Whirlpool: Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organisations

This report examines the strategies Whirlpool Corporation employs to foster the development of individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole. It explores the significance of professional knowledge, skills, and behavior in the context of High-Performance Working (HPW). The report delves into personal skills audits, personal development plans, and the distinction between individual and organizational learning. Furthermore, it addresses continuous learning, professional development initiatives, and the contribution of HPW to enhance employee engagement and gain a competitive advantage. Finally, the report considers various performance management approaches used by Whirlpool to measure and improve employee performance. The report uses concepts such as Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA) and SWOT analysis to illustrate the concepts.

Developing Individuals,
Teams and Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
P2. ..........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
P3 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P4 ...........................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
P5. ........................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
P6..........................................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
The employees needs to develop new knowledge and skills while working because it
supports them to innovate and invent new things to accelerate growth of their career. Whirlpool
Corporation is a well known American multinational company of home appliances. It was
established around 1911 in Michigan, United States. As given in the scenario, Whirlpool is a
company which is considering HPW to raise the efficiency of each employee because it reflects
in team work and organisation performance. Thus, the report covers professional knowledge and
skills, personal skills audit, personal development plan, difference between individual and
organization learning. It also includes continuous learning and professional development.
Further, it also comprises of HPW contribution to enhance employee engagement and
competitive advantage along with performance management approaches (Bolman and Deal,
2017).
TASK 1
P1
A human resource professional should have professional knowledge, skills and behaviour
that can support to manage and maintain the organizational activities. In order to measure the
performance of HR manager Whirlpool adopted high performance working (HPW) which
evaluates the capabilities and performance regarding their knowledge skills and behaviour. The
human resource manager also needs to examine their knowledge, skill and behaviour with this
program. It will encourage them to measure their abilities and increase their strength which
assists them to improve their efficiencies (Chaskalson, 2011).
Knowledge : It can be acquired from various sources such as the acquaintances with
facts, working principles and investigation about versatile topics or subjects. Knowledge cannot
be defined in only a single word nor it can be gained only through an idiosyncratic medium.
Thus, the HR of Whirlpool needs to be open minded to observe the environment and connect
with the people. As knowledge is not limited, they can gain it from reading and practices in the
real world as well. Such as if manager of respected company have knowledge of current trends
they able to develop strategies accordingly and more effectively.
Contract Law: In an organisation it is very essential for mangers to maintain law of
contract in order to perform their business operation and day to day activities. Herein, managers
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need to know about rules and regulation which should be followed by them as to came across to
the employees and customers they will increase their knowledge.
Training and development techniques: The managers of Whirlpools need to develop
certain innovating training and development techniques that are beneficial in nature for both
employees and organisation. Such as workshops, session and seminars to their new and existing
employees in order to enhance their knowledge and skills for specific job desgination.
Skills – This refers to the capabilities of a person which assists them to accomplish their
task and meet the objective. These skills supports to carry out the activities and operations in a
systematic and smooth way (Conboy and et. al., 2011). Such as manager of respective company
have various skills like Talent acquisition and Technical Knowledge. Which help them in hiring
appropriate employees for vacant positions and they have appropriate knowledge of their field.
This will help them in making strategies accordingly and effectively.
Communication: In an organisation communication play's pivot role in performing task
and activities. Herein, managers of whirlpool's need to ensure that an effective communication
must flow from higher level of authority to employees and worker so that each and every task is
carried out in an appropriate manner.
Problem solving skills: A managers must have all skills and knowledge in order to solve
problem that arises within workplace. Herein, managers of Whirlpool's should have ability of
problem solving skills in order to solve problems and issues that are raised unexpectedly. Thus, it
is one of the important skills a person should have in performing a effective role within an
organisation.
Behaviour – It can be defined as the ethical behaviour of an individual to interact with
others. As Whirlpool is a vast organization then the human resource manager should be able to
maintain the corporate environment. Such as manager of respective company maintain effective
behaviour in their workplace which help them in motivating employees. Through which there is
enhancement of skills and productivity of employees.
Ethics: In order to perform a business activities in an appropriate manner a business man
need to follow ethics in operating function and activities. The managers of Whirlpool's need to
make sure the are performing their business task by maintaining ethical standard such as not
hampering ethics of people and society. The human resource manager should work to enhance
their knowledge, skills and behaviour. KSA or knowledge, skills and ability is an effective tool
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to measure the capacity of human resource manager. In Whirlpool, KSA can give an effective
result because it can use to scale the knowledge, skills and behaviour of the employees within
the organisation. For an illustration, the managers can measure their knowledge while working as
what they know previously and what kind of knowledge they gained while practising.
P2.
Personal Skills Audit : This is good way to analyse strength and weaknesses of every
individual who is working within Whirlpool. There are several skills needs to adopt by
employees during their practise. They can learn various things in a healthy environment that is
essential to keep them on track. It is necessary to analyse the activities and skills of the
employees which can give growth to their career (Dahlgaard, Pettersen and Dahlgaard, 2011).
But to attain growth it is required for them to keep learning and gather the knowledge and skills.
As given in the scenario, Whirlpool identified that their employees are not learning new things
and they just stopped at place where and that's why there is no innovation. After recognizing
these factors, it adopted a program HPW in which KSA and Personal skills audit are the crucial
tools. Every individual can measure their knowledge, skills and behaviour in an appropriate
manner. They can audit their knowledge, skills and behaviour in the following way :
Knowledge : The HR can personally investigate their knowledge as what they already
know before working and what they learned while working. As there are several roles are played
by the manager within Whirlpool such recruitment, selection, establishing policies and laws.
They are already aware about these kinds of procedure but there are several things which they
can adopt while working (Dayand et. al., 2014). For an instance, they can establishes new
policies for employees which are beneficial for them such as training and development. As they
can observe that there are some employees who needs training because they are unaware about
the techniques and machinery so it is required for them to organize training and development
sessions. In order to create plan for such meetings the HR needs to interact with the workers and
this will also increase their knowledge. As what kind of changes can be adopt by the organisation
to boost their efficiencies and effectiveness of the workers. Human resource manager will also
get knowledge about the organisation work and environment and this knowledge can be
technical and non – technical which will also enhances their career opportunities.
Skills – It can be gain while working through analysing the strength and weakness of an
individual. In order to gain and polish the existing skills manager needs to be aware about their
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skills and focused area. For an example, they should know that what skills they needs to achieve
such as presentation skills and communication skills. HR is working at Whirlpool so they should
concentrated on to improve their presentation skills which will augment their personality
according to their job role. They should interact with people without any language barriers so
that people can easily understand their point of view and share their opinions with them. The HR
should communicate with the employees in order to identify their issues and enhance employee
engagement in the organizational activities (Eime and et. al., 2013).
Personal skills audit-
Skills Rating by self Rating by others Difference
Talent acquisition 7 8 -1
Technical Knowledge 6 8 -2
Presentation Problem 7 3 5
Solving skills 6 4 2
SWOT analysis
Strength
 The manager has knowledge to hire the employees through following various sources.
 The employees are skilled in their field and have a complete knowledge about their work.
Weaknesses
 Employees are not gaining the new knowledge that can innovate various things.
 There is a lack of new skills in the employees which is affecting the the organizational
performance.
Opportunities
 By adopting high performance work the workers can enhance their abilities as they will
identify their weaknesses and they can work on it. So that they can improve their
efficiencies.
Threats
 The organisation can step behind if the employees does not amend their skills, knowledge
and behaviour. This is harmful for the company because the competitors are continuously
learning to enhance the performance.
4

Personal Development Plan : This refer to recognize the individual strength and
weakness that needed some amendments. It offers various opportunities to explore where HR
who is working at Whirlpool who needs to improve their skills to sustain for a long run. This
plan also encourage them to manage their activities and skills remove the barriers of their career
in an effective way. The personal development plan as follow :
S.
No
.
LEARNI
NG
OBJECT
IVE
PRESENT
PROFICIENCY
TARGET
PROFICIENC
Y
DEVELOPM
ENT
OPPORTUNI
TIES
CRITE
RIA
FOR
JUDGI
NG
SUCCE
SS
TIME
Time
Frame
EVI
DEN
CE
1 Presentation I
am facing
problem and
issues in
making
presentations
and presenting
it front of large
audiences. I
can improve
this skills by
observing
other and
understand
how they are
presenting in
large
audiences. For
this I will
The
employe
es should
understa
nd all the
aspects
displaye
d
through
the
presentat
ion.
2 – 4
Mont
hsSu
perior
5

attend
seminars and
conferences
and observe
how to present
presentation.
2 Problem solving
skills As I am
HR manager of
respective
company
sometime I get
stuck in solving
problems of my
employees.
For this I will
in meetings
and
conferences
and understand
how other
solve problems
and issues of
others. whole
group will
involved in
resolving the
problem or
issues.
The team
members
will
develop
a
positive
environ
ment and
it will
reflect in
reducing
issues
among
them.
5 – 7
Mont
hsEm
ploye
es
TASK 2
P3
In this, learning is the method which helps in observing and adopting various factors
from outside the world with the help of resources. Therefore, training and development which is
provided by an organisation to the existing employees which help in enhancing the effectiveness
of the task. It is required for an individual is to learn new things which assist in using these skills
for performing required work for an organisation. This will help in reaching with desired goals
and targets in effective manner. In addition to this, organisation learning is also essential factor
for an organisation which is helpful in gaining higher income and profitability. There are various
types of learning which are described as follows:
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Organisational learning - It can be refers as the set of all activities and functions by
which organisation members develop and create new knowledge, reconstruction the present
information which required to change as per the new learning style. This is because there are
various factors and methods that are needed to be change in order to increase the proficiency of
employees. When Whirlpool will execute and implement some new changes and alterations in
given time period where people are quite unfamiliar with them. They will be able to increasing in
organisation performance by learning new type of technological changes in better manner.
Organisational learning defines as the gap between work and innovative activities when
an employee performs some task in the respective company in given time period. They are faced
various problems and issues while conducting learning within an organisation. In order to deal
with such issues and problems they can easily remove all the hurdles and errors in order to reach
with set goals and targets in better manner. An employee can learn different things through
which they can easily enhancing experience within Whirlpool as they came across many
situations that are required to be amendants.
Individual learning - It is that method which is different from organisational learning
because when an individual required learning something new and fresh so they need to analyse
their views and reviews in better way. As became an employee of Whirlpool, they required to
work on their expertise. They need to put some efforts which help in enhancing their knowledge
and skills which can boost their performance in effective manner (Goetsch and Davis, 2014).
This will help in exist their knowledge and skill; they need to focus on reach with desired goals
and targets for gaining higher income and profitability to an organisation. When they try to
acquire growth of an organisation employees so they required exploring towards information and
knowledge in proper manner. along with this, individual learning is mainly focus on specific
person who is define as main source and method of team work because every individual
capability and ability are required and valuable for the teams. They are performing work in order
to attain the set objectives and goals of the firm.
Whirlpool is tried to adopt and acquire HPT High performance test where a person can
easily evaluate their skills and knowledge regarding specific topic. In this, they can make proper
improvement in their performance through learning new things in better manner which help them
in reaching with desired goals and targets (Herrmann and Herrmann, 2015). An organisation is
practising about new skills and knowledge for increasing in employment engagement in order to
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motivate them in participates in activities' and coordinates with different team members. Along
with this, it will assist in increasing their skills and knowledge so that they can help in make
improvement in self management in acquiring new learning. Such type of improvement can help
in increasing in employee's performance.
(Source : ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING PROCESSES, 2013)
Difference between organisation and individual learning
Organisation learning Individual learning
 By this organization and employees get
bounded to work together. Company
learning is concerned on experience of
staff whose are working at Whirlpool.
This is do because they come together
to solve the problems and issues. By
this whirlpool able to measure skills
and knowledge of employees. By this
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Illustration 1: ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING PROCESSES

respective company able to identify
employees performance during
conducting particular task.
Training and development – At whirlpool training help their members in enhancing
skills and knowledge which increase their capabilities and they able enhance their productivity at
their job role. By this able to focus to their growth and future performance (Hitt and et. al.,
2011).
P4
Continuous learning and professional development is also refers as CPD (Continuous
Professional Development) which can be used by every individual while working at Whirlpool.
They can track their skills, knowledge and experience that can be achieve in both forms whether
informal and formal. Continuous learning is a constant expansion of skills through learning and
increasing knowledge on various subjects. It is essential for everyone as life changes; the
necessities also changes overtime. The same happens with the professional development as well.
As being an employee at Whirlpool, the engineers are doing their best but they should be aware
about the new technologies which can support them to enhance their capabilities.
Their work will be done in an effective way and efficiently. They can innovate the things
which is beneficial for their career and organisation performance as well. An employee can
manage their learning with a documented record to maintain their professional skills. If the
employees are learning any activities which can be maintain, develop or increases the
knowledge, technical skills, problem solving skills through which they are getting performed are
comes under continuous professional development. The workers are getting improvements in
their efficiencies and working patterns by acquiring these continuous changes (Légaré and et.
al., 2011).
Needs of CPD
 Aware about the changes : CPD ensures that an individual is alert regarding dynamic
trends and adopt new alterations. By it they able to gain growth in a new direction
through improving skills and ability to acquire new knowledge (Marquardt and et. al.,
2011).
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 Stay relevant : Within an organization an individual can enhance their knowledge and
skills in regular basis. They can get enhance in skills and knowledge in the area in which
he/ she want to work by this they able to sustain in that particular filed for a long time.
For example if an engineer now about latest technology they able to introduce new things
in appropriate manner and they also able to implement it in more appropriate manner. By
this they able to survive in particular field for a long time.
 Deeper knowledge : By CPD employees able to enhance their skills and knowledge on a
particular subject or project. By this they able to conduct their work more appropriately
which and implement it in more appropriate manner and ways.
Kolb's Theory:
Kolb's learning styles are one of the best and widely used learning style theories in an
organisation. This theory is adopted by mangers of whirlpool's in order to have good learning
style for their employees and staff members. In this theory learning is viewed as four stage cyle
which is determined below:
Concrete Experience: In this learning phases an individual learn a new experience in
different situations. Moreover, it encountered learning or a reinterpretation of exiting experience.
Reflective Observation of new experience: This learning phases indicates that a learning
of an individual is more important as experience generally bring inconsistency between
experience and understanding.
Abstract conceptualization: Herein, managers need to come up to give reflective ideas,
or modification in learning of an existing abstract concept. In this phase of learning a person
usually learn for its own as well as work experience.
Active experimentation: In this learning style an individual and employee learn for its
different ideas so that they can experience their own what's going in near by surroundings.
TASK 3
P5.
Employees engagement: Employees engagement is basically relationship between
organisation and its employees. An employee is one who is engaged in its work by enthusiastic
10

and take positive action towards future organisation's reputation and interest. Thus, it have an
emotional commitment towards achievement of organisation goals and objectives.
Competitive advantage: Competitive advantage are conditions that help a company to
produce goods and services of reasonable price to remain sustainability in competitive mark
place. Moreover, it has been attributed with different factors such as its structure, branding,
quality of product and offerings, distribution network in order to provide a better result.
Both employees engagement and competitive advantage are interconnected with each other and
it also help to increase high performance work of employees and staff members within
organisation.
HPW is adopted by an organisation to enhance capabilities, skills and knowledge of
employees who are working at workplace. The past condition of whirlpool when they didn't
adopt HPW they are declining because employees are not motivated to learn new skills and no
one is ready to adopt new idea. Burt when they adopt HPW they able to improve their employees
skills, knowledge and behaviour within respective company (Rock, 2014).
By using CPD and KSA method respective company able to analysis strength and
weakness of their employees. By these tools Whirlpool able to reduce or minimise the barriers
which they may in future. The main purpose behind adopting these method is to provide new
identity to a company, enhance employees engagement, creativity and innovation which develop
performance of an organisation. According to this team meeting is conducted on the weekly
basis where employees share their ideas in front of management and seniors. There discussion is
done on issues and problems and try to identity solution for that. By this employees get
motivated to share their ideas with employer in freely and open manner.
HPW help a company in growth and it mainly focus on engagement of employees and
competitive advantage. This is so because main aim of respective program is to establish job
satisfaction between employees (Woodcock, 2017). Through this employer able to involve
employees in decision making process and frame their ideas which seems as a benefit for an
organization. These all aspects enhance competitive advancement of a company at a market
place by using new strategies which support in covering market and gaining profitability.
An organisation can increase employees engagement by using High performance working
this is so because by it employer can encourage staff for participating in activities and team
work. When employees participate in activities they able to enhance their skills by discussing
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with others. By this employees feel that their view point is important for whirlpool by which they
feel enthusiastic and motivated to get involve in various activities of organisation.
TASK 4
P6
Performance management refers to the procedure by which manager and employees of a
company plan, monitor and review their work through which they identify they meet their desire
goal or not. In this concept there are various approaches which can be use by an organisation to
evaluate performance of employees in whirlpool. Some of the major approaches which
respective can use are describe below:-
Comparative approaches – According to respective approach performance of
employees will be measure on the basis of their performance within as team. Here all the staff
are ranked which is based on their group performance from high to low (Bolman and Deal,
2017). For example there are various group from which one group employees is performing
10%, another group is performing 40%, 40% is consider as good performers and 8% is as lowest
performed group.
Attribute approaches – According to this approach employees are get analysed and
measure according to their various skills, such as problem solving skills, teamwork,
communication skills, listing skills, judgement skills and many other. In this method manager of
a company rate their staff according to skills from lowest to highest (1 to 5). For example
employees who involve in all activities such as teamwork, creativity and problem solving can be
ranked with 5 whereas other who are below can get 4,3,2, 1.
Effective communication: Communication plays an effective role within workplace in
an organisation. The mangers of whirlpool's need to ensure that there is proper follow of
communication among employee and superior so that their no misunderstanding within
themselves. Hence, with effective communication an organisation can attain its goals and
objectives respectively.
Behavioural approach - It is consider as oldest technique or tool which is used for
measuring employees performance (Chaskalson, 2011). It include various series used for several
type of jobs which can be done by BARS (Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale) method.
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In Whirlpool respective approach help employer in measuring employees performance
related to their ability and performance. An organisation can use any of the approaches for
analysing their staff dedication towards goal and completion of task.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussed point it can be conclude that in every organisation high
performance work is consider as effective tool and technique which arise quality of productivity
and performance. Ass it consider various tools like CPD and KSA which help a company in
enhancing staff productivity in effective efficient manner which measure skills, knowledge and
behaviour. All these factors can be measured by using personal skills audit and performance
development plan. By using HPW an employer can arise staff engagement and gain high
competitive advancement at a workplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
14