What makes this case particularly interesting?
At this point (mid 2004), many organisations have experienced using learning technologies in their training and development provision. There are numerous case studies from which new adopters can learn and much has been written about the challenges in integrating technologies into learning and working. GMP is particularly interesting because it provides an insight into a sector undergoing significant reform and change and which is comprised of centralised and decentralised forces - which have an enormous influence on investment and process decision-making, as well as creating inevitable tensions in terms of implementation (the pull/push effect of the centre versus the actual on the ground operations). One of the great dilemmas facing organisations using technologies to support business processes (and these include learning and development processes in the workplace) is what to centralise and how to use the distribution effects of networks effectively. In other words, questions concerning what balance between top-down control and management, what bottom-up freedom and flexibility, and which models of horizontal exchange and distribution to adopt. In a sector such as the police, with traditional authority cultures combined with increasing pressure for accountability and political and media scrutiny at a time of significant change and reform, these decisions are extremely challenging and impact on the whole the organisation, not least on how to provide the optimal solutions to learning, development and performance needs.
GMP has a highly professionalised and very well informed and knowledgeable Learning and Development Branch, which has been in the vanguard of adoption, has experimented widely and has shown real leadership in its use of learning technologies and understanding of the business (and process) issues involved. This achievement has not been easily won; there have been many hundreds of hours of hard work and frustrating times, challenging existing assumptions, making the case over and again for hard-won resources, overcoming individual and organisational resistance, and demonstrating successes great and small along the way. The team have behaved as innovators and have managed to move their organisation ahead in experience and expertise.
Now, as the case study shows, learning technologies are being mainstreamed, and GMP and its Learning and Development Branch face the challenge of alignment with mainstream initiatives. With agreement on a national, centralised approach to the provision by NCALT of an LMS (and a new more integrated Managed Learning Environment) and resources distribution, GMP faces the question of how to position itself ? remaining innovative and proactive but also taking advantage of the benefits of national offerings and complying with the constraints this implies? Above all, they are now moving into a phase where they need to embed learning and knowledge-sharing technologies into the change and reform process, to use these technologies to help drive that process (ensuring real value added to the organisation as a whole), and to begin to measure the return on investment from their years of experimentation and investment. ...continue to history of e-learning at GMP
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