A Revisit of Holton’s HRD Evaluation and Research Model (2005) for Learning Transfer
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Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to revisit the Holton’s HRD Evaluation and Research Model (Holton III, 2005) for Learning Transfer in order to develop an instrument to measure the factors affecting the learning transfer of Thai employees. The study included the exclusive literature review of Edward Holton’s HRD Evaluation Model (Holton III, 2005) and the process of developing a new instrument of Learning Transfer. The research process was composed of two phases: Phase I: Scale Development, involving drafting an English version of a 72-item-scale from related literature review, conducting back translation, and testing content validity with HR experts by using Index of Item-Objective Congruence (IOC), and Phase II: Scale Validation, including and analyzing all of the items with Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) with 679 front-line employees from three large sized Thai commercial banks. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) results yielded six emerging constructs of the 71-item-scale, namely traits, employee commitment, motivation to improve work through learning, lack of opportunity to apply, supportive environment, and transfer design. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) results confirmed the six-construct-model validation with a good fit. The results provided a strong support for the structure of 15 factors; 7 factors in the Specific Training domain and 8 factors in the General Training domain. The results of this study yield a new and comprehensive learning transfer measurement scale based on the emerged model that would contribute to not only academics, but also to Thai HRD practitioners and Thai banking sector to systemically diagnose. It also detects and solves problems of training effectiveness. Future studies should validate and test the model and the instrument with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in order to see the causal links among the latent variable.
Keywords: Learning Transfer, Instrument Development, Holton’s HRD Evaluation and Research Model
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