Challenges for service leaders: setting the agenda for the virtual learning organization Available to Purchase

Uses a literature‐based review to frame the questions for tomorrow’s learning organization (the review is contained in section 2 of Teare et al., The Virtual University: An Action Paradigm and Process for Workplace Learning, Cassell, London, 1998, 351pp.) and some of the applications are related to the pioneering work conducted by the global lodging organization, Marriott International during 1998/1999, in partnership with International Management Centres. The contention is that the multi‐faceted challenges of service leadership, competitiveness, profitability and return on investment, require a highly responsive and supportive learning community. This delivers on the challenges and derives benefits in the form of rapid access and reduced cost, by utilizing a “virtual” network or university design. Depicts a sequence of “change factors”, “enablers” and “impacts” that provide a reference point framework for learning and for focusing on business outcomes. If these are the key deliverables, what kind of learning process is needed to ensure that managerial and organizational activity is properly aligned? It is proposed that work‐based “action learning” is the only sustainable means of building the intellectual capital and competence of the organization so as to achieve its service leadership and business goals.