Goal Orientation and Training Transfer Initiation and Maintenance

Abstract

Despite successful learning in the training environment, acquired skills are often not translated back to the job. Past research on training transfer has tended to measure the construct inconsistently and often disregarded its multi-faceted nature. In an effort to better investigate the determinants of successful transfer, the two temporal facets of training transfer, initiation and maintenance, were examined to evaluate their relationships with the trainee characteristics of goal orientation and self-efficacy. It was hypothesized that initiation mediates the relationship between goal orientation and maintenance, and that the relationship between performance goal orientation and initiation is moderated by self-efficacy. Participants were recruited from undergraduate psychology courses and trained on multiple-choice test-taking strategies. Results failed to support the main effect, moderation, or mediation hypotheses, although they support the contention that transfer is a multi-dimensional construct. The findings indicate that goal orientation and initiation may both best be conceived as predictors of transfer maintenance and interact to affect transfer behavior. The findings illustrate the value of examining individual difference variables in the prediction of training transfer.