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This paper aims to provide an understanding of influencing motivation and volition in the transfer of learning within the context of technical training in different countries by controlling predictors.

In six countries, employees from one automotive company’s service centres were asked to complete two online questionnaires after a blended learning training program with technical content (t1: 7 to 12 days after the training, t2: 5 to 7 weeks after). In total, 441 technical staff members participated.

Results suggest that motivation and volition mediate the effects of peer support, content validity and supervisor support on training transfer after a technical training. The outcomes show that peer support has an important influence on motivation and that national culture is less important than company culture.

The results should be tested further in different trainings, companies and countries.

This is one of the first international studies to confirm peer support and content validity as predictors for motivation to transfer after technical training. It is also the first instance of exploring possible mediation by motivation and volition on peer support and content validity after technical training in an intercultural context.

In competitive labor markets, promoting employees’ learning becomes a key challenge for companies. However, in small German craft companies, employee development is always connected with worries about employee turnover. This study aims to investigate the current informal learning strategies of craft workers and how they use the strategies, the effect of learning on employees’ internal and external marketability and beneficial workplace characteristics (autonomy, feedback).

An online prestudy (N = 131) explored current informal learning strategies. In the main study (N = 526), cluster analysis was applied to identify patterns of informal learning strategies. The relations of these patterns to workplace characteristics and marketability were investigated.

Four informal learning strategies were found (informal learning from oneself, from others, from other sources and from new media). Craft workers used combinations of the strategies (i.e. patterns): three learning patterns (balanced high, person-oriented and balanced low) differed in intensity and combination with the learning strategy use. More intense learning patterns were positively related to internal marketability but were not related to external marketability. Higher autonomy and feedback availability were related to higher learning engagement.

Studies should have a broader view of informal learning strategies concerning different learning patterns. The use of new media is a learning strategy that might increase in the future.

Craft companies could promote different informal learning strategies without worries about employee turnover.

The study reveals how German small- and medium-sized enterprise employees use informal learning strategies in digitalized times and how human resources development can use informal learning strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to seek a better understanding of the role of volition in the learning transfer system beyond the well-established concept of motivation to transfer.

Participants of a two-day leadership training were asked to complete two online questionnaires (t₁ directly after training, t₂ eight weeks after training). In total, 891 managers answered the first questionnaire, 465 the second.

Confirmatory factor analysis suggests that motivation and volition to transfer are perceived as two different constructs. Hierarchical linear regression shows that additional variance in training transfer can be explained when volition to transfer is taken into account. Structural equation models and bootstrap analysis suggest that both motivation and volition to transfer mediate effects of supervisor support and trainer performance on training transfer.

The results imply that besides motivation to transfer, volition to transfer may be a relevant construct in the transfer of training. It remains to be tested how far these findings can be generalized to other training settings beside leadership trainings.

Organizations aiming at improving training transfer should focus on enhancing the participants’ motivation and volition to transfer. Both trainers and supervisors seem to promote transfer of training by influencing a trainee’s motivation to transfer and volition to transfer.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to systematically examine the role of volition in training transfer.

This study uses a holistic approach to learning at work to examine the role of reflection in the formal–informal learning interaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the reflection on a formal training affects the subsequent informal learning activities. This study also aims to provide insights into the effects of national culture values (in terms of uncertainty avoidance) on learning in the context of a globalized world of work.

In a longitudinal study, 444 employees working for a global acting automotive company located in 6 countries were surveyed 2 times (4–6 weeks between both measurements). Participants reflected on a training they participated in (t₁: satisfaction and utility) and indicated their informal learning activities (t₂). Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the effect of the reflection of training (t₁) on the proceeding use of informal learning strategies (t₂) and how uncertainty avoidance affects the use of different learning forms.

Results show a spillover effect: when employees reflect a formal training and rate it as satisfying, more use of informal learning proceeds. No effects were found for utility. Uncertainty avoidance had direct effects: high uncertainty avoidance results in better evaluations and more informal learning. Furthermore, uncertainty avoidance had an indirect effect on informal learning via reflection.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the formal–informal learning interaction longitudinally and to introduce reflection as a mediator within this process. Furthermore, the study provides evidence that uncertainty avoidance is an important factor for formal and informal learning in the globalized world of work.

Motivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative communication style designed to help clients achieve desired behavior changes. MI includes communication methods along with a mindset that avoids attempting to impose behavior change. Relying on the conservation of resources theory, this research report argues that learning MI helps practitioners communicate more effectively and preserve their own psychological health resources.

We tested whether MI training resulted in beneficial effects on practitioners' resilience and burnout (i.e. exhaustion and disengagement), surveying participants (N = 42) from various disciplines who learned MI at a training institute. Subjects received a questionnaire before and one month after MI training. The post-training questionnaire also assessed whether participants applied the training content in practice.

The results revealed that the training reduced participants' disengagement. Practical application was a predictor for this decrease as well as an increase in resilience.

Due to the small sample size and self-reported data, this paper should be considered an experimental study that could inspire future research in this area, using more elaborate research designs.

Learning MI not only helps in facilitating behavior change in clients but also in bolstering practitioners' own resources. MI novices should aim to apply their newly acquired skills.

This study is among the first to explicitly hint at the possibility that learning MI helps practitioners preserve their psychological resources.

With an increasingly diverse workforce, teams need to handle differences among team members and be aware of the impact these differences have on team meetings. As meetings are strongly shaped by team member interactions, communication between team members is central to meeting success. In diverse teams, effective communication and information sharing is even more crucial than in homogeneous groups due to distinct perspectives and knowledge that group members bring to a team. However, effective communication is also more challenging in groups with diverse members than in homogeneous groups. Especially when there is a strong faultline, that is, when multiple attributes align and teams fall into subgroups, communication within the whole team is impaired and might only take place within subgroups. In this chapter, the authors discuss the role of faultlines in meeting interactions and turn to subgroup formation and its impact on interaction patterns within teams. The authors see intersubgroup communication as an important process that links faultlines to meeting outcomes such as performance or satisfaction. By spanning research areas connecting faultline and meeting research, the authors provide scholars with important research questions to be examined in the future. The authors further introduce a new measure of intersubgroup communication that provides insights into dynamics between subgroups. By relating intersubgroup communication to overall communication within a meeting and taking team size as well as different subgroup constellations into account, this measure facilitates studying intersubgroup communication in meetings. The authors provide formulas that scholars could apply to their research.

This paper aims to examine the effects of age on counteractive team meeting behaviors (e.g. complaining). Forgiveness is included as a potential buffer against these behaviors. A multilevel model is developed to test individual and team level age effects.

A total of 313 employees nested in 54 teams completed a forgiveness questionnaire and were videotaped during regular team meetings.

Multilevel modeling revealed that both individual age and average team age predicted counteractive team meeting behavior. Team level age diversity was linked to decreased counteractive behavior. Forgiveness moderated the negative link between individual age (but not team average age) and counteractive behavior.

This is the first study examining age effects in the context of counteractive meeting behavior. Although the authors' findings need to be substantiated in further research, they show that older team members engage in significantly more counteractive communication – forgiveness can help alleviate this effect.

Teams with older team members should be sensitized to avoid counteractive behavior. Moreover, team composition should target high age diversity. Managerial interventions should also aim to facilitate forgiveness in the work environment, especially among older team members.

Research on dysfunctional team meeting behavior is sparse, and the role of age effects has not been examined in this context. The authors identify a significant link between age and counteractive meeting behavior. This multilevel model shows differential effects of individual age, team average age, and age diversity on counteractive communication. Furthermore, a buffer against these dysfunctional behaviors is identified: forgiveness.

The benefits of spaced training over massed training practice are well established in the laboratory setting. In a field study design with sales trainings, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of spaced compared with massed practice on transfer quantity and quality, sales competence, and key figures.

Spaced and massed training are compared using behavioral and outcome criteria. A quasi‐experimental follow‐up research design with a sample of 64 bank employees (n=32 in each training group) is used.

Spaced rather than massed training practice resulted in greater transfer quality, higher self‐reports of sales competence, and improved key figures. Spaced training did not surpass massed training in terms of transfer quantity.

The present study is the first to demonstrate positive effects of technical training on job involvement, and of coaching on job satisfaction. In sum, validity of several developmental interventions is highlighted.

Organizations designing and implementing various developmental interventions should pay attention to the relative effectiveness of these interventions on various organizational‐relevant outcome criteria.

An innovative approach to imply spaced practice in real sales training is presented. The effects of spaced practice on training transfer are investigated in the field.

The present study aims to examine how employees' formal (e.g. off‐the‐job training) and informal (e.g. discussion with colleagues) career‐related continuous learning (CRCL) activities affect the development of self‐reported work‐related competencies.

Participants were 372 employees working in one of 19 companies from a wide range of industries in Germany.

Results revealed that informal CRCL affected professional, method, and social competencies. In addition, employees' participation in formal CRCL activities that focused on social issues was positively related to social competencies. Three types of competencies (professional, method, and social) are distinguished in the present study.

Additional influences on competency such as motivation and commitment should be controlled for in future studies. Also, competencies should be rated by supervisors. Objective measures of formal CRCL should be assessed.

Organizations that aim to enchance employees' level of competencies should invest in informal CRCL and formal CRCL activities that focus on social competencies. The fact that the study was conducted in a variety of firms supports the idea that the findings could be generalized to other industrial settings.

To the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate positive effects of CRCL on employees' levels of social competencies. In addition, the value of informal CRCL for the development of competencies was highlighted.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a vocational communication skill from the helping professions. Verbal skills in MI are summarized under the acronyms OARS and EARS (open-ended questions/elaborating, affirmations, reflections, and summaries). The purpose of this paper is to outline how MI provides important skills for engineers, and demonstrate skill assessment by using an observation-based scientific approach.

Totally, 25 engineering students took part in a skill-based MI training. Quality assurance of the training was assessed by using a repeated measurement design with multiple measures: systematic observations from recorded interactions and self-reported and standardized performance measures. Two external observers reliably coded the recorded conversations using the MI skill code.

Trainees showed a significant increase of verbal skills in MI. Directive-confrontational behaviors decreased after training. Self-reported and performance measures indicated significant increases in MI post training. Conversational partners in the post-training condition showed significantly more motivation in comparison to partners before the training.

The main limitation of the study is the small sample size. However, training effect sizes showed large effects on verbal skills.

Communication skills in MI can be taught effectively for a technical population. This study suggests that MI is effective within the higher education of technical professions who have to deal with motivational issues. Observational measures can be used for quality assurance purposes, but also serve as a feedback instrument for work-based learning purposes.

This is the first study to evaluate training in MI for engineers using a multi-method approach with observational measures.