Re: Let's get practical LO459

Chas. A. Barclay (BARCLAY@busadm.cba.hawaii.edu)
Fri, 17 Mar 1995 21:04:38 -1000

Mr. Toner writes in LO456:

> As a non-profit which relies primarily on "soft" money, my organization is
> challenged to commit the needed resource$$, in time, money and human
> capital to make the leap to a learning organization, during a time of
> financial crunch for the organization.
>
> Everyone is stretched so thin that resourcing the future vision seems to
> get lost..

The answer is that corporations (for or not for profit) shouldn't
have to rely upon corporate funds to train people. Instead workers
need to educate themselves if they want to assure their own
transformation to a learning partner in a learning organziation.
This also ensures their future employability if RIFs occur in the
industry. Sorry, that's when RIFs occur in the industry.

Can't rely on corporations to justify an expense for training that
has an unspecific payback. Its just that simple. You take stake
& shareholders or donors as saps if you expect them to put up with
unjustifiable expenditures.

Current accounting systems cannot measure the value of such squishy
training. I'm not sure that any linear models of corporate
performance can adequately measure such things. However, we are
faced with stochastic accounting systems that simply are unequipped
to measure such things.

Charles Barclay 2404 Maile Way
Dept. of Mgmt & Ind Relations Honolulu, HI 96822
University of Hawaii Fax: 808 956-2774
barclay@busadm1.cba.hawaii.edu Phone: 808 956-8545

"It is a bad example not to observe a Law that has been passed,
especially on the part of its legislator; and it is most harmful
to the rulerof a city to commit new offenses every day."
---Machiavelli, Chapter 45 the Discourses.