Supervisory support for the transfer of team-building training

Abstract

Relationships between specific supervisory support behaviours and training transfer among subordinates were investigated in the context of a team-building training programme. Ninety-nine employees who attended outdoor team-building training and their supervisors rated the extent to which trainees transferred each of twenty-one trained skills to the work-place. Additionally, trainees responded to an open-ended question regarding what, if anything, they applied from the training to the work-place. Ratings of transfer, provided by both trainees and their supervisors, and coded responses to the open-ended question indicated that: (1) most trainees transferred only a small to moderate amount of skills from the outdoor training; (2) the amount of training transfer varied across trainees; and (3) skills reportedly transferred the most concerned seeking and listening to the views and ideas of other team members.

Trainees also rated whether their supervisors displayed each of twenty-seven specific supervisory support for training behaviours, derived from a comprehensive list developed by Broad (1982). Partial correlations were computed between each of the twenty-seven supervisory support behaviours and an overall measure of training transfer, controlling for trainees' ratings of the quality of their relationship with their supervisor. This analysis suggested that the supervisory support behaviours most critical for transfer of this team-building training were: (1) supervisors' use of skills and terminology from the training programme; (2) creating opportunities for trainees to make decisions based on newly learned skills; (3) reinforcing trainees' use of trained skills; (4) creating opportunities to practise new skills; and (5) providing feedback on skill use. The implications of these results for training practitioners and researchers are discussed.