The Corporate University in

General Electric Company

_Aun Falestien Faletehan_

presented in University of Canberra, 2007

GE runs 6 strong businesses

GE

Industrial

GE

Money

GE

Healthcare

NBC

Universal

GE

Infrastructure

GE Commercial

Finance

GE

Headquarter

Founded in 1892, GE is a multinational American technology and

service in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States of America

America‟s most admired company in 2007

(Fortune Magazine)

Global Locations _ 160 Countries

with more than 100 subsidiaries

Has a strong root with Thomas Alva Edison‟s heritage

Products and services:

Aviation, Electricity, Media and

Entertainment, Finance, Energy

Gas and wind Turbine, Oil,

Appliances, Industrial Automation,

Lighting, Medical Imaging

Equipment, Medical Softwares,

Motors, Plastics, Railway

Locomotives, Water, Healthcare,

Security , etc.

o Total worldwide employees : 310.000 (Januari 2007)

o GE invests about $1 billion annually on training and

development programs .

o GE‟s corporate university; John Francis Welch Leadership

Center at Crotonville.

“We build great people, who then build great products and services.”

former GE CEO, Welch (1999)

Training and development

o GE is ranked first among other famous companies

in term of people management

(Fortune Magazine)

The framework of Corporate University (CU)

o The CU generally is a function

of the human resource

department (Lenderman and

Sandelands, 2002)

o The CU is for continuous

learning, training and

development (El-Tannir,

2002)

John F. Welch Leadership Center

Established in 1956, the 53-acre

corporate learning campus is America's

first Corporate University and a symbol

of GE's commitment to learning.

Historically, the institute was renamed

in 2001 to honor the former CEO; Jack

Welch‟s pending retirement after 20

years of service. The previous name is

just GE‟s Leadership Development

Institute

Each year, thousands of GE people

from entry-level employees to

highest-performing executives come

to Crotonville.

GE‟s Crotonville is a change agent

in the culture and to drive

performance in GE

It is planned to accelerate

learning for high performing

employees, using a variety of

methods from

e-learning to action learning,

from boot camps to leadership

summits.

John F. Welch Leadership Center

A core curriculum is managed at

a corporate level

Roles:

• Transferring knowledge

• Enhancing corporate

culture

• As a venue of global

meeting

• Career transition point

Transferring knowledge

o Blass (2005) argued that the

establishment of a CU can

facilitate the establishment of a

knowledge management system

o It should be congruent with the

new modes of „knowledge

creation‟ and „knowledge

sharing‟ as a learning process

within an organisation (Paton,

Peters, Storey and Taylor, 2005)

Regulars workshop to

ensure the process of

transferring knowledge

among employees

“The pit”; a forum where

leaders from the separate

companies owned by GE

gather to discuss major

organisational initiative in

a free-flow format.

o Organisational development

and individual development

(Dealtry, 2002)

John F. Welch Leadership Center

6-Sigma Quality Program

Core Leadership

Development Program

Enhancing corporate culture

o One advantage of the CU is to

aid maintenance of a

corporate culture even when

spread over diverse local

cultures. It can also help to

shape an organisation‟s

culture (Blass, 2005)

GE‟s Work-Out program

• to create a culture of

speed, simplicity and self-

confidence consistent with

continuous improvement

• It emphasises on boundary-less

culture, empowered

teamwork, building trust, and

collect GE‟s people regardless

of position

• It involves group meetings of

40 to 100 employees picked

by management from all

functions for meetings within

two or three days

John F. Welch Leadership Center

As a venue of global meeting

Crotonville is a glue that holds GE

together (Welch, 1999)

It serves as a megaphone for the GE

culture. As an important management

forum, it provides a means for key

executives to stay in touch with the

whole of workforce, to sense the mood

of employees, and to view the skills of

participants in a real-time learning

experience

It is place for global coordination and

integration

John F. Welch Leadership Center

Career transition points

GE‟s Crotonville is

organised around the

concept that there are

“moments of

opportunity” in any

career

o Establishing a CU may

make the company more

attractive for talented

individuals who need to

know that their career

development is well-

managed (Development

and Learning in

Organizations, 2005).

John F. Welch Leadership Center

John F. Welch Leadership Center

Career transition point

Analysis

o Knowledge-sharing

process may become

knowledge limiting, by

placing artificial

boundaries around the

knowledge in the

organisation by

creating, for example,

a curriculum

(Blass, 2005)

In-house training

department for in-

house participants

Centre of knowledge

sharing and

continuous learning

A change agent in

culture and to

drive performance

Guidelines of training

and development for

all GE‟s employees

worldwide

Conclusions and Recommendations

The corporate university is an excellent place for training and

development in multinational companies

GE may be one great example of MNCs which succeed to focus on their

workforce development by setting GE‟s Crotonville as a venue for

sharing and creating knowledge, shaping organisational culture,

providing a place of global meeting and indicating career development

GE‟s Crotonville is the first pioneered corporate university and more

recently such a model for continuous learning and training employees

has been adopted by a large number of corporation worldwide

It is recommended for multinational companies to establish the

corporate university

Curriculum is important, but employees creativity is more significant

to bring organisational success

Questions and Advice