A High Transfer System: Technical and social factors in the organisation and their effect on intrinsic job satisfaction, mutual gains and discretionary effort

This thesis addressed the training transfer problem contributing to knowledge by introducing the concept of high transfer, proposing a new definition for high transfer and presenting the High Transfer System. It enriched existing literature and explored organisational factors and antecedents of transfer by embedding training in the technical HR system and the social system in the organisation, which, if properly enacted, can activate employee intrinsic job satisfaction, mutual gains and employee discretionary effort for high transfer. Thus, it accounted for the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of high transfer on the job in the dynamic organisational contexts in which people work. The High Transfer System is aimed to build employee ability, increase their motivation and provide them with opportunities to participate at work, leading to high transfer, if it is introduced in a pre-existing favourable organisational context and is effectively enacted by the manager. Data were generated from 21 individuals in two companies through face-to-face qualitative interviews. An interpretivist framework was used to capture the subjective experience of individuals at work and the personal meanings they attach to the factors affecting transfer and its antecedents. The recorded data were translated from Greek into English, transcribed to text using Microsoft Word, coded and thematically analysed producing six themes. The High Transfer System was built based on the principles of Grounded Theory. Participants’ responses stressed the value of on-the-job transfer for individual and organisational performance in service organisations. They revealed that transfer is affected by several technical and social factors which account not only for the use of newly trained skills on the job but also for the transfer of an individual’s previous skills, experience and tacit knowledge. Data showed that transfer is about individual change which effectively takes place in a system of reciprocal social relationships and interrelated factors affecting not only the skills but also the personalities and emotions of employees who are trained, as well as their managers and peers.