General Electric's Corporate University

The Corporate University in
General Electric Company
_Aun Falestien Faletehan_
presented in University of Canberra, 2007

 GE runs 6 strong businesses
GE
Industrial
GE
Money
GE
Healthcare
NBC
Universal
GE
Infrastructure
GE Commercial
Finance
GE
Headquarter
 Founded in 1892, GE is a multinational American technology and
service in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States of America
 America‟s most admired company in 2007
(Fortune Magazine)
 Global Locations _ 160 Countries
with more than 100 subsidiaries
 Has a strong root with Thomas Alva Edison‟s heritage
Products and services:
Aviation, Electricity, Media and
Entertainment, Finance, Energy
Gas and wind Turbine, Oil,
Appliances, Industrial Automation,
Lighting, Medical Imaging
Equipment, Medical Softwares,
Motors, Plastics, Railway
Locomotives, Water, Healthcare,
Security , etc.

o Total worldwide employees : 310.000 (Januari 2007)
o GE invests about $1 billion annually on training and
development programs .
o GE‟s corporate university; John Francis Welch Leadership
Center at Crotonville.
“We build great people, who then build great products and services.”
former GE CEO, Welch (1999)
Training and development
o GE is ranked first among other famous companies
in term of people management
(Fortune Magazine)

The framework of Corporate University (CU)
o The CU generally is a function
of the human resource
department (Lenderman and
Sandelands, 2002)
o The CU is for continuous
learning, training and
development (El-Tannir,
2002)

John F. Welch Leadership Center
 Established in 1956, the 53-acre
corporate learning campus is America's
first Corporate University and a symbol
of GE's commitment to learning.
 Historically, the institute was renamed
in 2001 to honor the former CEO; Jack
Welch‟s pending retirement after 20
years of service. The previous name is
just GE‟s Leadership Development
Institute
 Each year, thousands of GE people
from entry-level employees to
highest-performing executives come
to Crotonville.

 GE‟s Crotonville is a change agent
in the culture and to drive
performance in GE
 It is planned to accelerate
learning for high performing
employees, using a variety of
methods from
e-learning to action learning,
from boot camps to leadership
summits.
 A core curriculum is managed at
a corporate level
Roles:
• Transferring knowledge
• Enhancing corporate
culture
• As a venue of global
meeting
• Career transition point

Transferring knowledge
o Blass (2005) argued that the
establishment of a CU can
facilitate the establishment of a
knowledge management system
o It should be congruent with the
new modes of „knowledge
creation‟ and „knowledge
sharing‟ as a learning process
within an organisation (Paton,
Peters, Storey and Taylor, 2005)
 Regulars workshop to
ensure the process of
transferring knowledge
among employees
 “The pit”; a forum where
leaders from the separate
companies owned by GE
gather to discuss major
organisational initiative in
a free-flow format.
o Organisational development
and individual development
(Dealtry, 2002)
 6-Sigma Quality Program
 Core Leadership
Development Program

Enhancing corporate culture
o One advantage of the CU is to
aid maintenance of a
corporate culture even when
spread over diverse local
cultures. It can also help to
shape an organisation‟s
culture (Blass, 2005)
 GE‟s Work-Out program
• to create a culture of
speed, simplicity and self-
confidence consistent with
continuous improvement
• It emphasises on boundary-less
culture, empowered
teamwork, building trust, and
collect GE‟s people regardless
of position
• It involves group meetings of
40 to 100 employees picked
by management from all
functions for meetings within
two or three days

As a venue of global meeting
 Crotonville is a glue that holds GE
together (Welch, 1999)
 It serves as a megaphone for the GE
culture. As an important management
forum, it provides a means for key
executives to stay in touch with the
whole of workforce, to sense the mood
of employees, and to view the skills of
participants in a real-time learning
experience
 It is place for global coordination and
integration

Career transition points
 GE‟s Crotonville is
organised around the
concept that there are
“moments of
opportunity” in any
career
o Establishing a CU may
make the company more
attractive for talented
individuals who need to
know that their career
development is well-
managed (Development
and Learning in
Organizations, 2005).

Career transition point

Analysis
o Knowledge-sharing
process may become
knowledge limiting, by
placing artificial
boundaries around the
knowledge in the
organisation by
creating, for example,
a curriculum
(Blass, 2005)
 In-house training
department for in-
house participants
 Centre of knowledge
sharing and
continuous learning
 A change agent in
culture and to
drive performance
 Guidelines of training
and development for
all GE‟s employees
worldwide

Conclusions and Recommendations
 The corporate university is an excellent place for training and
development in multinational companies
 GE may be one great example of MNCs which succeed to focus on their
workforce development by setting GE‟s Crotonville as a venue for
sharing and creating knowledge, shaping organisational culture,
providing a place of global meeting and indicating career development
 GE‟s Crotonville is the first pioneered corporate university and more
recently such a model for continuous learning and training employees
has been adopted by a large number of corporation worldwide
 It is recommended for multinational companies to establish the
corporate university
 Curriculum is important, but employees creativity is more significant
to bring organisational success

General Electric's Corporate University

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