Developing knowledge and skills to achieve high performance Assignment Sample

Introduction

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The following report on the development of skills and knowledge to attain high performance is divided into two sections. The first part of the report analyses the essential knowledge, skills and behaviour of an HR manager that further helps to develop a professional development plan (Schultz, 2020). Therefore, the report further examines the factors that help to drive sustainable business performance. In the second part of the report, the contribution of high-performing working to gaining competitive advantage and employee engagement in the context of the organisation Amazon is analysed. The report further evaluates the ways through which performance management, effective communication and collaborative working in the context of the organisation Amazon can support high-performance commitment and culture. 

Task 1

1.1 Assessing the necessary Knowledge, skills and behaviours for the job role of an HR manager

Human resources tend to be a discipline that needs leadership and marketing experience to establish the skills executives pursue (Michael, 2019). Human resource managers with greater experience and more practical training in related fields build more opportunities in the global sector. Following are identified the important abilities, knowledge and behaviour of an HR manager:

1.1.1 Skills 

Communications: An individual expects to be able to efficiently represent themselves both in writing and reading communication as an HR specialist (Sun, Liu and Chen, 2018). Each day the HR manager works with a large group of people to address their challenges whether or not they are work-related. They gain faith and confidence through all these experience and thus reinforce the interrelationships within the workplace.

Corporate Competencies: HR includes various tasks including hiring, training, analysis of performance, individual growth plans and employee relations (Wall et al., 2019). All these responsibilities will be managed by an HR manager and a systemic strategy is needed to complete all operations.

Decision-making skills: A efficient decision - making skill is an essential capability to HR. An HR develops the right capacity to make a significant choice at every critical stage of the business through an efficient approach, knowledge and insight.

1.1.2 Knowledge

Staff and Human Resources: A professional HR must be able to determine efficiently specific hiring, selection, preparation, etc. procedures and values, and the HR must also have personal information system knowledge.

Management: each corporation's HR should have a clear understanding of various management and administrative standards of a business system to carry out appropriate strategic planning to maximize a business system's performance and effectiveness. The management skills are necessary for HR professionals to smoothly run an organisation (Meissner and Shmatko, 2019).

Public Safety and Protection: Another fundamental understanding of the fact that HR needs to provide knowledge of workplace security and safety. This knowledge can help HR to protect the rights and safety of employees at work.

1.1.3 Behaviours

Leadership: Efficient leadership seems to be a very critical aspect of HR. HR can encourage workers in their job position with the skills of effective leadership. Moreover, effective leadership further improves the working environment of the workplace.

Stress tolerance: HR must always welcome feedback and communicate in a relaxed and efficient way with challenging circumstances.

Self-regulation: HR needs serenity, moral leverage, control of indignation and the prevention of aggressive behaviour.

Analytical thinking: It is one of the signature traits of an HR manager as it helps to manage different situations in the workplace effectively.

1.2Analysing how the skills, behaviours, and knowledge can help to create a professional plan

A SWOT analysis is performed to analyse the described knowledge, skills and behaviour that are required in a workplace.

Professional Development Plan (PDP):

(Source: Dotson and Valenzuela, 2020)

1.3 Assessing the significance of CPD and how it can help the performance of the entire business system

Continued Professional Development (CPD) enables people to retain a top-quality range of knowledge and experience during their careers (Curran et al., 2019). Following is the significance of CPD:

Competitive edge: Proper development will boost employee efficiency, which could provide the organisation with a competitive advantage.

Cost Efficiency: The cost of training and other related costs can be minimised by an effective CPD.

Increase growth: Most management agrees that employees' important skills will enhance their growth.

Performance measurement: the administrators should measure their employees' performance as well as to detect the gaps within a correct CPD plan.

Improve standards: CPD helps increase employee ability and improves employee morality.

Representation of different learning models:

• Learning Theory of Kolb's:

This approach represents a learning cycle or chain through which a learner interacts with all aspects, which is a loop of knowledge (McCarthy, 2016). Immediate or special impressions contribute to insights and experiences according to this theory. The model of Kolb works on two stages, like a four-stage cycle and four learning types. In the following steps, the four-stage loop is split.

1. Concrete Experience
2. Reflective observation 
3. Conceptualization Abstract
4. Active experimentation

In addition to the four forms of learning:

1. Diverging
2. Assimilating
3. Accommodating
4. Converging

(Source: McCarthy, 2016)

An efficient CPD can be developed and maintained in the Kolb learning model

• Lewin's Learning Theory:

Lewin stressed behaviour research as a trait of the whole physical and social situation (Muldoon, 2020). In the following formula Lewin highlighted his point of view:

B=F(pe)

Where 'B' is an individual's behaviour, 'f' is a function, 'p' is the person's description and 'e' is the overall scenario setting. Lewin is explaining human behaviour in the background of life-space (Nurumal et al., 2019). An entity's living space relies on its intensity of psychology. This involves the individual; his actions, disputes, points of view and the background that include objects and events.

• Honey and Mumford theory:

'The Honey and Mumford theory' can boost the CPD actions of a firm in the following manner:

(Source: Rodríguez Cepeda, 2018)

Analysing how these learning theories assist CPD:

As per McCarthy (2016), a person or an organisation's Kolb's learning cycle can support four different phases of learning styles. It helps people to reflect in a personal way, to explore the holes in their current abilities, which are incredibly necessary for forming a Continued professional development plan. Therefore, the Honey and Mumford theory generally enable individuals to identify the gaps and lacking in their skills. Similarly, Lewin's theory helps people to understand their actions and disputes and points of view. These are also very successful in creating an effective CPD plan

Analysing a detailed CPD plan for the new assistant managers by exploring a learning cycle theory:

The 'continued professional development plan' is generally helpful for the rapid growth of a business and is developed below via the help of the Gibb's reflecting cycle. Therefore, the CPD plan helps to understand the job skills that are necessary for the new assistant managers in an organisation as well as for sustainable business growth (Curran et al., 2019). Therefore, The CPD plan further helps business organisations to attain effective growth and development as well as enhances the job skills required for a specific profession. However, the CPD is derived below:

1.4 Assessing the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development:

• Difference between Organisational learning and individual learning:

(Source: Geppert, 2017)

• Differences between Development and Training

(Source: Brahmana, Brahmana and Ho, 2018)

Task 2:

2.1 High-performance organisation overview (Amazon):

An organisation that produces financial, as well as non-results that are much greater than those of its peer group over 5 years or more, is being described as a high-performance organisation (Jyoti and Rani, 2017). For its performance management strategies, Amazon was reportedly put under a microscope. Due to the stacked rankings, the organisation is still using to evaluate its employee results, in the best interest of everyone to surpass their teammates. Though the working culture of the company is glamorous like those of Google, Apple, etc, yet the company faces several issues in its performance management. It is further evident that Amazon generally uses a stack ranking process of performance management for rating its employees in an annual review, moreover, the company further uses continuous feedback through its "Anytime Feedback Tool", for gathering feedback from its employees.

Amazon has a contentious management scheme for success and rewards. The compensation scheme for Amazon (2018) comprises basic wage, signing bonus and units of restricted share (RSU) (Li, 2020). It also offers numerous benefits to workers, including medical care plans, 401(k), families support, adoption subsidies, share-outs and pension allowances, discounts on employees and leaves with pay. To reduce expenses and attract skilful talent with high participation in the organisation, Amazon offers minimal benefits to its staff but also gives incentive to those who served the company for two or more years. Amazon implements an important performance management system (Cappelli and Tavis, 2016). No specific evaluation of team success is taken out since the results of the team leader are decided. The Amazon systems are collectively developed by HR functions and include line managers in a collection of performance assessment meetings or reports to assess performance.

2.2 Relationship between High-performance practices and organisational performance and the different approaches:

One of the researchers' main concerns was the link between high-performance practises and organisational performance. This is reflected in two interpretations in the case of high performance. The universal approach, on the one hand, reflects the view that high-performance activities ought to be the same regardless of organisation and environmental characteristics (Obeidat, Mitchell and Bray, 2016). The contingency strategy, on the other side, claims that the company's guidelines should be followed. The universal approach advocates of management adopting a collection of defined and distinct human resources and organisational activities which will affect the productivity, since many of these activities, including teamwork, staff engagement and information exchange, do not contribute regularly and collectively.

The more convincing results are shown by several studies that show the adaptation of models to the working environment and the elimination of measuring and sampling errors through the use of special purpose surveys in specific industries. Therefore, the absence of consistent and joint input from many of these activities, including coordination, employee engagement and knowledge sharing, does not provide huge backing for this approach's success (Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016). The outcomes are more reliable, according to a series of reports when models are approximate to the real working environment and mistakes are minimised by special purpose surveys in specific industries. By using special purposes, these outcomes are more reliable. Since a vital component of strategic planning is centred on the company's environment, the discussion on the universal approach to emergency management and the management of the workforce is also applicable. Currently, climate shifts are an important aspect of strategic thinking and planning. Increased stability or dynamism causes various impacts within an organisation. This implies an emergency management approach in general and HRM in particular so that every action and decision should be planned taking consideration of the features of the area.

2.2.1Benefits of the application of High-performance working mechanism

Both institutional and individual-level studies include 'High-Performance Work Systems' (HPWS) analysis. The causal link within High-Performance Work Systems and organizational performance has been verified by research at the organisational level (Gahan et al., 2020). At the individual level, HPWS will improve personal productivity such as job satisfaction, quality of service, actions as a citizen of the company, and sharing information. Besides, the High performance working usually has attained growing focus from the organisational perspective and the Human Resource managers. The High-Performance Working Section demonstrates necessary measures because several other management tools and initiatives such as just-in-time production, personalization, total quality management and dynamic manufacturing technology can only be improved if people meet the basic requirements (Alatailat, Elrehail and Emeagwali, 2019). The high-performance work system not only looks at technology or procedure but aims at discovering skilled and educated people capable of fulfilling specific needs. Organizations such as Amazon with high-performance working structures have been found successful, as productivity growth and long-term profitability have developed quite statically. Therefore, the main practices of high-performance working generally include:

• Knowledge sharing and extensive training
• Selective hiring and employment security
• Decentralized decision making and self-managed teams
• Transformational leadership

Therefore, the constant economic changes, market fluctuations as well as the introduction of new technologies are generally the main triggers for the High performance working. Moreover, High-performance working is further linked to a variety of employee responses as well as employee participation. Employees are also the primary means of mediating the results a corporation experiences because of its high performance. High-performance work influences employee performance directly as it enhances efficiency and increases interpersonal skills (Obeidat, Mitchell and Bray, 2016). Employees who work in a high-performance working system are highly motivated, so these employees have greater prospects of using their expertise, their knowledge and their abilities. Motivation directly influences the degree to which this capacity can be used for action and opportunities for them to demonstrate their skills are enhanced in an enterprise, which operates as an employee with such a High-Performance System capacity. Therefore, the main elements of the High-performance system include:

1. Organisational structure: An organization's structure is like integrating the people in functional groups, teams and reporting relationships. A better-built organisation, to promote the work of the various organizational teams, would be incredibly successful. Total design and management grades, such as how many employees under a certain boss, are determined by the top management of an enterprise.
2. Task Design: Task Design is how an organisation groups the required tasks. Task design efficiently completes the functions and enhances operational efficiency.
3. Right People: The most crucial component of human resources management is selecting the right employees. The individuals chosen must be following their tasks. The most basic and unavoidable aspect of the high-efficiency method is the right people (Lin and Sanders, 2017). Human Resource Management must aim to select skilled and qualified employees who meet the unique criteria of the company in the development of a high-performance framework.
4. Reward system: Reward is among all possible human resources techniques the most powerful tool. This is not only a strategy that promotes employees but also guarantees greater productivity and harmony with employees. Another key component of high-performance work is the incentive system since it addresses double facets and motivates employees to concentrate their efforts on the most important particular needs.
5. Information system: The fundamental aspect of the High-Performance Working System, wherein managers should determine what information can be collected and from which sources. The information system decides who can access this information and how organisational knowledge can be acquired (Gahan et al., 2020). An organisational information sector has a significant link with knowledge management activities, which are designing and implementing programmes, tools, techniques, methods, and people to improve business efficiency to increase the knowledge, sharing and use that to the advantage of the organisation.

It is further apparent that the Human resource department of Amazon generally plays a vital role in incorporating the several components of the Hugh performance working systems that mainly consists of the selection and training of people, structure of the organisation, design and reward system (Westgard, Naraine and Villacorta, 2018). The technologies, organisational structure, processes and people all come together to accomplish a sustainable market advantage. When changes in technology and the functional fields of the company, such as transport, communications and development, are changed, human resources management needs to ensure that an organization provides qualified people willing to meet the demands of change. While a company is implementing and maintaining a high-performance work system, it can involve successful training programmes, hiring people with certain skills and fostering organisational training and teamwork.

 Therefore, Amazon has been successful in incorporating effective Human Resource management practices that in turn helps the organisation to attain sustainable growth and development. Moreover, the organisational structure of the company Amazon is mostly customer driven that in turn maximizes the profit outcome of the company (Li, 2020). Being a consumer-driven organisation, it can effectively adapt to the cultural and environmental changes. The senior management structure of the company also stresses the elements of the high-performance system that in turn helps the organisation to maintain its performance management. Therefore, as an example of organisational learning, Amazon has introduced the high-performance work plan, making people, procedures and technologies more responsive to the evolving world. Amazon is the first step toward creating a new environment.

2.2.2 Circumstances that effectively led to High performance working:

Noe, Hollenbeck, and Gerhert (2003) have established some factors contributing to an organization's high performance. He said the key factors that directly influence the high-performance work are collaboration, information sharing, rewards, employee empowerment and incentives. For a greater organisation like Amazon, it is significant to include the criteria in the structure of organisational management for attaining further high performance and sustainable growth in the long run. 

Teamwork: In an enterprise, where workers engage in teamwork, cooperation and coordination, the high-performance system can work more efficiently. Teamwork is a very important tool in the corporate structure that adds to the sharing of information and enhances results. Teamwork refers to employees' capacity to collaborate and competence by evaluating team abilities in good partnership and trust (UKEssays, 2018). Therefore, the Human Resource department of the organisation Amazon should facilitate and encourage teamwork to further implement innovation and creativity in the organisation that will in turn contribute to high performance. Moreover, teamwork in the form of group projects will further help to develop trust and effective communication within the organisation.

Information share: Sharing of information and rapid awareness among employees contributes to a company's success. An organisation where knowledge is openly transferred among its employees will boost ways of succeeding through high-performance work. Team learning may encourage professionals to connect between elderly and young employees. This encourages employees to learn from their counterparts and thus helps to promote the sharing of information among workers.

2.2.3 Results of High performance working:

High-Performance Working results in enhanced production, efficiency, and leads to higher income. A high-performance organisation can attain better customer care, high product quality and customer loyalty, lower turnover and increasing employee involvement and cooperation (Gahan et al., 2020). A high-performance approach businesses can emphasise higher quality, knowledgeable or specialist employee satisfaction and quality goods. a company can provide highly trained, knowledgeable or experienced people Increasingly highly productive corporations exemplified their return on sales and return on investments. According to the Sloan Foundation, high-performance steel companies have found that they have 7% higher efficiency, 13% better product quality and greater quality of service than businesses with a less productive work system (UKEssays, 2018). Therefore, it is further apparent that High-performance working also facilitates the productivity of employees, attaining service quality and great quality product, motivating employees as well as helps in gaining consumer satisfaction. Therefore, High-performance organisation like Amazon implements the High-performance working system to increase their productivity, as well as that further, helps the organisation to gain competitive advantage. 

In recent years, workplace usage as a learning experience has shifted. This is related to three primary factors (Jyoti and Rani, 2017). First, the advancement of the knowledge economy, second, the effects of the new economy, ICT, and thirdly, expanded use of the high-performance work system. The high-performance method has become an essential component of organisational learning.

As previously mentioned, the information system is one of the significant components of high-performance work. It is not merely the framework for storing or using information, but also refers to the extensive practises that make the workplace a learning environment. It can be linked well with practices in information management.

Conclusion

To improve the performance and inspire workers, HR's efficient skills, knowledge and polite attitudes will boost the effectiveness of a self-controversial and self-managed learning. The study focuses on the skills and expertise that managers of human resources must strengthen to ensure higher responsibilities. Moreover, the various approaches of High-performance working system used by Amazon are also reviewed in the following study as well as the conditions that led to high-performance working is elaborated in the following report.

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