Training and Development of the General Electric Corporation

Session 5 Paper: Training and Development of the General Electric Corporation

Marti Ewy

Leading the Learning Organization

Dr. Kirby Scheer

University of Mary

Training and Development of the General Electric Corporation

Abstract

The General Electric Corporation’s training and development practices are examples that other organizations can use as a model for their own organizational culture. Employee training and development is becoming an important facet of any company that wants to be more successful. There are certain elements that must be part of any training program including: why training is important, training program design, methods of training and development, career management, and a vision of training in the future.

Importance of Training

According to Noe (2009), employee training is an effective tool to use within an organization in order to give it competitive advantage; in addition, an organization’s human capital is the collection of knowledge that exists within the employee base in a company and must be invested. General Electric (GE) Corporation invests about one billion dollars per year towards its training and development programs (Leadership and learning, n. d.). GE has a proud history that starts with Thomas Edison and the light bulb; in 1878, the company was called the Edison Electric Light Company. Since the genesis of the company, the focus has shifted from light bulbs to jet engines and turbines and from local to global markets. GE’s current uniqueness is not only about innovative electrical products and technologies, but it is about its long-term investment in its employees and their knowledge base. GE is the only organization listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Index now that was also listed in the first index in 1896. The role of training has been an important part of GE’s success; its focus involves a culture in which employees are inspired and compensated to be life-long learners. GE believes that by being a learning organization, it will create better engineers, managers, and generally better employees who stand out from employees at other companies. The training programs have helped identify people who have the propensity for hard work, which is important to the organizational culture at GE. Through studies done by outside organizations for GE, the company discovered that customers, products, or money were less influential factors limiting the organization’s growth; it was found that managers had the most influence on company success. The studies indicated that action needed to be taken in making improvements in the areas regarding the