Bae Systems

Resources

“With some 100,000 staff natively speaking six languages across 26 divisions in more than 110 sites worldwide, BAE Systems faces a challenge to maximize its rich intellectual asset base of engineers, scientists and other professionals” (West, 2007). The rapid pace of market and technological developments in the defense and aerospace industries have required the development of new capabilities and partnerships, new innovative ways of working and greater organizational agility in responding to the needs of customers and the marketplace (Massetti, 1999).

A cornerstone of the BAE System’s approach to addressing these challenges has been its ongoing investment in organizational learning and the development of its employees, as reflected in the investment made in the company’s Virtual University (VU). Employees benefit from the knowledge of all of the company’s experts located around the world. The VU was initially established simply as a portal to enable more intelligent search and retrieval of information. However, as it has developed, it has helped cut the time that staff spend looking for information by 90 percent and saved BAE Systems more than 65 million (King, 2009).

BAE Systems’ philosophy is different to many other organizations, where training is often in the domain of human resources (HR) professionals with a limited budget to dish out after appraisals every six months (King, 2009). BAE believes that employees should be learning every day, as they come across new challenges and work with new people and projects. BAE Systems wanted a system that gave employees access to people and knowledge; the everyday learning, not just access to information. The VU forms one of four pillars of BAE Systems as a learning organization. It provides the underlying infrastructure, which supports people, process and content.

The VU is a gateway to know-how; a dynamic library of information that can be accessed by individuals from across BAE Systems. It plays a...