Transfer of training from an internal medicine boot camp to the workplace: enhancing and hindering factors

Background The transfer of training to the workplace is the aim of training interventions. Three primary factors influence transfer: trainee characteristics, training design and work environment influences. Within medical education, the work environment factors influencing transfer of training remain underexplored. Burke and Hutchins’ review of training transfer outlined five work environment influences: opportunity to perform, supervisor/peer support, strategic link, transfer climate and accountability. This study aimed to explore the ways in which work environment factors influence the transfer of training for medical trainees. Methods Internal Medicine Training in Scotland includes a three-day boot camp involving simulation-based mastery learning of procedural skills, immersive simulation scenarios and communication workshops. Following ethical approval, trainees were invited to take part in interviews at least three months after following their boot camp. Interviews were semi-structured, anonymised, transcribed verbatim and analysed using template analysis. Member checking interviews were performed to verify findings. Results A total of 26 trainees took part in interviews between January 2020 and January 2021. Trainees reported a lack of opportunities to perform procedures in the workplace and challenges relating to the transfer climate, including a lack of appropriate equipment and resistance to change in the workplace. Trainees described a strong sense of personal responsibility to transfer and they felt empowered to change practice in response to the challenges faced. Conclusions This study highlights barriers to transfer of training within the clinical workplace including procedural opportunities, a transfer climate with challenging equipment availability and, at times, an unsupportive workplace culture. Trainees are driven by their own sense of personal responsibility; medical educators and healthcare leaders must harness this enthusiasm and take heed of the barriers to assist in the development of strategies to overcome them.

Training transfer climate: examining the role of high performance work system and organizational performance in the power sector of India

PurposeBenchmarking research has explored the role of organizational practices and business processes rooted with human capabilities for achieving growth performance. The role of high performance work system as an organizational practice and business process is yet to be studied. Even if studied, no study has been conducted on the role of training transfer climate on high performance work system and organizational performance. The current research aims at examining high performance work system on organizational performance. Further, the study also examine training transfer climate as a mediating variable between HPWS and organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachData collected from 415 executives of a high performance-based power sector company of Gujarat, India. The survey instrument consists of high performance work system, training transfer climate and organizational performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was used for a simultaneous assessment of overall and specific elements of measurement validity and reliability. Structural equation modelling used to test the hypothesized model.FindingsThe result proved the capability of high performance work system to predict organizational performance. Further, the result supports the hypothesis that training transfer climate acts as a mediator between high performance work system and organizational performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe result has important theoretical and managerial implications. Theoretically, the research extends the scope of benchmarking to high performance work system. The managerial implications have been discussed from the training transfer climate perspectives.Originality/valueThe originality of the study lies with proving the role of high performance work system and training transfer climate as an organizational practice and business process within benchmarking research.

Assessing the influencers of sales training effectiveness before and after training

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to decipher the possibility of ensuring the effectiveness of sales training by focusing on selected organization-related variables and thereafter aims at making recommendations for enhancing the overall sales training effectiveness. Variables that are under organizations’ control, like training transfer climate, training evaluation and degree of choice (mandatory or by choice) were selected for this study. The study also attempted to understand how these variables influence at pre-training stage and post-training stage. Design/methodology/approach This cross-sectional research involved both exploratory and conclusive phases. To test the postulated hypotheses, data were collected in two phases from sales executives of a large oil and gas petrochemical company having the presence across India. A total of 370 sales executives, who were the part of a sales training program, were approached twice, one before the training and once after the eight weeks of training. Data from the respondents who completed both pre- and post-training survey (255) were used for analyses. Findings The results indicate that all the three predictor variables – training awareness, perceived transfer climate and the presence of an appropriate training evaluation mechanism, influence trainees’ motivation to learn. The results depict that motivation to learn mediates the association between the predictor variables and the resultant variable. Also, degree of choice was found to moderate the association between motivation to learn and sales training effectiveness. The research reinforces the significance of pre-training factors in designing sales training programs to ensure its better effectiveness. Research limitations/implications The present study captures organizational-level variables as they are under the control of the organization and can be managed. The study included both motivation to learn and training effectiveness in the hypothesized model to understand the motivational issues in a holistic perspective. The outcomes of this research strengthen the role of trainees’ motivation to learn as a connecting variable between organizational-level variables and sales training effectiveness. Thus, the outcome of this study contributes to the literature on training motivation as well as training effectiveness. Practical implications The findings of this study are significant for sales organizations or the organizations offering sales training aiming to enhance overall training effectiveness. Training managers must focus on these factors and ensure that all the pre-training organizational-level variables are very well-taken care of. This implies that the trainees need to be well informed about the training calendar, training policies, training content, expectations from them and how the program will be evaluated after training, along with appropriate positive transfer climate. Organizations should also include proper training evaluation mechanism to measure training at different levels. Originality/value This study is an attempt to decipher the possibility of ensuring the effectiveness of sales training by focusing on select organization-related variables, and thereafter aims at making recommendations for enhancing the overall sales training effectiveness. The study’s uniqueness lies in simultaneous examination of influence of various variables, and that too at two different points of time (before and after the training). These two perspectives are apparently missing in the existing sales training literature.

The Moderating Effect of Transfer Climate on the Joint Relationship between Trainees' Personality and Transfer Training

Objective - The aim of this study is to examine the joint relationship between the Big Five personality and transfer climate on transfer of training. Drawing on trait activation theory, this study examines how the relationship between Big Five personality and transfer of training is moderated by supervisor support and opportunity to perform. Methodology/Technique - The sample of this study consists of 183 police officers who have attended driver training in one of the police training centres in Malaysia. Three sets of questionnaires comprising of the Big Five inventory, driving knowledge test, driving competency, and transfer climate were distributed to the respondents pre-training, post-training, and after two months of training. The data was analysed using statistic package for social science (SPSS) Version 19.0 and SmartPLS 3.0. Findings - A high level of agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience were found to encourage increased transfer of training. Opportunity to perform moderated the relationship between agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and transfer of training which is congruent with the trait activation theory. Novelty - The findings of this research emphasise the importance of the joint relationship between personality and situational factors on transfer of training. These findings allow the researcher to understand how opportunity to perform enables trainees to express their personality and enhance their performance. Type of Paper: Empirical. Keywords: Big Five Personality; Transfer of Training; Supervisor Support; Opportunity to Perform; Trait Activation Theory. JEL Classification: M12, M19.

Determine Process Training Key Factors and Job Performance in Higher Education Sector

The study was proposed to determine key factors in process training and job performance in higher education sector. These has been a sufficient number of studies suggesting that knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge facilitate employee training transfer and might increase job performance. There researches about the process training are still inconclusive in the Palestinian context as there is ambiguity that process-training factors such as knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge are associated with training transfer and job performance. Hence the current research aimed to examine how process training factors are related to job performance and to investigate the mediating role of training transfer in this relationship. Being quantitative in nature and having a target population of 7651 academic staffs a random sample of 300 comprises of academic staff from different Palestinian higher education institutes. The result suggested that the relationship of transfer climate and job performance is significantly mediated by training transfer. The study provides the discussion and recommendations too.

Determine Process Training Key Factors and Job Performance in Higher Education Sector

The study was proposed to determine key factors in process training and job performance in higher education sector. These has been a sufficient number of studies suggesting that knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge facilitate employee training transfer and might increase job performance. There researches about the process training are still inconclusive in the Palestinian context as there is ambiguity that process-training factors such as knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge are associated with training transfer and job performance. Hence the current research aimed to examine how process training factors are related to job performance and to investigate the mediating role of training transfer in this relationship. Being quantitative in nature and having a target population of 7651 academic staffs a random sample of 300 comprises of academic staff from different Palestinian higher education institutes. The result suggested that the relationship of transfer climate and job performance is significantly mediated by training transfer. The study provides the discussion and recommendations too.

When does motivation to learn reduce innovative behavior? An examination of mediated-moderation model

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test and explain the context where motivation to learn (MTL) reduces innovative behavior in the organizational context. Design/methodology/approach The authors used questionnaire survey to collect data in a field study. In order to test the moderating effect of transfer climate, MTL on the relationship between MTL and innovative behavior, a sample of 606 employees was analyzed to examine the theoretical expectation by using multiple regression and bootstrapping. Findings The authors found employees motivated to learn showed less innovative behavior when perceived transfer climate is less favorable. The authors further revealed that motivation to transfer mediates the moderating effect of transfer climate for the relationship between MTL and innovative behavior. Research limitations/implications One suggestion for further research is to investigate the relationship among the four constructs by using multi-source, multi-wave and multi-level method. Practical implications This study provides several useful guidance of how organization and manager avoid the negative effects of MTL through encouraging employees to learn new knowledge and skills, and providing employee opportunities to use their acquired knowledge and skills. Originality/value The authors contribute to the motivational literature by taking a step further to understand the effect of MTL. The authors propose and confirm that employee MTL can lead to negative outcomes when individuals perceived transfer climate is low. The results offer new insight beyond previous findings on positive or non-significant relationship between MTL and innovative behavior. The results further show that this interactive effect is induced by motivation to transfer. Particularly, low transfer climate reduces individuals’ motivation to transfer, and individuals with high MTL have low innovative behavior when they are less motivated to transfer.