Trainee Characteristics and Transfer of Training: Effect of Supervisory Support (A Study of Public Managers in Nepal)

Abstract

The significance of transfer of training to organizations has been recognized by researchers and managers alike, and the factors affecting the transfer have been the subject of many research studies in the West. Considering the recent growth in training investment and coverage in public enterprises in Nepal without corresponding impact on their performance, the issue of transfer of training has gained importance in our context. This study examines the effect of trainee characteristics, viz.: perceived content validity, learning transfer motivation, and self-efficacy on the level of training transfer and the role of supervisory support in this relationship in the context of Nepali public enterprises. Due to the non-availability of total population, the non-probability sampling method, specifically, quota sampling was used for selecting organizations, and then, managers meeting the pre-defined criteria, were selected for the study. Two hundred ninety-one officials from nine public enterprises participated in the survey. The findings suggest that level of transfer of training is moderate, and two trainee characteristics, viz.: learning transfer motivation and content validity, positively and significantly affect transfer of training whereas self-efficacy does not have such effect. Supervisory support moderates the relationship between content validity and transfer of training but not between learning transfer motivation and transfer of training. Managerial and research implications of the findings are discussed.

The influence of training content, learning and training transfer on training effectiveness: a case study of board members of non-profit organizations in Gauteng

“…The association is positive for all constructs. The findings suggest that the training content and training objectives significantly and positively influence the transfer of training These findings are consistent with other research works that found training content validity (e.g., Singh, 2017) and content relatedness (e.g., Alkhanaizi, 2018;Bjerregaard et al (2016) to have a positive influence on the transfer of training.…”

“…Training and development are indispensable strategic tools for competent individual and organization performance; thus, organizations are spending money on it with confidence that it will earn them a competitive advantage in the world of business (Falola, Osibanjo, & Ojo, 2014). The previous literature has identified three main determinants of training transfer, namely work environment (Na-nan, et al, 2017), trainee characteristics (Singh, 2017) and training design (Phillips & Bullock, 2018). Many organizations invest lots of their financial annually on training initiatives; however, few organizations possess training programs that effectively transfer received training back on the job to improve performance (Foxon, 1993).…”

Organizational culture for training transfer: the mediating role of motivation

“…Organizational culture was taken as a predictor because the instruments apply to all types of organizations including the education sector and initially tested this instrument in the university setting (Zeitz et al, 1997). All the measures were used by different researchers in previous research and found reliable and valid (Carmeli, 2005;Reinhold et al, 2018;Singh, 2017). Response to the items was captured on a five-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly agree.…”

“…Following cost reduction strategy in Nepali organizations (Gautam, 2015) the psychological empowerment shown positive and significant impact (Gautam and Ghimire, 2017). Similarly, the Government of Nepal also allocates a sufficient budget for training but the performance of the employees seems to be poor (Singh, 2017), which raised many questions. Building upon the above premises, it can be said, training has become a very large business all around the world, but due to the poor training transfer, organizations and employees do not get a sufficient advantage from the training, thereby the investment in training is wasted.…”

Learning Transfer Exploration Model from Skill Institute to Workplace, PLS-SEM Approach

“…Therefore, learning transfer in this study emphasizes the combination of retention and generalization to ensure transfer of learning can occur effectively thereby improving the performance of individuals and organizations. Sahoo & Mishra (2019) and Singh (2017) stressed that the trainee's characteristic is a very critical factor to make learning transfer more effective. This is also support by the previous studies which stated that the characteristics of trainees are important factors and increase the effectiveness of learning transfer (Baldwin et al, 2017;Ford et al, 2018).…”