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.
For any organization whose goals are more than conducting isolated or occasional distance training events, Sustaining Distance Training will be an invaluable resource for integrating distance training into the enterprise when distance training is mission critical.
"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