This paper analyzes a newly built executive development programme within a major European multi-national organization. The organization is an outcome of several recent national and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. A special feature in the organization is the fact that not one previous national organization is in the lead. Rather there are three or four previous organizational-and national-power centers that have been forced to negotiate the vision, strategy and policies or the organization. The Human Resource Development policies and practices within the organization have been under negotiation. A new 'Executive Education and Development Programme' was built and has been implemented two times, in 2002 and 2003. My paper will analyze the year 2003 programme that can be seen to represent the established version of this learning intervention. The programme has got high status while being the highest ranking development activity within the organization. As a special feature the programme also gathers together the whole over 30.000 employee organization in micro form.The target of my paper is to analyze the learning approach adopted within the programme, and to make visible the learning paradigm behind this learning approach. My analysis framework will consist of behaviorist, cognitive and social constructivist learning paradigms. The analysis will open up pedagogical and didactical assumptions the executive development programme embodies. I shall then continue towards an interpretation of the ontological, axiological and epistemological assumptions behind adapted learning practices.The materials available to analyze the executive development programme are exhaustive. They contain materials developed and used by the programme management, the pronounced learning approach of the programme, the materials developed for programme participant use, as well as the genuine programme evaluation materials. The outcome of the analysis will show that the learning paradigms adopted are mostly not known and recognized by the organizational actors involved. It is also evident in the case organization realities that multiple contradictory learning paradigms are simultaneously in use. The contradictions emerging are obvious causing confusion and inefficiency in the programme execution. The conclusions made will also point out the relevance of meta-competencies in-use-especially an ability to reflect the consistency of the learning paradigm selected and put into practice.

References

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