Assessing the Antecedents of Transfer Intentions in a Training Context

This study examined the underlying structure of transfer climate and those aspects of transfer climate that were related to pre-training self-efficacy, pre-training motivation, and post-training transfer implementation intentions. Positive and negative affectivity (PA and NA) were also measured in order to better understand the relationship of these variables to trainees' perceptions of the transfer climate and the other training-related variables. Transfer climate was best represented by two underlying constructs, although these were correlated. After controlling for PA and NA, none of the transfer climate variables were significantly related to pre-training self-efficacy, while only positive reinforcement was significantly related to pre-training motivation. Pre-training self-efficacy was also a significant predictor of pre-training motivation, even after controlling for PA and NA. Negative affectivity was the only significant predictor of post-training transfer implementation intentions. Further research needs to clarify whether PA and NA are contributors to the trainees' perceptions of the transfer climate or are a product of these perceptions.