Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organisations: A Whirlpool Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of HR practices within Whirlpool, focusing on the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required of HR professionals. It explores the importance of conflict management, communication, and technology savviness. The report delves into personal skill audits, professional development plans, and SWOT analyses to identify areas for improvement. It differentiates between organizational and individual learning, training, and development, emphasizing the need for continuous learning to ensure sustainable business performance. Furthermore, it examines the impact of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) on employee engagement and competitive advantage, as well as various approaches to performance management within the company. The report concludes with a discussion on how these elements contribute to a high-performance culture and employee commitment at Whirlpool.

DEVELOPING
INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS
AND ORGANISATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P.1. Suitable and professional knowledge, ability and behaviours that are required by HR
professionals................................................................................................................................1
P.2. Determine personal skill audit to identify proper skills, knowledge and behaviours and
develop a professional development plan for a particular job role at Whirlpool.......................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P.3. Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development at
whirlpool.....................................................................................................................................4
P.4. Determine the need for continuous learning and professional development to know the
sustainable business performance at Whirlpool..........................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
P.5. Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation...............................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P.6. Explain various approaches of performance management along with the examples and
how they support high-performance culture and commitment with respect to case study at
whirlpool.....................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Developing individuals, teams and organisations means improving the performance of
employees collectively as a team. Which helps the company in presenting itself in a better way.
In this assignment, Whirlpool company has been chosen. The whirlpool company was founded
in year 1911. It is an American multinational manufacturer of home appliances which is founded
by Louis Upton and Emory Upton. Whirlpool has its headquarters in Michigan, United States.
In the year 2017, revenue of company was about US$21.25 billion. This report on whirlpool
company will influence the right and professional knowledge and skills required by HR. This
study will also cover difference between organisational and individual learning and development
at Whirlpool.
TASK 1
P.1. Suitable and professional knowledge, ability and behaviours that are required by HR
professionals
Human resource department of Whirlpool company is very talented and has so many skills,
here are some skills of Whirlpool’s HR department:
Skills:
 Conflict management: It is the work of Human resource department to understand
problem of employees and take necessary steps for solving the same. Any conflicts
between two workers or among employer and employee is sorted by HR of the company.
This is key skill of human resource department (Lee-Kelley, 2018)
 Communication: HR Solves problem of all employees. Every person in company goes
to the HR if they have any kind of issues regarding salary or working environment. That
is why Oral and written communication both are equally important for HR, so that
department can listen very carefully and communicate with employees. Whirlpool’s HR
department is good at its communication skills which helped the establishment to develop
a healthy working environment and manage all problems between the employees and
employers. HR department of Whirlpool focuses on all the difficulties of employees and
takes essential steps accordingly.
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Behaviour
1. Purpose Oriented: HR manager should be completely focused towards the purpose of
the Whirlpool. He should ensure that all the activities in organisation are going in
accordance with the view to achieve objectives. (Rijamampianina and Carmichael, 2018).
2. Transparency and trustworthiness: HR manager of Whirlpool should know about the
things that are going in the company. HR department knows all highly confidential
information of the employees so they must keep it safe and should be genuine with
workman without any partiality.
3. Technology Savvy: Human resource department of the organisation are required to
conduct video interviews, virtual hubs, searching and posting about vacancies in the
company on social media etc. So, HR of the company must be talented enough and have
complete knowledge of technology and should know how to use it.
4. Solutions oriented: HR at whirlpool are good at communication with an attitude of
problem solving skills of employees. HR must be intelligent enough to solve all the
problems of employees and helps them by giving solution to their problems. (Wilke and
et.al., 2018)
5. Conflict management: It is the major work of human resource department to resolve
any dispute that has occurred between employer and employees or between any two or
more than two work men. Whenever any dispute occurs in the company then it is the duty
of the HR to look after the same.
P.2. Determine personal skill audit to identify proper skills, knowledge and behaviours of
particular job role at Whirlpool
Personal skill audit is very useful for an individual or group to know their career track. It
helps on knowing where an individual stand in his career. By knowing the skills and talents of
people working at Whirlpool, business plan of the company can be developed accordingly.
Whirlpool do personal skill audit of its employees so that it can know weakness, skills
and strengths of people working in an organisation. So that company can see its future and make
goals after considering results of the skill audit of the employees (Pareek and Purohit, 2018).
Professional development plan of Whirlpool is made by the top level management of the
organisation. Managers of Whirlpool works with employees and tests their talents by keeping an
eye on their performance and develop the plans accordingly.
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Below are the professional development plans of Whirlpool:
Identify core competencies: core competencies are skills and nature that employees try to
achieve for success in their careers. The best way to know about competencies is by measuring
the skills of employees that are important for the company. A set of competencies should be
recognised by the quality research in a broader way.
Identify strengths: To know that where a person is standing today he needs to identify
weather he/she is adding value to the company's growth with their talents and skills or not.
Know weaknesses: Whirlpool takes in to account the weakness of employee and it is
then addressed into employee's professional development plan.
Develop action steps: After knowing strengths and weakness, action development plan is
being formed which contains a combination of experiences and events so that employee can
create strengths and work on his weaknesses (Frankel and PGCMS, 2018).
Monitor progress: After setting development plan into action. It's necessary to check the
performance of employee regularly and motivate them by giving regular feedbacks.
SWOT
Strength
I am easily able communicate with employees
and share their problems.
I can identify strength and weakness of
employees.
Weakness
I am not able to take interview of candidates.
I face difficulty in making salary slip of
employees as I am weak in accounts.
Opportunity
I want to learn about E HR application by
completing a course.
Threat
With high use of technology in HR practices
HRM functions may be done online
Areas of
improvement
Growth
Opportunities
Criteria for
judging skill
development
Time
Required
Evidence
Communication
skills:
It is important for
Whirlpool to focus
Employee
satisfaction and
1 month
Employees and
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on the verbal and
written
communication skills
so that it can manage
the work in
effective and better
way.
presentation at
meetings will help
in knowing the
developments
required.
the managers of
Whirlpool
Performance
management skills
It is important to
improve this skill so
that work can be
managed properly
and performance of
employees can
improved
Performance
feedback
6 months Managers and
supervisors.
Leadership skills This skill is for
guiding and
motivating
employees to take
out best from them.
Employee
satisfaction
3 weeks Subordinates and
managers
From the above personal development plan it has been summarised that HR should work
on communication skills and can do it by reading dictionary and newspapers. This will help HR
in conducting group activities and solving problem of employee by listening them properly.
TASK 2
P.3. Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development at
Whirlpool
Below is the difference between organisational and individual learning:
Learning changes the behaviour and knowledge of an individual. It helps the person in
gaining information and facts to help him in developing his future. Whirlpool and many other
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companies have their own training and development programmes which helps in improving the
performance of the company and of employee as well.
Organisational learning is all about a learning process in which individual communicates
with each other and as a group they come together to achieve company's objective. As per the
research there is always a positive relationship between organisational and individual learning.
If any company follows the procedure of training and development, then employees who has
newly joined will get job satisfaction. Thus, organisational learning gives a security to
employees and helps them in accepting new challenges. But every person wants their own
growth which helps them in achieving promotions. Whirlpool focuses on giving individual
training with a view to achieve organisational objectives (North and Kumta, 2018).
Difference between training and development
Training and development is a part of human resource department whose focus is to give
appropriate work knowledge and improve the performance of employees. Training in whirlpool
is conducted to increase employees' skill and knowledge. Whereas, development is a learning
process which is for increasing efficiency and talent of the workman (Training and development,
2016).
In every organisation there is a limited training periods, same is with Whirlpool which
gives training of 6 months to new joinees of the company. But development is a never ending
process. Employees are being trained in such a way that they can use all the new technology and
the existing one in the best possible way. Workers are trained by the human resource department
of the company. This practice of HR helps in less wastage of money and time, because once the
employees are trained then they take less time to perform any task. Well qualified employees
help in increasing productivity of the company.
Development programmes are designed by company and are personalised by that
organisation. Whereas, a training programme is conducted for a fixed period and special trainers
and experts are hired by the company. In Whirlpool, superiors give training to new joinees of
organisation and manager of company gives complete direction to employees for assignments
given to the workers.
Training is conducted to let the joinees understand about entire work and environment of
the company. Whereas, Development is self-improvement procedure (Turner,2018). Training of
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an establishment is reactive procedure whereas, development is a proactive process of the
individual.
Difference between Training and development is shown below in the table:
Training Development
It is a procedure of learning so that worker gets
an opportunity to develop their sense of
awareness and recognition.
Development is a never ending self-
improvement procedure which focuses on
overall expansion of the staff.
Training is a reactive process Development is a proactive process
It is for a shortest period It is for a long term process or it can be said
that it is a never ending process
Training are of so many types such as on the
job training and off the job training etc.
Development has no classification.
Training helps in getting knowledge of the
work assigned
Development helps in overall growth of the
worker.
P.4. Determine the need for continuous learning and professional development to know
sustainable business performance at Whirlpool
Whirlpool is one of the biggest home appliances manufacturer in this world. It provides
the best development programmes to the employees for learning and growth. Whirlpool group
straight away allows the new workers to handle difficult assignments and projects. Continuous
learning helps a person in growing more in the future. As, it is all about enlargement and
development of talents of employees so that they can give best to the establishment. Business is
all about happening of new things, Whirlpool adopts many fresh technological inventions and
applies it for the growth of the entity (Rycroft-Malone,2018). Continuous learning is really
important in dynamic environment so that one can adopt all the changes that comes in the
market.
In order for continuous learning, Whirlpool has different group and new talents so that
employees of the establishment can find out and grow more. It grows overall effectiveness and
efficiency of the company. This programme helped in growing the retention rates of the
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organisation because employees of the entity get satisfied by learning new things and work, there
are many programmes conducted by the company for the same.
Whirlpool company has its own programme for leadership development. It is a
programme of two years. Employees are being trained in the all the fields such as marketing,
sales etc. so that it will help in overall growth of the employee and the company.
Continuous learning and development makes the person happy and satisfied because it
allows employee to learn new and different work. Generally, an employee gets dissatisfied with
his job because same nature of work makes it boring. Every person wants their work to be
challenging and exciting. So for that need of professional development arises which helps in
learning and development and does not let the person feel dissatisfied and less courageous
towards the work.
For example- Whirlpool has started so many programmes for the improvement of employees to
build their confidence. It helps in enhancing the skills and talents of person working for their
organisation. Companies should follow the same practices as Whirlpool to improve the
productivity of their organisation.
TASK 3
P.5. Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation
High performance working engages employee towards the work and it is completely
different from traditional hierarchy system (Gao and Bernard, 2018). It motivates the employees
towards better and higher performance. Whirlpool follows the practices for its employees such
that it results in higher employee engagement and better work performance.
High performance working falls within three major areas.
1. Reward practices of employees
2. Practices of human resources
3. Employee's involvement
There are different techniques which are followed by Whirlpool in order to achieve the
competitive advantages. Below are the techniques that are followed by Whirlpool.
 Stable working conditions.
 Team working
 Accurate learning
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Every company should have good working conditions in order to motivate employees and
which helps them in giving job satisfaction and better working environment so that organisation
can take out the best from them. In this regard, Whirlpool’s management must ensure that
healthy working condition are provided to the employees. They must conduct survey within the
firm in order to obtain suggestions from employees to enhance working environment.
Team working in a company helps in better work because any task that will be done by more
than one talent will give better results to the organisation. Whirlpool company has its own
programme for leadership development. There must be a unit leader who should guide and
support all the team members. Whirlpool believes in team working so that goals of the company
can be achieved more efficiently. Every employee should be more accurate towards learning new
belongings and doing things in a better way. Learning and development is the most important
part of business which helps in growth of the workers and adaptation of high performance
working.
Higher performance working of Whirlpool has conducted these practices
 Whirlpool has followed decentralised system so that it can give powers in hands of
superiors and subordinates too.
 Whirlpool works flexibly by adopting family friendly policies.
 Every essential information is shared with employees of the company in order to
make them understand about the projects and tasks (Rae,2018).
 Whirlpool conducts learning and development programmes for its employees in
order to make them learn about the assigned work and enhances their skills.
 Company focuses on yearly appraisals of the employees so that they can feel
motivated towards their work.
TASK 4
P.6. Approaches of performance management along with the examples and support of high-
performance culture and commitment with respect to case study at Whirlpool
Employees are required to be measured timely on the basis of their performance. Workers
do assigned work and their performance is judged on basis of their contribution towards the
growth of company. Employees are told about their presentation at the time of appraisal.
Companies should follow the same practices as Whirlpool to improve the productivity of their
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organisation. Performance are valued on the basis of the work and their attitude towards their
organisation.
So here the five different approaches of performance management:
 Attribute approach
 Result approach
 Behavioural approach
 Quality approach
 Comparative approach
Attribute approach: As per this approach employee are rated from the highest rate to
the lowest rate on the scale to 1 to 5 on the basis of their creativity, innovative ideas,
communication. This approach has major advantage of its simplicity that is being main reason
company adopts it to decide the performance of employees.
Result approach: This approach is most easy for measuring performance of the
employees where company rate their workers on the basis of their scores and work. Majorly
result approach is of two types:
Balanced score card is the first approach on the basis of results. It focuses on Customers
satisfaction and financial growth rather than overall growth of the organisation.
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Illustration 1: Approaches of performance management
(Source: Approaches of performance management,2017)

Second result formulation is Productive measurement and evaluation system. This
approach has major focus on employee's motivation and productivity of the organisation. The
main benefit of this approach is that it takes all external factors into action like customer
satisfaction and overall growth of the company. This is the first approach on the basis of results.
It focuses on Customers satisfaction and financial growth rather than overall development of the
system.
Behavioural approach: Organisation is using this approach since long to measure the
Performance of employees. For various area of jobs, different vertical scales are made. This is
done by using BOS technique or BARS technique. BARS is described as behaviourally anchored
rating scale which consist of five to ten vertical scales. Various parameters are set to make such
scales which are called anchors. These are prepared by employees of the company. Whirlpool
has started so many programmes for the improvement of employees to build their confidence.
Employees are graded on some basis of such anchors and their performance is measured
accordingly (Approaches of performance measurement, 2017)
BOS stands for behavioural observation scale which is a type of BARS. Employees behaviour
can be specified more broadly by using such parameters. General marks are the average of all
frequencies. And this approach is suitable for accuracy and reliability of thee work men.
Performance are measured through such approach.
Quality approach:
This approach says that good quality services to the customers is really important for growth of
the company. Whirlpool has major focus on taking regular feedback of their employees from the
superiors and take feedback from the clients of their performance and focus on improving the
same. Here are some advantages of using this approach:
 Internal and external both factors are involved
 Concept of teamwork is used to solve all the problems
 Various sources are used to measure the performance of employees.
Comparative approach:
Whirlpool follows comparative approach where employees are judged and measured on the basis
of their performance. Top performers are promoted by the company and are rewarded for their
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