Creating an applied learning infrastructure for management decisions

Abstract

To achieve change in the Australian red meat processing industry it is necessary to address the tyranny of distance in a dispersed industry, a culture of “firefighting” rather than root cause problem solving and a low investment in staff training and development. Internet‐based learning offers potential where off‐the‐job training is not feasible or efficient. Hence our decision to design a management development initiative for the industry. $LAM (pronounced “slam” – may be viewed at URL: http://www.bus.qut.edu.au/$lam/) is the name coined for the learning process that uses interactive Internet‐based decision support systems. $LAM integrates high quality content, state‐of‐the‐art instructional design principles and motivational strategies. The goal was the delivery of an industry specific cost of quality tutorial and activity based projects able to promote learners’ ability to formulate conceptual generalisations and promote change in developing new responses to industry issues.