The term corporate university is not only how to deliver employee

learning in a firm. Rather it is primarily about combining or involving several

academic disciplines or professional specializations of quality management
in an approach to gain competitive advantage via continuous improvement.
In the book Corporate University by Peter Glotz he points out there are two
definitions of corporate university. The first being A corporate University is
an educational institution mainly committed to provide employees with
specialized knowledge aligned to an organizations strategic orientation
(Glotz 10). J.C Meister adds for the second definition that corporate
universities are a portal within a company though which all education takes
place. It is an organizations strategic hub for educating employees,
customers, and suppliers. Corporate universities link an organizations
strategies to the learning goals of its audiences(Glotz 10).
Company training programs are designed for training in specific skills,
these programs teach the employee about their job, and how to preform it
efficiently and correctly according to management in the firm. Training
programs will help employees learn the basic concepts and educate them on
the ideas of quality improvement. However, they will not have a specific
company focused strategic approach to them. Training programs are inferior
to corporate universities, in the fact that they are a wider spread of
knowledge not focusing on a specific goal within a company.
When comparing training programs to corporate universities both have
a common goal, which is to educate the employee. Training programs focus

on the job skills, and improving an employees ability to complete the task
correctly and efficiently. This can lead to better quality, but only in the short
run. The major differences between the two lies in a corporate universities
ability to promote continuous improvement through a multi-dimensional
strategic approach, ensuring long term improvement. Where training
programs tend to continuously improve an employees job function, and can
teach new techniques. Corporate Universities go into much greater depth.
Corporate Universities continuously educate the employees not just on their
daily job function, but all aspects and departments within the company,
along with teaching employees about similar businesses process. For
example sears offers training programs in areas such as merchandising,
operations, customer service, and human resources management. Sears
University also provides the companys employees programs designed to
help them function as change agents and strategic leaders within the
corporation(Foster 274). Corporate Universities also integrate top
management and external value chain groups with employees to share
ideas, and improve overall performance and quality. For these reasons
corporate universities are much more effective, not just educating
employees on the tools of quality but also sustaining continuous
improvement in quality management.
Corporate Universities have many advantages in teaching a firms
employees the tools of quality over traditional training programs. The most
noted overall companywide benefits include: Strategic alignment with

company goals, employee recruitment, retention and engagement, and

consistent quality and message. On the benefit of Strategic alignment with
company goals; Mark Allen, Ph.D., editor of The Next Generation of Corporate
Universities: Innovative Approaches for Developing People and Expanding
Organizational Capabilities (2007), says The best corporate universities are
strategic, mission-driven and designed to achieve specific business
objectives. Therefore, unlike traditional training programs, corporate
universities carry a common goal that is discussed and agreed upon by top
management. This goal is then implemented by sharing with a firms
employees the skills, techniques and best practices to stay competitive in
that area of focus. Resulting in a much more detailed plan and approach than
a traditional training program.
Corporate Universities are implemented in firms to improve employee
skills that result in a positive impact on the quality of the companys
products and services. Corporate universities integrate development goals,
training, career and leadership into a complete and organized educational
plan to teach employees the right skills and tools needed to improve the
overall work flow. This involves teaching employees from different levels how
to improve their performance on a daily basis. Corporate Universities use
substantive business case studies as educational material in order to find
solutions to existing problems of top management and, depending on the
target audience, of other groups of the workforce or value chain. This
ensures that the gained knowledge is inevitable useful for work and directly

increases performance (The Role of Corporate Universities in Quality

Management Commerce Essay). This part of corporate universities material
relates to benchmarking, by learning from other businesses that are similar
to the employees current firm. For example Motorola provides employees
consulting services in a number of areas, including benchmarking, cycle time
reduction, quality improvement processes, and statistical tools and problemsolving techniques (Foster 274) Employees can gain knowledge and
improve their performance based on what they learned, resulting in an
improvement of quality.
Corporate Universities also provides an environment where top
management can get involved and listen and learn from their employees.
Giving employees the opportunity to share ideas on various improvement
topics such as product development, leadership or even new approaches or
ideas they think could improve performance. This can lead to a healthy
environment with in a company that promotes comfort ability between
employees and top management. Promoting a business culture that
encourages change and innovation from all levels. Ensuring that everyone
within the firm is focused on the common goal of increasing performance,
which leads to a higher level of quality company-wide.
The strategic approach of Corporate Universities not only focuses on
educating and learning internally, but also externally through clients and
vendors of the value chain. Integrating the value chain enhances
networking with important partners as well as forming vital synergies with

suppliers and other business partners (The Role of Corporate Universities in

Quality Management Commerce Essay). This provides the company with a
knowledge and understanding of important external groups of the value
chain, helping to enhance processes, and become more efficient. One way
Corporate Universities involve external groups is through suppler training, by
improving their skills and further educating the supplier. It will ensure the
supplier meets the expectations of the target firm. By further including
customers the company is improving the quality of their customer
relationship, which can directly impact the quality of the products and
service the firm provides in a positive way.
The two most important aspects when teaching or improving a
companys use and understanding of the tools of quality are
implementation and continuous improvement. Training programs fail to
ensure these two aspects, by failing to educate employees about the
company as a whole, and not learning about other departments. Training
programs do not guarantee employees will implement their education
correctly, and they provide no area for the employee to learn from other
aspects of the business externally. Also the continuous improvement of
training programs tends to be specifically focused on their job tasks, which
means they are very limited in the effect they have on helping the company
improve performance. Corporate universities develop a strategic plan for
implementing the development plan for their employees. There is no limit to
how much an employee can learn or impact the performance of the

company, because corporate universities give them the opportunity to

continuously take courses and gain knowledge both externally and internally.
Since, corporate university offers a much more direct organized approach to
teaching employees how to implement and continuously improve in the area
of quality, it is a much better teaching method for tools of quality than
training programs.

References
Essays, UK. (November 2013). The Role Of Corporate Universities In Quality
Management Commerce Essay. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/commerce/the-role-of-corporateuniversities-in-quality-management-commerce-essay.php?cref=1

Glotz P., & Seufert, S. (2002). Corporate University: Wie Unternhehmen ihre
Mitarbeiter mit
E-Learning erfolgreich weiterbuilden. Fraunenfeld: Huber. (translated version)
Bersin, J. (2013, March 13). How Corporate Learning effects competitive
advantage. April 07,2016,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/03/20/how-corporate-learningdrives-competitive-advantage/#e45bfe067fc0