Professional Development at the Laundromat Project: A study of learning transfer and organizational knowledge creation
Pascuma, Danielle
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2021-08-08
Abstract
The Laundromat Project (The LP) is an arts-based non-profit organization that is deeply committed to providing professional development and leadership training opportunities for their staff members. However, leadership were beginning to wonder, “Are they working?”. To explore The LP’s problem of practice, this study employed the HRD Research and Measurement Model by Holton (1996) and the Organizational Knowledge Creation theory by Nonaka (1996) through the use of the Learning Transfer Systems Inventory (LTSI) validated survey instrument. Two surveys were conducted over a five-month period. Data analysis highlighted factors that contributed to learning transfer, barriers to learning transfer, and how successfully learning from training sessions were being disseminated across the organization. Results indicated that employees at The LP had a high motivation and ability to transfer their learning from training sessions, but the overall environment, including supervisory support and positive and negative personal outcomes, created a barrier. The data also indicated that employees are not being provided with adequate opportunities to share their knowledge across the organization through explicit means. Suggestions for areas of improvement and specific recommendations based on the data were directly related to the findings and include ways that The LP should consider improving their organizational environment to enhance training transfer.