Internal crises can also change the learning demand and force an organization to reassess its needs. In one company in the food sector, for example, the introduction of a new management system, following an initial unsuccessful period of introducing the new technology, led to a change in approach, to the more active involvement of staff in defining and solving the problems and recognition of informal team-based learning as an inevitable strategy. The need to stimulate horizontal communications and to involve different work teams more intensely, to strengthen the capacity of these groups for resolving problems and snags has helped to profoundly change the learning demand, which was initially more limited and more adaptive.

The upstream organization of ALT tends to vary substantially with the type of staff. In the case of managers, practices tend to be more institutionalized (Bélanger et al., 2004) and the definition of needs and the programming of ALT are less frequently reviewed. Senior management tends to play an important role in determining training needs in co-operation with other levels of management, and this is generally done in accordance with models that seem increasingly standardized because of the increasingly homogeneous proposals that are received from external consulting firms and educational institutions. This is a process that tends to be less contextualized from one organization to another than for production employees, for example.

An interesting exception was observed in a major biopharmaceutical company (Bélanger et al., 2004). Dissatisfied with preconceived education and training programs for managers, the company in question experimented with a completely new approach focused on a renewed design for mentoring. Substantial efforts to diagnose needs were then made by both those requesting ALT and more experienced managers prepared to act as mentors. The ALT was planned as a result in a way that was both more individualized and more closely reflected the concrete needs of the organization.

ALT for managers and professionals, which has developed substantially over the last three decades, tends to be organized around two poles: a number of ALT activities covering the major basic management skills, training given by outside agents and a support system for individuals wishing to continue their personal development through participation in outside activities. Some indicators suggest a tendency to expand the demand for training of managers, professionals and scientists. In the case of managers, the need to reform management methods and prepare replacement managers leads to more endogenous strategies based on mixed forms of ALT (mentoring, assisted self- directed learning, ^{Footnote 60} seminars, etc.), which are combined with additional forms of education and training taken externally or offered by specialized firms.

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