Marks & Spencer Case Study: HR Development Portfolio

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Developing Individuals, Teams and Organizations
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Table of Contents
Development Portfolio...................................................................................................................2
Introduction....................................................................................................................................2
P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviors that are required by
HR professionals...........................................................................................................................3
P2 Analyze a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and
behaviors and develop a professional development plan for a given job role...............................5
M1 Provide a detailed professional skills audit that demonstrates evidence of personal reflection
and evaluation...............................................................................................................................8
Individual Report............................................................................................................................9
Introduction to Marks and Spencer................................................................................................9
P3 Analyze the differences between organizational and individual learning, training and
development................................................................................................................................10
P4 Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable
business performance.................................................................................................................14
M2 Apply learning cycle theories to analyze the importance of implementing continuous
professional development............................................................................................................15
P5 Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organizational situation.................................................17
M3 Analyze the benefits of applying HPW with justifications to a specific organizational situation.
.....................................................................................................................................................18
P6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management (e.g. collaborative working), and
demonstrate with specific examples how they can support high-performance culture and
commitment.................................................................................................................................20
M4 Critically evaluate the different approaches and make judgments on how effective they can
be to support high-performance culture and commitment...........................................................21
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................22
Reference List..............................................................................................................................23
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Development Portfolio
Introduction
Human Resource management is the process to drive the organizational culture and values
towards the achievement of the shared organizational goal. While referring to crisis situations
for the company, it is necessary for an HR professional to develop the individuals and teams
while developing cohesion and responsibility within. Therefore, it is also essential for the HR to
understand the personal skills and gaps that are essential to be addressed in order to
understand the shortcomings within the organizational values.
The discussion focuses on the company crisis scenario of Marks and Spencer, and determines
the knowledge about the skills and behavior of the employees assessed by the HR department.
Factors that are responsible for prolific learning and development while attaining a healthy
business performance are also evaluated. Moreover, the effect of high performance working on
engagement of employees while gaining competitive advantage is also discussed. It also
features various ways of performance management and working in collaboration which
accounts for the improvement in commitment of the employees.
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P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviors that are
required by HR professionals.
Effective HR management accounts for the efficient socio-cultural development of an
organization. As stated by Tattum and Tattum, (2017), it is necessary to understand the
importance of maintaining organizational culture and values in order to attain the organizational
goal based on the resources that the management gets. While doing this, I being the HR of
Marks and Spencer need to focus on personal improvement of skills and knowledge with utmost
priority in order to reflect my understanding on the future productivity of the company.
Being an HR, I need to develop certain behavioral traits to support the growth of my
organization. Firstly, I need to focus on developing higher curiosity and a questioning attitude,
which will in turn allow me to learn various ways of working in collaboration or individually for me
and my colleagues.
I need to be a decisive thinker and provide structured insights and views while assessing the
performance of my organization. Moreover, I also need to learn about the ways by which I can
propose practical strategies depending on the structured views.
I need to be an influencer to the people within as well as outside my organization. Being a
representative of my company, this will allow me to generate successful partnerships,
commitments from the employees, and their support while attaining the organizational goal.
Being an HR of Marks and Spencer, I need to plan the projects rationally and monitor the
performance with precision. This is essential for me as I must be accountable for the delivery of
the project on time, thus increasing my responsibility towards the organization and earning
respect from my colleagues.
I should be effective while working in collaboration with my colleagues, customers and
shareholders of the company. I also need to have the courage to challenge certain views that
are entrenched and rise up during company meetings in order to filter out the best fit ideas and
strategies for the betterment of my organization.
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Figure 1: Skills and attributes of an HR professional
(Source: Created by Author)
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P2 Analyze a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills
and behaviors and develop a professional development plan for a given job role.
SWOT analysis
While assessing the internal and external factors of my behaviour that I need to identify being
an HR of Marks and Spencer, I value the importance of understanding my strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Strengths
 Assertiveness towards the task in hand
 High level of determination towards
work
 Empathetic nature to help me in
collaboration
Weaknesses
 Lack of decision making capabilities
 Need to improve communication skills
 Not being able to deny tightens my
schedule
Opportunities
 Working for well renowned company
 Working with global customer base
 Skilled and talented team
 Developing knowledge about various
cultures
Threats
 Changing technological aspects in
rapid manner
 Changing trends in industry shortens
my options for making strategies
Table 1: Personal SWOT analysis
(Source: Created by Author)
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Personal Development Plan
While assessing the factors that affect my behaviour and skills being an HR professional for
Marks and Spencer, I have successfully determined my skills and gaps. However, it is essential
to use my merits to overcome my shortcomings while creating a plan for my personal
development.
Activity Duration What to do Why necessary
Communication
classes
1 month Attend classes
regularly after office
hours to improve my
communication skills.
This will make me
more confident while
addressing to the
employees, clients or
shareholders and will
allow me to express
my views with clarity.
Taking counselling
sessions
2 months Appoint a personal
counsellor who can
improve my decision
making capabilities by
suggesting me control
on my over thinking.
This will allow me to
stop over thinking
about the impacts of
my decisions and will
make me more
focused to take
rational decisions.
Meeting the IT team 2months Meeting the IT team
of the company
regularly to
understand the
change in the
technologies that can
make my decisions
prolific.
Understanding the
change in
technologies will help
me implement
strategies that go well
with the changing
market scenario and
helps motivate the
employees in a
rational manner.
Meeting the marketing
team
2 months Meeting the marketing
team regularly will
allow me to
This will allow me to
get a different
viewpoint on the
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understand the
customer demands in
the current market.
market, and recruit
staffs accordingly who
can be more aligned
to the goal of the
sales team as well as
the organization.
Attending more
company meetings
3 months Attending more
meetings organized
by the company to
align myself with the
changing goals and
requirements of the
organization.
This will allow me to
better understand
what the organization
aims at in recent as
well as distant future,
and ways to use my
skills to fit in the
process of growth and
expansion.
Self-assessment 1 month Self evaluation will
allow me to identify
my personal
limitations about what
I can or can’t do.
This will teach me
when to say ‘no’ to a
given proposition and
will provide me
immense self-
confidence.
Table 2: Personal Development Plan
(Source: Created by Author)
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M1 Provide a detailed professional skills audit that demonstrates evidence of personal
reflection and evaluation.
Being an HR of the prestigious retail company Marks and Spencer, it is essential to understand
the skills that I must possess, factors affecting my behavior, and the plan to develop myself in
order to be more effective for the company. My role as an HR is to act as the bridge between
the employees and the management of the company, and to provide ample motivation to the
work force and include members who I feel best fit for the achievement of the organizational
goal. Skills that I need to develop with efficiency are those of a sound decision maker, an
influencer to my work force, and being courageous while taking those decisions. This will allow
me to take more rational decisions after my counselor shows me the ways by which I can
control my over thinking and skip to time management. My strong decision making attribute will
in turn encourage and motivate my colleagues at the work place, as they will feel more confident
about my decisions and follow them without any hesitation. Strong communication skills which I
am about to develop after taking communication classes will also allow me to convey my
understandings and viewpoints in details to my colleagues while addressing my decisions.
My empathetic nature will help me work in collaboration with the partners of the company, and
with my skilled colleagues, while maintaining satisfactory levels of communication among us.
Furthermore, attending higher number of company meetings will help me address to my curious
nature and allow me to ask more questions in pursuit of understanding what the company aims
in short run as well as long run in a detailed manner.
Meeting the IT and marketing teams with assertiveness to learn will help me gather knowledge
about the volatility of the market as well as changing technological aspects. This in turn will
allow me to plan and monitor the ongoing projects with precision and provide me the insight
about proper resource allocation and time management. Thus, I will feel more accountable for
the delivery and performance of the employees while increasing the expectations and respect of
my organization towards me.
My existing opportunities will account for overcoming my threats with precision while developing
a personal stronghold over my weaknesses. This will be addressed with the development of my
interpersonal skills as an HR of Marks and Spencer, while undergoing development programs
and plans based on the gaps in my behavior assessed by myself.
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Individual Report
Introduction to Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer is one of the leading retail brands in UK, which offers its own brand of
edible and non-edible products to its own retail outlets as well as the international market
(Marksandspencer.com, 2019). Led by Chairman Archie Norman, it offers various lines of
products like clothing, financial solutions, and energy solutions. The company operates with a
vision of providing sustainability by avoiding wastage of food and use of plastic products, and
also induces the same within their customers. The company has also invested heavily in the
property and construction sector, which has acted as a prominent source of revenue for the
company since 2010, apart from the dominant retail business (Marksandspencer.com, 2019).
The company is currently listed in London Stock Exchange, with its share price currently rising
to GBP272, which is well above its competitors like J Sainsbury’s PLC (GBP227). Therefore, it
promises its investors healthy returns due to the company adopting productive and profitable
strategies while dominating the retail as well as other sectors (Londonstockexchange.com,
2019).
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P3 Analyze the differences between organizational and individual learning, training and
development.
Learning is the process of acquiring new knowledge, and can be attained by the means of
training and development. As stated by Cottrell, (2015), new knowledge can be acquired only
when proper direction and guidance are available. The process of learning can be classified
both as individualistic as well as organizational.
As stated by Namada, (2018), individual learning refers to the process of understanding the
gaps in existing knowledge of an individual, and developing methods in order to eliminate those
shortcomings. The process of individual learning is also quite essential for organizational
learning, as organizations are formed of individuals, and can learn independently from any
individual. Individual learning is mainly driven by the Piaget’s cognitive model. The model
focuses on five cyclical stages of assimilation, equilibration, new situation, disequilibrium, and
accommodation (Bowen, 2018). During the assimilation stage, the individuals use their existing
perspective and knowledge to deal with new circumstances. The equilibrium stage follows, in
which the existing knowledge provides a rational explanation and logic to the new problem
(Dixon, 2017). However, with progression and discovering new underlying problems within the
situation, the stage of disequilibrium occurs. During this stage, the existing knowledge and
logics of the individual do not provide any feasible solution to the situation in hand (Chen and
Chang, 2016). The last stage involves accommodation, when the individual realizes that the
knowledge possessed is not fit for providing solution to the problem, and therefore, creating the
need of assimilating new knowledge (Yilmaz et al., 2017).
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Figure 2: Piaget’s cognitive model for individual learning.
(Source: Created by Author)
Individual learning in Marks and Spencer is promoted by watching other employees at work,
working under an experienced personality, and interacting with customers (Retnowati et al.,
2017). Therefore, interaction is quite valuable for individual learning, and is achieved through
involvement within various organizational activities. Furthermore, individual learning is also
dependent on the factors like the social background of the employee, their relation with other
colleagues and the status they receive at the workplace. Thus, individual learning is driven by
the intentions, needs and expectations of an individual employee within Marks and Spencer.
The capability of an individual is also assumed to be a decisive factor in the process of
individual learning for the employees at Marks and Spencer. As stated by Sluckin, (2017), it is
the sustained ability of an individual to perform while showcasing the presence of knowledge
and skills required for completing the task while emphasizing on personal growth. Capability
therefore requires immense attention of an individual to train themselves while undergoing the
process of learning and development.
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