Unit 35: Developing Individuals, Teams and Organisations
Unit code A/508/0594
Unit level 5
Credit value 15
Introduction
The aim of this unit is to provide students with the opportunity to appreciate that developing knowledge and skills to achieve high performance is a cross-organisation activity. Students will recognise that their own professional development is just one route to improving the performance of those teams and organisations in which they work. They will also gain an awareness of the context in which learning takes place and how development needs are linked to learning interventions aimed at supporting an organisation’s strategy.
On successful completion of this unit, students will have laid the foundations for their own continuing professional development which will support their future engagement in lifelong learning. They will also be able to contribute to the development of others and make a positive contribution to the sustainable growth of an organisation.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit a student will be able to:
1. Analyse employee knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals.
2. Analyse the factors to be considered when implementing and evaluating inclusive learning and development to drive sustainable business performance.
3. Apply knowledge and understanding to the ways in which high-performance working (HPW) contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage.
4. Evaluate ways in which performance management, collaborative working and effective communication can support high-performance culture and commitment.
Essential Content
LO1 Analyse employee knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals
Continuing professional development (CPD):
ü What does this mean? How do we engage in CPD?
ü How and why should CPD be recorded and evaluated?
Frameworks for CPD:
ü As a means to structure CPD activities and to provide opportunities for reflection and evaluation.
Reflective learning:
ü Consider this as a philosophy and a concept. Using reflective learning to gain a deeper and objective insight into levels of performance in comparison to levels of expectation.
Feedback for learning:
ü Using feedback as part of the learning cycle where feedback informs reflection which in turn informs action.
LO2 Analyse the factors to be considered when implementing and evaluating inclusive learning and development to drive sustainable business performance
Supporting organisational and individual learning:
ü Learning should be focused on strategic and tactical goals and informed by, for example, GAP analysis or a skills evaluation.
ü Consider how learning is determined and implemented.
The learning organisation:
ü The use of formal and informal learning across an organisation to develop individual, team and organisational skill sets.
Training or development:
ü Training as a one-off event or series of activities is different to development which has a more protracted timescale and builds on the skills and knowledge gained during training. Should organisations focus on training, development or both?
The learning cycle:
ü Recognising that learning is continuous through the use of learning cycle theories developed by Kolb, Honey and Mumford and Lewin.
Barriers to learning:
ü Recognising the various environmental, physical, psychological and cognitive barriers and how to overcome them.
LO3 Apply knowledge and understanding to the ways in which high- performance working (HPW) contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
High-performance working (HPW):
ü As a concept, philosophy and approach to developing and supporting strategy development, competitive advantage and improving employee relations.
HPW organisations:
ü What characterises a HPW organisation (HPWO)?
ü How is this beneficial to employees and the employer? What barriers may exist to HPW?
ü High-performance HRM practice:
ü How are the two related? Which informs which?
ü What impact does the desire to achieve HPW impact of HR practices?
HPW and external stakeholders:
ü How will HPW be perceived and viewed by internal and external stakeholders?
Partnerships in a HPWO:
ü Consider who will be able to support HPW in an organisation? The use of HPW champions to act as catalysts.
ü How do you sell the concept of HPW to those who will be facilitating this?
LO4 Evaluate ways in which performance management, collaborative working and effective communication can support high-performance culture and commitment
Performance management (PM):
ü As a concept and a process. What constitutes effective PM?
ü How does effective PM inform learning and development at the organisational, team and individual level?
ü Differences in PM systems.
Organisational culture:
ü How this can be both a facilitator or barrier to effective PM. The use of internal collaboration to deliver effective PM.
Transformation process:
ü Use PM to transform organisations. How this is achieved would depend on factors such as scale and size of the organisation, its geographic dispersal and competing challenges. The latter could be the requirement to remain strong in the market, to make a profit or to meet customer expectations during a period of transformation.
The developmental approach to PM:
ü Separating development from evaluation where the developmental approach considers stages in development and how these are achieved through the setting of criteria, the imposition of systems and an incremental approach to achieving developmental aims.
Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria
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Pass
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Merit
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Distinction
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LO1 Analyse employee knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals
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P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR professionals.
P2 Analyse a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours and develop a professional development plan for a given job role.
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M1 Provide a detailed professional skills audit and professional development plan that demonstrates evidence of personal reflection and evaluation.
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LO1 and LO2
D1 Produce a detailed and coherent professional development plan that appropriately sets out learning goals and training in relation to the learning cycle to achieve sustainable business performance objectives.
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LO2 Analyse the factors to be considered when implementing and evaluating inclusive learning and development to drive sustainable business performance
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P3 Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development.
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M2 Apply learning cycle theories to critically analyse the importance of implementing continuous professional development.
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P4 Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance
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Pass
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Merit
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Distinction
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LO3 Apply knowledge and understanding to the ways in which high-performance working (HPW) contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
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P5 Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation.
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M3 Analyse the benefits of applying HPW with justifications to a specific organisational situation.
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LO3 and LO4
D2 Provide valid synthesis of knowledge and information resulting in appropriate judgements on how HPW and mechanisms used to support HPW lead to improved employee engagement, commitment and competitive advantage.
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LO4 Evaluate ways in which performance management, collaborative working and effective communication can support high-performance culture and commitment
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P6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management (e.g. collaborative working), and demonstrate with specific examples how they can support high- performance culture and commitment.
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M4 Critically evaluate the different approaches and make judgements on how effective they can be to support high- performance culture and commitment.
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