Developing Individual, Teams, and Organizations: A Report

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Developing Individual, Teams and Organisations

Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Section 1............................................................................................................................................................. 4
a. Appropriate knowledge, skills and attributes (KSA) required to carry out your role as H R
Adviser.......................................................................................................................................................... 4
b. A detailed personal skills audit completed for yourself.................................................................5
c. A professional development plan with a reflective statement of your development needs.....6
d. You have been asked to a table a briefing paper on creating an inclusive learning and
development culture within the organisation. Your paper must be based on a well-recognised
learning cycle model for implementing continuous professional development for sustainable
business performance................................................................................................................................. 8
Section 2.......................................................................................................................................................... 11
a. The key elements that make up the HPW systems, and how these systems work on the
ground......................................................................................................................................................... 11
b. How employers use HPW practices to improve organisational performance and how can
they demonstrate success/impact.......................................................................................................... 12
c. To what extent/how will HPW practices enable better skill utilisation in Hightown Housing
...................................................................................................................................................................... 12
d. Ways in which performance management, collaborative working and effective
communication can be used to support a high performance culture and commitment within
Hightown Housing.................................................................................................................................... 13
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 15
References....................................................................................................................................................... 16
2

Introduction
Organisations are developed on the performance of the individuals who work for the
organisations. It is necessary for the organisations to focus on the learning and development
of these individuals so that they can contribute that in the growth of the organisation. People
have different learning styles and organisations need to identify these styles before a training
program for the individuals is developed. The human resource management department in
organisations carries out the performance management of the individuals and then design the
training programs according to the needs of the individuals.
Most of the individuals work in teams in organisations which makes it essential for the
organisations to focus on team development. There are different roles in a team that are
assigned to individuals. During the team development phase, it is the responsibility of the
team leader or manager to assign the right role to the right individual so that the skills and
capabilities of the individuals could be utilised to their full extent.
Organisations these days use High Performance Working Systems to enhance the
productivity of the employees. High Performance Working Systems maintains a balance in
the organisations and allows the organisation to use its resources optimally. I am employed as
HR Advisor at Hightown Housing Associates and I am assigned the responsibility to design a
continuous development program for the organisation. I will create a paper on the learning
cycles of the individuals and creation of development culture at Hightown Housing
Associates
3

Section 1
a. Appropriate knowledge, skills and attributes (KSA) required to carry out your
role as H R Adviser.
HR advisor at Hightown Housing Associates is responsible for managing 800 employees of
the company and work with the company management to ensure that Hightown Housing
Associates has a workforce which is able to implement the business strategy of the company
and help the company in achieving its goal.
I have 10 years’ experience in the HRM department working in different positions. I have
designed, developed and implement the human resource management policies during my
experience in HRM department.
I have worked closely with the managers to develop the job description for the positions
vacant in their department and initiated the recruitment and selection process. I am
responsible for the implementation and overseeing of the entire recruitment and selection
process which involved job advertisement, resume collection, resume short listing, written
test and interviews.
I have worked with the managers in implementing the performance management system at
Hightown Housing Associates. I ensured that a 360 degree evaluation of the employees is
conducted to assess their actual productivity.
I was involved in many employee relations activities and I have performed in an excellent
manner by resolving the conflicts with employees at the earliest. I have worked with the top
management of the company in promoting employee commitment instead of focusing on
employee compliance.
I am also responsible for change management at Hightown Housing Associates. The new HR
policies at Hightown Housing Associates are implemented according to the latest housing
regulations and employment legislation. I have conducted a detailed analysis of the changes
in the Employment Act, Equality Act and Minimum Wages Act and initiated the changes in
the company policies accordingly.
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b. A detailed personal skills audit completed for yourself
An HR Advisor needs to have certain skills that are relevant to his professional work along
with the personal and interpersonal skills for his overall growth. My skill audit is provided in
below table:
Skills Very
Good
Good Adequate Poor /
Limite
d
Details
Construction
Industry
Knowledge
 I have adequate
knowledge of the General
Employment Policies. But
I need to acquire in depth
knowledge of the
construction sector to
properly manage the
employees at Hightown
Housing Associates
Employment
Law Knowledge
 I have studied all the
sections of the
Employment Act and
implemented them in the
HR policies of Hightown
Housing Associates.
Employee
Relations
 I have worked with top
management and
employee union
representatives for
implementing good
employee relations in the
company
Communication
Skills
 My verbal communication
skills are good and I am
able to communicate
properly with my
colleagues, subordinates
and seniors.
Project
Management
 My Project Management
skills are not very good. I
need to learn about project
management processes.
Technical
Skills / ICT
 I have the basic
knowledge of ICT but I
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need to learn on working
advance software that are
used in HRM practices
and data analysis
Time
Management
 I need to improve my
efficiency through
learning to manage my
team in a better way
c. A professional development plan with a reflective statement of your
development needs
Development
Objective
Priority Activities Resources Duration
/ Target
Start
Date –
Target
End Date
Criteria for
Success
Construction
Industry
Knowledge
Medium Find an
appropriate
course to
acquire
construction
sector
knowledge
Diploma from a
recognised institute
6 months Successfully
pass the course
and receive the
diploma
Time
Management
High Developing
the To-Do
list for daily
activities.
Learning
time
Online Research on
Time Management
Models (Harris, 2016)
Assigning priorities to
different tasks and work
accordingly
4 weeks Able to manage
time effectively
and organise all
the tasks.
Ability to
deliver work on
time
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management
models
Project
Management
Skills
Medium Online
Class and
Certification
Online Portals with
recognition in Project
Management
Certifications
8 weeks Should be able
to create a
project
management
plan, resource
allocation, scope
and estimation
Technical
Skills / ICT
Low Attend a
classroom
training
program on
ICT skills
and Data
Analysis
Systems
(Erdem and
Ozen, 2014)
Weekend Coaching 3 months Proficient in
using different
data analysis
tools.
The first section in the report helped me in analysing my skills and compared them with the
job description at Hightown Housing Associates. Because of the skills audit I was able to
identify the skills on which I need to work so that I could improve them. In the next section, I
prepared a development plan in which the activities and resources needed to improve the
skills are mentioned. A success criterion is also included in the development plan to define
the successful implementation of the processes to develop the mentioned skills.
To improve my construction sector skills, I need to take a professional course like diploma in
construction sector. My academic qualifications do not have construction as a subject. Hence,
I have to make sure that I attend a diploma that includes the foundation course about this
sector. I will also attend coaching classes on weekend to improve my ICT skills. Along with
this, I also need to work on my project management skills so that I become capable of
handling large scale projects in future.
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Time Management is an essential skill for every individual no matter in which industry or
position the individual is working. If I have to implement my development plan properly,
time management of the different activities is very important. If I am able to manage my time
properly, it will help me in doing my job as HR Advisor in Hightown Housing Associates.
One of the most important aspects of time management is prioritising the tasks an individual
has to do. For this purpose, I will try to understand Stephen Covey’s Time Matrix Model
which is an effective model for time management.
d. You have been asked to a table a briefing paper on creating an inclusive
learning and development culture within the organisation. Your paper must be
based on a well-recognised learning cycle model for implementing continuous
professional development for sustainable business performance.
The success of an organisation depends on the skills of the individuals working in the
organisation. For individuals, it is very important that they keep learning new skills so that
the organisation could compete in the market. When individuals work in teams in an
organisation, they have the opportunity to learn from each other. But, individual efforts for
the learning are also important (Matthews, 2018). In order to create an inclusive learning and
development culture in the organisation, Hightown Housing Associates needs to create a
structured learning and development programs for the employees of the company.
Before the learning environment could be created in the organisation, Hightown Housing
Associates needs to assess the performance of the employees so that the HRM department
would have the idea of types of skills and training program company needs to design. Along
with the performance review, employees themselves can conduct their skill audit and identify
the skills they need to develop. This step is one of the most important steps in the Continuous
Professional Development (CPD) of the employees in Kolb’s Learning Cycle. Once the
skills audit is done, Hightown Housing Associates could use Kolb’s Learning Cycle to
implement the CPD in the company and create a learning culture.
Learning is a process which cannot be achieved overnight. There has to be detailed plan for
creating learning environment in the organisation. Hightown Housing Associates can adopt
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Kolb’s Learning Cycle that provides a framework to implement learning. There are 4 phases
of learning that are defined by Kolb.
Concrete Experience When individuals go through a new
experience, they learn something from that
experience even though the experience was
not good (Mayo, 2014).
Reflective Observation Reflection helps the individuals in measuring
their understanding of an experience.
Individual analyses about the process and try
to find the things that he missed in the
experience. In other words, individual
reviews the experience he had at this stage of
learning.
Abstract Conceptualisation This is the stage in which individual learns
from the experience. After the reflection and
observation, individual is able to conclude
the result of the experience and conceptualise
it (Mickan and Rodger, 2015).
Active Experimentation Once all the learning from past experience is
done, individual plan to try the things he
learned from the experience. Practical
application of the learning is done at this
stage.
Individual Learning and Organisational Learning
Although, some people treat organisation learning and individual learning as a same process,
there are certain differences in the basic concepts of individual learning and organisational
learning.
Organisational learning occurs due to the experience of the organisation of different
situations. When a strategy of the organisation is implemented, a review of the strategy or
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process is carried out that reflects the pros and cons of the strategy which contributes in the
organisational learning process (Raidén and Dainty, 2017). Organisation learning enables an
organisation to stay competitive in the market. Organisational learning has 3 important
aspects –
1. Creation of Knowledge
Organisation tests different ideas and carries out real world simulation and then
selects the idea that could contribute in creating a new knowledge in the organisation.
2. Retaining the Knowledge
Organisation keeps working on the idea and makes sure that knowledge is retained
within the organisation. Organisation could use strategies such as focusing on
employee retention, use communication tools, and develop a repository etc (Watkins
and Marsick, 2015).
3. Transferring the Knowledge
As organisation gains knowledge, it has to transfer the knowledge to the individual in
the organisation.
Individual learning happens at micro level in the organisation where a particular individual
learn something new or improve his knowledge of an existing skill. If the individual shares
this knowledge with others in the organisation, it contributes in organisational learning. On
the other hand, if individual do not share the knowledge with his team or colleagues,
organisation loses the knowledge.
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Section 2
a. The key elements that make up the HPW systems, and how these systems work
on the ground
High Performance Working System could be defined as – “As a concept, philosophy and
approach to developing and supporting strategy development, competitive advantage and
improving employee relations”
The aim of High Performance Working System is to create an environment in the
organisation where employee involvement is increased and decision making is shared with
the employees of the company. High Performance Working System depends on the
responsibility and empowerment of the employees and their commitment towards the
organisation (Liao et al, 2017). The key elements of the High Performance Working System
are: Employee Involvement, HRM practices and Rewards and commitment.
Organisations need to increase the involvement of the employees to implement High
Performance Working System. One example of this practice is forming self-directed teams.
These are the teams that are given the authority of decision making about the working inside
the team and management does not interfere with the team. Organisation also needs to share
the information with its employees to promote high employee involvement. Secondly,
Organisation needs to focus on the employee selection, appraisal and training of the
employees (Castka et al, 2015). Organisations could use rewards to enhance the commitment
of the employees
If High Performance Working System is implement properly in an organisation it could result
in developing a performance culture within the organisation. As long as organisation
continues in investing its employees, it will be able to enhance the performance of the
employees. But training and development programs of the employees should be strictly
executed with an optimised performance management in order to develop a High
Performance Working System
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b. How employers use HPW practices to improve organisational performance
and how can they demonstrate success/impact
High Performance Working Practices aims at improving the performance of the whole
organisation, through employee engagement. Employees need to be connected with the
organisation for successful HPWS implementation.
In order to improve the employee engagement, Hightown Housing Associates needs to equip
its employees with the tools that they can use to enhance the efficiency of the job assigned to
them. If an employee does not have the necessary tool to carry out the job assigned to him,
Hightown Housing Associates cannot expect high level of performance from the employees.
Along with the tools (knowledge and infrastructure), Hightown Housing Associates also has
to motivate the employees to perform. Rewards and incentives are good options that
Hightown Housing Associates could use for this purpose (Guthrie, 2015).
The organisational performance can be improved through individual learning and
organisational learning. The first step is to initiate the individual learning. In this case,
Hightown Housing Associates has to first focus on performance management and then
develop the training program to provide the necessary knowledge and skills to the employees.
Information sharing is another HPWS practice that Hightown Housing Associates could use
for its benefit. With proper information sharing, the employees of the company will have the
knowledge of the alternatives and they will be able to make a better choice which is very
important in effective problem solving.
c. To what extent/how will HPW practices enable better skill utilisation in
Hightown Housing
One of the most important benefits of HPW practices is that it creates a high commitment
environment in the organisation. As long as an employee is committed to Hightown Housing
Associates, it will help the company in better utilisation of the employee. High commitment
of the employee also helps in organisational learning as individual is willing to share his
learning and knowledge with the organisation which ultimately improves organisational
learning.
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