Developing Individuals, 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.......................................................................................................................................................... 10
a. The key elements that make up the HPW systems, and how these systems work on the
ground......................................................................................................................................................... 10
b. How employers use HPW practices to improve organisational performance and how can
they demonstrate success/impact.......................................................................................................... 11
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.................................................................................................................................... 12
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................... 14
References....................................................................................................................................................... 15
2

Introduction
Every organisation’s growth depends on the skills, knowledge and abilities of the individuals
that work for the organisation. It is important for an organisation to make sure that its
employees have the working knowledge of the principles that are essential for them to
perform their job. For every individual, the academic qualifications are important but the
skills he acquired during the professional journey makes him an ideal candidate to handle the
practical problems encountered. Development of the individuals in an organisation is the
primary responsibility of the human resource department of the company. The HRM
department in an organisation evaluates the skills and performance of the individuals and
plan training programs for them that contains the activities required for their personal and
professional growth. However, the HR manager himself should have the appropriate
knowledge of the various human resource practices and their business implementation. As
HR advisor at Hightown Housing Associates, I would create my own personal portfolio to
demonstrate my knowledge and skills essential for the role. I would also provide a report on
creating a learning and development culture at Hightown Housing Associates. In the end, I
would explore the different aspects of the High Performance Working Systems (HPWS) in
the context of Hightown Housing Associates
3

Section 1
a. Appropriate knowledge, skills and attributes (KSA) required to carry out your
role as H R Adviser.
I am working as an HR advisor at Hightown Housing Associates which requires me to handle
specific aspects of the Human Resource Management work in the organisation.
An HR advisor should have the working knowledge of the different human resource
management principles that Hightown Housing Associates needs to manage its employees.
Hightown Housing Associates have approximately 800 employees and HR advisor has to
advise the senior management about the roles and responsibilities of these employees.
As an HR advisor, I have the knowledge of implementing the performance management
system so that the performance of the employees could be monitored properly and
performance review could be conducted in an effective manner (Altman and Iles, 2017).
Employee relations always make an impact on the performance of the organisation. As an HR
advisor at Hightown Housing Associates, it was my responsibility to make sure that
employees have good relations with the management. All the conflicts are resolved in an
effective and efficient manner. I ensured that the trade union representatives are kept in loop
while making the important decisions at Hightown Housing Associates.
HR advisor has to make sure that HR policies are developed and implemented properly in the
organisation (Bonn, 2016). I have made sure that all the government legislations regarding
the employment are included in the HR policies. Updates in the Employment Act and
Equality Act were included in the HRM policies of the company.
I have focused on the restructuring of the organisation as new branches of the business were
opened to address the needs of the business expansion strategy of Hightown Housing
Associates.
I have always conducted regular meetings with the senior management and line managers at
Hightown Housing Associates to make sure that they have the adequate resources to fulfil the
requirements in their departments. Recruitment and selection was carried out as per the
requests received from the managers. Induction and training programs are also organised by
the HRM department at Hightown Housing Associates
4

b. A detailed personal skills audit completed for yourself.
Personal audit of the skills is essential for an individual so that he could assess his strengths
and weaknesses. A good personal skill audit involves all the current skills and all the future
skills that the individual needs for his personal and professional development. My personal
skills audit is provided below:
Skills Current
Level
Rating – 1 to 5
5 – Highest
0 – Lowest
Required
Level
Rating – 1 to 5
5 – Highest
0 – Lowest
Description
Communication
Skills
4 5 I have good communication skills.
I have always been able to reach
out to my subordinates and also to
communicate with the top
management of Hightown
Housing Associates
However, I could still improve my
communication skills for further
growth in my career.
Negotiation Skills 4 5 Effective employee relations and
employee management require
good negotiation skills. I have
successfully negotiated with the
employee representatives at
Hightown Housing Associates
Management /
HR Skills
3 5 Currently I am working as an HR
advisor. In order to get promoted
to Senior Management or HR
Director position at Hightown
Housing Associates, I need to
work on my managerial skills.
Problem Solving
Ability
3 5 I sometimes face issues in
resolving a problem on urgent
basis. I need to develop a habit of
making rational decisions in the
least possible time.
Effective Time
Management
3 5 Whenever there is heavy
workload, I find it difficult to
manage my tasks which further
complicate things.
Leadership Skills 4 5 I have been leading a team of 3
HR executives currently and I
5

have always successfully
managed my team. However, I
could still improve my leadership
skills.
c. A professional development plan with a reflective statement of your
development needs
Skill Current
Level
Required
Level
Activities / Resources Duration /
Time
Criterion
Management
/ HR Skills
3 5 There are many
professional management
courses available online
that I could use for
improving my managerial
skills.
I also need to study about
the updates in the
employment related
legislations to make sure
that I am able to update the
HRM policies of the
company (Clifford and
Sohal, 2018).
12 Weeks Successfully
complete an
online
management
course and
receive the
certification with
excellent grades
Problem
Solving Skills
3 5 There are many problem
Solving Models such as
PRIDE Model and ROSA
– E Strategy for Problem
Solving
I need to carry out research
on these models and
implement them in my
4 weeks Able to analyse,
evaluate and
resolve a problem
without any
negative impact
on the business.
6

work
Time
Management
Skills
3 5 I need to find an
appropriate Time
Management Strategy and
learn that and implement
that in my daily routine.
Stephen Covey’s 4
Quadrant Model is an
excellent strategy and I
should learn it by reading
about it and experimenting
with it (Costa, 2016)
6 weeks I should be able
to address all the
responsibilities of
my job and also
attend the extra
responsibilities if
required without
affecting it my
personal life. I
should be able to
deliver on time.
I have always tried to improve myself in my personal and professional life. After the skill
audit, I have created above development plan to improve my skills. I am a good learner but I
need to make sure that I implement my development plan and follow the allocated time for
every skill. Since this development plan does not include any classes, I myself have to
monitor my performance. Hence, I need to breakdown my development plan into small stages
and set milestones for proper implementation of the development plan.
As an HR advisor, I have always focused on the importance of communication in the
organisation. Every employee at Hightown Housing Associates is communicated his goals
and responsibilities to make sure that he contributes in the growth of the organisation. Hence,
I would say that my communication skills have helped me a lot in contributing to the welfare
of the organisation.
I have also organised the recruitment and selection activities at Hightown Housing Associates
and hired many employees for higher level designation. I learned to develop effective job
description and job specification through studying the job requirements and consulting with
the head of the departments where vacancies were to be fulfilled.
If I successfully implement my personal and professional development plan, it would not
only result in my professional growth but it would also make me a better person and give me
a control over my life.
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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.
Organisations these days are becoming knowledge based entities that depend on their
employees to learn while they work at the organisation. Organisations need resources that are
capable of learning while they perform the duties assigned to them. According to Kolb,
learning of an individual depends on the transfer of knowledge from one resource to another
or in the form of sharing knowledge by a common source for all the individuals in an
organisation. Individual learning is stimulated by the need of learning (Guglielmino and
Guglielmino, 2017). This needs is created in 2 different manner – First, the organisation
conducts the performance review of the employee and asks them to improve some specific
skills or second , individual himself conducts his skill audit, rates his skills, identify the
desired level of skill and then implement a personal development plan. In both case, the
learning of an individual is defined by the learning style of the individual.
Kolb presented a learning life cycle model where he provided 4 steps for the individual
learning which are described below:
1. Concrete Experience
This is the learning phase in which an individual goes through a different learning
experience wither by learning something new or experiencing something again which
he is done previously (Costa, 2016).
2. Reflective Observation
This is the second phase of learning where the individual reviews his experience in a
reflecting manner and analyses the experience. This is the step where individual
identifies the gaps between his understanding of a concept and the experience he had
with the concept.
3. Abstract Conceptualisation
The reflection process in the previous step allows the individual to learn from the
experience. He is able to actualise the real world implication of implementing the
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concepts (Lerner, 2014). Hence, a final view on the understanding is created by the
individual in this step
4. Active Experimentation
Now, the learner understands the actual outcomes from his previous learning,
experiments and reflection. This enables him to actually implement the concept into
other situations and become an expert in the concept which he sets out to learn.
Organisational learning is directly related to the individual learning. When an individual in an
organisation learns a new skill, he also adds a new skill to the organisation. This new skill
could either be a result of the self-managed learning implemented by the individual or the
learning initiated and actualised by the organisation through a training program. It is the
responsibility of the managers in an organisation to promote learning. They need to create a
learning environment in the organisation. There are different modes of organisational
learning. Feedback from the managers could stimulate learning in the individuals and they
could also support the individuals in learning new skills (Altman and Iles, 2017). Many
organisations these days organise seminars and conferences to promote learning. Previously
manager relied on negative feedback to force individuals to learn which resulted in
demotivation of the employees and affected the organisational learning. These days’
managers have adopted positive feedback which also enhances the self-esteem in individuals.
In this manner, an environment of continuous professional development could be created at
Hightown Housing Associates which is essential for the organisation to achieve its goals.
9

Section 2
a. The key elements that make up the HPW systems, and how these systems work
on the ground
A High Performance Working System (HPWS) enables an organisation to bring operational
efficiency in the organisation through the use of High Commitment Model and High
Performance Model. In order to develop a High Performance Working System, an
organisation needs to develop the supporting culture in the organisation. An organisation
needs to focus on acquiring the skills and talent that would help it in achieving the
competitive advantage in the market.
A high performance working system relies on the people working in an organisation as they
are the source of power to the organisation in the form of skill development. In a High
Performance Working System, the management of the organisation defines the success
criterion that would define the performance of the individual, develop a plan to implement
measures requires to enhance performance and also implements a performance monitoring
system (Becker et al, 2015).
In a HPWS, the individuals working in an organisation understands about the expectations of
the organisation from them and they also relate themselves with organisational goals. These
employees also form an important part of the decision making process so that they are aware
of the organisational strategy and their role in that strategy.
Competency models are very important in a High Performance Working System as
organisations need to make sure that they have sufficient skills. Hence, organisation needs to
take appropriate selection and promotion decisions. Along with this, there has to be a proper
strategy to fulfil the demand of latest skills and technologies to meet the demands of the
organisation (Boxall and Macky, 2014). Organisations need to develop a framework that
would support the learning in the organisation to meet these criterions. Further, effective
compensation policy has to be implemented in the organisation so that it is able to retain the
individual who are the key behind the 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
Organisations need to adopt High Commitment Model for the successful achievement of the
organisational goals. The High Commitment Model focuses on generating a desire to
improve in the employee of the organisation. Organisational performance could only be
improved if the individual performances in the organisation are improved. Hence,
organisations need to have another mechanism known as High Performance Model that
would ensure that the employees of the organisation are performing. This model focuses on
the implementation of a technology based performance management system that would track
the work of the employees and generate timely alerts to the manager if employees fail to
achieve the set targets (Gittell, Seidner and Wimbush, 2015). However, this model does not
suggest giving total control to the mangers over employee. A certain degree of empowerment
is necessary to implement a High Performance Working System but the extent of
empowerment has to be decided by the organisation at the initial stage of implementing the
HPWS.
Three HPWS practices that organisations could use to enhance the organisational
performance are:
1. High level of Employee Involvement
Employee involvement is the key to improve the performance of an organisation.
Whether it is the decision making process, development of the training program or
performance management, organisations need to involve its employees in the process.
Organisations need to share the information related to the company policies with the
employees and focus on the development of the self-directed teams.
2. Human Resource Best Practices
Organisations need to standardise the human resource practices such as recruitment
and selection process, performance appraisal process, project designs and mentoring
of the new employees (Harley, 2016). A comprehensive approach is essential for the
improvement in organisational performance.
3. Reward and Commitment Practices
Motivated employees are crucial to improve the performance of an organisation. Job
rotation, cross training of the employee, financial rewards, flexible working practices
are crucial to improve the performance of organisations.
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c. To what extent/how will HPW practices enable better skill utilisation in
Hightown Housing
Hightown Housing Associates needs to make sure that it is able to utilise the skills of its
employees through implementing a High Performance Working System. If Hightown
Housing Associates implements a well-designed job infrastructure it would be able to equip
its employees with the skills that they must have to fulfil their job responsibilities. Hightown
Housing Associates has to make sure that its employees have the tools that they require to
complete their job and they also have the motivation to efficiently use these tools (Kling,
2018).
Hightown Housing Associates also needs to invest in the training and development of its
employees. The working environment in the organisation should support the learning process
of the individuals. Hightown Housing Associates needs to understand the individual learning
style of the employees and then develop the training programs accordingly.
Information sharing is another practice which would enable Hightown Housing Associates to
utilise the skills of the employees. When organisation takes on a new project, it has to make
sure that the employees of the company responsible for the development of that project are
aware of the project requirements. This will enable Hightown Housing Associates to
understand the alternatives that are available to the organisation it the organisation would be
able to make better decisions which would result in proper skill utilisation of the employees.
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.
An example that Hightown Housing Associates could use is the implementation of
performance management system by United Welsh Housing Association. United Welsh
Housing Association focuses majorly on better employee relations using effective
communication with the employees. It relied on the performance of the individuals to make
sure that it is providing excellent customer service. Effective communication resulted in the
customer service staff efficiently and clearly resolving the queries of the customers. Another
decision taken by United Welsh Housing Association was to implement self-directing teams
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