Corporate E-Learning: An Inside View of IBM's Solutions

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1 Oxford Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 386 items for: keywords : material substance manhrm Corporate E-Learning: An Inside View of IBM's Solutions Luther Tai Published in print: 2007 Published Online: September 2007 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This book examines how corporate e-learning is developed, implemented and how effectiveness is determined at IBM. It addresses the following questions: Why e-learning? How is e-learning developed? How is e- learning implemented? How is e-learning effectiveness determined? What are the lessons learned? E-learning is a tool to be used along with other means of learning. It is used when it is the best way to learn for a particular application. It is a way to save costly face-to-face time for optimal use. There is no one size that fits all. IBM is an early adopter in use of e-learning for training its global workforce. IBM, like other corporations, has its own unique e-learning solutions. Strategic vision, clear business objectives, well defined learning organization, strong leadership, corporate support, prudent use of e-learning, quality of content, ease of access, interoperability, accountability of learners and instructors, and a well defined measurement system all matter. Successful integration of these ingredients is essential for effective e- learning. Ignoring any of these key ingredients can lead to failure. IBM has its own rationale and approach to using e-learning. It has its growing pains. Experience in e-learning at IBM provides a unique context for leveraging e-learning to train employees. IBM has been successful in using e-learning in the context of their business objectives and business environments. IBM's experience and lessons learned should serve as an important guide to those who are implementing e-learning. Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work Huw Beynon, Damian Grimshaw, Jill Rubery, and Kevin Ward Published in print: 2002 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ Page 1 of 5

2 This book looks at how large organizations have managed and adapted to changing conditions of employment shaped by the recent economic and political environment. Additional data are presented based on evidence from other significant actors such as agency employment firms and trade unions. The book also engages with important North American debates on the changing nature of work, careers, and employment. Fuzzy Management: Contemporary Ideas and Practices at Work Keith Grint Published in print: 1997 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This book is designed for those who find current management orthodoxies inadequate, who are interested in alternative ideas and how they might be applied to management practice, but are not enthralled by the esoteric world of theoretical books about theory. This book offers a bridge between the esoteric world of theory and the practical world of management by exploring and illustrating some current theories (Fuzzy Logic, Actor-Network Theory, Chaos Theory, Constructivism etc.) through discussion of some everyday management issues (strategic decision making, appraisals, negotiation, leadership, culture, and motivation). Escalation in Decision-Making: The Tragedy of Taurus Helga Drummond Published in print: 1996 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ Getting organizations going is one thing, stopping them is another. This book examines how and why organizations become trapped in disastrous decisions. The focal point is Project Taurus, an IT venture commissioned by the London Stock Exchange and supported by numerous City Institutions. Taurus was intended to transform London's antiquated manual share settlement procedures into a state of the art electronic system that would be the envy of the world. The project collapsed after three years of intensive work and investments totalling almost 500 million pounds. This book is an in-depth study of escalation in decision making. It is based on interviews with a number of people who played a key role and presents a readable account of what actually happened. At the same time, it sets the case in the broader literature of decision making. Page 2 of 5

3 Introduction Huw Beynon, Damian Grimshaw, Jill Rubery, and Kevin Ward in Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work Published in print: 2002 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to examine the process of change in seven large organizations operating in the North of England. These organizations were located in the private and public sectors, and were spread across manufacturing and service industries. During fieldwork between the summers of 1997 and 1999, researchers sought to identify the pressures managers were under and to make sense of the kind of decisions they made as well as the impact of these decisions. Interviews with over 250 employees showed that these changes were quite profound, with deep and lasting effects upon the ways that people have come to reassess their notions of work, time, and ideas of fairness and justice. Trade Union Merger Strategies: Purpose, Process, and Performance Roger Undy Published in print: 2008 Published Online: September 2008 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This empirical study of British trade union mergers examines the causes of mergers; the search for merger partners; merger negotiations; and merger outcomes. These developments are set within the context of declining union membership and an associated loss of unions' political and economic influence. The contribution that union mergers can make to union performance and union revitalization is assessed by reference to changes in merged unions' job territories, political objectives and means, democratic ethos and government, administration, and union leaders' imperatives. The choice of merger process, either a transfer or an amalgamation, is found to be an important factor influencing the reforms which merged unions can subsequently implement. Transfers, which are far more numerous than amalgamations, tend to provide the minor transferring union with significant gains, but offer little opportunity to transform the performance of the major partner. Amalgamations have a greater transforming potential for all partner unions. However, this transforming potential is difficult to achieve in practice. Many Page 3 of 5

4 amalgamated unions experience financial and political difficulties postmerger, which can take several years to resolve. As for the wider trade union movement, the contribution of union mergers to its revitalization is both incidental and problematic. Concepts and Hypotheses acprof:oso/ Organized business and labour are vital in the operations of industrial relations. Unions and employer associations, both organizations of interest, have to deal with certain organizational issues. First, these organizations have to establish their representational domain in terms of membership and tasks. Second, the organization would require a certain level of centralization so that the members comply with collective goals and decisions. Third, such organizations have to utilize power to progress. This chapter looks into these organizational issues not only through a conventional collective-action theory, but also through looking into the conflicting demands of an associations's structure in terms of membership and influence. The Prevalence of Path Dependency acprof:oso/ Convergence and path dependency are competing hypotheses for explaining the institutional developments and their effects on performance, through views on the interplay of markets, institutional change, and performance. Path dependency may result from the existence of functional equivalents that allow countries to adapt to various market pressures or from institutional lock-ins that deter such pressures. Path dependency occurs when the distinct dimensions of labour relations co-vary in their level or organization. This chapter Page 4 of 5

5 presents findings regarding the effect of the distinct dimensions of labour relations on development and performance which can aid in a better understanding of how path dependency is related to economic internationalization. Collective Action and Bargaining in Internationalized Markets acprof:oso/ Because employers have pre-associational powers and restrictions on the strategies of their associations, employers are likely to prefer individual relations to engaging in collective exchange with labour. The desirability of collective exchange challenged thus their ability to associate and the need to do so must be differentiated. Employers played a key role in shaping the bargaining process as they have an individual and collective option. Also, market-led opportunism posed an unintentional threat from the shift to self-interested short-terminism and a deliberate threat from employer disorganization. Unions and employer associations underwent reforms to economize resources and activities and to adapt to the interdependencies of issues and interests. Postscript Helga Drummond in Escalation in Decision-Making: The Tragedy of Taurus Published in print: 1996 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ Page 5 of 5