ABSTRACT
Despite enormous resources devoted to communication-skills training by corporations, non-profit organizations, and other entities, it is very often the case that skill transfer beyond the training setting is limited. Moreover, even when training content may initially be implemented outside the training context, application of that content typically diminishes over time. Following Baldwin and Ford’s (1988) tripartite framework (i.e., trainee characteristics, training design, and work environment) this chapter begins with a survey of research on factors that facilitate or impede training transfer in workplace settings. A broader “catalogue” of impediments to skill transfer is then developed – a listing that includes discussions of “overconfidence,” the “social facilitation effect,” and “context-dependent” and “state-dependent memory.” The chapter concludes with guidelines for enhancing communication-skills training transfer.
