Training Transfer and Transfer Motivation: The Influence of Individual,Environmental, Situational,Training Design,and Affective Reaction Factors

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of individual, environmental, training design, and affective reaction factors on training transfer and transfer motivation. To determine the relationship between these factors and their influence on training transfer and to test the model, the researchers collected data from employees in the Malaysian banking sector. Structural equation modeling with Amos 16 was used to test the model and determine the relationship. The study suggested that training stakeholders should manage the training program effectively. Transfer is maximized when trainees have social support, high performance self‐efficacy, and transfer motivation. Stakeholders (e.g., trainers, trainees, supervisors, and peers) are important to the training transfer process, as are learner readiness, trainee reaction, instrumentality, and training retention. This study revealed that perceived content validity and transfer design work together and influence the trainee's performance self‐efficacy. In other words, if trainers want to improve the performance self‐efficacy level of trainees, they need to explain how the trainee can transfer the learned skills at the workplace and make sure the content of the training is similar to the actual job. The main objective of training programs is to align the employee's expertise with organizational goals. Organizations can achieve their desired objectives only when employees transfer the learned skills on the job. Unfortunately, employees often transfer only a small percentage of skills they have learned in training. To effectively manage their training programs, organizations need to identify and focus on the factors that resist effective training transfer.     

M.A.S.S.: A Model for Producing Transfer

Transfer is the application in the workplace of the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in training. With transfer, trainers hope to link training to increased job performance. However, training alone will not produce transfer. To affect job performance as a result of training, trainers must intentionally promote transfer using a variety of strategies based on known principles of human performance technology. The MASS model, presented in this paper, brings together four of these principles. According to the MASS model, trainers who promote transfer (and who thereby become performance technologists) 1) Motivate trainees to learn and use the training material; 2) increase trainees' Awareness of when to use new skills and ideas; 3) enable trainees to master and to apply Skills; and 4) give trainees psychological and physical Support on the job. When performance technologists follow the MASS model, they can expect to produce trainees who apply at work what they have been taught in training. Use of the model is illustrated with two examples.     

Live and Learn: Informal Learning Among Future Professionals

Although most workplace learning occurs informally, instructional design and technology professionals often focus their attention on more formal interventions, such as training. This article addresses a research study that examined the perception and use of informal learning strategies among instructional design and technology graduate students, the future members of the workforce of instructional designers and performance improvement practitioners. Results of this study may have implications for both instructional design and technology graduate programs and managers of instructional design and technology teams in organizations.     

Implications of job rotation literature for performance improvement practitioners

Job rotations have existed as a means of developing individual knowledge and skills since the industrial revolution, and in today's dynamic global workplace, they afford organizations an opportunity to manage changing psychological work contracts and employee desires for self‐managed careers. Through the systematic mining of psychology, business, management, and educational databases, this literature review provides a summary of job rotation practices, individual and organizational benefits, likely costs associated with job rotations, and implications for practitioners. Findings indicate that while employees seek learning and marketability over job security and stability, organizations strive to maintain continuity and internal growth and development of their workforce. Job rotations can appease both individuals and organizations through enhanced knowledge and skills, facilitation of greater job satisfaction, and identification of individual strengths for optimal organizational performance. However, these benefits come at a price to the individual and the organization in the form of increased work/life conflict, potentially higher training costs, and possible lower work unit morale. Conclusions are presented on the practical implications and recommendations for implementing job rotations and integrating the practice into performance improvement models.     

Business graduate employability – where are we going wrong?

Persistent gaps in certain non-technical skills in business graduates continue to impact on organisational performance and global competitiveness. Despite business schools' best efforts in developing non-technical skills, widely acknowledged as fundamental to graduate employability, there has been considerably less attention to measuring skill outcomes and even less on their subsequent transfer to the workplace. It appears stakeholders are assuming transfer occurs automatically in graduates, neglecting the influence of learning program, learner and workplace characteristics on this complex process and its potential impact on graduate employability. This paper unpacks the concept of transfer and proposes a model of graduate employability that incorporates the process. Measures for empirical analysis are discussed. Testing the model would indicate the extent to which transfer occurs and highlight collaborative strategies for employers, universities and graduates in nurturing learning and workplace environments in which transfer may flourish, taking us one step closer to the elusive ‘work-ready’ graduate.     

Evaluating the Impact of a Performance‐Based Methodology on Transfer of Training

Transfer of training is the degree to which trainees can apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes gained in training to the job. Currently only between 5% and 20% of what is learned in training is ever applied on the job. At this time, little is known about the effects of work environment factors, such as support, feedback, and goal setting, on training transfer. We utilized a quasi‐experimental between‐groups design using surveys, interviews, and behavioral measures to evaluate the impact of performance‐based work environment factors on training transfer. Results indicated that participants in the experimental group reported a higher level of training transfer than those in the control group. These findings suggest that a performance‐based approach to training can be an effective method to increase the likelihood that employees transfer training knowledge to the job context.     

Older Workers’ Learning Within Organizations: Issues and Challenges

As increasing numbers of older adults stay in the workforce or engage in encore careers, they are subjected to diverse issues and challenges. The new dynamics of the workplace in a global market exert pressure on older workers and employers alike in which training and development has a potentially significant function for achieving greater productivity and job satisfaction. This article discusses the changing workplace and the diverse range of learning opportunities that may be available to older workers. The article then addresses selected issues of overcoming stereotypical assumptions about the capabilities of older workers, age stratification at work, and the differing perspectives of managers and employees to learning opportunities. The article argues for a negotiated process of learning where significant autonomy is assumed by workers.     

Surviving troubled times: Five best practices for training professionals

With the current economic downturn and signs of an emerging recovery, executives are trying to determine how to best use their organizations' funds and resources. This may mean downsizing human resource departments and eliminating positions for training personnel. The authors offer five strategies drawn from the professional literature to survive these and future trying times: (1) align efforts with organizational missions and business goals, (2) use training only when it addresses a gap between existing and desired performance arising from a lack of requisite skill, (3) craft instructional objectives that describe exemplary job performance, (4) create sound training programs that promote learning and transfer to the job, and (5) collaborate with sponsors and other stakeholders outside the training department to promote transfer of training to the job. Training personnel who employ these strategies successfully may be able to answer executives' common question, “What have you done for me recently that matters?”     

Who Empowers Leaders?

Leaders work at all levels in organizations, but few of them are truly empowered. Why don't organizations do a better job of empowering them? Four factors obstruct organizations' efforts. Most leadership development programs (a) are offered out of context of other organizational development efforts; (b) are generic and not specific to organizations' needs for change; (c) do not last long enough; and (d) are based on either a skill development model or a personal development model, instead of personal development interweaved with skills development. An effective program to empower leaders might overcome these obstacles by drawing on initial and continuing support from top management; implementing an articulated plan including training, reward systems to encourage leaders to develop others, appropriate process and outcome performance appraisal objectives, and regular channels for feedback among individuals across many organizational levels; linking process goals (e. g., building community, envisioning) to organizational outcome goals; developing mechanisms to institutionalize long–term leadership and organizational development goals; and ensuring that training addresses skill and personal areas of development as much in concert as possible.     

On the determinants of employment-related organised education and informal learning

This paper analyses the distribution of employment-related organised education and informal learning in the Canadian workforce. The paper draws on a large-scale survey, the Changing Nature of Work and Lifelong Learning (WALL), which was based on structured and standardised telephone interviews with a representative sample of 5783 Canadian members of the employed labour force. In exploring the determinants facilitating employment-related informal learning, three analytical categories of factors derived from previous research on learning participation were used: individual-level factors, job characteristics and workplace environment. The analyses focus on differences in individuals, jobs and workplace characteristics among adult workers who acquired or improved their job-related skills through different training pathways. In addition, analyses were performed to compare the extent to which these factors differ in their influence on learning decisions among workers who combine both organised education and informal learning and those who receive only informal learning. The results indicate that important predictors of participation in employment-related organised education and informal learning are age, educational attainment, learning skills, occupational class, education-job relation, degree of autonomy, degree of labour intensity, principal area of production and organisation size.     

Training transfer: Not the 10% solution

Training transfer is a key concern for organizational stakeholders, training professionals, and researchers. Since Georgenson's (1982) article on transfer, his conversational gambit that only 10% of training transfers to performance on the job has been quoted often. This estimate suggests a low level of success with training programs in general, and given its pervasiveness, it has the potential to undermine confidence in using training as an intervention. Although there is considerable evidence that learning from training can and does transfer, assessing how much of it transfers in general is far from simple. Researchers conducting recent meta‐analyses of transfer studies have illustrated some of the difficulties in assigning a general effect size for training transfer. Measuring transfer is complicated by how data are collected, from whom, at what interval from the training event, and a number of other factors. Taking those factors into account, along with existing transfer evaluation methods, training managers and instructional designers should develop protocols to define how they will conduct transfer evaluation within their organizations.     

Communication skills programs that last: Face to Face and relapse prevention

Communication skills are basic to effective management. However, communication training programs must not only show evidence that the skills have been learned, but also demonstrate that this learning can be converted into effective on the job behavior. A communication skills program, Face to Face, based on the microtraining model, is described. This model has substantial empirical evidence of successful skill acquisition. A novel approach to skill transfer and retention, the relapse prevention model is proposed as a methodology for maintaining communication skills in the work setting.     

The Instructional Designer’s Role in Forming University-Community Partnerships in Digital Literacy

With an eye toward contemporary skill building to meet community centered economic needs, organizations such as Literacy Volunteers of America are increasingly pressured to examine new avenues in promoting employment readiness skills for the newly literate. These organizations and countless others have come to the realization that being prepared for the current workforce demands a skill set that surpasses traditional literacy skills in realizing job opportunity. The newly literate must now achieve a level of digital literacy to accompany traditional literacy efforts. The demand for such contemporary literacy skills to parallel traditional literacy presents an opportunity for university based instructional designers to share expertise and to collaborate with their local communities to this end. This paper focuses on the process of the formation of a university-community partnership in digital literacy designed for participants to collaboratively address such technology focused educational needs.     

The eye of the beholder: metaphor in adult education research

Important workforce competencies for managers and professionals were identified separately for males and females through a sequence of interviews, content analysis, accessing expert opinion and statistical factoring procedures. Interviews of thirty‐two professionals and managers and a subsequent content analysis led to the development of a list of important skills, knowledge and attitudes which formed the basis for separate male and female competencies questionnaires. Principal components analyses were performed separately for male and female questionnaires, with samples of 310 women and 249 men. Seven important competencies were identified for each gender. Competencies for women were: maintenance of job skills; orientation to innovation and change; affective and cognitive efficacy; self determination and stability; presentation skills; interpersonal communication skills; and office politics skills. Competencies for men were: leadership ability; self‐determination; interpersonal ability; task management; job skill maintenance; office politics skills; and tolerance and open‐mindedness. Results suggest that acquiring competence in the workforce involves a combination both of learning and of overcoming constraints, and that individual experience influences important competencies.     

Another look at the relative impact of workplace design on training transfer for supervisory communication skills

This ethnographic study extends the findings of earlier research that authenticated the impact of workplace design features on newly acquired communication skills back on the job. The qualitative nature of the earlier study, however, limited quantitative measurement of workplace design features that may have an impact on learned skills. This study examined supervisor perceptions about the relative importance of organizational factors that affect transfer and prioritized the importance of specific design features to support learned communication skills. Research findings validate earlier research that workplace design is another work environment influence that may facilitate or impede the ultimate success of a training intervention for performance improvement.     

The Perceived Impacts of Supervisor Reinforcement and Learning Objective Importance on Transfer of Training

Transfer of training is a major concern for trainers and managers. If training does not transfer to the job, the value of the training is questionable. This study investigated the relationships between: 1) perceived importance of training objectives and perceived transfer of training relative to those objectives, and 2) types of supervisor reinforcement which trainees perceive to be most motivating and the types of reinforcement that they perceive their supervisors actually use. The study was conducted in the context of a Managerial Leadership Program within a large oil refinery and chemical company in Korea. The study found that as either supervisors or trainees perceived a training objective to be more important, they also perceived more transfer of training relative to that objective. The study also found that the types of reinforcement trainees perceived to be most motivating were also the types that they perceived their supervisors used most often.     

Using Evaluation to Build Organizational Performance and Learning Capability: A Strategy and a Method

More than ever organizations need to achieve the very best training and performance improvement possible. Today's competitive environment requires a workforce that cannot only learn quickly, but that can rapidly and consistently transform new learning into enhanced individual, team, and organizational performance. Thoughtful, efficient, and constructive evaluation is at the heart of continuous improvement and is vital to unlocking the desperately needed potential of learning for performance improvement.     

Metacognition and Human Performance Improvement Originally published in 1988, PIQ 1.1

An understanding of the uses of metacognition provides a powerful tool toward developing quality and efficiency in task learning and performance. Metacognition is the executive controller of cognitive processes responsible both for self regulated learning and work performance outcomes. Comprehension monitoring and motivation are two prime components of metacognition which are responsible for commitment to, and definition of, goals, monitoring progress toward goals, and activating the appropriate thinking skills to achieve goals. Specific thinking skill categories of attention, organization, and elaboration are described with examples of how specific techniques in each category can optimize learning and job performance. Research on training of metacognitive skills through both detached and embedded skill-development programs is reviewed. In addition, ways to compensate for metacognitive skills when training is not cost-effective are described. The relationship between metacognitive skills and effective management of work performance is stressed.     

Metacognition and Human Performance Improvement

An understanding of the uses of meta-cognition provides a powerful tool toward developing quality and efficiency in task learning and performance. Metacognition is the executive controller of cognitive processes responsible both for self regulated learning and work performance outcomes. Comprehension monitoring and motivation are two prime components of metacognition which are responsible for commitment to, and definition of, goals, monitoring progress toward goals, and activating the appropriate thinking skills to achieve goals. Specific thinking skill categories of attention, organization, and elaboration are described with examples of how specific techniques in each category can optimize learning and job performance. Research on training of metacognitive skills through both detached and embedded skill-development programs is reviewed. In addition, ways to compensate for metacognitive skills when training is not cost-effective are described. The relationship between metacognitive skills and effective management of work performance is stressed.