Gaining insight to transfer of training through the lens of social psychology

The article deals with the question under which conditions people change their behavior through vocational trainings or not. Following the demand of more theory-driven investigations in transfer research (Blume, Ford, Baldwin, & Huang, 2010) we wish to add the perspective of social psychology. We therefore illustrate how well-known concepts from social psychology hold untapped potential to improve transfer research by explaining the underlying mechanisms of factors that support (or hinder) the transfer of newly trained behavior and skills on the job. In choosing social psychological theories that have so far only scarcely been considered with regard to explaining training transfer we combine them with well known concepts in transfer research. We give furthermore hints for implications and tools to foster transfer in practice.