Strategic Audit of CMA University



Strategic Audit of CMA University

Exploring the potential of the concept

One commonly-shared feature is that this style of intervention, perhaps more so than in any other of the contemporary trends in learning and organisation development, strongly emphasises the need to demonstrate evidential benefits in the links between investments in intellectual development and improved business performance. The long-standing arguments about the difficulty of quantitatively or qualitatively measuring benefits only suffice to imply an unacceptably low level of connectivity between training and development programmes and an informed appreciation of business purpose.

Clearly, there is a very hazardous return on investment equation involved but, it is an area of intellectual asset management that will continue to feature large in the management of these developments and it is not going to go away.

Figure 1 shows a schematic illustration of the total integration process and reflects the scale of the challenge that organisations are facing in the complete integration of totally inclusive applications. Our aim is to explore applications that relate to this total process and derive a basing model against which comparisons can be made of current CU developments; it will underpin a comprehensive evaluative framework for further case research studies.

Examination of the total process has shown that there are potentially many new issues to be reconciled relating to its design and management. New organisational interdependencies arise and the building of new relationships both internally and externally will be necessary to facilitate this process. The main concerns appear to be connected with how to maintain the relevance of what is learned and its alignment with the strategic intent of the business.

The development emphasis is moving on from process structure and curriculum matters to the factors concerned with the effectiveness of implementation.

Here we are looking at the potential role of the CU as a strategic and business-led development platform and establishing an evaluative framework of understanding for the dynamics of integrated learning, knowledge acquisition and managerial action in the organisation setting. From that base we will select a process model methodology that contains all the comparative elements necessary for appraising and evaluating the effectiveness of company and institutional applications in the research case studies. This basing model will provide a reference point and a common analytical thread for a series of serious empirical studies through which we can compare and contrast alternative CU styles and outcomes, thereby adding significantly to the knowledge in this field.

We can commence our journey of understanding into the total concept by looking at the dynamic effects of the business environment on the nature of the strategic response from an organisation and the consequences of these interactions on the character of corporate learning requirements. From this perspective we will be in a position to envisage the full role and potential of the CU.

Positioning CU learning processes in the context of strategic fit

All organisations experience considerable differences in the way in which they try to align or match their resources, expertise and competencies with the opportunities and threats of the ...