Corporate Learning

ABSTRACT
Objectives of the Study
The objective of this mixed methods case study is two-fold. First, it explores corporate learning using the theory of organizational knowledge creation and one US based corporation to determine the theory’s relevance to American firms. Second, it seeks to understand how social practices and leadership behaviors affect employee knowledge or “true beliefs” and thus the implications to the firm’s knowledge creation and ultimately, its competitive advantage. Ikujiro Nonaka’s theory of organizational knowledge creation is used as the framework to examine the extent to which internal factors affect knowledge creation at the organizational and employee levels. The research addresses two questions regarding Nonaka’s theory: 1) it assesses the theory in a US corporation with a relatively homogenous population to determine the validity of the theory that was developed outside the US and 2) it examines to what extent internal factors such as social practices and leadership behaviors affect the organizational knowledge creation process. In addition, consequences from events external to the firm are assessed to determine their impact on knowledge creation and corporate learning.
Summary
The study used knowledge creation theory to understand how internal behaviors and external events affected corporate learning and competitive advantage. Given that knowledge is only useful in its context, the introduction described the origins of the firm and impact of the Internet. The literature review provided the historical context for organizational culture in US firms, the growth of learning organizations and it summarized organizational knowledge creation theory. Social practices and leadership behaviors were explored in relation to a variety of topics. The research used quantitative and qualitative data that included survey data and qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews, direct observation, internal documents, and secondary sources. The variety of sources aided the attempt to identify robust answers to the broad research questions raised in the study.
Conclusions
The interviews and direct observations at the firm reveal that organizational knowledge creation is not evident in this US corporation, primarily due to the narrow way in which knowledge is perceived and leadership behaviors that fail to consistently empower subordinates in the hierarchical management model. The cultural beliefs that preclude knowledge creation were also observed to thwart corporate learning. Several social practices and leadership behaviors appear to influence employee beliefs and thus corporate learning including communication transparency, decision-making and accountability, and strategic responses to external “random” events in digital communication. Shortcomings in these areas appear to have related and unintended consequences of diminished trust, lack of confidence, and risk aversion that can jeopardize the firm’s competitive advantage.

Der Gebrauch moderner Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (Telematik) unterstützt u. a. einen fortschrittlichen Informationsfluß, den Prozeß der teamorientierten Projektarbeit und die Entscheidungsprozesse im Agilen Unternehmen.
Kompetenzen zur effektiven Nutzung dieser Technologien werden von allen Mitarbeitern benötigt. Dieser Artikel beschreibt die Bedeutung und die Merkmale dieser Kompetenzen und eine Lernumgebung zur Förderung dieser Telematik-Schlüsselqualifikationen. Im bedarfsorientierten, betrieblichen, just in time Qualifizierungsprozeß ist das Netz zukünftig die Lernumgebung, die gleichzeitig die Plattform zur Kommunikation und Kooperation der Beteiligten und die Hauptinformationsquelle sein wird. Im ”web-supported collaborative learning”, hat das instruktionale Design die Aufgabe ”collaborative and independent selfdirected learning” zu ermöglichen und anzuleiten. Angesichts der oft fehlenden tutoriellen Anleitung steigt hier der Bedarf an (metakognitiver) Orientierungsfähigkeit, die, den mit dem System nicht vertrauten Lernanfängern, gezielt zur Verfügung gestellt werden müssen. Die instruktionalen Kernelemente zum Projektablauf, zur Informationsverarbeitung und zur Kooperation/Kommunikation unterstützen
• Pull-Lernkultur
• Problemorientierung
• Actionlearning und Resultatorientierung.
Sie fördern die Entwicklung von Schlüsselqualifikationen zum ”computer-mediated” schnellen bearbeiten von Kundenanforderungen und -problemen und verleihen dem Unternehmen damit Wettbewerbsstärke, die kurzfristig nicht nachzuahmen ist.

Рассмотрены вызовы, которые стоят перед развитием дидактики в условиях современной корпоративной образовательной практики: вызовы полисубъектности, «некогнитивных» видов образовательного опыта, связности и сложностности дидактической теории. Опора на целостный опыт, «живое знание» принципиальны для воспитательного потенциала практик корпоративного образования. Образовательные инновации рассмотрены как становление и развитие культурных образцов в образовании. Инновационные практики корпоративного образования недостаточно исследованы с позиций дидактического знания, в то время как они представляют собой поле для расширения проблематики дидактических исследований. Это поле включает «растворенные» формы образования, а также анализ новых феноменов и понятий.
Выделены несколько типов ситуаций корпоративного образования, в которых развиваются инновационные образовательные практики. К ним относятся ситуации «порядка» (когда процессы зафиксированы в правилах), ситуации «упорядоченности» (когда процессы упорядочены, но происходят по сложным правилам), ситуации «высокой сложности», когда число и изменчивость значимых факторов принципиально превышает возможности анализа, ситуации «хаоса/неупорядоченности», где нет устоявшихся практик, которые можно фиксировать; их необходимо создавать и стабилизировать, выходя из ситуации неопределенности.
Многоукладность образования определит важную черту дидактики XXI века — ее вариативность — применительно к разнотипным образовательным ситуациям и практикам. Инновационные практики корпоративного образования — важная составляющая перспективных дидактических исследований XXI века.

Summary.

This worldwide study scans innovative developments in educational theory and practice of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Some innovations are internationally known, e.g., “synectics”, educational taxonomies,  mastery learning, flipped classroom, simulations, “serious games”, action learning, CDIO, etc.

Some innovations are unprecedented avante-gurde Soviet/Russian developments, e. g. Shatalov’s system of instruction, TRIZ-education, Systemic Thinking Methodology of Educational Design, “Collective Method of Learning”, and post-Vygotskian developments, such as instruction based on “Stage-by-Stage Formation of Mental Actions”, “School of Dialogue of Cultures”, “Educational Extremity”, and “Developmental Education”.

The book challenges educators’ instrumental thinking and pragmatic
action in the classrooms.

Our paper aims to acknowledge and appreciate relational work. By relational, as complementary to task-orientation, we mean social the relations aspects, which we deem important for the quality of interaction between people in teams and organisations.

We see both orientations as necessary to create positive outcomes, yet often the relational is seen as a “nice to have” personal trait, as opposed to the task-orientation which is considered mission critical. Why is this so?

We recognise that our programming is deeply engrained in our individual and social structures, and it might keep an imbalance alive. This imbalance can only change if we become more aware, yet when we explicitly name it, this can be met with resistance. It needs saying that there are plenty of exceptions to this generalisation.

The digital revolution profoundly impacts the future of work and it requires a fundamental rethink of the corporate learning function. EFMD launched the Digital Age Learning Special Interest Group to look in depth at how learning must change and how the function has to shape up 
in this disruptive context.

Sponsored by Steven Smith, head of the Corporate University at Capgemini, and supported by Spanish business school IESE, this group
brought together 16 companies working on some of the building blocks for digital age transformation such as re-imagining learning architecture,
harnessing the power of social learning, transforming the user experience and more.

The group built its point of view on “the nature of learning in the digital age,” based on business and academic literature, the direct experiences of the group as well as neuroscience.

This supplement includes seven articles that illuminate the process of digital age learning, from a corporate case study to broad explorations of
the digital world and the potential for learning to be transformed.

Learn from the experience of other companies how to improve corporate learning. Based on in-depth research involving 69 organisations with 460,000 employees, this 239 page A4 report can be used to review your organisation’s learning strategy, brief your top management team on learning and knowledge management issues, decide whether and how to set up a ‘corporate university’ or centre of learning, focus on the new learning agenda, develop a strategy to create knowledge entrepreneurs, and discover ways of generating add-on revenues from corporate learning activities. Nine policy issues are examined in depth, including developing the skills and assembling the internal and external capabilities to build a learning organisation.

The report contains diagrams, checklists and 13 revealing case studies which should help you to ensure your organisation’s corporate learning strategy adds value for customers and shareholders.

Table of Contents:

The research team
How the research was conducted
Executive summary
Understanding the learning landscape
Determining the rationale and purpose of learning
Formulating learning vision, objectives and strategy
Agreeing learning centre roles, responsibilities, tasks and priorities
Building learning competencies and capabilities
Acquiring required learning capabilities
Setting up learning programmes
Supporting corporate learning
Measuring learning performance
Further reading

Firms may invest in corporate universities for many reasons, but the ultimate goal always remains keeping the organization and its people competitive in a changing marketplace. Developing a detailed step-by-step “how to” for the creation of a corporate university would be inadvisable as each university must be uniquely designed to meet the needs of the organization in which it operates. However, best practices can be identified and grouped into categories of commonalities by analyzing research surrounding successful corporate university implementations. Utilizing this methodology, we have developed a four-part framework with the inherent flexibility necessary to be applied to any organization while achieving the level of detail required to retain its usefulness as schema for corporate university implementation.

Corporate learning is at a crossroads. Existing courses and facilities are nearing the end of their useful lives, and there are new learning approaches and technologies to consider. A survey of the corporate learning plans and priorities of 69 organisations suggests there is ...

The modern world is the world of media. Several factors have a significant impact on the development of the corporate education system. Among them are the development of digital education tools, transmedia literacy and generation Y and Z in the labour market. COVID 19 infodemic is only strengthening the influence of these factors. Approaches to corporate education changed fundamentally. In the corporate education system, not only content has changed, but also approaches, technologies, and tools for developing competencies. It is critically important to add a media educational component to the system of corporate L&D. It's necessary now to develop also the corporate model of media education. And the development of media education technologies has great meaning in the modern corporate sector. Among them are microlearning, mobile education, development of project management skills, etc. All these competencies could to strengthen the competitive advantages of the company in the new media and informational reality of the corporate sector. Today it is necessary to talk about the use of transmedia in the corporate training system. Opportunities for the development of the transmedia ecosystem bring benefits to companies targeting Generation Y and Z.

Directors and boards of larger businesses and major corporations should take an interest in micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME), enterprise and entrepreneurship. Their might be scope for building mutually beneficial relationships with MSMEs and learning from the enterprise of their owner managers. The consequences of maturity can result in a requirement for re-generation and a rebooting of enterprise. Many MSMEs themselves do not benefit from a properly constituted and effective board but the approaches of entrepreneurs can benefit larger and more established businesses whose boards may need to better recognise entrepreneurial spirit, rekindle the spirit of enterprise, unleash latent entrepreneurs and build an enterprise culture. Responsible business leaders recognise that a healthy MSME sector can make a significant contribution to employment and self-employment. They should engage with younger generations upon whom the future of mankind depends; open up to them and engage, involve and trust them; inspire them by articulating challenges and opportunities in terms of causes that capture their imaginations and motivate them. They should be role models of socially responsible leadership. They should pass on the batons of creative enterprise, inspired entrepreneurship and more inclusive capitalism and put in place the cultures, working and learning environments, mechanisms and models that enable younger generations to use innovations, their time and natural resources wisely.

There are many questions that directors and boards should consider ahead of the 29th World Congress on Leadership for Business Excellence and Innovation in relation to challenges for boards and their abilities to address them; agile, innovative and supportive leadership; the role of corporate transformation and innovation; continual improvement, learning and intelligent adaptation; disruptive and enabling technologies; taking account of sustainability; fostering creativity and innovation; and navigating multiple challenges.

This paper is a case study that presents a potential solution to Case Study #13 found in The ID CaseBook – Case Studies in Instructional Design (Ertmer 136).  This paper sets out to design a plan that will evaluate where the current curriculum is, what needs to be enhanced, what needs to be added and what is useful as it is.