time application with respect to competitive advantage and employee advantage.........................9
M3. Contemplating ways and means HPWS enables proper skill utilization with respect to
Hightown Housing Association.....................................................................................................10
LO4................................................................................................................................................10
P6. Examining need for different approaches to performance management and contemplating
ways they support high performance culture and commitment with regards to selected
organization:..................................................................................................................................10
M4. Critical evaluation of different approaches and assessing their effectiveness on organization
culture and commitment:...............................................................................................................11
D2: Providing a valid synthesis and highlighting ways HPW mechanisms can affect employee
engagement, commitment and maintain competitive edge............................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference list:................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
Developing human resource in any organization is considered a pivotal aspect. Human resource
is it teams or individuals are pillars of driving force that makes organization ticks and move
forward. Following assignment is a case study of Hightown Housing Association that reflects the
very essence of development of human resource. It highlights two essential criteria that affect an
organization in employee management and cultural development. These elements are
establishment of a proper HR business partner and successfully incorporating HPW (High-
Performance Working) system. Detailed analysis with regards to both is done and findings are
thoroughly contemplated. Further impacts of these elements towards effective employee
engagement coupled with promoting organization culture and growth are also examined in this
assignment.
LO1.
P1. Accessing various skills, knowledge, and behavior required to be an ideal HR
professional
HR advisors or professionals are generally known for their sublime guidance and expertise to a
firm regarding various aspects and issues. These issues may range from discipline to absence
pertaining to workforce. As opined by Navimipouret al. (2015), an HR professional is a role
designed or formed primarily to target employee perspective or mindset and draw out problems
that hinder their efficiency. Skills, knowledge, and behavior are the three core attributes that
support foundation of an HR advisor. Further contemplation of each of these attributes on one to
one basis is done below:
Knowledge: HR professionals for any company are the prime regulators of human resources and
govern ways regarding functioning of human resource. In order to achieve this, an HR
professional has to have in-depth knowledge about organizational policies and way organization
operates. Identity of organization is imbued within HR department to effectively recruit people
whose ways aligns with organizational motives and objectives. In reference to case study,
policies and objectives irrespective of its stature of importance have to be ingrained within HR
professionals of Hightown Housing. Having robust knowledge about organization strengths and
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weaknesses will allow HR professionals to deal with employees and recruit them in subsequent
manner leading to cohesiveness within organization.
Skills: Hightown Housing being one of prominent housing associations of UK is increasingly on
the outlook to hire HR professionals that have ideal skills in abundance. Management of
Hightown has faced a lot of issues pertaining to employee status as lack of communication is
cited as a major issue. Appointing ideal HR professional is effectively seen as a way to bridge
the gap between employees and management. Skills required pertaining to HR professional are
effective and robust decision making, understanding employee viewpoint without subjugating
them and giving adequate training in case there is lack of it. As argued by Cohen (2015), skills of
HR professional makes them stand apart from rest of hierarchy as they are the sole people that
mitigate personal concerns of employees.
Behavior: Positivity and open-mindedness are the pivotal criteria that should encompass
behavioral pattern of HR people. Having positivity is an approach to both stakeholders and
employees enlightens company processes and establishes harmony (Mahmood et al. 2016).
Management at Hightown Housing should try to recruit HR professionals that can show
positivity in every phase of company. Respecting all stakeholders and letting employee
participation in decision making broadens horizon of company and leads to an organization
moving ahead incoherence. Open-mindedness approach can lead to employee feel confident in
sharing ideas and participate in effective decision making.
P2. Completing a detailed personal skill audit to validate skills and knowledge of an HR
Skill audit primarily aims to govern aspects of required job and evaluating whether such skills
are suited to or inappropriate as per HR job role. For an employee of Hightown Housing or
someone applying from outside for HR job, it is imperative that substantial skills must be
present. Audit revolving HR role should focus and stress on individual's 3 essential skills of
problem-solving, negotiation and communication. As mentioned by Lo et al. (2015), audit
should increasingly focus on analyzing these three pillars of skills to thoroughly evaluate an
individual's ability or competence as an HR professional. Since HR role involves self-
development of both individuals and organization coupled with employee alignment it is vital
that audit mandating personal skills of HR professional is authentic and broad-based.
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M1. Formulation of an audit along with its detailed evaluation
Job Role: HR Officer
Name of individual: Mark Ruckus
Communication skills: For Mark communication, both verbal and nonverbal has always been a
forte. However, for role of HR, Mark has been lacking the vital experience of developing
employee drafts. Mark's skills as an HR trainer is also lacking in nature. Even though Mark has
subtle prowess in writing reports and proficient knowledge in excels his lack of developing
employment draft remains an area of weakness.
Problem-solving skills: Mark is effective in solving problems by contemplating various
outcomes of 1 problem. This indeed has favored Mark for this HR role as he can mitigate issues
in short time without drawing much attention. Excellent verbal reasoning has been of great help
to Mark is analyzing complex data pertaining to diverse problems.
Negotiation and IT skills: For an HR position, Mark negotiation has been decent on basis of his
past jobs. However, use of specific HR-related software has let him down a bit. Having naught
experience in Zoho has been a negative point for him. Lack of database knowledge or
insufficient expertise has also let him down since HR activities pertain to wide usage of IT tools.
Evaluation based on above responses and need for development: Mark has shown some
potential, needs to go through substantial development to reckon his abilities as an ideal HR.
Self-development process is pivotal for him as required skills needed, can only be achieved
through individual efforts and perseverance. Mark being an employee for Hightown Housing
feels valued and hungry for self-development through audit. Further audit helps companies
assess employee development and help them with upgrade by critically evaluating weak areas
and needs of improvement (Rauch and Hatak, 2016).
LO2.
P3. Analyzing and contemplating differences in learning, training between organization
and individual towards effective development
Organizational and individual learning is the responsibility of HR professionals. Hightown being
a broad organization aims to learn from its wide array of achievements to employ sustainable
measures towards organization learning which can then be implemented to individual learning
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aspect. Having different outcomes to challenges employs HR division to analyze these outcomes
and contemplate reasons behind their emergence. Organizational learning often regulates ways
employees or individuals develop. This is turn shapes personal development of employees and
HR monitors these developments on scale basis. This is termed as individual development where
employees are prioritized depending on organization success and learning. In the words of
Brown et al. (2017), development of either party is it organization or individual affects one other
positively with former being in prime control of latter. However, mode of training for individual
development can be segregated on basis of mode of training. Employees sometimes partake in
training session to uplift their professional skills enabling individual training. If this mode of
training is given by organization to ascertain employee and company development, then it's
known organizational training.
Training and development tools often play a vital part in organizational learning. Individual
training can persist through organizational development leading to adapt learning and
progressive development. This collaborative approach help can help Hightown Housing to deal
with mutual development and March ahead of rest of competition.
P4. Examining role of continuous learning and according to professional development to
instigate sustainable business performance
Sustainable business performance can only be achieved through continuous learning. For
organizations, employee learning is a phrase that helps them avoided being stale and work
towards achieving simultaneous growth and development. Without continuous learning,
development cannot be attained as innovation seizes to stop. Housing association organizations
take continuous learning as important tool towards accessing driven success and comparison
with rivals. Hightown Housing is no exception. The company in order to promote sustainable
growth through business has to implement continuous learning as a prime tool for development.
Continuous learning aides employee performance employs competitive advantages and helps
employee develop through phrases of different kinds. Employee oriented approach is underlying
aim of continuous learning as upgrading is cited as common result in every case. According to
Arora (2016), HR professional is also tasked with continuous learning process enabling
Hightown Housing elevate their approach towards HR recruitment and development. Employee
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enrichment towards business orientation along with gaining experience are also causes of
continuous learning approach. HR professionals of Hightown Housing can look to implement
wide array of tasks and methods that facilitate continuous learning. Continuous learning can be
influenced to fostering leadership along with helping employees gain substantial amount of
confidence and belief. Positive behavior and approach to work is witness as continuous learning
helps organization gain employee sufficiency coupled with maintaining healthy business
relationships. As stated by Liu et al. (2015), continuous learning supports and strengthens
bonding among employees, management, and stakeholders. Having an ideal HR division can
maximize potential of continuous learning to its fullest. Professional development can be
achieved for both employee and organization as coordination get substantially improved upon
instigating maximizing output.
M2. Applying life cycle theories to understand the importance of continuous professional
development:
Chosen life cycle theory for given organization is Kolb’s life cycle theory. According to this
theory, continuous professional development depends on four crucial factors. This factor
depends on concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active
experimentation. Detailed analysis on each of these four criteria is done below:
Reflective observation: Many times prior to doing work or venturing into professional
development, it is imperative to look into the matter. Detailed contemplation on negative
outcomes makes the process a lot easier. Reflective observation aims to outline success rate of
continuous professional development by border lining probability of failure.
Abstract conceptualization: Second phase after observation, this step gives proper insight
regarding continuous processes. Effective partaking is witness as organization looks to take part
in various process involving employees. If’s and but’s are monitored and according actions are
taken.
Active experiment: Though elements of error are still there, but active process becomes part of
daily operations. This is medium stage between initial and final output of continuous processes.
Concrete experiment: Final phase of continuous process where expected results are achieved.
Employee participation increases and overall organization aim is achieved.
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D1. Establishment of a professional development plan
Prior to setting up a development plan, it is mandatory for HR professional to highlight need for
it. As opined by ), a development plan is essentially a governing tool implemented to guide
employees and organization alike to ensure clarity and ease in day to day operations.
Developmental objectives that Mark can follow and adhere to are as below:
● Obtain requisite knowledge about use of various HR related software like Zoho.people
that has increasingly being used by Hightown Housing.
● Database usage coupled with various associated functions has been gained to ensure
effective management of employee data
● Gaining subsequent knowledge pertaining to employment draft is pivotal for Mark.
● Getting adequate confidence and using proper methods for employee training
An outlay of development plan that Mark can follow bring an HR professional:
New skills Current efficiency
and knowledge
Target Timeframe
Efficient use of
database
Minimal Obtaining ideal
knowledge about in-
depth usage of
database
3-4 weeks
Gaining insight about
vast amount of HR
software especially
Zoho
None Gaining adequate
expertise in Zoho and
similar programs
4-5 weeks
Learning ways to
develop an
employment draft
None Efficiently
developing
employment draft
3-4 weeks
Devising ideal
training session for
employees and
developing
confidence
None Providing robust
training to employees
and aligning their
goals to
organizational
objectives.
2-3 weeks
With above development plan, Mark can properly gain the prerequisite knowledge needed and
successfully establish himself as an HR professional at Hightown Housing. Acquiring knowledge
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based on above-stated elements can help Mark gain the needed efficiency of an HR. Frequent
queries and dedication can help Mark elude failure and effectively drive business venture of
Hightown Housing forward.
LO3
P5. Underlying elements behind High Performance Working System and contemplating its
real-time application with respect to competitive advantage and employee advantage
High-Performance Working System (HPWS) is primarily a cluster of techniques or tools aimed
to provide wide array of options for effective employee management. These techniques or tools
associated are interlinked with each other through being way different in operations. Role of
each of these elements towards affecting employees positively along with giving Hightown
Housing a competitive edge is discussed below:
Attraction: HPWS aims to draw working individuals of all kinds towards company as people
tend to get affiliated with organization that provides proper high performance working system.
Security and ideal work structure makes employees feel valued and in turn increases and adds to
retention rate over time.
Selection: Ability to select individuals that align with company orientation and ways can benefit
both employee and company. Lack of coordination or training will be negated as employee tends
to be motivated from letting go, resulting in diverse benefits and real-time advantage.
Training: Training is seen as a majority boosts while implementing HPWS. Employees that
effectively selected are given detailed training making them susceptible to work environment and
pressure (Noe et al. 2017). Organization employing HPWS avails training as important function
that bridges overall process.
Appraisal: Recognition acts as a catalyst for employees to aim for promotion. As stated in case
of HR and above-mentioned example. Mark having felt valued will try to develop and minimize
his negative attributes. This, in turn, will make him dedicated and earning for chance to be an
HR. Through appraisal, employees feel valued and work driven.
Performance: With employee being motivated and work driven, performance tends to be driven
and elements of complexity are minimized. High performance is considered as an associated
terminology with HPWS.
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Evaluation with HPWS with regards to giving competitive edge and employee advantage:
HPWS ascertains proper advantages to organization using it. Employee tends to be motivated as
work driven coupled with proper recruitment based on organizational needs. Difference
pertaining to an organization implementing HPWS to one avoiding it is vast. HPWS though
having initially cost setup gives predominant advantages during availing long term goals.
Employee alignment, proper retention, motivation along with work orientation is few of many
competitive advantages offered by using HPWS.
M3. Contemplating ways and means HPWS enables proper skill utilization with respect to
Hightown Housing Association
HPWS employs measures that appeal to employees and guides them on a wide scale. Utilizing
HPWS can be contemplated in variety of ways. As mentioned by Buchanan and McCalman
(2018), one of prime benefits of successfully implementing HPWS is to achieve cost
effectiveness. High rate of employee engagement is also one of the criterias that makes HPWS
enable proper skill utilization. In order to implement HPWS, many factors are taken into accord
that involves establishment of proper bond between management and employees. Facilitating
training as well as motivating employees depends on existing relationship among the
management and employees as lack of robust relationship can hamper effectiveness of HPWS.
LO4
P6. Examining need for different approaches to performance management and
contemplating ways they support high performance culture and commitment with regards
to selected organization:
Before setting up different approaches to performance management system, it is imperative to
state business goals are underline the performance of organization. Performance management is
basically a medium through which company can boost morale and work of employees and attain
profit-oriented business in long term. With regards to case study Hightown Housing in the face
of competition first needs to properly define its business goals. Goals or objectives often give
identity to organization making employees get a brief idea about ways and means of business
done. As opined by Riaz (2016), having a clear idea about organization goals helps employees
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set goals accordingly. Another prominent approach to performance system is review on timely
basis. Reviewing functions and operations on daily basis helps company to evaluate weakness
and strength in accordance. Keeping a tab on employee works and monitoring them can help
company like Hightown Housing gain valuable ground on efficiency and commitment.
Developing strategies as per requirement is another essential performance management
approach. These strategies can be based on employee oriented benefits and motivation which
eventually help organization gain profit in long run. Ensuring high level of retention while
negating high employee turnover, is the underlying aim of performance management.
Performance culture: Culture in any organization reflects its underlying effectiveness and
identity. Depending on organizational culture employee may want to join or stay away from
company. As mentioned by Arora (2016), organizational culture ranges from company to
company depending upon management and alignment of businesses. These cultures govern ways
employee gets treated and consecutively ranks company on that basis.
Commitment: As the word highlights, commitment is something that is rarely witnessed among
firms. Performance management can drastically with reducing commitment as lack of employee
without motivation not show any substantial urgency or dedication. In the words of Navimipour
et al. (2015), Hightown Housing in a bid to improve commitment has aimed to align
performance management as per employee needs.
M4. Critical evaluation of different approaches and assessing their effectiveness on
organization culture and commitment:
Having studied the need for performance management, it is important to understand underlying
approaches that guide high-performance culture and commitment. These approaches are of 5
types. One to one analysis is done with regards to these approaches and suitable approach is
subsequently determined as per Hightown Housing needs:
Comparative approach: This approach is commonly seen in medium to small sized company.
Ranking of employees is the preferred structure and often elements of biases in involved.
Though increasing productivity, adhering to such approach may breed internal competition and
jealousy.
Attribute approach: These are seen as a more of a balanced approach taking various factors into
accounts such as problem-solving skills, teamwork, communication and more. These parameters
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rank employees in according basis and element of biases is limited to some extent (Rauch and
Hatak, 2016).
Result based approach: An approach where penultimate heed is given to final result attained.
Process of arriving at results is not validated as efforts are more of shortcuts and profits based on
eliminating hard work. Smart work is looking to criteria.
Behavioral approach: Considered the most stable and oldest performance management
technique. This approach is adhered to by Hightown Housing Association as elements and
measures taken into account are trustworthy and proven. Behavioral approach is based on
satisfactory and hygiene factors that regulate the measurement.
Quality approach: Often new in implementation, many have regarded quality approach as an
ideal way to adhere and meet operational management. Both performance culture and
commitment is maintained by ensuring robust quality and authenticity.
D2: Providing a valid synthesis and highlighting ways HPW mechanisms can affect
employee engagement, commitment and maintain competitive edge
As mentioned above HPWS can greatly increase company productivity. Under HPWS working
conditions dramatically shifts leading to increasing in job satisfaction coupled with effective
performance output. Hightown Housing can mitigate work pressure and lessen employee
turnover to a large extent by properly implement HPWS. Employee engagement is a common
sight as happiness factor and motivation are ideal aspects under HPWS. Ultimate aim of
employing HPWS is segregate and retains employees that suit company way of moving forward
(Cohen, 2015). Elements, techniques or tools involved under HPWS are of 5 types namely
selection, training, performance, appraisal and compensation. Overtime salary, timely increment
and revise payment structure are some feature of High-Performance Working System that makes
employees tick in severe conditions and leads to organizational growth.
Conclusion
Following study concludes importance role of HR plays towards company growth and goal.
Detailed analysis is also done couple with implementation of High Performance Working
System. Throughout the assignment, a case study is referred to cite examples of an organization
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