To Identify Individual, Learning Arena-specific and Institutional Factors that Affect Learning Transfer in Company-sponsored Further Training: An Empirical Study with Further Training Participants from the Hotel Sector

The hotel sector is facing special challenges, such as the acute shortage of skilled workers and rising service standards. Company-sponsored further training is regarded as an appropriate measure for keeping pace with these developments (DEHOGA, 2011, p. 1). However, the increasing number of further training courses also entails high financing costs (Weisweiler, 2008, p. 3). From the company’s point of view, investments in further training measures are thus only cost-effective provided the participants succeed in putting into practice in the workplace what they have learned at a seminar (Lemke, 1995, p. 1; Stender, 2009, p. 190) and thus ultimately contributing to the economic success of the company. However, research results show that problems often arise with regard to learning transfer in company-sponsored further training, i.e. the application of acquired seminar content to activities in the workplace, and that participants’ implementation of what they have learned is insufficient or even completely unsuccessful when they return to the workplace (Mandl et al., 1992, p. 126; Pham, Segers & Gijselaers, 2010, p. 2; Piezzi, 2002, p. 1; Seidel, 2012, p. 2; Solga, 2011, p. 339). Learning transfer has thus become a central issue in the context of company-sponsored further training (Kunze, 2003, p. 17). In the meantime, theoretical learning transfer models and primarily quantitative-empirical transfer studies have made it clear that learning transfer is influenced by multiple factors that can be pinpointed at the individual, learning arena-specific and institutional levels. However, there is a significant research need for studies that explain in greater depth those factors that influence success, such as social support (Tonhäuser, 2017, pp. 11, 20). From a methodological point of view, a qualitative approach seemed most appropriate here. By means of semi-structured guided interviews with staff of a hotel chain at the two measurement points t1 and t2, it was possible to confirm known determinants of learning transfer, to discern success factors and to identify new, hotel-specific determinants. The resulting research findings have implications for supporting learning transfer, specifically in the hotel sector.2021-11-2