Date of Conferral

1-1-2011

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Gary Burkholder

Abstract

Organizations invest a significant amount of time and money on training; however, most employees do not transfer what they learned in training to the specific tasks required in their job. While extant research suggests that supervisor support may facilitate training transfer, the influence of specific types or dimensions of support is still unknown. The purpose of this mixed methods sequential explanatory study was to examine how specific dimensions of support (mentoring, coaching, social support, and task support) influence training transfer. Organizational support theory and the theory of planned behavior served as the theoretical framework for this study. Quantitative data were collected first, via an online survey, from participants ( n = 48) who developed curriculum at a large, educational organization. The correlation analysis revealed significant positive relationships between the dimensions of support and training transfer. A bootstrap analysis revealed that transfer motivation mediates the relationships between mentoring, coaching, social support, and training transfer, but does not mediate the relationship between task support and transfer. Qualitative data were collected from additional participants (n = 10) at the organization, via in-depth interviews. A phenomenological analysis of the interview transcripts partially corroborated the quantitative results, suggesting that mentoring influences both transfer motivation and training transfer, coaching influences training transfer, and social support influences transfer motivation. Implications for positive social change include an increase in the transfer of learned knowledge and skills among employees who develop curriculum, which may help them develop higher-quality courses and degree programs that increase student learning and contribute to the integrity and success of universities.

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