Can Interest in Distance Training be Sustained in Corporate Organizations?

Abstract

Establishment of distance training solutions in corporate organizations has increased on a large scale all around the world. This is especially true among organizations that have employees and clients scattered in various locations around the globe. The implementation of distance training is an effective tool for reducing training cost, saving time, and creating a more knowledgeable and productive workforce. Even so, implementation of distance training in corporate organizations is moving at a relatively slow pace (Lane, n.d.; Portway & Lane, n.d.). One theory is that many organizations just do not have the internal expertise to properly plan for the change in learning paradigms. Other organizations find it difficult to foster wide scale interest and now struggle to maintain their distance training program. The purpose of this article is to analyze various obstacles that stifle interest in sustaining distance training in corporate organizations. The secondary purpose is to develop some possible solutions that can be used by organizations to implement and maintain distance training programs. In this article, a distance training program is defined as an organizational process, consisting of policies and procedures specific to departments’ or divisions, functions and responsibilities (Schreiber and Berge, 1998).