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Introduction
T his article sets out a prospectus for facilitat-
ing learning, development and research by
means of an organizationally integrated frame-
work of action learning, suppor ted by inter-
net-based resources and tu tored sessions inthe workplace. T he themed approach, devel-
oped in response to corporate needs and
aspirations, provides a uniquely crafted learn-
ing framework which is derived from a generic
curriculum and augmented to address indu s-
try and corporate specialisms and themes. T he
theming is derived from: an internet Forum;
an experiential knowledge base (distributed by
internet and intranet); the assessment
approach and the concept of a long-term
learning partnership between a corporate
client and International Man agement C entres(IMC) . T he article is underpinned by the
work of Gordon Wills and especially his book
Your Enterprise School of M anagementwhich
contends that managers learn best at work:My p roposition is that each and every enterprise
mu st institutionalize its workplace learning
systems and opp ortu nities in such a way that it
radiates what it has already achieved, and from
such a well-understood p latform moves on to
realize its full poten tial. There can be no self-
dou bts. T he enterpr ise itself is the key. T here is
no o ther cost-effective way to motivate man -
agers to learn, or to p rovide the oppor tunities tolearn, that are the inescapable requirements for
todays and tomorrows successful enterpr ise
(Wills, 1993 , p. 9).
International Management Centres (IMC) in
conjunction with Un iversities in Australia and
the UK (for example, the alliance between the
Un iversity of Surrey and IM C is known as
Surrey IMC) p rovide an integrated resource
dedicated to supporting the aspirations of
industry, commerce, the professions and adu lt
learners in the wider field of continuing educa-
tion. T he learning resource encompasses
action learning, applied and basic research and
learner support p rovided by MC B University
Press, Anbar Electronic Intelligence and the
British Library. IMC is dedicated to suppor t-
ing life-long learning and corporate aspirations
to become a learning organization. To sup-
port these goals, IMC aims to establish long-
term learning partnerships with organizations
and to work with them in building and main-
taining in-company learning networks.
T he article considers the concept andvision of a learning organization and reviews
the role of teamworking in enact ing change
and sustaining innovation. T he value and
poten tial of workplace action learning is
95
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 pp. 95121
M CB Un iv ersi ty Press I SSN 1 36 6- 56 26
Part I IDeve loping acurriculum for
organizationa l learningRichard E. Teare
The authorRichard E. Tea re is Forte Professor, Universit y of Surrey,
Guildf ord, Surrey, UK.
Abstract
Addresses the agenda for learning, development and
research by presenting an organizational fram ewo rk for
action learning, supported by internet-based resources
and tut ored sessions in the w orkplace. Outlines a them ed
approach, developed in response to corporate needs and
aspirations, w hich is derived from a generic curriculum and
augment ed to address industry issues and corporate
specialisms.
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assessed in relation to the hospitality indu stry
and the Hospitality and Tourism Global
Forum on th e Internet provides a means of
distributing interactive learning resources
worldwide. T he concept of industry and
corporate theming is also illustrated in this
section with reference to the Airport Business
Forum and BAA Plc, the airpor t owner and
operator. Industry applications in the form of
project-based assignments and assessment
and a broader interface for learning, develop-
ment and research are used to explain and
illustrate the dynamics of partnerships
between IM C and its clients.
A vision of t he learning orga nizat ion
An organizations rate of learn ing must be equa l
to or greater than the rate of change in its exter-
nal environment (or : L > = C) (Reg Revans)
A recent report from th e Henley Cen tre
commissioned by T he Joint Hospitality
Industry Con gress (JH IC) reflects the scale of
the change agenda and the challenges facing
industry:
T he challenge:
to be flexible, convenient, good value, cus-
tom made, accessible, safe and in touch with th e
consumer
to be un ified, professional, informed, inn ov-
ative and inspired
(Vision for the Future, JH IC Report, June 1996).
In respond ing to change, a growing number of
organizations are seeking to embed a culture
of continuous learning and development,
characterized by:Con tinuous improvement (team s, recognizing
achievements)
H um an resource development
(recognizing that learning is an investment n ot a
cost)
Encouraging a commitment to learnPrototyping radical ideas (thinking and acting
differently)
T he character istics of learning organizations
and some of the array of evidence that organi-
zations improve and learn by doing provide
a basis for interpreting the role of action learn-
ing in learning organization partnerships
(see Figure 1).
Organizat ional sources of lea rning
Enablers
(1) Policy and strategy:
Management have made a visible and
clear comm itment of their desire to
consciously man age learning in the
organization;
this commitment is backed by policy
and values statements;
systems and processes reinforce the
policy;
it is consistently referred to in compa-
ny commu nications;
resources are dedicated to making the
policy effective.
(2) Leadership: Leadership behaviours that
suppor t learning are defined and used in
appraisal, selection and promot ion they
might include:
coaching/mentoring of others;
defining and articulating a vision;
courageous, risk taking, empowering;
open-minded, experimenting, admit-
ting mistakes;
encouraging views/dissent;
visibly a learner personally;
collaborator/sharer, listener, seeker
and giver of feedback;
conscious/generous provider of learn-
ing opport unities.
(3) People management processes:
Feedback on performance is rigorous
and com plete not reliant on just one
input; both monetary and non-monetary
rewards encourage continual learning;
internal selection takes account of
learning needs recognizes the special
value of learning from experience;
where possible, roles are described in
ways which give people scope to grow
and experiment.
(4) Use of information technology:
People are connected electronically
and can both communicate and worktogether;
people have access to information
easily and simply, both in tern al and
relevant external;
experience and knowledge gained from
the past is captured and made available
to all;
people are able to use electronic inter-
active learning opportunities.
Environment
(1) A supportive culture:
People talk about learning naturally
(not just training) and bu ild it into
their daily way of working;
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
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people take personal responsibility for
their learning and development an d
freely help others;
knowledge is not regarded as power
but freely shared;
people are open-minded, free to ques-
tion assumptions and to make mistakes
without recrimination;
time and money are committed and
regarded as a priority.
Learning
(1) Individual learning: Individuals take responsibility for their
own learning and development an d
can do so comp etently;
they have personal learning plans,
derived from an und erstanding of their
own needs and those of the business;
they understand their own learning
style and how to both choose and
ut ilize different learning options;
they are skilled at both giving and
receiving feedback;
they know how to use others, and help
others, in the learning process.
(2) Team learning:
Teams and working groups utilize the
capability of each member for the
benefit of all;
they frequently learn and unlearn
together, in order to share a common
approach;
they support each other in individual
learning objectives;
the organization encourages cross-boun dary groups, commun ities of
common interest, and intern al and
external networks in order to m aximize
sharing of learn ing;
teams help other teams and learn from
each other.
(3) Organizational learning:
T he organization consciously adapts
its strategies to the changing environ-
ment planning processes are flexible
and iterative;
there are mechanisms for listening to
all the stakeholders, for benchmarking
against best p ractice, and for adapting
objectives as a result;
there is a systematic and disciplined
approach to the flow of knowledge
across the organization;
mergers, acquisitions and alliances are
seen as opportunities for learning as
much as financial gain;
structures are designed to consider
learning an d knowledge flow.
Results
Improved business results:
Formal learning activities are derived
from a business goal; costs due to ineffectiveness as a learn-
ing organization are identified and
tracked;
revenue losses are equally identified
and tracked;
human intellectual asset value
increases steadily;
improvements can be measured for
each stakeholder.
Enacting chang e a nd susta ininginnovation
T his section draws from case study research
conducted in 14 U K and US-based
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Source: Adapted from: Andrew M ayo, BAA Plc., Conference for Learning, 24 September 1996
Policy andstrategy
Supportiveculture a
learningclimate and
organizationalteamworking
Individuallearning
Team
learning
Organizationallearning
Improvedbusinessresults
Leadership
Enablers Environment Learning Results
Peoplemanagementprocess
Use of informationtechnology
Figure 1 The concept and vision of t he learning organization
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manu facturing and service firms, m ost with
matur e teamworking stru ctures. Th e aim is
to examine pract itioner perspectives and
current practices in teamworking and to
assess the strategic contr ibution that
work-based teams are making to quality
improvement.
Proc esses or functions? The role
of team working in workplace
learning
In recen t years a growing number of organiza-
tions have adopted a process paradigm an d
approach and among those that have, most
are cur rent ly exploring ways of attaining
higher levels of service and responsiveness.
H ere, emphasis is placed on processes (such
as the activities of support ing customers or
suppor ting those that do) that transcend
traditional functional boun daries. In the early
stages of change this may mean little more
than the creation of a matrix structure wher-
ever a readily identifiable service chain exists.
Evidence suggests that p rocess-based organi-
zations can derive a number of benefits and
especially where process owners process
champions and process teams are encour-
aged (Gar vin, 1995). A team concept is cen-
tral to the development of process-basedmanagement and it is one of the few means by
which large business processes can be inte-
grated. F urther, teamworking holds especial
significance for the management structure as
those who m ove to a process-based approach
take a team-based approach as a paradigm for
managing the bu siness (Ingram et al., 1997a;
1997b)
T he aim here is to explore the contemp o-
rary role of teamworking in a selection of
award-winning UK and US firm s (Teare et.al., 1996a; 1997a; 1997b). T he examples
draw on: single prob lem-solving team pro-
jects; self-directed team project s and organi-
zation-wide quality improvement based on a
team ph ilosophy and approach. T he section
concludes by drawing together some of the
notable benefits derived from team-based
initiatives in these different contexts.
Total teamworking
Twelve of the case stud y organizations were
1995 finalists in UK national competitions
run by the N ational Society for Quality
through Teamwork (N SQT ), a registered
charity dedicated to enabling member
organizations in all sectors of British Ind ustr y
to achieve their goals in continu ous improve-
ment , people involvement and customer
service. Its recipe for total teamworking is
based on t he premiss that a climate of contin-
uous change is needed to stimulate a never-ending programm e of improvement and th is
is sustained by drawing on a m ix of six ingre-
dients (see Figure 2).
T hese are: management comm itment
(visible at all levels, but led from t he t op );
education ( ensuring that everyone knows
the language and uses the improvement
tools and t echniques); measurem ent ( visible
in all workplaces and self-set goals, bench-
marked against t he best); recognition
(appreciation of members and t eamsimprovement achievement s) and regenera-
tion (ensuring that the programme continu-
ously evolves).
T he NSQT /Michelin Excellence Awards
introduced in 1990 and sponsored by the
Michelin Tyre Company, are given each year
to up t o three teams who have demonstrated
excellence in the way they have ident ified a
problem, solved it and then implemented an
effective solution. T he six examples here,
reflect two categories single problem, man-agement promoted projects (Table I) and
continuous improvements made by self-
directed teams (Table II).
98
Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Company Improvement Programme
M anagement Comm itment; Education; Implementation;M easuring and Benchm arking; Recognit ion; Regeneration
Programme Ingredients'The Mix of Six'
Deployment of Departmental Programmes
Reactive Teams(Corrective Act ion Teams,Workplace Improvement Teams)
Proactive Teams(Process Im provement Teams)
M anagement and Staff
Figure 2 Ingredien ts of chang e: the NSQTs view
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Single problem/managem ent promoted
projectsT he th ree illustrat ions typify the ways in
which teams can provide a means of dealing
with:
(1) a crisis situation (Albright & Wilson);
(2) design improvement (BSF Garr ingtons);
and
(3) unwanted process outcomes (Severn
Trent).
In each case, solutions were found and in so
doing, team members reported other benefits
(see Table I). T hese included : increasedcommitment and m otivation; improved com-
mu nications; a sense of learn ing from each
other and of satisfaction derived from drawing
upon a blend of team m ember skills and
abilities. In essence, the unexpected bene-
fits were personal and in terp ersonal as well as
organizational (see Figure 3).
Continuous improvement/self-directed
team projects
In many respects, the lifeblood of continuou simprovement emanates from self-directed
teams seeking to identify prob lems and
improvement opportu nities and then app ly
solutions themselves. In the following cases,
teams sought to make process improvements
with multi-disciplinary inputs and, while thisapproach is well established in manufactur-
ing, it is mu ch less widespread in services (see
Table II). T he key point here is the potential
to refine, innovate or re-invent processes so
that they serve their pu rpose more effectively
(see Figure 4).
T he Britannia Airways example demon-
strates invent ive thinking in dealing with the
prob lems associated with servicing and
replacing passenger seat ashtrays. A relatively
simple, cost-saving solution meant that the
work of cleaning staff was also easier and
cleaner to perform a nice illustrat ion of
internal customer-centred improvement ,
greatly appreciated by cabin servicing staff.
An example from Land Rover is ind icative of
the way its business has been literally trans-
formed d uring the p ast few years by adopting
a total teamwork approach. In this instance, a
discussion group found a perfect solution to
an imperfect provision for preventing scratch-
ing and paint damage dur ing vehicle assem-
bly. H ere a simple solution was found and thecheapest possible way of implement ing it
accomplished by the assembly line team
mem bers themselves because they felt com-
mitted to getting things right.
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Table I Single problem/managem ent promot ed projects
Team M ain feat ures of t he act ion t aken Principal out com es
The Potassium Phosphat es Formatio n of a process change Excellent teamw ork (visible commit ment
Improvement Team1 cross- funct ional team; use o f wo rk to the p ro ject and to each o the r) ;
(Albright & Wilson Plc.) sh i f t ove rlaps fo r team meet ings; increased leve ls of mo t ivat ion (d r iven by
in troduct ion o f a process log book the desire to succeed and not by personalto record prob lems, comments and reward); f ree-flow ing in format ion, t rust
decisions and to identify project tr ia l and a wil l ingness to learn from each
opt ions ot her
The Hub-Run-Out Team2 A supplier-based core team form ing The team achieved process improvement
(British Ste el Forging s, tw o mult i-functional teams. Each and a product design change w hich
Garringtons) used databased problem-solving resulted in a permanent solution to a
techniques. One team used cause recurr ing prob lem. Th is is a t t r ibuted to
and effect charts to improve the use of a logical problem-solving
machining capabil i ty, the other approach and the effective blend of core
w orked w ith the customer on design team skil ls and qualit ies
and process modifi cationsThe Goscote Team3 The team, w ith the support of a Solutions w ere mainly implement ed on a
Severn Trent Plc. Quality Facil i tator and laboratory day-to-day basis as improvements w ere
analyses, studied data collected over trai led and left in place. Refinement s
a 24 mont h period. The team also arose from brainstorm ing, testing ideas
used cause and ef fect ana lysis and agains t up-to-date in format ion and by
p ro b le m so l vi ng d i sci p li n e w a l l- d ra w i ng o n p ro ce ss ex pe rt s w h o
charts to iden t i f y act ion del i ve ry p rovided techn ica l adv ice
dates
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T he opportu nity to re-invent the
familiar yet ineffective is clearly shown in the
Varity Perkins case. In th is, a cross-functional
team solved an array of problems (admini-
strative, financial, techn ical, supp lier and
produ ction-related) by setting-up a newprocess and procedure for procuring a vital
piece of production line equipment ( see also
Teare et al., 1997c). All three examples
demon strate an overriding commitment t o
make things better and to tr y the unthink-
able if need be to achieve the desired result.
At the un it or site level it is clear that singleproblem and self-directed team structures
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Table II Continuous improvem ent/self-directed team p rojects
Team M ain feat ures of t he act ion t aken Principal out com es
Quality Street4 Th e t ea m use d a st a nd ard p ro b le m - Th e p ro j ect l ed t o t h e i n tr od u ct i on of an
(Britann ia Airwa ys) so lv in g m o de l t o id en t if y t he se rv ici ng i n no va t iv e b la nk in g p la t e so lu t io n t o
p ro b le m s a sso ci at e d w i t h p ro vi di ng t h e m i su se o f ash t ra ys. By re m ov in g
ashtrays to al l passengers. Action ashtrays (except in smoking sections)included : b rainsto rming ; in forma t ion reduct ions in clean ing t ime, the tu rnover
gathering/fact fin ding; and a of ashtrays and stock holding of ashtrays
so lut ions ef fect d iagram to t est w ere ach ieved
ideas for reducing cabin servicing tim e
and costs
New Star Trekkers5 A range of assemb ly -rela ted p rob lems By refin ing the means o f p reven t ing pain t
(Land Rover) w ere identified using brainstorming damage during vehicle assembly, the cost
and cause and effect diagrams. After in t im e and materials needed to re-work
thi s, the team used its analysis to on average 14 vehicles per w eek has
co n st ruct a s ol u ti o ns ef f ect d i ag ra m . b ee n el im i n at ed . Th is im p rov em e nt h a s
Line trials w ere used to test several been achieved by switching from w oodenp o ssi bl e so lu t io n s a nd d at a f ro m t h e b o ards t o r ub b er m a t s. Fu rt h er, a t i m e
trials w ere used to refine the and mot ion study has confirmed
sp eci fi ca ti on f or scr ap m at s u sed o per at i on al ben efi t s f ro m u si ng t he m at s
to prevent paint damage
Dyane Team6 The team used bra insto rming , process An in -house to ta l qua li t y cycle p rov ided
(The Varity Perkins mapping and action planning the investigative and planning framew ork
Group) techniques to identify the scope of for identify ing and testing a new process
the p rob lem. Th is p rompted a rev iew and p rocedure. Pr ior to to ta l qual i t y (TQ),
of the volume of paper w ork innovative solutions w ere rarely possible,
transactions needed to process the as solutions w ere handed dow n rather
w o rk . A l on g an d va ri ab l e t u rn arou n d t h an d ev ol ved t o t h e p eo p le f aci ng t h et ime fo r recond it ioned par ts was a lso p rob lem to so lve. The TQ in f rast ructu re
investigated and a radical solution meant that all objectives cost, lead-tim e,
adopt ed aft er a series of carefully im provem ent and end user satisfaction
p lanned project t rials w ere at tainable
Problemidentified
Success factors:
(4) technicalinnovationsBritannia Airways
(6) process/procedurere-designThe Varity Perkins Group
(5) 'zero defects'refinementLand Rover
Team-directedprojects Outcomes:
Refine, innovate andre-invent processes;Zero defects and c ostreduction improvements;Cross-functionalinnovations t ry the'unthinkable'.
Figure 4 Continuous improvement /self directed team project outcomes
Problemidentified
Success factors:
(1) group
sublimationAlbright &Wilson Plc
(3) technicaladvice and trials
Severn Trent Plc
(2) supplierliaisonBritish Steel Forgings Garringtons
Managementpromotedproject
Outcomes:Problem resolved;Increased commit mentand motivation;Improved com munications;Shared learning;unexpected personal andinterpersonal satisfaction
derived from team input.
Figure 3 Single team project out comes
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offer d ifferent yet interrelated vehicles for
addressing problems and improvement
opportun ities. If they are to function effective-
ly, an organizational framework for team work-
ing is needed and th e basis for th is is reflected
in the N SQT /Perkins Award criteria.
Fram eworks for organizational
teamworking
T he N SQT /Varity Perkins Quality Improve-
ment Award, sponsored by Varity Perkins was
launched in 1987 (see Table III). T he Award
is presented to the management team which
best demonstrates its continuing commitm ent
to a programm e of total people involvement,
with qu ality and em ployee activities as key
elements. T he judging criteria are designed to
measure the m anagement t eams progressdur ing the immediate past year in relation to:
the quality journey; the deployment of qu ality
improvement throughou t the organization;
quality education an d training; the systems of
measurement applied; achievements as
recorded by the measurement system; man -
agement com mitment and the recognition
process and futu re continuous improvement
plans. T he featured o rganizations are:
Each or ganization u ses a framework
for organizational teamworking and inthis instance, sought to ach ieve specific
improvement goals in the cour se of a one
year per iod. To illustrate the gener ic
poten tial for organizationally-based team -
working, the shor t pro files below relate the
natu re of the organization and its main bu si-
ness to its teamworking focus and outcomes.
Co-operation and integration. T he Benefit
Enquiry Line7 (BEL) Preston UK is part of the
Benefits Agency and it provides a nat ional, free
telephone advice and information service for
people with disabilities, their carers and repre-sentatives. BELs team structure of discussion
groups and focus groups are intentionally
cross-grade and cross-team so as to encourage
teamworking and inter-departmental support.
Each department operates an open-door
policy and staff routinely work in other depar t-
ments so that an atm osphere of co-operation
and mutu al understanding is sustained.
Learning and cost reduction. Britannia Top-
sides Project, London8, part of the wider
Britannia Field development project, creates
facilities to produ ce gas and condensate from a
UK N orth Sea field. T hree companies, con-
tractor AMEC and oil companies CON OC O
and C H EVRON, form an alliance to jointly
develop the offshore facilities. Topsides has
established an effective cost control system,
based on the principles of empowerment. A
feature of this work is the data bank of more
than 600 cost-saving ideas, all of which reflect
open thinking and teamworking. A cost saving
of around 10 million has been achieved since
the inception of the ideas programme.Business performance improvement. RH P
Bearings Ltd, F errybridge9 part of NSK, the
worlds second largest bear ings man ufactu rer,
employs 18,000 people worldwide. Ferr y-
bridge is one of seven RH P m anufacturing
101
Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Table I II Varity Perkins quality improvement award
Com pany Organizat ional vision, object ives and team w orking Focus
Benefit Enquiry To foster an organizational culture that is enabling, Co-operation and
Line
7
em po w eri ng , co -o per at ive an d t ea m- dr iv en ; an d w i th in teg rat io n teams that involve staff, custom ers and suppliers
Britann ia Topsides8 To create a learning organi zation to bring about cultural Learning and cost
ch an g e a nd b y t h is m e an s a ch ie ve co st re du ct i on go al s red u ct i on
RHP Bearings Ltd9 To achieve business excellence by means of a team -based Business perform ance
approach im provem ent
Royal Insurance Life To improve the company s compet i t ive posi t ion by improv ing Compet i t ive
& Pensions10 the team w orkin g culture, its business processes, customer positio ning
satisfaction levels, retention rates and reputation and t he
cost effectiveness of it s operations
Slag Reduction To im prove w orkforce flexibi l i ty, human and physical resource Improving resource
Company1 1 uti l ization and improvements in w orking practices. uti l ization
Wel lman To involve every employee in meeting custom er expectations, M aximizing employee
reducing process imperfections and quality costs and providing partic ipation
Internat ional Ltd1 2 opportunit ies to im prove work m ethods by real participation
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sites, with a workforce of 620 people. Team-
based business performance improvement
was achieved by undertaking a rad ical change
program me. I ts key features were:
(1) the introduction of a transparent struc-
ture to cascade the mission, plans, strate-
gies and t argets of the company through-
out th e factory and a concert ed effort to
encourage peop le involvement in decid-
ing how targets could be met;
(2) the use of regular reviews to identify
where things were going to plan an d what
corrective action was needed ;
(3) the development of several key cross-
depar tmental projects to address known
problems;
(4) recognition that an open culture of mutu-
al trust and support m ust be built gradu-ally and that it must prom ote fairness
and equality of status, irrespective of job
role;
(5) th e adoption and development of an
annu al quality process-based review
incorporating objective an d subjective,
self-assessment measures.
Competitive positioning. Royal Insurance L ife
& Pensions, L iverpool10 identified a need to
incorporate new measures into its reporting
system. A feature of the n ew measurement
system is that it is owned by the continu ous
improvement group m embers, rather than by
senior managemen t. A key element is the
balanced scorecard app roach which consists
of a range of measures designed to report on
performan ce indicators relevant to t he inter-
ests of customers, staff and shareholders.
Em ployees see this as a wholly positive devel-
opm ent, p roviding useful information which
contr ibutes to achieving quality targets.
Improving resource utilization. T he SlagReduction Com pany Limited, Redcar11 is
the ind ustrial service division of Faber Prest
plc on Teeside. Its quality improvement
initiative achieved som e specific
breakthrou ghs including: the elimination of
restrictive practices and the re-design o f
working m ethods to achieve improved effi-
ciency levels and an improvement in employ-
ee utilization from 50 per cent to 88 per cent
(verified by British Steels work study and
operational research department ).
M aximizing employee participation. Well-
man International Ltd, K ells12 , based in
Ireland, is a premier supplier of polyester and
polyamide fibres to customers in Eu rope and
beyond. I ts effort to m aximize employee
involvement has led to a more open style of
management and a mu ch greater emphasis
on softer performance indicators like
employee attitud es and morale, customer
focus and the effectiveness of training, com -
mu nications and teamworking activity. E vi-
dence suggests that a greater sense of open-
ness and freedom has fostered a much greater
commitment to qu ality improvement am ong
the workforce as a whole.
It is interesting to reflect on the u niversal
poten tial of teamworking as a means of
unlocking organizational capability, especial-
ly in the context o f business process re-engi-
neer ing which is genera lly viewed as a
count er-teamworking step. While their jour-
neys have necessarily been quite different,Corning Incorporated and the GT E C orpo-
ration bo th h ave corporate quality offices that
are deliberately kept small to em phasize their
facilitating role. Responsibility for quality
performan ce rests with the operating units
which all receive quality edu cation in a cas-
cading approach, start ing with senior man-
agement. Fu rther, bot h comp anies are global
players with presences on several continen ts,
making qu ality their b asic business principle,
regardless of where they operate. T hey do so
because they define quality as meeting cus-
tomer requiremen ts. It is from this perspec-
tive of being customer-driven and customer-
focused that they keep on re-inventing th eir
organizations to remain customer-responsive
and enhan ce competitive advantage (see
Table IV).
Process re-engineering. A Fortune 500 com-
pany, C orning13 concentrates on t he three
key global markets that account for 60 per
cent of its revenues: opt ical comm unications,
life sciences and the environm ent. To achieveits re-engineering goals, C orn ings President
cham pioned the initiative after which key
processes were re-structured (rather than
eliminating jobs) an d t he firm s employees
were invited to participate. To achieve this, a
strict timetable for each phase was needed
priority setting and team launch; opportu nity
detailing (focused on innovation effective-
ness, the roles of the corp orate and line orga-
nizations, manufactur ing effectiveness, pur -
chasing and inventory effectiveness andinformation technology) and action planning
during which 17 teams totalling around 100
employees worked full-time to re-design
processes and reduce complexities.
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Decentralized planning. GT E14 is the largest
single provider of local telephon e services in
the U nited States and it sought to align itself
more closely with its customers and re-engi-
neer its business processes in order to keep
pace with the rate of change. An over-arching
consideration was its quality programm e and
GT E successfully encouraged its operating
un its to focus on business processes (via
customer satisfaction) as a mean s of improv-
ing quality but withou t insisting on a stan-
dard approach. In essence, it encouraged
teamworking and provided incentives to
adopt quality processes that would d eliver
customer satisfaction but it gave each bu si-
ness unit the freedom to craft its own qu ality
programme. T his decentralized approach has
enabled GT E to transform its organization
and deliver its products and services mu ch
more efficient ly and cost effectively.
Learning from team s
Figure 5 summ arizes the array of evidence
drawn from the 14 case illustrations relating
to th e role of teamworking in tackling single
problem and team-directed projects; the
development and refining of tools and tech-
niques for total quality and its contr ibution
to organizational change and development.
Workplace action learning and t hecurriculum
T he new vision theme of partnership in
workplace learn ing offers a timely opportun ity
to review the evolving natu re of hospitalityoperations management and to discuss some
of the likely challenges ahead. In the field of
training, development and learning these
include: assessing hu man resource needs and
priorities (Linney and Teare, 1991; Teare and
Brotherton , 1990) the implications for train-
ing and management d evelopment (C lose and
Teare, 1990) and th e role of open and prob-
lem-based learning (Teare and Akehurst,
1988a; 1988b) among other n on-standard
forms of learn ing suppor t. To assess the scope
for workplace learning, it seems appropriate
to speculate on the outcom es of gradual
change brought about b y technological
advancement and other forms of innovation
(Teare et al., 1996b) as well as the per vasive
influence of more dramatic, often uncon trol-
lable forces like econom ic recession. T he aim
here is to review the way in which structural
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
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Table IV Teamw orking organizational fram ewo rks in North America: Corning and GTE
Com pany Recent organizat ional t eam w orking im perat ives Focus
Corning Corning competes involved a re-engineering exercise to Process
Incorporated13 reduce costs and im prove shareholder value re-engineering
GTE Re-engineering to achieve excellence in process focus, Decentr alized
Corporat ion14 q ua li ty/ cu st o mer sa ti sf act i on l ev el s a nd co st r ed uct io n p la nn in g
Single problem project sTeam-directed projects
Develop and refine TQ methodology
Establish an organizational teamw orking framew orkand define teamworking priorities
(7) Co-operationand integrationThe Benefit Enquiry
Line (Preston UK)(8) Learning andcost reductionBritannia TopsidesProject (London)
(9) Businessperformanceimprovement
RHP Bearings Ltd,Ferrybridge(10) CompetitivepositioningRoyal InsuranceLife & Pensions
(11) Improvingresource uti lizationThe Slag Reduction
Co. Ltd Redcar(12) M aximizingemployee participationWellman Int . Ltd, Kells
(13) Processre-engineeringCorning Inc orporated
(14) DecentralizedplanningGTE Corporation
Figure 5 Organizational teamworking frameworks and focused outcomes
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changes in the industry are influencing the
nature and scope of managerial work at un it
level (Teare, 1990) . T his in tu rn, has implica-
tions for the way in which the curriculum
model is conceptualized and hospitality oper-
ations management teaching and learning is
suppor ted so that it aligns with the new
realities of industr y (Johns and Teare, 1995,
Teare and O wen, 1996) and the needs of
aspiring graduate managers (Teare et al.,
1996c).
Structural change and the implications
for operations managem ent
During the 1980s the European hospitality
indu stry gradu ally began to shift away from its
highly fragmented state as firms became
bigger, bett er organized an d more efficient.
T he main goal was to out-perform competi-
tor s, mainly by achieving higher profitability
through geographical expansion and
increased distribu tion. In their ana lysis of the
macro-economic trends affecting the main
European hotel markets in 1990, L itteljohn
and Slattery (1991) conclude that competi-
tion will continue to be dr iven by the n ature of
deman d, the oppor tun ities for further expan-
sion, and the threat to profitability posed by
prevailing levels of industr y compet ition.During the same year, Olsen (1991) profiled
the events that were starting to shape industry
structu re, with the help of a dozen or so Euro-
pean hospitality indu stry execut ives repre-
senting hotel and restaurant firm s, suppliers
and industry associations. He begins by trac-
ing the origins of the industr y investmen t
boom to th e involvement of the capital-
market comm unity dur ing the early 1970s.
T he prospects of sustained growth and above
average levels of retu rn on investment, cou-pled with the emergence of bigger firms who
knew how to harn ess the benefits of buying
power and advanced technology, fuelled the
expansion which took p lace. In recent times,
firm s geared for expansion were forced to
consolidate th eir market positions in response
to recession in Europe. A potent cocktail of
volatile and unpredictable events forced many
European hospitality firms to de-layer or
downsize their corporate organizations so
as to address dem and instability, high interest
rates and oth er events. Con sequently, most of
the bigger hospitality firm s are now flatter
and leaner th an at any point in their recent
histories.
Olsen concludes his analysis by reflecting
on the natu re of the challenge facing firms
who are trying to come to term s with intern al
re-structur ing and with fewer senior man agers
working in specialist roles:It is clear from discussions with Europ ean
hospitality executives that the most significantissue facing hospitality firms during this decade
(the 19 90s) will be how to accomplish the
change in thinking necessary to develop opera-
tions-oriented unit-level managers into strategic
thinking managers. While the increasing com-
petitiveness of the ind ustry in Europ e is well
recognised and the downsizing of corporate
headquar ters is nearly accomplished, in most
firms the m anagers in th e field are not yet ready
to accept the d ecentralisation challenge. What
are required a re uniqu e and inn ovative ways to
try to edu cate, and in many cases socialise, these
managers about t he need for and value ofthinking strategically (p. 24) .
In an em pirical study of food and beverage
management career paths in American luxury
hotels, Nebel et al. (1994) confirm that corpo-
rate downsizing is still continuing.
It app ears to be targeted in a similar way to
European effort s to reduce middle levels of
management and the numbers of staff special-
ists who are not d irectly responsible for opera-
tional activities. T hey conclude that in the
current circumstances, a balanced education-al curriculum of professional and technical
skills is needed to prepare graduates for oper-
ations career paths. Further, that bu siness and
management subjects should be shaped to
equip people for careers in hospitality opera-
tions so that they can add value by adopting
a broader strategic view of operations man -
agement. In summ ing-up, they conclude that
unit m anagers will be selected m uch m ore
carefully in the future as they will be expected
to adop t a wider man agerial role.It would seem that re-structuring has, and
will continue to affect the nature of managerial
work at unit level. T he trad itional view of
operations managers as food and beverage or
accomm odation specialists with a compara-
tively narrow scope of responsibility is chang-
ing as they assume respon sibility for managing
other aspects of the business. It is reasonable
therefore, to assume that graduate managers
need a broader, strategic vision of operations
management based on an updated view of the
hospitality operations curriculum (Eccles and
Teare, 1995; 1996). To achieve this, closer
integration of technical and professional devel-
opment is needed so that graduates can readily
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apply the principles of marketing, m anaging
people and other specialist subject areas to the
operations environment. T he more limited
opportu nities for career enhancement in the
immediate futu re will almost certainly depend
on the extent to which young managers can
demonstrate their ability to manage teams
effectively, improve standards, control costs
and m eet profit targets.
If unit m anagers are having to work differ-
ently now and in the future, they must also
learn to t hink different ly and to facilitate th is,
the scope of hospitality operat ions manage-
ment needs some re-definition. F irst, it is
necessary to consider in more detail some o f
the key activities that un it managers are
engaged in so that a con ceptual view of the
hospitality operations curr iculum can be
established. After th is, it is possible to consid-
er some of the implications for supporting
appropriate teaching and learning activities.
Hospitality operations and m anagerial
effectiveness
T he content of hospitality management cour s-
es is the subject of much d ebate and it is inter-
esting to observe that established ideas abou t
managerial work are now being challenged by
educators as well as by industrialists. T he
industry view reflects a pattern of continuous
change requiring a more business-oriented
hospitality manager who can deploy financial
skills to analyse the business and th ink out-
wards rather than inwards about customer
needs. Fu rther, the t raditional autocratic style
of doing business is steadily giving way to
modern team-building and facilitation, part ly
so that to tal quality aspirations can be
realised th rough greater people involvementwhich harn esses more of the talents, creativity
and energy within the organization as a whole.
T he tasks that hospitality managers need to be
able to perform effectively can be depicted in
relation to four broad cur riculum themes as
shown in Figure 6.
Workplace lear ning and the c urriculum :
(1) M anaging operations:
day to day operations;
specialist technical areas;
managing a crisis.
(2) M anaging people:
managing individuals;
managing teams;
managing external contacts;
managing personnel administration.
(3) Personal sk ills:
making presentations/training;
interpersonal skills;
using computers in management;
self-development.(4) M anaging the business:
managing business performance;
managing projects;
managing strategic decisions;
managing legal complexity.
In order to facilitate managerial effectiveness,
an appropriate blend of educational input s
(techn ical, professional, personal develop-
ment) is needed so that hospitality managers
are equipped with the basic tools needed to
perform well in the workplace. Further, the
educational goal should be seen as nu rtu ring
individuals who have a sense of commitm ent,
vision and the ability not only to do th ings
right bu t also with the wider understanding of
doing the right thing. A closer partn ership
with industry seems to be the logical way of
achieving a better fit between the stud ent
experience of the curriculum an d the realities
of operations management. It d oes however,
prompt a question as to how this can this be
achieved without stifling an exploration of themore theoretical, often abstract ideas which
can in them selves be so enriching. A conceptu-
al mod el of cur riculum development which
links managerial effectiveness to prevailing
industry con ditions offers a relatively flexible
way of keeping in touch. T he logical focal
point is the creation and continual enhance-
ment of a realistic work environm ent so that
managers can begin to build a holistic under-
standing of the intellectual challenge of man-
aging operations effectively. F ur ther, that all
other subject areas can be linked to and
shaped by the operat ional focus. T hese rela-
tionships are depicted by using an outer wheel
to por tray the wider economic environment
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
ManagingPeople
PersonalSkills
ManagingOperations
Managingthe Business
Managerialeffectiveness?
Figure 6 Workplace learning and the curriculum
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and inner segments representing all the activi-
ties which directly influence operational effec-
tiveness (see Figure 7) . T hese are:
business performance, monitoring and
control;
manpower organization and structure;
scientific suppor t activities such as safety,
hygiene and health;
technology and product development;
the consumer of hospitality services;
operational support and infrastructure; and
the hospitality business environment.
In som e respects, it is easier to conceptu alize
than to deliver a curr iculum that parallels the
contemporary developments in hospitality
operations management. Su mm arizing so far,
the aim has been to suppor t an industry-driven view that operations management
should be positioned at the centre of the
curriculum. If it is intend ed to serve industry,
it must m irror the changes that have been
occurring du ring the last few years. Fur ther,
if it is to serve youn g managers who aspire to
become accomplished managers, it must
provide a balance of technical and p rofession-
al skills that will equip t hem with a detailed
und erstanding of day-to-day operations and a
broader, strat egic vision of how to man age
and analyse every facet of un it and multi-unit
business activity. To achieve th is, a new, more
radical vision for operations man agement is
needed to suppor t the teaching and learning
needed to make this happen.
Operations m anagement: an integrated,
resource-based approach
T he changing nature of managerial work at
un it level suggests that educationalists should
monitor the implications for up-dating or
even re-shaping their curriculum to ensure
that it reflects industry needs and develop-men ts. In these circumstances, a logical step is
to d evelop teaching and learning courseware
which is sufficient ly flexible to u se in d ifferent
situations and with different types of man -
agers (see Figure 8).
T he concept of a resource-based approach to
hospitality operations m anagement is found ed
on m any of the observations made above and
in particular, the need for a modern curricu-
lum using student-centred learning method s.
Each t itle in th e series follows a stand ard, 60
page format and draws from a core of text
book and journal reading to provide an inte-
grated stu dy guide consisting of concise
explanations, commentary and extension
material. T he three hospitality operations
man agement titles are designed to facilitate a
logical and progressive study of Operational
Techniques (foundation level) Operations
Management (interm ediate level) and Strate-
gic Management ( advanced level).
T he overall aim of the three interlinking
titles is to equip student s with the conceptualund erstanding of how to man age hospitality
operat ions effectively. An important distinc-
tion from prior work is that the advanced level
studies in strategic man agement seek to equip
the graduate manager with the broader per-
spective of unit management that ind ustrial-
ists are pressing for. Fur ther , a key objective is
to tr y to break-down the somewhat ar tificial
divide that exists between accommodation
and food and beverage management , by
focusing on shared operational themes atfoundation and intermed iate levels.
Operational Techniques(Johns et al., 1994)
introduces systems theor y as a basis for under-
standing and analysing the function and man-
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Wider business & economic environmentHospitalitybusinessenvironment
Businessperformancemonitoring& control
Manpower:Organization
& structure
Scientificsupportactivities
HospitalityBusinessActivity
Operationalsupport &infrastructure
The consumer
Technology &product development
Figure 7 A conceptual mo del for hospitality operations curriculum
development
Foundation (Level 1)
Hospitality systemsProduction & serviceHuman factors
Technical factorsQuality factors
Intermediate (Level 2)
Level 3:
Level 2:
Level 1:
Operations M anagement
OperationalTechniques
Strategic M anagement
Hospitality operationsThe service organizationCapacityProductivityQuality
Advanced (Level 3)
Strategic planningExternal analysisInternal analysisStrategic choiceImplementation &evaluation
Source: Hospitality & Tourism, Resource-Based Series, Cassell, London
Figure 8 A conceptual mod el for hospitality operations curriculum
development
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(5) Strategic implementation and evaluation
Monitoring business strategy;
Achieving structure and strategy co-
alignment;
Sustaining strategic focus.
Implications for workplace learning
H ospitality operations management has once
again become the focal point for curriculum
development and the stru ctural changes
occurring in the industry suggest that scope
exists for re-shaping specialist subject areas so
that stud ents are fully equipped and prepared
for the oppor tun ities that change creates.
According to Olsens analysis this mean s
that un it managers need to know more about
the interrelationships between technical and
business issues:unit man agers are now being asked to per-
form d ifferently. T hey are being asked to com-
pete effectively on th e local level, where condi-
tions are becom ing extremely comp etitive, to
scan the environmen t for threats and opp ortun i-
ties, and to bu ild a strategic plan for their units
based on t his type of analysis. T his leaves the
unit man ager with the need to become a much
more independ ent decision-maker and on e who
is much m ore aware of the forces in the environ-
ment and h ow they affect the future of the un it
(Olsen, 1991, p. 23).
It seems likely therefore, that unit managers
will assum e a greater degree of influence as
their operational role expands to fill the gaps
created by re-structuring and consolidation.
In this scenario, a fresh strategic vision of
operations management will be needed.
The concept of industry and corporatetheming
The concept of an Internet forum:
a global mee ting point for industryand education
T he challenge of managing a comparat ively
rapid transition from print to electronic pub-
lishing prom pted MC B U niversity Press
(MCB-U P) to explore both academic and
practitioner uses of the inter net so that its
portfolio of journals and other p roducts and
services might be combined to p rovide a
mean ingful cluster of resources for sub-
scribers, authors and stud ents (or Associates)
undertaking programm es delivered by itsaffiliate company IMC . T he concept of a
Forum a global meeting point for people
with shared interests in a topic or subject area
or more broad ly in relation to a given indu stry,
has emerged dur ing the past 18 to 24 months.
T he concept is already capable of sustaining a
broad-ranging industry theme via print and
electronic journal publishing, related internet
conferencing, World Wide Web (WWW)
hyper-text linking and homepage areas dedi-
cated to state of the ar t exchanges between
academics and practitioners aroun d the globe.
Fu rther innovations in electronically distr ib-
uted materials will reinforce this powerful
distribution and networking medium in the
near future. T he H ospitality and Tour ism
Global Forum has been operational since
Autumn 1995 during which time it has hosted
four Internet conferences with paper s deliv-
ered by conference speakers and partici-
pant s drawn pr incipally (though n ot exclusive-
ly) from Eu rope, North America and the Asia
Pacific region.
The Ho spitality and Tourism Global
Forum on the Internet
T he aim of the H ospitality and Tou rism
Global Foru m (see Figure 9) is to provide a
definitive global meet ing point for hospitality
and tou rism practitioners and academics. T he
For um current ly hosts a variety of Web pages
and sites and for user convenience, they are
arran ged in categories. By hyper-text linkingto existing Web sites it is possible to travel the
world from the Forum (without spending
hours surfing the net).
In addition to the institutional categories,
the Foru m provides access to a variety of on-
line resources and hosts a Virtual Academy
(VA) series. T he aim of the VA series is to
enable students, r esearchers, writers and
pract itioners interested in specialist areas and
their application to h ospitality and t ourism
settings to meet, share news and ideas and tonetwork globally via the In tern et. T he vision
is to enab le a worldwide community of people
to share open ly and con structively, shape new
concepts and disseminate the latest th inking
and managerial practice as reflected by:
A quarterly newsletter with contributions
from around the globe.
Regular updates, reviews and comments
on the latest developments in (VA subject
area) from a hospitality and tourism per-
spective.
E-mail contact groups and news groups to
facilitate an exchange of views and infor-
mation.
A Whats New page.
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Continuous Internet conferences on
topical them es in (VA subject area).
Links with specialists in other service
fields.
T here are cur rent ly 12 VAs:
(1) Accounting and finance;
(2) Economics and industry trends;
(3) Gaming and enterprise;
(4) Human resource management;
(5) Information management;
(6) M arketin g;
(7) Operations management;
(8) Science and technology;
(9) Service quality;
(10) Small business management;
(11) Strategy and organizational behaviour;
(12) Yield management.
Each VA is managed b y four academics,currently representing Europe, N orth Amer i-
ca and the Asia Pacific region.
Although the H ospitality and Tour ism
Global Foru m has attracted a good deal of
interest am ong academics, it has yet to estab-
lish the volume of visitors necessary to m ake it
an invaluable reference point. In p art, this is
due to the comparatively slow uptake among
pract itioners, the limited range of services
currently available and a degree of uncertainty
abou t the best ways of designing and imp le-
ment ing new features and encouraging wider
participation.
It seemed t imely to initiate a wide-ran ging
review and discussion abou t these and other
issues together with MC B-UP F orum con-
venors, designers, users and system support
staff and a good deal of shared exper ience has
and cont inues to influence our thinking about
the characteristics of the ideal F orum ,
aspects of which are summar ized in the fol-
lowing sub-section.
D esigning internet Forums: shared
learning on structure, content and
participation
In September 1996 a Forum Convenors
discussion group involving 30 IMC and M CB
Un iversity Press Internet Foru m convenors,
designers and development t eam mem bers,
began to share experiences and debate the
issues relating to the design of For um s and
how to encourage wider participation an d
involvement in their development. T he teamare currently involved in building and m ain-
taining more than 20 F orums.
T he aim of the on going discussion group is
to exchange information between For um
convenors managing sites on the M CB-U P
server in order to learn from each other and
keep up to-date with ideas for futu re develop-
ments. T hese include:
ideas from convenors;
announcing new pages across the range of
Forum sites;
design issues, advice and feedback;
sourcing material and F orum participation
(referred to as the volume of hits);
Forum promotion;
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Figure 9 The Hospitality and Tourism Global Forum w elcome pages
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provocation task convenor seeks contro-
versy in order to stimulate lively cont ribu-
tions (n ote: may only work with a well-
established and trusting community of lively
individuals not a typical cross-section).
lower-order need reinforcement task site
owners/convenors m ake financial and other
incentives available either rand omly or in
return for some form of prescribed, desir-
able response (such as a Literati Award for
Excellence re: best/most consistent contri-
bution to a conference.)
command culture establishment task
populate every conference with paid
convenors and /or contributor s who partici-
pate daily to seed the conference and
help create a cen trifuge effect.
value for money effect charge a joining
fee so that value for money is related to
the level of active par ticipation in the eventor conference.
A broader strand of discussion aims to specify
the characteristics of an ideal In ternet site
and in order to accomplish this, the Forum
Convenors group is considering the design and
development implications of user satisfiers
and dissatisfiers derived from the many
hundreds of internet sites reviewed by mem bers
of the discussion group. (F or a summ ary of
findings and observations, please see Appendix
1.) Preliminary findings (compiled by Gordon
Wills) reveal a number of key them es:
Forum ideals
Good Internet sites engender a sense of
community where participants feel that
they are sharing in and belonging to a
comm unity with a shared focus (such as
industry and academia shaping and sharing
insights on theor y and practice) that we
cannot see or touch bu t with whom we have
a lot in common. Furthermore, the over-
whelming feeling was that this comm unity
of interest was one where the state of the art
in the topic was being discussed not trivia
but things we really either had no idea
about or are un certain about as we explore.
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Table V M anaging int ernet Forums: some challenges for convenors
Com m ents Im plicat ions
w r i t e so t h at yo u ca nn o t b e m i su n de rst o o d Fo ru m si t es n eed e ff ect i ve si g np o st i ng
most part icipate in Forum act iv i t ies for no payment The si te should be struc tured so as to fac il i ta te
(because they want to) there is no command struc ture open-ended part icipat ion wi th in a carefu lly
designed framew ork how do you create va lue for money stra teg ies such In the short term hom e pages should provide
as reduced connect t ime and lower phone charges? rap id and easy access (and in so do ing, lower-cost
user t im e). In the medium/lon g term explore
distribu tio n by cable and satellite TV
the internet is not yet sufficiently t im e efficient to Use hyper-text l inking to create one stop
m ake it at t ract ive indust ry Forum s encom passing, t rade,
professional, industry, government and
educational l in ks
(Forum partic ipants) Forum users that come to you Find roles for the enthusiasts w ho want to
(the enthu siasts) are bett er prospects and (pot ential ly) parti cipate and can encourage oth ers to do so by
w orth far m ore ef fort faci l i tat ing and invit ing ot hers to join a grow ing,sharing comm unity
the bo t tom l ine the best /most e f fect i ve bu t very A im to ensu re tha t hyper- tex t l ink ing i s tw o -way so
imperfec t measure is si te h i ts w i thout th is we have no that potent ia l users can easi ly find the ir way to the
(clear direct ions) for fut ure R & D sit e the m ore pathw ays (via hyper-text l inks) t he
greater the prospect of creating a defin it ive global
meeting poin t for an industry, discipl ine or topic
area
far too many comm ercial sites seem far too keen to M aintain the principles of free access, though a
get a credit card number before they have demonstrated joining fee (l ike club membership) may help to
that they w il l deliver value for m oney fost er a sense of belong ing the benefi ts o f
memb ership should include an opportu nity to
partic ipate ful ly perhaps non-members canobserve and t ry before joining
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T he second strand was that the site was a
place because it was as described at (1)
above, that enabled each one of us to pro -
mote and explore our own ideas with the
other m embers the reciprocal of course of
finding out from others. T he use of
Question an d Answer rou tines was an
illustrat ion of th is.
T he third key element relates to the logisti-
cal issues we all liked on e-site hits not
stringing along too long; good links that
guided; logical layouts and the whole site
kept up-to-date.
Internet site dissatisfiers
T he most frequently mentioned source of
dissatisfaction is graph ics/images that don t
work and/or take forever to download .
Several pondered how long this will last
and whether it will still be a comp laint in
the longer term. A close runner-up is too
many gimm icks surely a plea for simple
communications at the site.
Other criticisms include: too much adver-
tising or requests to visit the sponsoring
organizations pages and invitations to pay
beyond the free taster pages. T he logistical
complaints were led by under construc-
tion messages; out of date details, missing
e-mail response provision and pages thatare too long or too short (with too many
links onwards).
T hese observations and th e ongoing Foru m
Convenors discussion group provide a valu-
able source of shared learn ing and guidance
for convenors and designers. The discussion
is also helping to shape a variety of new initia-
tives such as the criteria for an annu al MC B-
UP Best For um Award an extension of its
successful series of L iterati Awards for E xcel-
lence held each year to celebrate auth or andeditor achievements in journal pu blishing. In
establishing a form al mechanism for recogniz-
ing excellence in Forum design, imp lementa-
tion and management , it will be necessary to
ensure that objective assessments can be
obtained and in so doing, a team of Foru m
assessors will be needed. In order to guide the
next phase of development, a Forum advisory
role is also being considered so that the con-
venor and his or her team can seek next step
guidance from an independent expert in thesubject area or industry field.
As Forums establish Virtual Academy
communities of academics in hospitality and
tour ism, airport management and other fields
of interest, they will be able to support elec-
tron ic peer reviews of art icles submitted for
print and electronic journal publication. T his
offers all the advantages of conventional
dou ble blind reviews but with the add ed
benefit of wider international involvement and
real time transmission of manuscripts and
reviewer repor ts.
The role of the Forum in delivering
themed programm es: Airport
Management and BAA Plc
A natural extension of the themed approach
to For um development is to hyper-text link
programm e courseware resources to a Forum
site and seek to bu ild on the range of comple-
mentary and them ed resources provided at
the site. In courseware design and updating
terms, there are several impor tant advantages
updating is not tied to re-printing schedules
and journal reading updates can be automat-
ed by using Anbar on -line M anagement
Intelligence as the access point to a world
library of man agement literature, complete
with on-line ordering and a docum ent supply
service provided by the British L ibrary.
T he user perspective is equally attractive as
the learner (or associate) has access to learn-
ing resources at their place of work (the studyenvironm ent) and via a dedicated set meet-
ing place he or she can keep in constant
touch with other m embers of the learning Set
and the tu torial team. As the sole access point
to the MCB-U P and Surrey IMC sites as well
as day-to-day course materials, assignment
schedules, and many hundreds of Internet
pages of material relating to course regula-
tions and m anagement (the learning environ-
ment , tutor support, the role of external
examiners, course regulations and proce-dures, qu ality assurance am ong many others)
the learner can read and p rint any information
they need with the single exception of confi-
dential personal information and marks which
are not held on the internet.
T he following examples presented in Fig-
ures 10, 11 and 12 show the main elements of
the Airpor t Business Forum infrastructu re that
are in place to support the delivery of a themed
AP(E)L to M BA in-company programme for
BAA Plc, a core element of a learning par tner-
ship comm itment to Surrey IMC (workplace
learning programmes) and the U niversity of
Surrey (research and development) . The main
features of the Coolsites Directory an element
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Richard E. Teare
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Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
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of the Airpor t Business Forum resources are
presented in Figure 13.
The knowledge base: form alizing the
learning agenda for the future
While the generic learning framework neces-
sarily reflects the cornerston es of man age-
ment education that are traditionally associat-
ed with Certificate, D iploma and Master of
Business Adm inistration cou rses, it is wholly
in keeping with the philosophy of action
learning to relate p rogrammed knowledge
(P) to the workplace environm ent. All organi-
zations, whether large or small, provide
oppor tun ities for peop le to think, observe,
solve problems and learn from action-orient-
ed outcomes. T his corpus of knowledge and
expertise, der ived from workplace learning, is
reflected in th e relative strengths and weak-
nesses of the en terp rise as a whole. Yet ques-
tioning insight (Q ) is rarely formalized in away that is easily disseminated to futu re gen-
erations of managers who learn on the job
and, if they are fortu nate enough to be men-
tored in an appropr iate way, receive the bene-
fit of insight and wisdom from those who
them selves gained expert ise from doing,
applying, making mistakes and taking correc-
tive action. In balancing these very different
yet equally important dimensions of learning,
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Figure 10 An o verview o f th e Airport Business Forum resources
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it is appropr iate to envisage outcomes in the
form of an equation: L = P + Q (where L =
Learning). To achieve a balance between P
and Q (learning from doing) an industry
specific knowledge base is being created (as
appropr iate to client organization needs) by
pairing Surrey IMC tutor s and other acade-
mics with m anagers so as to produce publish-
able outpu ts and electronic media resources.T he process of captur ing and formalizing
Q based knowledge will both theme and
augment the generic curriculum framework.
The co ncept of a practitioner knowledge
base
T he development of an industry specific
knowledge base provides an op portunity to
disseminate expert ise in the form of published
works (art icles, cases, textbooks, work books,
workshop p roceedings, Inter net resources)wherever public domain ou tput s are applica-
ble. T his will encourage shared learning in
rapidly changing fields such as the intern a-
tional Airport Business. Com mercially
sensitive, company-specific resource outputs
will be distributed (as appropr iate) by
intranet. It also contextualizes learning by
augmenting generic core cour se materials
with an array of indu stry and com pany specif-
ic resources (see Figure 14).
A framework for learning, par ticipation
and personal developmentT he qualifications framework for BAA Plc is
based on an incremental route to M BA with
multiple entry points appropriate to prior
experience, qualifications and the needs and
aspirations of the individual (see Figure 15).
Each cohor t consists of a learning Set of
between 12-18 Associates (with its own tutor-
ial team an d external examiner) with sub-Sets
of three or four associates for some discussion
group activities and self-help support . A range
of learning suppor t is provided, beginningwith start-up residential sessions on learning
styles, and learning to learn (among oth-
ers); how to access and u se the internet site
and briefings for in-company mentors, project
11 4
Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Figure 1 1 BAA plc Set meeting places
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115
Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Figure 12 Learning set inform ation, resources and A nbar l ibrary support
Figure 13 Coolsites An bar quality-related Web d irectory
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clients, steering group mem bers (as appropr i-
ate). T he in-company support (m entors,
clients, steering group) coupled with inpu ts
from functional specialists provides the for-
mative infrastructure for an Enterprise
School of Man agement (E SM) which in
time, shou ld grow organically as MBA gradu-
ates themselves contribute to th e learning
partn ership by mento ring or tutoring as
faculty members.
Corporate them ing and workplace
learning
T he incremental pattern of action learning
draws on a multiplicity of inputs which are
applied and interpreted in both an indu stry
and a corporate context (see Figure 16). T he
theming elements are integral to the learning
process as they provide a means of augment-
ing and sustaining a dynamic curr iculum and
a framework for interpreting the m uch broad-er field of management as reflected by the
core courses, textbook principles and access
to t he worlds management literature on-line
via the Anbar service to associates.
Applying the learning framew ork
Increme ntal action learning and project-
based assessment
If managers are to become more effective in
the workplace they must b e able to use and
apply the body of programmed knowledge (P)
and learn from doing (Q) by undertaking
meaningful project assignments that requ ire
careful specification, in-com pany client sup-
port an d the attainment of specific outcomes
that demonstrate that learning has occurred.
In this sense, questions and qu estioning
insight the ability to find and apply optimalsolutions constitute an important d imension
of the curriculum. T he courseware resources
and in part icular the core courses, provide a
minimal framework that tutors and Associates
will invariably build on as they seek the best fit
between (P ) and (Q) . Access to the latest
management thinking via Anbar p rovides a
fast, intu itive way of searching an on-line
database of abstracts from more than 400
academic and professional journals (the
journals list is accredited by a panel of inter-
nationally respected academics). Anbar on
CD -ROM is issued quarterly and more
recent ly, In tern et delivery facilitates daily
updating by the Anbar product team. Fur-
ther, on-line electronic ordering with full-text
docum ent supp ly by the British L ibrary direct
to the workplace, ensures that Associates have
a uniqu ely flexible form of resource support
as they seek to apply the literature to the
challenges provided b y the learning environ-
ment encapsulated by the assignments they
under take. A progressive series of assign-ments relate to the pattern of study, starting
from a personal perspective and building to a
broader, company-wide strategic focus.
The lea rning organization: a part nershipapproach
Corporate them ing: BAA Plc
T he learning framework and embedded
theming, provide three types of output as
shown in Figure 17. F irst, managers learnfrom exploring the body of management
literature an d applying it in a meaningful way.
Second, managers become more effective by
learning how to ask the right questions and
11 6
Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
A framew ork for organizational learningThemed support for incremental action learning routes to M BA
Level 1: Certificate in M anagement Studies (12 months)(skills development focus)
Theknowledge
base
The knowledge base represents a corpus of expertise and 'best practice' experience.W herever possible knowledge w il l be 'captured' so as to provide a meaningful referencepoint for personal and organizational development. Outputs w ill include: Internet andintranet resources; E-Journal articles and Internet conferencing; print publishing.
Level 2:Diploma in ManagementStudies (up to 24 months)
(Functionalcore areasfocus)
Level 3:Master in BusinessAdministration(up to 24 months)(Broad, strategicfocus)
Figure 14 The concept of a know ledge base as a corporate, them ed resource
Surrey IMC
Incremental Action Learning Routes to MBA
IncrementalRoute 63.5-4 years
Incremental
Route 6A2.5-3 years
Direct Route 118-24 months
Cert ificate Diplom a
Diploma
Masters
Masters
Masters
M BA ESM
Figure 15 Incremental action learning pathw ays
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find appropriate solutions and third, they
contribute to a collective body of practitioner
knowledge that will in par t at least, set the
agenda for futu re development. T he knowl-
edge base concept affords an oppor tun ity to
integrate assignment work completed byAssociates and together with other inpu ts,
the solutions sought and implemented in
each and every assignment will collectively,
provide a valuable interdisciplinary resource.
T he learning framework also provides an
oppor tun ity to build an international network
of people interested in collaborating and/or
contributing to debates about the component
disciplines of the airport business. T he Virtual
Academy series provides the means of achiev-
ing the wider involvement of academ ics andother u niversities in managing and facilitating
Intern et Foru m activities, contributing to the
knowledge base and pu blishable outpu ts and
partn ering the development and delivery of
the programme.
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Developing a curr iculum for organizat ional learning
Richard E. Teare
Journal of W orkplace Learning
Volume 10 Number 2 1998 95121
Corporate theming and work place learning
Know ledge Experience Set interact ion Faculty
Inputs
Corporatetheming elements
Industry specificInternet Forum
Industry specificKnow ledge base
Outputs:Action im plementationImproved effectivenessReturn on Investm ent
Pattern of act ionlearning andintegration via:WAIRWABIIS
WACIRMaster's project
Outputs
Inputs
Inputs
Information Management
Financial M anagement
M arketing M anagement
Operations Management
Strategic M anagement
Six core courses:
Human Resource Mgt .
Learning t o learn
Communication skills
Action for change
International business
Time management
Skills andcomplementary issues
Team development
Figure 16 Corporate theming and w orkplace learning
Corporate theming: BAA Plc.
Know ledge ExperienceLearning framew ork, tutors and mentors
Inputs
ActionLearning
ProgrammesWorkplace
Projects andshared
learning
Core activities:Electronic JournalVirtual Academy seriesInternet conferencesLearning Set HomepageManagement JournalsForum resourcesAnbar abstractsWW W s i tes
Airport BusinessInternet Forum
Outputs
ManagerialTheory and application
State of the art sharedlearning, theorizing
and global netw orking
Action implementation,improved effectiveness,
return on investment
Industry-academic partnership that buildon experience and expertise via appliedresearch and learning resource outputs
Formalized know ledge
Indicative core areas:Airfield OperationsAir Traffic Control (ATC)Airline BusinessTerminal M anagementProject M anagementProperty ManagementRetail Operations
The Airport Businessknowledge base
Figure 17 An overview o f the corporate and industry theming approach
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UK Plc ( hospitality and tourism): a
learning partnership approach
T he benefits of a long-term learning partner-
ship between a corporate client an d a un iversi-
ty are two-way; it provides oppor tun ities for
collaborative writing and other forms of schol-
arly activity (like secondments, ind ustr ial
placements and the development of und er-
graduate and postgraduate study options) and
opportunities to conduct basic and applied
research. By ensuring that the par tnership is as
broad as possible with academ ic and practi-
tioner con tacts across the range of discipline
areas it is possible to collaborate on m ultidisci-
plinary projects while at the same time, main-
taining an appropr iate industry and company
specific focus. The scope that a learning part -
nership offers includes the opportunity to
work with an ar ray of other institu tions other
un iversities and academic teams, professional
and trade associations, customers, suppliers
and contractors. Fur ther, the ongoing pro-
gramm es of study provide a natural point of
connection for related scholarly activity and
research and a channel of communication for
discussing project ideas, problems and oppor -
tunities. Together, mutually supportive pro-
gramm es of stud y and research will provide asignificant m eans of sustaining innovation and
responding to change through teamworking
and an organizational comm itment to learning
(see Figure 18).
UK Plc (hospitality & tourism ):
programm es for learning, development
and research
To provide a po