| Recent research showed developing leadership matters a great deal for organizations seeking a competitive advantage. Unfortunately, despite numerous resources devoted to leadership development, confidence in leaders was plummeting and development programs were failing to meet the goal of more effective leadership. Research suggested these failures resulted from a lack of learning transfer. This study was designed to help fill the gap in research concerning transfer of learning from leadership development programs to the workplace. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify and investigate successful methods and barriers encountered by HPI practitioners when implementing strategies to improve transfer, identify counter measures tried to overcome barriers, determine whether counter measures were successful, and to explore methods used to evaluate learning transfer or the effectiveness of learning transfer strategies. The study showed participants used a variety of leadership development activities, used a variety of learning transfer strategies - some specifically identified as successful, encountered various transfer strategy barriers, tried some counter measures against the barriers, and used multiple levels and tools to evaluate learning transfer but did not evaluate transfer strategy effectiveness. Three primary outcomes emerged from the data: leadership, evaluation, and organizational issues. Components of these outcomes appear to be the most significant factors contributing to whether transfer was successful or not successful. The results suggest one or more of these outcomes must be central to the strategies designed to facilitate learning transfer from leadership development to the work environment and the results may also suggest that leadership is the single most critical factor for ensuring learning transfer in leadership development programs. |
