Whirlpool: Individual, Team, Organizational Learning and Development

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of individual, team, and organizational learning within Whirlpool, a major manufacturing company. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of learning and development for enhancing employee performance and overall productivity. The report then delves into the determination of knowledge, skills, and behaviors essential for HR professionals, emphasizing the need for strong management, communication, and multitasking abilities. A personal skills audit and professional development plan are presented, evaluating strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to HR management. The report also contrasts individual learning with organizational development, highlighting their differences in flexibility, effectiveness, and emphasis. Furthermore, it explores the need for continuous learning and professional development, as well as the contribution of high-performance work practices in engaging employees and achieving competitive advantages. Different approaches to performance management are discussed, with examples provided to support a high-performance culture and commitment. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and recommendations for improving learning and development initiatives at Whirlpool.

DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS
AND ORGANISATIONS LEARNING

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
P 1. Determination of knowledge, skills and behaviour of HR professionals............................1
P 2. Personal skills audit and professional development plan....................................................2
P 3. Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development....5
P 4. Need for continuous learning and professional development .............................................6
P 5. High performance work practice (HPWPs) contribution in engaging employees and their
competitive advantages within the organisation.........................................................................8
P 6. Different approaches to performance management and provide examples to support high
performance culture and commitment........................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Individual, team and organisational learning is a concept to improve knowledge and skills
of employees which will prove to be beneficial for Whirlpool. Learning and development idea in
any organisation helps in effective performance and thereby increases overall productivity of this
organization which is considered as the first manufacturing joint venture to provide large
varieties of washing machines. In the company crisis of 2011, it was discovered that the firm has
adopted major structural and strategic changes.
In the present study, Whirlpool have conducted a survey and observed that the workers
are not putting their efficient efforts in achieving objectives. This study also contains an audit
report which will bring an understanding among managers and employees of Whirlpool. It has
also provided a view to utilize skilled and highly knowledgeable labour in business growth and
higher productivity. It will also provide a comprehensive view about individual, team and
organisational behaviour. This report will be based on key measures to improve the performance
of workers and will also concentrate on key approaches and techniques to maximise productivity
of Whirlpool.
P 1. Determination of knowledge, skills and behaviour of HR professionals
Whirlpool needs the best and great professionals to carry out smooth functioning of
business. HR professionals are considered as skilful workers of an organisation who recruit and
select the required candidates (Boer and et.al., 2017). Human Resource Department is
responsible for controlling the activities of selection and also provides employment to the people.
They look for candidate's personal skills and characteristics while recruiting.
According to company crises, managers of Whirlpool have observed that employees are
lacking in skills and knowledge. So they started providing them professional development
training (CPD). It is considered as a process of improving and developing professional skills of
employees. It is also referred as documenting and tracking the formal and informal aspects of
employees. HR managers provides training for improving various skills and knowledge to gain
productive efficiency. Whirlpool have offered some training to their workers to maximise the
quality of production, which will result in satisfying customers.
 Organising and planning: HR manager of Whirlpool requires strong managing and
organising skills. They also develop an understanding power so that right selection of

candidate could be possible (Bolden, 2016). They have to manage wide range of
responsibilities and tasks simultaneously. So multi activities and a bigger employed force
needs careful planning to achieve objectives.
 Collaboration and communication: These professionals require great communicating
skills and a collaborative power to interact with employees and their superior
subordinates. This process can also determine behaviour of HR professionals (Boer and
et.al., 2017).
 Multi-tasking: They required to have multiple functioning abilities to deal with different
tasks at the same time. Time management is a great dealing of HR managers to get right
resources at correct time in order to get business activities done effectively (Duffield and
Whitty, 2016).
 Scheduling: It is required by these professionals that they schedule their activities and
tasks according to the requirements of business. Whirlpool’s manager cannot deal with
business activities without having a business intellect. It results in appropriate utilisation
of their managing skills to arrange tasks according to their proper scheduling.
 Discrete and ethical perspective: HR managers keep the personal information of each
selected candidate at organisation. So they are required to keep this information discrete
and private. It also determines kind and professional behaviour of an individual.
 Expertise: Strong expertise knowledge is required by these professionals (Jain and
Moreno, 2015). Their experience and knowledge serve the best approach to get the work
organised and managed accordingly. Several activities will be managed by an expert HR
manager such as employee relation, commitment, objective oriented and training and
development of individuals.
HR professionals should also posses the knowledge of various concepts, laws and
regulations which is important for managing the human resource in the organisation. It should
posses the knowledge about the employment laws which are important for the organisation to
work according to employment laws. HR. Professional should have the proper knowledge of
training and development, it should be able to identify the need of training in an organisation and
should have the knowledge of different forms of training and development programs which can
be implemented in the organisation. HR. professional should have the knowledge of various
contract laws which can be used within the organisation.

There are some behaviours which are required in the a person for becoming a good HR.
professional like Hr. professional should be committed to it duties and responsibilities which are
assigned to him. Hr. professional should be ethically sound and should be just, honest, should
respect others, should be empathetic in nature. So, these are the behaviours which are required
for the Hr. professionals of Whirlpools.
P 2. Personal skills audit and professional development plan
Human Resource Department must perform various activities from recruitment to
management of employees. They need to have multiple knowledge and skills to operate these
practices in a fair and appropriate manner (Lin and Sanders, 2017). Here, I have prepared an
audit report to analyse the role of human resource department in managing several activities of
business. Being the HR manager of Whirlpool, one should possess the following qualities.
According to my personal audit, I have found several qualities and behaviour of these
professionals in carrying out the Business Development Plan. I have learnt various management
tricks and strategies to understand business organisational activities. As I have 2 years of
experience in working under professionals so I am quite familiar with professional environment
of Whirlpool. It develops my personal skills to deal with business activities. I have improved my
communication. My personal skills have also improved since I have adopted professionalism. It
has also developed my capabilities.
Here are such practices which have influenced my professional plan and are as follows:
Strengths
 Good communication skills
 My greatest strength is to participate
in new challenges.
 Good technical knowledge helps me
to ease my work.
 Working experience
 Professional attitude
 I have lot of experience working in
this field.
Weaknesses
 Lack of confidence.
 Introvert behaviour do not allow me to
interact more with colleagues.
 Lack of creativity
 I often get distracted from my work,
so I feel less concentration power is
my major weakness.
 I have low managerial skills.
Opportunities
 Proper training and development
Threats
 Market Competitors are threats to the

programs help me to understand
work.
 I possess technological skills so
timely advancement of new
technology provides me upgraded
knowledge.
 Globalisation of various activities.
 Improving Working environment
influence my productivity.
 Career and growth development.
company.
 Lack of innovation in production.
 Production and technological
advancement needs large capital
investment.
 Economic and financial capabilities.
 Restructuring of organization.
 Ethical standards and integrity: I have observed that ethical responsibilities are such
issues which need to be concentrated by HR managers. They need to promote ethical and
cultural values of the company.
Strength: Promoting the ethical behaviour in company lead to strong interpersonal
relationship of employees and healthy environment of business.
Weakness: If ethical values are not adopted by HR manager of Whirlpool then it might be
responsible for an unhealthy environment.
 Transparency and trust worthiness: According to me, faith and trust of employees on
leaders is responsible for effective and efficient individual’s performance.
Strength: This professional quality of HR manager at Whirlpool develops confidence in
their workers (Lin and Sanders, 2017).
Weakness: Absence of fearless attitude in employees lead to miscommunication and
it might harm the operational activities of business.
 System and their procedure: I think procedure and system policies plays the great role
managing the organisational activities. It provides friendly and healthy environment to
employees. I have analysed that system policies and procedures provide vast
opportunities to the workers so that they can share their ideas and opinions at Whirlpool.
Strength: Employees innovative ideas prove successful for the development of the
company.

Weakness: Lack of other innovative perception of employees can be responsible for
losses incurred.
 Team work collaboration: I have an opinion that task which is being performed
collectively tends to produce effective work while as compared, isolated task will be less
effective.
Strength: Effective and efficient accomplishment of work. It also includes collection of
different thoughts and ideas (Boer and et.al., 2017).
Weakness: Team work can be sometimes responsible for conflicts and unhealthy
relationship amongstemployees.
Skills to be
improved
Current proficiency Mitigating strategy Time scale
Confidence level I hesitate to address
large number of
people and this makes
me nervous.
I will improve my
confidence through
communication and
interaction with
people.
Within a period of 1
month
Creativity I learn things easily
but is not be able to
produce innovative
thoughts.
I would increase my
concentration by
taking advice from
experts and I will also
read entrepreneurial
novels to produce
innovation in my
ideas.
Time period of 3
months
Managerial skills I cannot handle large
number of people.
Professional advice of
experts and making
proper strategies will
improve my
managerial skills to
overcome my
It will take about 3 to
4 months

weaknesses.
P 3. Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development
Whirlpool is a technology based company which provides products which needs timely
up gradation and innovative changes. According to the given case study, when the company was
planning to restructure and strengthening few strategies. Lack of information to all staff members
leads to underdeveloped planning. This brand provides various aspects which need to be
expanded in terms of growth and development (Thomas and et.al., 2017). So here are following
concepts which serve as the industrial and individual development and learning.
Point Of Differences Individual Learning Organisational Development
Emphasis It emphasis on the
improvement of employee's
personality and their personal
grooming.
It emphasis on achieving
common objectives which will
result in development of
Whirlpool.
Flexibility It is less flexible as limited
suggestions are involved. (Rae
and Wang, 2015).
It is more flexible because it
can work as a team. It consists
of many suggestions and ideas
to group members.
Effectiveness It is ineffective as it only
provides limited work and it is
also less efficient and effects
the productivity of Whirlpools.
Work is accomplished in team.
Team based work is more
effective.
Learning It is restricted to skills and
knowledge of particular
employee at Whirlpool.
It encourages team work and it
influence common
organisational goals. It also
includes collection of
individual thoughts (Sørensen
and et.al., 2017).
Training and Development:

Training Development
Training is a learning process which is used by
Whirlpools to improve the skill, knowledge
and competency of the employee in an
organisation.
It is a development process which help in
overall growth of employee in an organisation.
Training are provided to employees of
whirlpools to ensure that employees improves
their work performance in an organisation.
Development helps the company in preparing
the employees for meeting the future
challenges in an organisation.
In Whirlpools employee training is provide to
emphasise the learning behaviour of a person
in an organisation.
Development ensure the behaviour is which is
attached to the positive outcome or result.
 Individual training and development improves one's capabilities and potential while as
improving team performance that can result in achieving main objectives of Whirlpool
(Boer and et.al., 2017).
 Managers of Whirlpool must organise the training and development sessions to empower
skills and knowledge of an employee (Gillard and et.al., 2017).
 This result in an effective performance and hence skilled labour is helpful in achieving
objectives of company.
 Organisational development can be possible with powerful workers. Successful
development of an enterprise requires working knowledge and experience.
P 4. Need for continuous learning and professional development
Learning is referred as an ability to constantly improve and develop the knowledge in
order to survive in this technological and modern world. Professional development is defined as
specialised training to maintain professionalism in behaviour and competence skills. It is done to
hold professional behaviour and improve their knowledge and skills in order to grow individual
in its profession.
Restructured strategies and development in Whirlpool leads to advancement and it also
ensures growth of company. This will ultimately serve as benefit to this organisation. It would

help in successful implementation of planning and strategies (Gillard and et.al., 2017).
Employees and organisation both need to be timely updated according to requirements of
customers.
There are various needs for continues learning and professional development such as:
 It helps to enhance technology and knowledge of people regarding the profession.
 It ensures customers’ needs with changing trends.
 Professional development and timely learning helps to advance career opportunities
and enhancement of individual.
 This also ensures effective productivity (Boer and et.al., 2017).
 Professional development and learning helps in successful growth of company and it
sustains performance of Whirlpool.
 It provides knowledge and working skills to employees and this result in improved
performance of organisation.
Continues learning and professional development (CPD) at Whirlpool increase the
performance of employees and enhances effective productivity of workers. Implementation of
CPD helps to develop knowledge and increase ability to produce desired outputs. It increases
level of understanding among labours and it will result in maximising the productivity. Updated
skills and knowledge of employees’ help to meet customers’ demands easily. Advancement of
technology in the world provides better changes to get the tasks done easily. This promotes sense
of interest and involvement in adopting new technologies and standards (Sørensen and et.al.,
2017).
Learning cycle theories includes various styles of HR professionals which help to promote
CPD in various departments and can support the learning process in the organisation. For
instance, managers of the company provides proper trainings and personal development sessions
so that it could be helpful in the individual growth and development of workforce. Managers of
Whirlpool apply various learning styles to hold interest of employees in working different tasks.
Learning cycle theory of this organisation consists of following stages such as experience of an
individual, reflection and observation of that experience and conclusion of that concept then
experimentation of strategies. CPD can be implemented in the organisation by implementing
Kolb's learning style which consists of 4 stage such as:

Diverging: when a learner prefer to watch rather than doing and they look the things in different
perspective.
Assimilating: Such people prefer good and clear information and they can logically format the
information such people are interested in theories.
Converging: These learners try to solve the problem as they apply knowledge to practical issues.
Accommodating: Such type of learners prefer to do things practically.
There are also different types of employees who learn by different ways such as:
Activists: Who learn by doing who want to get their hands dirty.
Theorist: Such type of learners like to understand the things in theoretically rather than in
actions.
Pragmatist: Such type of learner want to put learning in practice in the real world.
Reflector: These learners learn by observing and thinking what has happened in past and
improve their learning accordingly.
For example, Whirlpool has introduced new technology to produce effective output. This
technological improvement in company have helped in easy the working procedure of the
business such as introduction of emails have improved the communication of the employees
(Individual and organizational learning, 2012).
P 5. High performance work practice (HPWPs) contribution in engaging employees and their
competitive advantages within the organisation
High performance work is a practice which aims to provide effective productivity of
workers in the company. These practices result in increment and enhancement of the production
capabilities of employees and are adopted to motivateworkers. It contain ability, opportunity and
satisfaction for employees to get the improved performance of workforce.

This organisation has experimented High Performance Team (HPT) assessment process
with its workers. It was previously considered as a HRM (Human Resource Management)
practices which are being performed to maximise the overall performance of Whirlpool.
In a company survey of Whirlpool, it was found that its employees’ team performance in
North America region (NAR) were expectationally low. This survey was conducted on the basis
of their extraordinary goals, vision, commitment to company and their mutual relationships.
NAR staff members of Whirlpool adopted such HPW practices in getting the effective
productivity out of their labours (Tortorella and Fogliatto, 2014). Various kinds of strategies
were restructured to get employees involved in their work.
Managers of Whirlpool has promoted the following practices:
 Employees were reserved for learning and development activities.
 Workforce were engaged in trainings and growth of individuals.To get high
performance work of their workforce, managers and leaders of Whirlpool
concentrated on an individual’s development.
 Unfortunately, these practices of involving and engaging the employees in
development and growth have positively influenced the productivity. Individual
effective productivity is collectively considered as competitive advantage of the
organisation.
 Efforts of the workforce in creating the quality based product leads to customer
satisfaction.
HPW helps in employee engagement because as the performance of he employees is
improved in the organisation it can motivate the employees in get engaged in the work culture of
the organisation. Also, HPW results in decreasing the performance errors in an organisation
which can improve the performance of employees and the organisation and thus can result in the
competitive advantage for the organisation.