A multilevel approach to theory and research in organizations: Contextual, temporal, and emergent processes.

This article meta-analytically summarizes the literature on training motivation, its antecedents, and its relationships with training outcomes such as declarative knowledge, skill acquisition, and transfer. Significant predictors of training motivation and outcomes included individual characteristics (e.g., locus of control, conscientiousness, anxiety, age, cognitive ability, self-efficacy, valence, job involvement) and situational characteristics (e.g., climate). Moreover, training motivation explained incremental variance in training outcomes beyond the effects of cognitive ability. Meta-analytic path analyses further showed that the effects of personality, climate, and age on training outcomes were only partially mediated by self-efficacy, valence, and job involvement. These findings are discussed in terms of their practical significance and their implications for an integrative theory of training motivation.

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Toward an integrative theory of training motivation: A meta-analytic path analysis of 20 years of research.

EXTENDING MULTILEVEL ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY. A Multilevel Approach to Theory and Research in Organizations: Contexual Temporal, and Emergent Processes. Personnel Selection Psychology: Multilevel Considerations. Performance Appraisal and Performance Management: A Multilevel Analysis. A Multilevel Approach to Training Effectiveness: Enhancing Horizontal and Vertical Transfer. Moving HR to a Higher Level: HR Practices and Organizational Effectiveness. Interorganizational Relationships: A Multilevel Perspective. Multilevel Issues and Culture: An Integrative View. ANALYZING MULTILEVEL DATA. Within-Group Agreement, Non-Independence, and Reliability: Implications for Data Aggregation. The Cross-Level Operator in Regression, ANCOVA, and Contexual Analysis. Within and Between Analysis: The Varient Paradigm as an Underlying Approach to Theory Building and Testing. The Application of Hierarchical Linear Modeling to Organizational Research. Multilevel Analytical Techniques: Commonalities, Differences, and Continuing Questions. COMMENTARY. Networks and Frog Ponds: Trends in Multilevel Research. Multilevel Competencies and Missing Linkages.

Multilevel Theory, Research, and Methods in Organizations: Foundations, Extensions, and New Directions

▪ Abstract This chapter reviews the training research literature reported over the past decade. We describe the progress in five areas of research including training theory, training needs analysis, antecedent training conditions, training methods and strategies, and posttraining conditions. Our review suggests that advancements have been made that help us understand better the design and delivery of training in organizations, with respect to theory development as well as the quality and quantity of empirical research. We have new tools for analyzing requisite knowledge and skills, and for evaluating training. We know more about factors that influence training effectiveness and transfer of training. Finally, we challenge researchers to find better ways to translate the results of training research into practice.

The Science of Training: A Decade of Progress

Given the proliferation of training transfer studies in various disciplines, we provide an integrative and analytical review of factors impacting transfer of training. Relevant empirical research for transfer across the management, human resource development (HRD), training, adult learning, performance improvement, and psychology literatures is integrated into the review. We synthesize the developing knowledge regarding the primary factors influencing transfer—learner characteristics, intervention design and delivery, and work environment influences—to identify variables with substantive support and to discern the most pressing gaps. Ultimately, a critique of the state of the transfer literature is provided and targeted suggestions are outlined to guide future empirical and theoretical work in a meaningful direction.

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Training Transfer: An Integrative Literature Review:

This study describes the development and investigation of the concept of organizational transfer climate and discusses whether it influences the degree to which trainees transfer behaviors learned in a training program to their job situations. The study was conducted in a large franchise that owns and operates over one hundred fast-food restaurants in a large metropolitan area. Analyses indicated that when manager trainees were assigned to units that had a more positive organizational transfer climate, they were rated as better performers of the behaviors previously learned in training. As was predicted, it was also found that manager trainees who learned more in training performed better on the job. It was concluded that, in addition to how much trainees learn in training, the organizational transfer climate of the work situation affects the degree to which learned behavior will be transferred onto the actual job. This research suggests that organizational transfer climate is a tool that should be investigated as a potential facilitator for enhancing positive transfer of training into the work environment.

Irwin L. Goldstein

Papers

The relationship between organizational transfer climate and positive transfer of training