Whirlpool: A Report on Developing Individuals, Teams and Organizations

This report examines the role of Human Resources in developing individuals, teams, and organizations, using Whirlpool as a case study. It covers essential HR professional knowledge, skills, and behaviors, including communication, customer relations, and management expertise. The report includes a personal skills audit, identifying strengths such as communication and time management, and weaknesses like decision-making. It also explores the importance of continuous learning, performance management approaches, and high-performance working in contributing to employee engagement. The report provides a skill audit plan for HR professionals to enhance their capabilities and contribute to organizational success. Overall, the report emphasizes the importance of aligning individual and team development with organizational goals for sustainable growth and effective operations.

DEVELOPING
INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS AND
ORGANISATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Professionals, knowledge, skills and behaviours that required under HR Professionals..1
P2 Completed personal skills and audit to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviours....3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Differentiate between organisational & individual learning ,training and development . 6
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development ..........................................8
LO3..................................................................................................................................................9
P5 High performance working contributes to employee engagement ...................................9
LO4................................................................................................................................................11
P6 Approaches to performance management.......................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
The individual and team plays down a vital role in organisation. It is necessary for an
organisation that both team and individual are working in a right platform only then they are able
to give positive impact on company and by that way only organisational purpose will be achieve.
The company can carry its operations on a right track when they are having right individual and
they are working in a correct direction. For sustainable growth and development it is necessary
for the company having positive value and commitments and company having capability to fulfil
those promises and commitments that he already made in the past. The effective communication
is also required for conducting smooth running of operations(Armstrong, 2016). In, company the
proper communication channel should have been followed between individuals so that it directly
helps in achieving organisational growth and development. The present report, is based on
Whirlpool which is a multinational manufacturing and marketing of electronics items and
appliances and having headquarter is situated in United States. It has annual turnover about $21
billions along with 100000 employees. This report also describe about the individuals and team
and how there growth and development will be possible and it also describes about the HR
manager role and responsibilities.
LO1
P1 Professionals, knowledge, skills and behaviours that required under HR Professionals
1. Knowledge perspective of human resources :-
 Effective knowledge of communicating : The human resources of Whirlpool must have
great communication skills. Since organisation is multinational and operates in the
regions of cultural variations. It is essential for the organisation to ensure that its
employees can easily and effectively coordinate its customers and language barriers must
not affect it.
 Requirements of target audience – Without retaining the customers it will be almost
impossible for the organisation to sustain its position in competitive market. Thus, human
resources must have abilities to establish good and long term relations with the customers
by providing them high quality services.
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 Management - Human resources must have expertise knowledge of the business goals
and principles of Whirlpool. This knowledge is essential as it helps them to plan and act
accordingly.
 Personnel and human resources – Human resource plays a key role in making Whirlpool
successful. Thus, human resource department must have sufficient knowledge about the
requirements of organisation so that only suitable and skilled candidates are selected in
recruitment process. They must have knowledge regarding the skills of employees and
training and development sessions so that other employees can be groomed as per the
demand of Whirlpool's objectives.
2. Skills required by human resource professionals
 Coordination skills : These professionals must be skilled enough to coordinate the various
business processes of Whirlpool. The lack of coordination may not bring desired results
and organisation may suffer failures.
 Communication skills: Human resource experts must be highly skilled in communication.
These skills are the fundamental building blocks in executing business operations.
Inefficiency in communication skills may cause failure to Whirlpool in achieving desired
goals. These professionals must be good in speaking as well as listening.
 Decision making and time management skills: These skills will help organisation to
utilise the opportunities without possibilities of negligence to them. HR experts must take
decisions by minimising the risks associated with them and by considering its future
impact on organisation.
 Continuous learning: In order to sustain the quality of performance the HR must include
regular learning process in their practices. It will keep them upgrade with the
advancements and requirements of organisation.
 Monitoring and evaluation skills: For accomplishing the tasks with higher accuracy and
efficiency Whirlpool must monitor the business activities. Thus, human resource
professionals must have skills to monitor the operations and to evaluate the performance
of self as well as of others.
3. Behavioural aspects of HR professionals
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 Self control and independent: Human resources must posses self control so that they can
manage their tasks without difficulties. They must independently perform their job roles
without getting influence by challenges.
 Innovation and stress management – In the absence of innovations the organisation
cannot lead to success. Thus, human resources must be innovative and should have the
capability to manage the stress and pressure under critical situations or risks handling.
 Leadership – These professionals must have leading skills so that they can motivate and
lead the other team members and they can achieve targets of organisation. They must
maintain the healthy competition in Whirlpool but must not neglect the team spirit.
 Technological advancements: The HR experts must be advanced in technical knowledge.
Without technical up-gradation Whirlpool will not survive against its strong competitors.
So its human resources must always focus on improving their technical skills. It will also
make their work completion easy and speedy.
P2 Completed personal skills and audit to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviours
To identify and to check the knowledge, skills and attitude of professionals it is necessary to
have a SWOT analysis because it is a process to check and to analyse all such things. This
process helps me a lot to identify down my strength and weaknesses and also telling that how I
can improve all such factors(Ohanga-Too, 2014).
STRENGTHS
 This development process helps me lot to enhance my knowledge and skills.
 It also develops my communication skills and made it effective.
 It also grooms my personality and develop it.
 It also helps me under time management process through which I complete my work on
time before deadline and develop my skills.
 Monitoring and Evaluation skills.
WEAKNESSES
 Lack of decision making
 More time taking in solving down problems and sometimes the problems will not be
solve due to ineffectiveness so it is a big weakness .
 It also increasing the chances of risk under management.
 IT structures is ineffective and mismanaged.
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OPPORTUNITIES
 Helps down in improvement under globalisation process.
 Various conferences and seminars been organised to develop the skills under individuals.
THREATS
 Raising in competition
 Changing under demographic conditions.
The SWOT analysis process helps me a lot in identifying my strengths and weaknesses and also
telling what are the factors that are to be adopt so that it develop my personality and knowledge
and also identifying the opportunities in me so that I can develop my professional career(Ford,
2014). It also describes about the weakness and certain areas that requires improvement so for
build those and to overcome our of it and I am still working on that. The certain things develop
my personality and also helps me in determine the certain purposes and goals so that I can
enhance my skills and working for a long term and also provide me a great experience and that
will be very helpful in my future.
Personal skill audit
Skills I have these I have but not
accurate
I need to work upon
these
communication skills 
time management 
decision making 
time taking in solving
down problems

Management skills 
Skill audit plan
As a HR professional it is important for me to communicate with the other employees of
the organisation so that I can deliver my best services to the organisation. For my continuous
professional development it is necessary for me to have regular skill audit. The skill audit will
help to analyse and improve my strengths and weaknesses identified in SWOT analysis. For
example I can take feedback from other senior and experienced HR professionals regarding my
practices. It will help me to take better decisions. Similarly, while implementing various schemes
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and plans for the organisation I can ask for the other team members to give their ratings and
suggestions regarding plan. The suggestions and ratings will guide me to add more
improvements in my decisions.
By taking out such points I have prepared a plan accordingly so that it can help me in build my
career and develop it in the field related to personal and professional development.
Personal skills Measured
efficiency on
scale of 1-5; 1-
weak, 2- strong
Current
evaluation
Criteria to achieve Duration
Management skills 4 I am good at
management
skills. I find it
easy to find
available
resources so that
they can be
effectively used.
However, during time
when I do not find
resources I get panic
and do not understand
how to ensure their
availability. I want to
develop skill so that in
critical situations also
I can manage the
required resources.
The suggestions and
rating programs will
give me a practical
exposure to the actual
requirements of the
organisation. Thus, I
will develop
management skills
which are the best
suitable for the
organisation with
10 DAYS
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available resources.
Decision making
skills
2 In ordinary
situations it is
easy for me to
take decision but
for decisions
which involves
risk it becomes
difficult to choose
the correct
decision.
I must have ability
that even in the most
critical situations I
can analyse the pros
and cons of my
decision and I can
make decisions in
favour of
organisation. Though
skill audit will not
affect the decision
making at the initial
level but it will help
to analyse its impact
after implementation.
It will help
organisation to
evaluate the
effectiveness of the
decisions
1.5 months
Problem solving
skills
3 This is one of the
most difficult
skill. When I have
clear analysis of
problem aspects
then, I can
explore its
solutions via team
The major cause for
experiencing
difficulty in problem
solving is lack of
understanding the
cause of problem. I
must develop
analysing skills to
15 days
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work but it
becomes tough to
solve the
problems when
they generate
randomly.
evaluate various
aspects of the
problem. The skill
audit will provide
guidelines to solve the
issues faced by me as
a human resource
professional. It will
help me to develop
emotional
connectivity also
which can be
beneficial for
organisation as I will
be capable to analyse
the organisational
needs.
With the help of this plan I am working on my weaknesses and improve it and will shortly
overcome out of it. Moreover, it also helps me in identifying my strengths and capability and
empowering me so that I can perform it accordingly to achieving the sustainability, growth and
long term goals(Woodcock, 2017). For, achieve down certain things I have proper plan so have
to work accordingly so that it tend to helpful to reduce my weaknesses and risk factors that made
involve.
Personal reflection: As per my self evaluation I have some weaknesses which can drag me
behind from achieving my organisational goals. For instance when I have to perform multiple
tasks I find it difficult to manage the resources for each of the task. The lack of effective time
management also contributes to the same. This weakness results in time delay and declined
efficiency. However, I have observed that I have great analysing skills. I can identify the future
opportunities by observing marketing trends and other competitive organisations of Whirlpool. If
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I will keep myself update with advanced technologies and innovative strategies then I can
enhance my efficiency and personal skills. I should also establish coordination and good
behaviour with my other colleagues. It will make business environment more comfortable for me
and I will be able to achieve my tasks with more concentration.
LO2
P3 Differentiate between organisational & individual learning ,training and development
The learning process can only be develop with the help of experience. If ,individual is having the
abilities of learning through that process they can improve their knowledge and also gaining their
experiences. The organisational learning and growth will be depend upon the individual learning
process(Glaister, 2014). If individual is having the capability and art of learning the things then
by using such process they can perform their work under the organisation, so that it directly
helps down the company in learning and then only the organisational development will be
possible. This is big difference between both because the organisational learning is emphasising
towards the approaches regarding the organisational development and Individual learning
emphasises and having a vision towards the personnel development.
Organisational process is a process that based on two looping process of learning namely single
and double loop learning approaches. In ,single looping approach the individual consider down
the goals and objectives and will learn the things and performing it accordingly to achieve it.
Under, double looping process this occurs only when there are changes under the rules,
regulation, policies, procedure, strategies and framework and individual will learn accordingly
by considering out certain factors and situation which arise and made applicable on company.
Moreover, the certain differences also involving under both the approaches is that the Individual
learning and emphasising towards the growth and development of individuals while the
organisational learning and focusing towards the growth of the firm and the certain things only
been possible when individual having the abilities of learning and when certain things are present
under individuals then only he prepares down strategies, procedures, plans and implement it
during work perform so for this proper training should be there to the employees and staff so
they can develop their own skills and performing it while conducting work so that work can be
going on right track(Seuring, 2013).
Organisation Individuals
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Learning The organisational learning
and growth will be depend
upon the individual learning
process(Glaister, 2014)
Individual learning is based as
per their skills and experiences
and which helps them in the
process of learning.
Training The training which provides to
individual helps them in their
working and it also helps down
in achieving organisational
growth and development
The organisation conducts
various training programs
which helps down individuals
in enhancing their skills and
also helps them In learning
their job.
Developments Through training process it
helps down individual I
enhancing skill and learning
their job and that impact
organisation in positive
manner because the
organisation growth is also
been achieving through this.
The individual development is
also been possible through
various training programs
which launched by
organisation, and it also helps
down individual in enhancing
their personality and trait and
also development been also be
done.
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development
There is great need for continuous learning and professional development because both of
them plays down an essential role in current scenario. This approach helps down a person in such
a way that person will consider down the changing factors and adapt it and perform their
working in their professional life. The continuous learning process is such under which a
individual is learning throughout their carrier(Goetsch and Davis, 2014). The continuous
learning process and development process not only helpful for the individual in providing
benefits to them but it is also beneficial for the company perspective and public.Kolb's learning
theory is one of the effective tool which can be used by Whirlpool for ensuring continuous
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learning and professional development. This learning theory will help organisation to sustain its
competitive success with maximum profit gain. This theory consist of following stages:
Figure 1: Kolb's theory learners
Experience: As per the first stage of Kolb's theory learners first encounter the new experiences.
For instance Whirlpool can gain experiences from its failures, competitors or changing
marketing trends.
Reflection: After gaining the experiences the learner reflects them into practice. The reflective
analysis is also accompanied by the feedbacks from the other stakeholders of the organisation or
learner.
Conceptualisation: Reflection gives learner an opportunity to conceptualise the abstract idea
and to bring innovation. When Whirlpool will self analyse its growing and innovative
requirements through reflection then it will search new ways and strategies to frame concept for
these proposals.
Experimentation: In the final stage of Kolb's theory conceptualised abstracts are transformed
into actions. For example when Whirlpool has framed concepts from the previous stage then
organisation can implement those learnings for achieving its goals.
Thus, these stages of Kolb's learning theory can stimulate the continuous and professional
development within business environment of Whirlpool.
The learning and professional development plays down a great role and it also gives
provide benefit and growth by generating employment opportunities. The various programs and
conferences are conducted for that so it is necessary for the staff and employees to take down
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