Challenges faced by Multinational Corporations
Many multinational organizations have developed their corporate universities to have a competitive advantage that helps these firms to store and disseminate knowledge and manage the various organizational activities (Scarso 2017, 554). In order to sustain and grow in a globally competitive environment, multinational companies need to adopt various different strategies while they continue to face challenges such as employee management, finding the right approach for their learning and development, employee turnover and preparing the workforce to be ready for changes, growth, and innovations (Fred 2019). The demand for employees also increased in a competitive environment, the turnover, attrition and lack of competency in the workforce are the major barriers to success for global corporations; hence, these corporations have made corporate universities where employees learn while working on a different project and develop professional skills and competencies. Corporations can set up a new team and ask them to work on new projects. These universities work as strategic tools for the parent organizations in achieving their mission. Corporate universities give corporate education to employees which is necessary to gain insight into different business areas and to learn the operations of different departments including accounting, financing, and marketing. Corporate universities communicate the goals of the company to all employees and prepare them to participate and contribute to achieving those goals (Alagaraja, and Li 2015).
Corporate Universities are a rapidly growing segment of adult education which is internally sources training and provides education to employees that helps to deal with the challenges and help global organizations gain a competitive advantage. Corporate universities can also be called an alternative approach of global corporations to tackle the market situation such as developing employees’ competencies, training them to prepare for the future, workforce development, leadership development within the company, and educating the people about corporate culture, company’s mission, and vision; for example (Tyler 2012). Corporate universities establish clear goals and prepare long term-strategies to benefit the corporation. In the competitive environment employees’ skills for the job, and stability has become concerns. Many companies fail to achieve their goal due to the lack of professional employees, lack of skills of employees, and stability (Wamger, and Renaud-Coulon 2018). Employee attrition is also a major problem for these firms. Separation of employees shows that employees do not fit in the corporate environment or the company fails to fulfil the demand of employees; hence, to achieve success in this area, corporate firms such as Apple and McDonald’s started to educate their employees, developed corporate culture, and train the people about organizational vision, mission, and plan. The training and education in those corporate universities make employees familiar with corporate culture, and be able to sustain the working environment of the company; hence, corporate universities support these global corporations by providing skilled employees who are able to demonstrate their skills and can adjust to the company’s environment (Wamger, and Renaud-Coulon 2018). There are situations when corporate companies need alternative staff or support from an additional workforce that has similar competencies and is familiar with the company’s culture, corporate universities in those situations help the firms by providing skilled labour that can replace the existing staff, or work additionally to support the other workers; hence, many global organizations have developed their own corporate universities as part of the business strategy (Lytovchenko 2016).
Corporate Universities: An Alternative Approach
Many global firms such as Apple, McDonald’s, Disney, and GE have their own corporate universities that are utilized as a strategic tool and help these firms in achieving their corporate goals. Apple and McDonald’s are two well-known global corporations that have been executing their business for several years and have established corporate universities that assist the organizations to train and develop the workforce. Although each firm may have different ideas and thinking while establishing its corporate universities; however, key objectives are the same which support the firm to achieve defined goals. Apple University has been established by Steve Jobs in 2008 as part of the company’s vision and mission to inculcate the employee into the company’s corporate culture, educate them about the history of the organization and train them to be ready to work in any situation (Sonnenfeld 2013, 68). Apple University is a tactical training department of the company where employees receive different training programs that help to do the job inefficient ways and help Apple to achieve its mission. The university educates internal staff based on the signed-up courses and develop employees. Apple is being concerned with the confidentiality, security and privacy of its’ employees, customers, assets, and other organizational activities; hence, there is not much information available for Apple University (Gibbs 2014).
Apple University is also called a secretive university where employees are made to work with the art of Apple; for example, Apple University’s Infinite Loop Campus is the host to the university that educate employees on how they can think like Apple. Many global organizations have internal programs and strategies to train people and influence their thinking; however, Apple has gone far further than teaching. Apple follow the less is more approach that reflects in their corporate culture; for example, Apple’s TV remote with fewer buttons has received much more success than Google’s failed TV remote with 78 buttons. The less is more concept followed within the entire organization. According to the company, it is necessary to train the employees about the corporate culture to make a better ecosystem (Gibbs 2014).
McDonald’s Hamburger University is a training school developed within the headquarters of the company in Chicago that educate restaurant managers, mid-managers, other managers, and owners in restaurant management. The Hamburger University has been established in 1961 by Ray Kroc as a facility to train people about consistent restaurant operations, procedures, services, quality, and cleanness (Green 2015). The hamburger university has now 8 campuses in different parts of the world including Tokyo, London, and Moscow. In the hamburger university, students are enrolled in different courses such as shift management, introduction to management, and guest services. McDonald’s says the university aims to become an organizational hub with a continuous education process that can help people to transform knowledge into actual business results. The university has historical significance, it has been one of the firsts companies to offer a global training program in almost all locations. It was also the first company to offer a global training program during its time of establishment. According to a report, 40% of the leadership workforce in the company has received training from hamburger universities (University of the People 2021).
Apple University: Training Employees to Think Like Apple
The hamburger university supports the company’s business by developing leadership skills of employees, and by providing opportunities to workers to engage in leadership learning. Hamburger university of McDonald’s educates employees to grow in a management role that helps them to work efficiently in the McDonald’s restaurant, supports them to seek a managerial role in corporate offices, improves restaurant skills, and provides professional certification. The knowledge acquired from the university can be applied to business in Macdonald’s (Delleville, 2019). From executives to the General Manager (GM) every employee received adequate training and education at the university. GMs develop various skills that can be implemented in the restaurant. Since the university is only for the internal employees of the company; its franchise pays the cost of the university. McDonald’s says that this strategy is essential for employees; hence, they want everyone to be trained at the university. Employees working at McDonald’s can apply for education or training at a university with no academic requirements, and if the employee demonstrates skills and managerial potential, they are selected to train by the franchise owners. It has been estimated that hamburger university has graduated more than 3 million students across all locations. Considering the cultural diversity and globalization, the university provides an opportunity to learn in different languages (University of the People 2021).
Knowledge management (KM) is the process of organising, sharing, and using the information within the organization. KM also include the effective management of information that can be accessed where required. KM is associated with the business success and growth of the organization. It is necessary to improve efficiency, productivity, and manage critical information; for example, KM also includes the workforce’s overall knowledge that helps to manage the knowledge and promote sharing within the organization. Corporate universities increase the knowledge of employees and foster a sharing culture which is essential to achieving efficiency, and objectives. The most common benefit that corporate universities can provide to companies in the strategic alignment of the workforce with the organizational goals. Furthermore, they give opportunities to learn while working on strategic projects; for example, an executive can learn leadership skills and ideas while performing their job, which can help the executive to grow within the organisation as well as provide the organization with skilled workers (Chen, Xu, and Zhai 2019).
According to Singh, Verma, and Chaurasia (2020), corporate universities provide corporate training that contributes to increasing the efficiency of organizations. According to Lytovchenko (2015), corporate training and education started to emerge as an important topic in the early 20th century. In the context of globalization, economic relations, and corporate training have become necessary for companies to have better market opportunities and having a competitive advantage. The corporate training in these universities provide opportunities to interact between corporate employees and corporate educators; hence executive can learn from the seniors, and leader can guide executives who are can take their position in future. From an organizational perspective, it gives a better workforce to the company and helps the organization tackle challenges and risks. According to Cappiello, and Pedrini (2017), corporate universities are educational entities of the parent company that are part of their strategic planning and help the firm to develop the workforce as per the need of the organization.
McDonald’s Hamburger University: Educating Restaurant Managers
Based on the above definition, it can be said that Both Apple and Hamburger Universities work as a strategic tool, and provide a skilled workforce that helps the association to achieve their strategic goals. As part of their privacy strategy and less is more, Apple provides different courses that help them to meet their strategic objectives; for example, some courses that Apple university offers are Communication at Apple, Project Management, Vendor Management, and What Makes Apple, Apple. In the communication course, Apple university guide and educate the employees on how they can develop top-notch communication skills to meet professional goals as well as for their professional development (Lytovchenko 2015). According to Musielak (2019), the ultimate goal of global corporate firms is to keep the workforce updated and trained in the dynamic competitive market; hence corporate organizations rely on corporate universities that assist the organization to educate employees to step by step and utilizing contemporary business practices (Musielak, 2019). Corporate universities have started to drive strategic change; however later the purpose has changed and now most of companies that have their own universities educate the employees about their corporate culture, values, and mission (Musielak, 2019).
McDonald’s follows one of the greatest business models and strategies that contribute to its global dominance and consistency. Hamburger University is part of their business model that provides training to employees and enhances the skills of people who have the potential to work for leadership and managerial positions. From delivering a burger to managing the operational activities of a McDonald’s franchise, Hamburger University develops all necessary skills in the workforce. The Hamburger university educates the employees about the art of restaurant management and it currently enrols more than 5000 students per year across all 8 locations. One of the major parts of university training includes pressure task through which employees learn to work under pressure and manage those situations (Varghese 2015). In addition, employees at Hamburger university learn not only to work with the public; but however, learn to work with colleagues. Global organizations require training and development of the workforce continues to sustain in a dynamic environment; hence, the corporate university model has followed that helps the associations develop their own educational activities and training programs; hence, corporate universities can help the firms directly manage the challenge and build relevant appropriate strategy (Musielak 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, multinational organizations affect the global economy and follow different strategies to sustain in a globally competitive environment. Corporate universities that have been emerged as an important strategic tool for companies provide different opportunities for growth and risk management by providing them trained workforce. Workforce stability and competencies have been the major challenge for multinational companies that have been solved by corporate universities; for example, a corporate university can educate the employees about the company’s vision, mission, and values make the employees familiar with the corporate culture and develop necessary skills to perform their jobs. Apple and Hamburger are examples of corporate universities that work as a strategic tool for these firms. Today more companies are setting up their own corporate universities for their employees where they can learn while working. It is also necessary for large firms to set up these universities to spread the sense of organizational culture among all employees and prepare them for future leadership. Although these universities serve different purposes for their parent association; however, the main functions of all universities are to prepare a giant and competent workforce than can be capable to drive organizational performance.
- Based on the above analysis of two different corporate universities it can be said that corporate universities play important role in developing human capital and improving performance. These universities create a competitive advantage for the organizations; hence, it is recommended that multinational organizations should invest in corporate universities to make a competitive advantage (Scarso, 2017).
- Due to the increasing demand for production and goods demand for a skilled workforce has increased, companies require competent employees who can work in a stressful situation and manage the stress, to be able to tackle those situations, employees need to have skills such as time management, products training, leadership skills, and knowledge of what organization want to achieve. Corporate universities provide all this knowledge to employees and health the organization to prepare a competent workforce that can work in a dynamic environment (Beaudry, Green and Sand, 2016).
- A recent study on European and Russian companies revealed that large organization that have corporate universities at one or more location are able to change and adapt to the market trend easily which help the firm in long-term sustainability (Parshakov, and Shakina, 2018).
- There are certain risks for the company while investing in corporate universities; for example, of a conventional university is situated near a corporate university, the likelihood of corporate university drops; however, risks can be mitigated through strategic planning (Parshakov, and Shakina, 2018).
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