Factors That Facilitate Transfer of Learning - Free Paper Sample

Introduction

Learning empowers individuals, thus able to lead their development and solve problems. Learning also facilitates the transfer of skills and knowledge, thus enabling investment of finance, human resources as well as technology. It enhances organizational performance. This study investigates the factors that influence informal learning in the workplace and the learning activities that people engage in at work. Learning in the workplace has been an issue despite most organizations investing a lot of capital. As a result, this has posed challenges in innovation (Eiriksdottir & Catrambone, 2016). Organizations, therefore, require ways that support learning for its workers. A number of factors affect the transfer of learning, ranging from the content to the workers' motivation to employ the new skills.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Learning depends on the type of training, the trainees as well as the organization. It also depends on the socio-cultural and economic contexts of the organization. Active learning depends on the understanding of the workers as well as the performance improvement of the professionals. The study investigates the factors that influence informal learning in the workplace as well as the various informal learning activities the workers engage in at the workplace. The study also examines the correlation that exists between informal learning and engagement activities at the workplace.

Factors That Facilitate Transfer of Learning

Learning entails a continuous process that results in an increase and improved knowledge. It occurs through processing information and adapting to various changes in the working environment. Learning involves acquiring new knowledge, skills as well as behavior while putting them into practice. Organizations consider learning in terms of training that allows processing, distributing, and interpreting information (Argote et al., 2019). It will enable change in the workers' behavior, which comes from experience and is implemented through practice.

Learning does not only come from formal training but also through the progression of developing through experience. Therefore, the organizations are required to create a friendly learning environment that involves all the workers to share their ideas and expertise. For successful learning, organizations have to engage trainees actively. They have to allow trainees to create the condition suitable for the workers to learn. Since learning at the workplace is commonly informal, it bases on the active involvement of the workers. An effective learning process requires making the information useful to the workers by allowing them to travel with the learned information to the working area. Learning is facilitated by various exciting and innovative factors that determine if successful learning is happening in the workplace. The factors that affect learning also affect the transfer of knowledge.

The common factors that affect learning at the workplace include professional characteristics such as ability, personality, motivation, content, and design of the learning program, the work environment such as support and opportunity, and innovations. The factors facilitate the process of learning at the workplace through managers, trainers, and trainees while employing the practical strategies that ensure successful learning. The content of training, such as the motivation and the workplace, involves planning based on needs assessment and the delivery of information and management of the work environment.

The factors facilitating the transfer of learning can be addressed through effective planning while considering the essential requirements during the actual training. Transfer of knowledge is mostly affected by what happens around the practice, including the work environment, training planning, and the trainers' character. Transfer of learning at the workplace can be looked at by considering the whole system beyond the actual training.

The work environment is one of the factors that influence the transfer of learning in the workplace. The work environment provides workers with the opportunity to practice innovations. It comprises incentives to transfer learning with the organization's support on the climate of the working area. The working environment's opportunity comes with the availability of resources that support the transfer of learning and the implementation of what has been learned (Eiriksdottir & Catrambone, 2016). The works in the organization require motivation with the support that allows them to develop the desire to learn and practice what is learned. Management has to encourage the workers by providing conducive and friendly learning and working environment for active learning and ensuring the workers are encouraged to do the work.

The motivation of the workers and trainers significantly affects the transfer of learning. Allowing workers to provide input in the training sessions helps improve their motivation. Motivation to learn entails enabling the workers to participate and learn the content from their fellow workers. It is influenced by the workers and the situational conditions, which makes the workers decide whether to attend.For active learning to occur, organizational management has to make sense about what is going to be done by processing information and allowing them to turn it into their knowledge. A conducive working environment enables the workers to brainstorm, solve problems, and analyze situations by processing the information that can be transformed into useful knowledge. Management plays a significant role in facilitating learning as it encourages the workers to practice what has been learned by inspiring and motivating them. It is also by providing the needed resources to the workers that allow them to accomplish their tasks at the workplace.

Opportunities

For learning transfer to happen, there is a need for the opportunity to use the innovations in the workplace. It involves effective program planning with discussions and information system design and instruction. Lack of opportunity for the workers hinders the transfer of learning. It makes it difficult for workers to apply the learned information at the workplace through practice. Lack of opportunity prevents the workers from acquiring the information required at the workplace.

Other factors that hinder the transfer of learning include lack of understanding, lack of equipment, and lack of technological knowledge at the workplace. Workers may fail to transfer learning for failure to understand various terminologies used during training. Although innovation is not related to the working conditions, it allows the workers to understand languages without difficulties. Transfer of learning is affected by the organization's information systems, reward systems, and human resource practices. The mandate of the leaders and the control systems in an organization affects the transfer of learning.

Besides, management styles influence learning. It entails the workload of the workers, which means the workers are overburdened. The workers require support from the supervisors with the necessary management to show commitment to the whole process of training by supporting innovation.

The training program design affects the transfer of learning. It involves the instructional design and the instructional methods comprising the response elements in training and transfer sets that determine the content to be learned. The instructional techniques consist of teaching and explaining, thus support the transfer of learning. They deepen the learning process as they help explain what is to be done to gain the required information, knowledge, and skills.

Coaching

In terms of coaching, the instructional methods entail peer coaching, where colleagues at the workplace work together while reflecting on the current innovations that refine and build new skills (Lim & Johnson, 2016). Through peer coaching, the workers share ideas and teach one another the practice essential for organizational performance. Effective training program design fosters development among the workers. It helps them remain committed as they share knowledge and skills while encouraging others to learn from each other and improve on transfer.

The organization has to organize the workers in groups to observe what the other workers do while recording and discussing it later. Through this, the workers can explain to their colleagues what should be done to improve learning and innovation. Observing from other workers can improve knowledge and keep change in the workers' minds, thus improving performance.

The supporting factors facilitating the transfer of learning include the participatory learning method and the use of visual materials during workers' training. Organizations require the ability to coordinate the training activities by using appropriate techniques that support the transfer of learning. Managers have to find proper ways that facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Workers have to be assigned roles related to the training content, and the work requirements learned (Eraut, 2014). This requires the managers to understand the work environment that allows the effective transfer of learning.

Workers’ participation in learning can be enhanced by using visual aids such as flip charts and handouts. The visual aids make the learning lively and allow the workers to attain the learning objectives, thus supporting the transfer of knowledge. Besides, the visual aids explain complex ideas and capture the trainees' attention with the workers allowed to participate.

Choosing the course of action is influenced by the expectations of the workers with profitable gains. Rewards and effort applied to the job significantly affect the transfer of learning with the expectations encouraging the transfer of learning. The organization has to adopt innovation, therefore changing the workers' attitude, which is useful for improving the teaching and performance of the workers. Transfer of learning depends on the perceived difficulty with innovation, emphasizing the benefits of the innovation.

Conclusion

To conclude, transfer of learning is significant in organizations as it allows the organizations to realize a remarkable increase in performance. The mechanism for transferring learning affects the psychological processes that underlie knowledge transfer within the organization. Various issues in the workplace affect the knowledge transfer and show the need for an organization to provide new theory and empirical evidence on the psychological process. Instructions constructed enhances performance as well as procedural learning. It is an essential determinant of the effectiveness of guidelines as it entails the principles, examples, and pedagogical goals, such as initial performance and learning.