Influence of social networks in facilitating training transfer and goal setting amongst small business women: A conceptual framework

Abstract

Knowledgeand skills havebecomethemost crucial resourcecapital which enableorganizations to survivein theever changing business environment. Oneof thecommon strategies for organizations to increasetheir performanceand productivity is through training and themain roleof human resourcedevelopment is to fulfill theneeds of theorganizations by providing employeeswith up to dateexpertise, information, knowledgeand skills. Sincehugefinancial investments and enormous timeareallocated for training, organizations hopethat thetraining will lead to thedesired work outcomes. However, this does not always happen. Thereis only asmall percentageof training programswhich had successfully shown lasting transferability to theworkplaceand this indicates that understanding and improving thetraining transfer process is still amajor concern for training researchers and practitioners. As training transfer is influenced by several variables at different levels of analysis, this study attempts to investigate therelationship between training transfer determinants, theinvolvement of different stakeholders and training activities in thetraining process. Specifically, this study investigates theinfluenceof training transfer determinants on goal setting amongst small businesswomen. In addition, it will emphasizetherolesof primary stakeholders in thesocial network at different timesduring the training process towards achieving training transfer. Therefore, theframework postulates social networks as amoderating variablein enhancing training transfer and goal setting amongst small businesswomen.