The impact of local culture on adult learning transfer: implications for human resources professionals

ABSTRACT The goal of professional learning is to be able to use and apply the newly acquired knowledge and skills to the workplace. Although learning transfer has been studied in management, human resource development, training, adult learning, and psychology, to date there are a limited number of empirical field studies. There are also few learning transfer models that consider local cultures as a factor impacting the transfer process. Recent learning transfer models have outlined the importance of organizational culture, but none have outlined the central influence of local cultures on learning. Given that adult learning is a social endeavour that is influenced by cultural factors, local cultures affect how adults learn and whether they apply the new knowledge to their workplaces. In this paper, I share a Multidimensional Model of Learning Transfer that is grounded in culture. In today’s global economy, people regularly work across nations and local cultures. As a result, it is essential that human resources administrators understand the role local culture plays on the entire learning transfer process, from pretraining to follow-up, if they aspire to obtain a return on their financial, time, and human investments.