The impact of workplace design on training transfer as determined by the heuristic elicitation methodology

The design of the workplace often has been unexamined as a contributor to training transfer although practitioners have been reporting complaints by trainees about the difficulties of transferring their skills that refer specifically to workplace design. Research has been lacking that supports the association between the physical design of the workplace specifically as a contributor to training transfer. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the impact that workplace design has on training transfer within the context of particular work practices. The objectives of the study were 1) to identify design features that facilitate and impede training transfer, 2) to identify the significance of workplace design as an issue that organizations must consider in order to achieve successful training transfer, and 3) to introduce the Heuristic Elicitation Methodology (HEM) as a strategy for examining organizational issues impacting training transfer.

Twenty-four office workers from the same large university who completed one of three supervisory training courses within a span of four months participated in the study. The methodology used to interview the 24 office workers was the Heuristic Elicitation Methodology (HEM). The methodology gives equal attention to both qualitative and quantitative methods and can easily be incorporated to accommodate the needs of social science research (Kupritz, 1996). For this study, the purpose of the methodology was to obtain information about organizational issues, including items and attributes, which facilitate and impede training transfer. Each interview was open-ended in which a sequence of interlinked questions developed from the respondent's own language. The answers were recorded verbatim to retain accurate perceptions of the work environment and to identify the various organizational factors that have impacted training transfer.

Supportive workplace design was the organizational issue that received the second highest cumulative response frequency for facilitating training transfer that followed positive management support. Unsupportive workplace design was the organizational issue that had the highest cumulative response frequency in impeding training transfer. Although positive management support received the highest cumulative response frequency in facilitating training transfer, lack of positive management support received the lowest cumulative response frequency in impeding training transfer.

Although workplace design did not receive the highest cumulative response frequency of the top four organizational issues that surfaced in facilitating training transfer, it nevertheless did not lose in its credibility as an organizational factor with impact on training transfer. The study also revealed that workplace design had the highest response frequencies for items and attributes among all organizational issues in facilitating and impeding training transfer. Workplace design was concluded as a crucial factor to impact training transfer for particular work practices.