Abstract
In today’s corporate surroundings, business organizations are facing increasingly complex and volatile circumstances, characterized by rapid change. More and more, knowledge is critical for individual success in our information society. Consequently, processes related to its acquisition and management tend to have great value to specialists in the field of learning and training. Learning from knowledge and experience accumulated in the past contributes to improvements in performing business practices and processes and to the creation of knowledge assets implicitly stored in its results. As ongoing learning and sharing of knowledge lead to innovation (Law & Ngai, 2008), organizational members should have a shared vision to guide them in a common direction, generating tension that leads to learning (Kulkarni & Freeze, 2006). Thus, corporate university (CU) plays an important role as a source for business (Crocetti, 2002). It is a centralized learning utility that manages resources to support a strategic approach to organizational education (Gregg, 2005). This educational model provides a management structure to develop and implement employee learning opportunities aligned with the organization’s future learning vision (Gould, 2005).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Organizational learning: The process of change in individual and shared thought and action, which is affected by and embedded in the institutions of the organization.
Knowledge Sharing: The exchange of knowledge among individuals within and amongst teams, organizational units, and organizations.
Corporate Universities: Corporate universities are essentially “in-house” training facilities that have sprung up because of the need for organizational life-long learning. (Meister, 1998).
Competitive advantage: A positive, relative position held by a firm as compared with competitors within a market or industry (Cepeda-Carrión, 2006).
Learning Organization: Organization that continuously expands its capacity, using learning as an intentional and strategic tool for organizational and individual improvement (Real, Leal, & Roldan, 2006).
Knowledge Management Processes: Encompass strategic (identification, evaluation, updating and protection) and operational (acquisition, transfer, storage and utilization) processes (Prat, 2006).