First, this is an opinion piece – I have not seen systematic research on the value of corporate universities. But a recent client experience reinforced something I said in the first edition of Building Expertise: Corporate Universities are often a STEP BACKWARD.
Of course there are many different implementations of Corporate Universities. But just the name signals an emphasis on education rather than organizational performance improvement. Education has it’s place – but often the residue of an educational rather than work performance emphasis is transfer failure. Rather than signal an educational metaphor, how about a title that suggests improved workplace performance such as Capability Development or???? What do you think about corporate universities?