MSc in Human Resource Management
University of Manchester, Manchester
Academic Year 2001/2002

The Transfer of Training into the Work Environment:
A Socio-cultural Approach

von: Marco Köster

Content

1 Factors inhibiting or facilitating training transfer

1.1 Trainee factors

Motivation-related factors
Ability-related factors
Personality-related factors
1.2 Training design and delivery
1.3 Environmental factors

Job-related environmental factors
Organisation-related environmental factors

2 A socio-cultural approach to training transfer

Socialisation during transfer
Socialisation at the workplace

In theoretical and empirical research the “elusive phenomenon” of training transfer has widely been neglected (Analoui 1993: 6). Attempts to grasp the many facets of the transfer of training in a comprehensive theory have been few. Foxon (1993) defines transfer of training as “the effective and continuing application in the job environment of the skills and knowledge gained in a training context”.1 Transfer has traditionally been regarded as a training product to be measured at a fixed point of time after the course. Alternatively, Foxon (1993) suggests a process approach to transfer. She argues that transfer of training is a complex and discontinuous process of successful skill application and recurring setbacks, of achieved behaviour change and frequent relapse to old habits. Consequently, the identification and measurement of transfer delivers a comprehensive picture only when it sets in at various points of time after the training.2 Throughout the transfer process the trainee is exposed to a “force field” (Lewin 1951) of factors inhibiting or facilitating the transfer of training to the workplace. The influences of transfer facilitators and transfer barriers are briefly outlined in the following section.

1 Factors inhibiting or facilitating training transfer

Foxon’s process-oriented transfer approach sheds light on the fact that the problem of training transfer is located mainly within the post-training period. This simple insight has astonishingly been neglected in most studies on the topic. Instead, reasons for poor or non-existing transfer have been searched for in the training design and content, or in the individual characteristics of trainees. Environmental effects on transfer at the workplace have been investigated the least (Elangovan and Karakowsky 1999). However, a variety of factors may have positive or negative impact on the transfer of training. Building on the landmark study of Baldwin and Ford (1988) and supplemented with more recent research results; Elangovan and Karakowsky (1999) differentiate between trainee factors, training factors and environmental factors.

1.1 Trainee factors

Trainee factors influencing the transfer of training can be divided into three categories: those related to motivation, to ability, and to personality. Motivation-related factors The motivation to transfer training, i.e. the trainees’ intention to apply the learnt skills on-the-job, is affected by a number of variables.

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1 The term ‘transfer of training’ is explicitly differentiated from the expression ‘transfer of learning’. The latter has its origin in an educational context (Cree and Macaulay 2000). Educationalists speak of ‘positive transfer’ when previous learning supports new learning, and of ‘negative transfer’ when it is rather a hindrance. This may under a certain perspective be relevant for training processes but is not referred to by the notion of ‘transfer of training’ (Gordon 1989).

2 Foxon (1993) outlines five stages of transfer, each of which is a prerequisite for the following stage. In the first transfer stage the trainee is motivated to apply the training on the job (“transfer intention”); in the second stage, there are attempts to apply the newly learnt skills (“transfer initiation”); some of the skills are inconsistently or sporadically applied in the third stage (“partial transfer”); in the fourth stage, the transfer is maintained, first consciously with some effort, then unconsciously as a daily part of the job performance (“transfer maintenance”); and, finally, there may be “transfer failure” when the learnt skills are not integrated into the repertoire of work behaviours. Transfer failure, of course, can occur at any stage of the transfer continuum.