Kim, Junhee (2015-08). The Relationships among the Learning Transfer System, Managers' Creative Learning Transfer, and Job Performance. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
To survive and thrive in the ever-changing global environment, organizations must constantly innovate and transform in the market by obtaining, applying, and creating new knowledge. In particular, given the importance of managers' excellent leadership for organizational performance, organizations must find a way to enhance managers' creative application of leadership knowledge to novel business situations (i.e., creative learning transfer). Over the past 110 years, research on learning transfer has proliferated because new knowledge and application of it to business must be at the heart of competitive advantages of an organization. Despite numerous empirical inquiries and advancement on learning transfer, there are still four major research gaps to be closed: (1) lack of a comprehensive instrument to measure predictors of creative learning transfer; (2) paucity of empirical research on learning transfer guided by sound theories; (3) ignorance of the importance of creative learning transfer in literature; and (4) little attention to a motivational factor as a mediator between transfer predictors and transfer outcomes. To fill the gaps, an overarching purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among the learning transfer system, managers' creative learning transfer, and job performance. The targeted population of the current study was managers who worked for large companies in South Korea and completed leadership training programs in the companies. Based on a non-experimental research design, an electronic 76-item survey was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 16 companies that agreed to participate in the current study. After data screening, the valid sample consisted of 753 managers from the companies, which may represent 16 industries in the country. To analyze the quantitative data, a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA/CFA) was conducted, followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses. For the qualitative data, a thematic analysis was conducted. Three major findings emerged from the current study. First, the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) Version 4 was successfully validated in an international context. Second, the nomological network among the learning transfer system, creative learning transfer, and job performance was confirmed. Third, seven themes of enablers and barriers for creative learning transfer were identified for use in the future research. HRD professionals may obtain critical implications from the current study to help organizational managers apply learned leadership knowledge and skills to novel business situations to create more competitive work systems, products, and/or services. The current study may serve as the bedrock on which researchers can theorize the concept of creative learning transfer, elaborating on organizational knowledge creation theory.
