The relative impact of workplace design on training transfer

The study investigated worker perceptions of the relative impact of workplace design on training transfer. Although HRD research recognizes the influence of organizational context on worker ability and opportunity to transfer, the physical environment has been overlooked. This study applied environment and behavior research to human resource development needs in an examination of workplace design. Taking an ethnographic approach, the study found cumulative frequencies for elicited responses about organizational factors were highest for workplace design perceived to impede transfer and second highest for workplace design perceived to facilitate transfer. Further, of the individual attributes per organizational factor, workplace design features that did not support privacy needs were elicited most often as impeding transfer.