Sustaining Distance Training: Integrating Learning Technologies into the Fabric of the Enterprise (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) [Paperback]

Zane L. Berge (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0787953318 | ISBN-13: 978-0787953317 | Edition: 1

In this companion volume to Distance Training, Sustaining Distance Training presents practical steps for integrating distance training into the day-to-day operations of any organization. Berge shows organizations how to move beyond the initial phases of setting up a distance training program and make it a part of the strategic planning process, including infrastructure, budget, staffing, and policy planning. He explains how twenty of the world's leading organizations have mastered the basics of distance training and have taken their efforts to the next level where distance training becomes the most effective method for delivering the training your workforce needs to embrace emerging technologies in today's highly competitive, global economy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A compelling book that addresses the critical issues facing organizations involved in the dynamic world of distance learning including how to sustain and manage distance training in a rapidly evolving business environment. A must-read for all learning organizations." --Jolly T. Holden, chief learning strategist, Gilat-To-Home

"This volume is an excellent compilation of case studies that are rich in facts and lessons." --Mick Mortlock, dean, CIGNA Institute of Technology, and member, advisory board, Internet Learning Company

"I feel this book is an excellent pulse-check of corporate training and education at a distance. Dr. Berge has given us a window into the challenging and changing world of corporate training-the trials, successes, and faults of a wide range of organizations are clearly detailed, dissected, and summarized." --Myk Garn, chief academic officer, Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University

Praise for the author's previous book, Distance Training. "Distance Training is a solid piece of work, one that will prove useful time and again for anyone with responsibilities for the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of distance learning initiatives in organizations." --Educational Technology Society Journal

From the Inside Flap

A well-educated, well-trained workforce is a competitive imperative in today's global community and as more companies embrace new technologies, distance training has become the fastest-growing method of training delivery. While implementing an emerging technology is difficult, integrating and institutionalizing it fully within the enterprise so that it becomes a significant factor for achieving organizational goals is a major challenge. Sustaining Distance Training shows organizations how to move beyond the initial phases of setting up a distance training program to making it a part of the strategic planning process, including infrastructure, budget, staffing, and policy planning. The ideal companion volume to Berge's Distance Training (with Deborah Schreiber, Jossey-Bass, 1998), Sustaining Distance Training examines distance training programs in seventeen leading-edge for-profit, nonprofit, and government organizations, including MCI, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, the Red Cross, and the Internal Revenue Service. It reveals how these organizations have sustained distance training beyond individual or sporadic training events, integrating it across the organization as a strategic tool for meeting business challenges and achieving objectives. Synthesizing these detailed case studies, Berge provides a framework that other organizations can use to move beyond project management and turn distance training into a powerful instrument for enterprise-wide strategic planning. One chapter, for instances, shows how Hewlett-Packard uses distance training to keep workers abreast of rapid ongoing technological changes in an extremely competitive business climate. Another describes how the Internal Revenue Service has integrated revolutionary organizational change and trained employees for new jobs in a reengineered IRS. How the American Red Cross employs satellite-based interactive television in training 1.3 million volunteers to carry out its mission is illustrated.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (November 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787953318
• ISBN-13: 978-0787953317
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,069,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Singular Collaboration and Contribution, March 30, 2001

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sustaining Distance Training: Integrating Learning Technologies into the Fabric of the Enterprise (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Paperback)

Each of the three words in the title is more important now than at any prior time in business history. It is far easier to achieve success than to sustain it. Given the increasingly greater impact of the Web, the necessity of connectivity and interactivity rapidly increases. Finally, mastery of what Senge calls "the fifth discipline" of organization-wide learning may well determine whether or not excellence can be sustained in the face of constant, at times traumatic change.

In the Preface, Berge shares what he refers to as "some patterns and commonalities" which he has noted over the years while reviewing hundreds of cases involving distance training and educational technology. He has assembled and edited a collection 20 brilliant essays which are distributed within five Parts: Introduction, Meeting the Challenge of Uncommon Organizational Change, Setting Competitive Standards, Achieving organizational Goals, and Summary. He then provides an Appendix (Case Study Research Methodology Used for This Book, Glossary, and References. In the Preface, Berge explains that the purpose of this book is to "disseminate a plausible model or framework for sustaining distance training and to describe the essential elements in the model with multiple cases to illustrate and help the reader's understanding." His primary audience consists of organizational managers, performance consulting professionals, and practitioners charged with the training functions in corporations, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies.

Berge is the author of the first two essays which comprise Part One: "The Context of Distance Training: Predicting Change" and "A Framework for Sustaining Distance Training." Berge does indeed offer a "model" and a "framework" (rather than a definitive operations manual) whose purpose is to assist virtually any organization as it formulates whichever structure, policies, procedures, strategies, and tactics are most appropriate to its own specific needs and interests.

Throughout this exceptionally informative book, various authorities share their own experiences with sustaining distance training. For example, Ellsworth and Iorizzo discuss "Distance Training at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center: Surviving Implementation." Other essays examine initiatives in a wide range of other organizations such as SBC, the U.S. General Accounting Office, the IRS, the UAW-Daimler/Chrysler National Training Center, Ford Motor Company (dealerships), Nortel Networks, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, the U.S. Postal Service, and the American Red Cross. Although the organizations are huge, thye various essays' authors have convinced me that literally ANY organization not only can but must -- to varying degrees -- establish and then sustain effective distance training programs, ones which would involve their employees (of course) but could also involve the employees of business partners, vendors, service providers, federal and state regulatory agencies, and perhaps even competitors. (Frankly, I am no longer surprised when historical competitors -- "enemies" -- forge mutually beneficial strategic alliances. In recent years, I have played a role in helping to consummate quite a few. "I never thought I'd live to see the day when....") All by itself, the Appendix is well worth the cost of this book. In it, Berge explains the methodology used for his book. For some it may be advisable to read the Preface and the Appendix before proceeding through the 20 essays. In any event, this is a first-rate piece of work.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Berge's previously published Distance Training as well as Senge's The Fifth Discipline and The Dance of Change, Isaacs' Dialogue, and O'Dell and Grayson's If Only We Knew What We know.