“Innovation will be central to both top-line growth and profitability. Among the many factors that influence a company’s ability to innovate successfully and competitively, the resilience of its innovation organization is perhaps the most important” (Bordia, et al., 2005, p. 9). “Change needs to be led from the top. Senior leadership must set and communicate the vision for the organization, including a compelling case for change. It needs to reach a practical understanding of what can be leveraged in the existing culture and what needs to change” (Bordia, Kronenberg, and Neely, 2005, p. 8). “Senior leaders cannot afford to be involved at arms length; they must be actively involved in monitoring and testing the change process. Most importantly, senior leaders need to ensure they act in ways that reinforce the new behaviors—’walk the talk’” (Bordia, et al., 2005, p. 8). “New tools are embedded in how the work is actually performed. This requires intensive effort to communicate and socialize the changes to the organization. The organization needs intensive communication including workshops to create understanding in frontline employees. The transition cannot be successful, and will not be adopted, until employees fully understand the answer to what is invariably their most important question: ‘What does this change mean to me?’” (Bordia, et al., 2005, p. 9). “The degree to which the changes stick depend on how measures and feedback systems create ownership and accountability” (Bordia, et al., 2005, p. 9).
Ideas to gain senior management’s support of e-learning
In order to realize maximum benefit from an “e-Training initiative, each organization has to establish business goals, measure the progress of the goals, and provide executive sponsorship and support to achieve the desired outcomes” (CIO Council, 2002, p. 3). “To build support for (e-learning) implementation requires solid analysis, constant communication, and organizational resiliency. The success of e-Learning depends on, not just the technology, but also on leadership, human support, alignment of learning topics to the appropriate learning environment, recognition and rewards for participation and success, plus a myriad of other factors.
The CIO Council (2002) explains that “in short, e-learning requires a disciplined approach, with balanced attention to business goals, culture, and technology. The best practice in achieving these goals is to develop a compelling, data-driven business case and formulate a comprehensive learning strategy that reflects the input of multiple stakeholders. Developing the data-driven business case and formulating the enterprise-wide learning strategy requires a number of activities, which include (1) identifying business or mission drivers and performance measures, (2) assessing learner needs and the current infrastructures, and (3) formulating/refining the learning strategy and implementation plan” (CIO Council, 2002, p. 4). In addition, the following activities provide an initiative for learning (the Why) and a strategy (the What and How), which represents the key to success by providing the “rationale to garner organizational support for the implementation of a common e-Training system” (CIO Council, 2002, p. 5). Specifically, the business case for learning defines an organization’s learning strategy.
Rosenberg (2001) provides further rationale for senior management to support a company-wide strategy for e-training program implementation. As business needs flux, identification of talent within a company provides a strong competitive edge. Using a knowledge management system sophisticated enough to provide reports about which employees are trained in the skills the company needs, and identify gaps in the employee base of critically needed skills, can be the difference between business success and failure. Another level of sophistication includes factoring in interoperability into e-learning systems (Rosenberg, 2001). Seamless compatibility between business’ computer systems and e-learning systems supports a business’ ability to address employee training needs to match business expansion. Architectures within software systems have been opened to allow for most computer systems to easily integrate with training systems. Issues between Windows and Apple are disappearing as standardization inroads enable successful integration as programs are built (Rosenberg, 2001).
Suggesting specific ways to encourage senior managers in my organization to support e-learning is not feasible since my office closed 2 ½ years ago. Since then I have finished my bachelors and masters, and began working on my doctorate in education. Recalling that after a company purchased the company I worked for, and the “new” company senior managers decided to use the J.D. Edwards accounting software that we used, training for the “new” staff consisted of one-on-one training. In my case, I trained a senior manager at my office. Each of the offices across the United States had a support person appointed to help the “new” staff, and that training occurred over the telephone. One year after the take-over, all employees (old and new) for my region were called to the main East coast office for synchronous in-class training. The training was essentially worthless for the old employees because they had used J.D. Edwards for more than ten years. The J.D. Edwards company had excellent online training programs, but my company did not utilize their training programs. Consequently, if I was in the position to suggest e-learning on the J.D. Edwards’ program, I would propose for all employees who needed the training to receive training online sponsored by J.D. Edwards.
Rosenberg (2001) provides viable suggestions for encouraging senior managers to support e-learning initiatives. Several of them apply to my work situation discussed above such as educating and coaching executives. However, the culture within my old company would have prevented trained employees from teaching and coaching more advanced level personnel.
References
Bordia, R., Kronenberg, E., & Neely, D. (2005). Innovations OrgDNA. Retrieved from http://www.orgdna.com/downloads/InnovationsOrgDNA.pdf
CIO Council. (2002). Best practices committee: E-training white paper, an EGov Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.cio.gov/Documents/etraining_white_paper.pdf
Rosenberg, M.J. (2001). e-Learning: Strategies for delivering knowledge in the digital age. New York City, N.Y.: McGraw Hill.
Virtually Teaching College and Utterings from the Heart 
Mar 31, 2013 @ 02:16:30
When some one searches for his vital thing, so he/she
wants to be available that in detail, so that thing is maintained over here.