Subject: Intro -- Michael Flanagan LO18933
>My involvement and interest in learning organisation concepts commenced
>when I was involved with the Australian Best Practice Demonstration
>Program and various other workplace reform initiatives. Currently I'm
>completing a degree in adult learning majoring in workplace learning and
>training at the University of Tasmania (Australia). I'm fascinated about
>the role of workplace cultural practice and it's implications for
>workplace learning. Therefore, I would appreciate any information about
>transforming workplace culture and also Total Quality Learning as a
>component of TQM.
>
>Mike Flanagan
Dear Mike
I am Head og department at Naestved Business College in Denmark. We are
heavely into adult training, for employed people in the retail industry.
At the same time I am a student too. I am about to finish my
MBA(education) dissertation by the end of this year.
We are focusing on the connection between the concept of LO, quality
management and how to keep up motivation and skills at teachers who has
been with us for many years, hence we would like to keep them, and some
times we have to because of regulations.
But we would also like them to refresh their work place experience which
was why we hired them in the first place.
Working on this dissertation and some of the assignments leading up to
this I have been engaged in severel meetings with project groups and
serveyes on related subjects.
What I have found until now is, that the culture at a work place is by far
the strongest force to conduct the human behavior. If you do not change
anything in the culture you do not change much in human behavior just
because you do some teaching.
Both with our clients and internal at the college the opinion that I have
developed is that the processes and jobdescriptions has to chenged, and it
has to be champinioned by either a manager or even better some well known
and respected employees.
At our college I am quite sure that we hve to do some radical things to
change adult learning.
You will have to focus on the things that the culture consist of in order
to able to change the output of the learning at a work place.
Two exampels:
- one of our clients sends 3 students to a part- time work- place based
program which helps develop management skills. By the end of the program
just before starting writing the dissertaion, one of the student drops
out, and the client accept it and says:
"this is a very clever persons which will become a manager anyway".
So what is the whole idea about sending this person to the programme? The
company obviosly do not link career opportunities with the competing of
programmes.
Thsi is a example of what I mean. In this company people learn that they
can do whatever they whant with out anything happens.
- an other exampel:
- at our college we whant people to work in teams. Thats it. Some of the
teams wonder why. That clear because we did not think of the purpose of
the teams. They did not have a common goal, so why should they meet? They
are used to do fine on their own.
So now we are changing the way the assignemnets are combined, so that the
teams feels that the have a commun goal. We do also ask them to come up
with their which for the part of the strategy that governs the assignment
for their team.
I hope this can be helpfull for you.
I recommend that you look at the Pedler et al book "the learning company"
which is a wery consice book whith tolls to make you focus on parts of the
culture which has to changed in order to become a learning company, hence
you con not make emplouees learn anything if you do not have a learning
company.
Michael Bang
mban@nhs.dk
--Michael Bang <mban@nhs.dk>
[Host's Note: In association with Amazon.com, these book links:
The Learning Company : A Strategy for Sustainable Development Mike Pedler, et al / Paperback / Published 1998 Our Price: $52.00 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0077093003/learningorg ...Rick]
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