Motorola continues to grow at a significant rate, with 20000 associates hired each year. With this growth, Motorola has the need to train people for their own hiring. Jeff Oberlin, director of Motorola University's Department of Emerging Technologies and Human Resource Trends explained:
"We can't keep using traditional classroom methods of instruction to spread the message for Motorola. Our reach isn't far enough to get to everybody. We must find creative ways to help new associates, world-wide, become productive members of a team and receive consistent messages about how we do business; the core values of Motorola, and the tools and techniques we use."
Jeff's charter is to closely re-examine MU's methods of spreading information, delivering training, and determining new and better ways of providing Motorolans with the knowledge and skills required to meet the ever-changing demands of the industry.
He went on to say, "The use of CD-ROM, Internet applications, wireless data, and a host of other emerging technologies must be fully explored. Our intent is to find those situations where alternative training delivery is the best way to transfer information."
Multimedia training would allow Motorola to:
The first step is to build a department of technology to research, develop, and eventually teach the how-to aspects of multimedia based learning.
"Once we determine how to use the various technologies available to us, we want to share that knowledge with the business." Motorola is looking for associates with expertise in a number of areas:
During the 1980s, Motorola University's original aim was to help its company build a quality culture which would then develop an internal training system. In addition, they set up corporate-wide training plans and training investment policies.
By 1990, Motorola University had expanded its operations in the United States, Eastern Europe, South America and the Asia-Pacific region. The Galvin Centre for Continuing Education was opened in 1986 while the Singapore Training Design Centre was opened in 1989.
Today, many mangers, supervisors and employees from all parts of Motorola have attended diversity training. This training helps participants to have more opportunities to develop and achieve their full potential
Until 1989, Apple Japan, the Japanese arm of the multinational Apple Computing corporation, held only 1 percent of the country's personal computer market. The appointment of a new company president marked the beginning of an era -- he started the drive to increase Apple's presence in the market and accelerated change. The company was to achieve annual sales of $1 billion by the end of 1995.
To meet this challenge the corporation approached the management consultant firm, Arthur D. Little, who have built up a wealth of experience in information technology and company restructuring. Apple Japan requested a sweeping plan to penetrate the market and increase efficiency within the company. In order to do this, they planned to reposition the brand, expand the range of distributors, improve customer management, and introduce the concept of the Learning Organisation into the workplace.
Although group meetings were a regular part of company practice, more time was allowed for group discussions and team education. This kept the work teams well informed and increased every individual's input to their project. With the increased emphasis on team learning, a shared vision was naturally introduced, allowing each member to work towards the same goal irrespective of their position.
Each employee of the company had their own mental model of how the organisation, their managers and team colleagues operate. By trying to bring each person's mental model into line with the rest of the team, the learning process was made more efficient and teams acted more coherently. Personal Mastery was also addressed by encouraging managers to set their staff challenging but reasonable goals, and introducing training programmes.
The crucial discipline was Systems Thinking, which brought all the other factors together. This enabled each employee to make decisions, taking the whole system into account, instead of focusing specifically on their own problems.
These disciplines were implemented by moderate restructuring and a program of education that was applied to everyone in the organisation.
Although not all of the success can be attributed to the introduction of the Learning Organisation concept, the results indicate an unprecedented improvement. The learning organisation was a major player in instituting this growth.
YPF, the largest company in Argentina, is today a focused, highly productive oil and gas company involved in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. It also refines, markets and distributes oil and petroleum products.
In 1989, the company employed 52 000 permanent and temporary staff, and included holdings in fields as far away from its main business as hospitals and cinemas. The challenge facing the company was to transform itself from an inefficient state-owned bureaucratic centre into an efficient private company that could attract international investment.
In order to facilitate this change, the company went about re-designing its organisational structure and culture. They turned to the American management consultant firm, Arthur D Little.
The establishment of a measurement system was perhaps the biggest step -- this enabled the employees to evaluate and review what was going on in the company, thus learning about current processes and seeing what worked well. The introduction of working groups also benefited the business, as ideas could be discussed, and perceptions aired. Everyone in the business became more aware of the company's purpose and the collective effort reaped dramatic results.
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