Determine Process Training Key Factors and Job Performance in Higher Education Sector

The study was proposed to determine key factors in process training and job performance in higher education sector. These has been a sufficient number of studies suggesting that knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge facilitate employee training transfer and might increase job performance. There researches about the process training are still inconclusive in the Palestinian context as there is ambiguity that process-training factors such as knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge are associated with training transfer and job performance. Hence the current research aimed to examine how process training factors are related to job performance and to investigate the mediating role of training transfer in this relationship. Being quantitative in nature and having a target population of 7651 academic staffs a random sample of 300 comprises of academic staff from different Palestinian higher education institutes. The result suggested that the relationship of transfer climate and job performance is significantly mediated by training transfer. The study provides the discussion and recommendations too.


Introduction
Stern competition in the global business has led organizations to invest in training and development. Additionally, the growing technological advancements and innovations are pushing corporate sector to let its employees gain command over these elements accordingly to remain competitive and avoid any performance lapse(s). Empirical studies as well as the business reports have collectively supported the strong link between employee training and performance prospects due to which, they seem to be investing billions globally for the sake of it [1]. Sadly, the reports suggest that only a minute percentage of these firms have actually managed to get a healthy return out of it. Particularly, organizations have noticed that very few people actually implement the knowledge back at the workplace. Study by [2] suggested that nearly 66 to 90 percent of the skills taught in training and learning sessions are lost because of poor training transfer measures. Additionally, the report suggested that hardly 21 percent of the enterprises focus on assessing the training transfer and its extent among the workforce [3]. The percentage of what people learn and apply to the workplace is very minimal [4]. Hardly twenty one percent of the enterprises evaluate the training transfer levels, according to [3]. Because of massive investments, organizations incur massive losses if the employees do not transfer the learned skills to the workplace. Henceforth, this paper aims to outline the reasons behind the lack of training transfer and how the process-training factors can foster training transfer and job performance.
According to [5], process-training activities hold a big magnitude of employees training transfer. Managerial interventions can be of great value in fostering the influence of perception and significance of training and its transfer. Hence, the current study investigates the mediating role of training transfer in relationship of knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge with job performance of Universities in the Palestinian context.

Job Performance
Referred as behaviours and outcomes of an employee involved in the work necessary for the achievement of specified goals linked to contributing organizational success. Numerous studies have supported the fact that training enhances productivity and can be of great value for boosting organizational performance [4]. The other benefit from training and learning includes job effectiveness, skill updating, performance boost etc. [6].

Process-Training Factors
Findings of [9] concluded that trainer`s role contribute 48 percent in this regard whereby, work climate holds 49 percent of impact followed by 46 percent from design and delivery interventions of training. The study reported that training transfer received only 2 percent impact from learner characteristics. Additionally, the study also suggested that supervisor support contributed 25 percent whereas trainees placed 23 percent towards training transfer during the training; 32 percent after the training and 12 before the training.

Knowledge Sharing
Research has solidly propped that a nonexistence of opportunity to act can be a valid obstacle in applying the knowledge received from training. This is a general thought that has pulled in the scholastics and specialists to consider in the midst of the past a couple of various years and found a couple of perspectives on knowledge sharing [10,11]. Knowledge Sharing is viewed as one of the basic elements for the success of contemporary organizations and is critically imperative to bore new learning.

Transfer Climate
Over the last two decades previous research is documenting that in the work setting there are numerous factors that influence the job performance and training is only one of them [12,13]. [4] Found the organizational climate as an affecting factor for training transfer first time in the research. According to [14], "transfer climate are the situations in organization that both enable and hinder learnings in training". [15] Emphasized the enhancement of training material from the learning to implementing as most of the times the work inconsistency is the reason for failure of training transfer.

Motivation to Share Knowledge
The employees who apply their training knowledge to the real scenarios in their organization are much appreciated by the employer. Hence this motivates the employees perceive the training as power, determination and guidance for their day to day job requirements and it enhances the focus of employees towards the learning while attending the training sessions [16]. The motivation leads the individuals to spend their time in acquiring knowledge through training.
In [17] expressed that coordinating these components in a training transform into a strong understanding which shows the best motivation of the trainee through the material likewise the new material learning conveys a significance in their job careers. Extraneous and also inborn motivations are noted by [9] as the components of motivation in a method for transfer which is append with the results of the training.

Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis
The transfer model [18] and the theoretical model of [19] is a more familiar model in the academic field of organizational performance studies and mostly used for transfer studies. A relevant study done on the same lines, by [5] argues about the multitude of training constructs and also discussed the inclusion of transfer. In [5] referred to this as the "transfer problem". It is important to have a knowledge culture and learning environment in the organizations so that the transfer of training can be developed and maintained in the long run. The model has been partially adopted from the model of [5] study. His model is a famous model explaining the transfer problem [5] argued that the three factor make up the transfer and they are individual, environmental and situational factors. The current state of the research on the important topic of training transfer shows little value to practitioners in maximizing the transfer and suggest that there has been a significant role of trainee characteristics such as ability, personality and motivation being individual factors, however such evidence is still lacking in previous research.
As per the study done by [20] literature is evident that the main factor that affect the training are trainee characteristics, intentions to transfer and reactions, work environment, and situational and organizational factors. Thus the current study investigates the mediating role of training transfer in the relationship between process training factors (knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge) and job performance. Figure 1 represents the adapted model of this study.

Mediation Effect of Training Transfer between Knowledge Sharing and Job Performance
One of the critical success factor for the modern organizations is knowledge sharing and the motivation and willingness to acquire new are equally important in this regard [10,11]. Hence leading to the following hypothesis. H1: The positive relationship of knowledge sharing and job performance is mediated by training transfer.

Mediation Effect of Training Transfer between Transfer Climate and Job Performance
The work done by [21] is evident that the holistic and more systematic models for transfer are crucial as they include multiple factor that are exogenous to learning intervention. In a study dne by [16] training climate and transfer of training found to be positively correlated. In line with the above literature the following hypothesis is developed: H2: The positive relationship of transfer climate and job performance is mediated by training transfer.

Mediation Effect of Training Transfer between Motivation to Share Knowledge and Job Performance
The motivation for training is preoccupied as heading, effort, power, and dauntlessness that employees spread on to learningcentered activities before, during, after the training [22]. A couple of studies asserted that participants motivation toward learning and attending training session influences their capacity anchoring, maintaining, and preparation to apply the learning acquired in the recent past. Hence suggesting the following hypothetical statement: H3: The positive relationship of motivation to share knowledge and job performance is mediated by training transfer.

Methodology
Quantitative approach was used to investigate the hypothesized relationships. Sample for this study was taken from the total 7651 academic staff members working in numerous universities in Pal-

Knowledge Sharing
Training Transfer Transfer Climate Job Performance Motivation to Share Knowledge estine. Sampling table used to determine the sample size is following [18]. Based on [18], the target sample size was 365. Random sampling was used to distribute the questionnaire. Measurements of the study's variables were adapted to test the predictor variables and their influence on the outcome variable. Job performance was measured by using adapted questions from [22] with five point Likert scale. Accordingly, training transfer was assessed through the questions adapted from [23] by using five point Likert scale. Notably, process training components including knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge were adapted from [24] and measured based on five point Likert scale. All of the items were used and assessed on a five point Likert scale where, 1 indicated to strongly disagree and 5 referred to strongly agree. Out of distributed questionnaires, a total of 300 questionnaires turned out to be usable for final data analysis which is 82% of targeted sample.

Results and Discussion
The study applied the covariance based Structural equation modelling that involves two steps i.e. measurement model and structural model [25]. The measurement model is done by performing confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) while the structural model is the path analysis to test the multiple hypothetical relationships simultaneously. The CFA ensures the reliability and validity of the constructs and overall model in order to align the a priori. The measurement model of the study included 28 items. And all items were used to measure the constructs at first order including (knowledge sharing, transfer climate, motivation to share knowledge, training transfer and job performance). The average variance extracted (AVE) for all the construct was above the threshold value of 0.5 and parcel indicators as suggested by [26] ranged from 0.563 to 0.596, hence ensuring the discriminant validity of the constructs. Moreover, the composite reliability of the constructs were also well above the benchmark value of 0.6 for all as recommended by [27], and ranged between 0.885 and 0.910. The Alpha for construct reliability ranged between 0.886 and 0.907, which were above the threshold of 0.7 as suggested by [26]. see Table 1.  Figure 1 and Table 2.  Figure 2 shows the structural equation model of this study where training transfer was coded TTR, job performance as JPR and error was coded "e". Objective of this study was to investigate the effect of process training factors (knowledge sharing, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge) on job performance through the training transfer as mediator. In earlier section three hypothetical relationship were presented for empirical examination of such effects and the findings suggest a significant relationship between knowledge sharing and training transfer, with the standardized total effect of 0.24 and the P-value of 0.03. The direct effect of transfer climate on training transfer found to be significant with the standard beta value 0.29. Motivation to share knowledge has significant effect on training transfer with the standard beta value 0.24. Whereas, transfer climate and motivation to share knowledge has positive significant effect on job performance with the beta value 0.10 and 0.05 accordingly. Knowledge sharing effect on job performance has found insignificant with the beta value -0.03. After including training transfer (mediator) into the model the relationship of transfer climate and job performance was found to be significant whereas knowledge sharing and motivation to share knowledge were not significant. Hypothesis two was found to be supported hence it can be said that transfer climate plays a vital role in training transfer to enhance the employee performance (0.13*).

Conclusion
Transfer climate being one of the important element of process training factor for transferring the acquired knowledge has resulted in a significant role in enhancing employees' job performance. Employees can get appropriate transfer opportunity to utilize and apply the learned knowledge practically. The study findings indicate that transfer of training is highly correlated with climate or environment of individual learner. As the learning individual realizes that he/she will have opportunity to apply the training knowledge then there is a positive influence on transfer training at the organization. The study found no significant mediated relationship of knowledge sharing and job performance. Hence transfer training does not mediates the relationship. However a direct positive relationship with training transfer is found hence supported by [19]. The lack of opportuni-ties to implement the knowledge and skills results in negative behaviors from the employees and makes difficult for the employees to transfer training into practice. One of the significant factor for knowledge sharing is motivation and along with the motivation to the adoption of training [7] the employees who adopted and applied the best in their functional area very well, are the most sustainable across the year which is found in the study of [28]. Ability to apply and transfer the training are the influence of the performance has been found out by. It implies that performing ability is the degree which a person can improve as and when required and if the person wants to [4]. Upon the training climate, the application of training is influenced by the situation of apply [12,2]. There is sufficient literature on the role of training in improving employees' skill, ability, and knowledge and job performance. However in the Palestinian context the employees of academic institutes were exposed to the technical and instructional trainings so that the job can be carried out with proper knowledge, skills and attitudes at the work place. In this regard training is one of the factor that enhances the performance of the employees at their workplace and several researches supports this idea [29,30]. The studies found positive relationship of job-related behaviors and training.
The study has certain limitation such as the sample size as this study only covered the educational sectors and it ignored the other sectors such as production, services and other professional organizations. Hence the generalizations of the findings will be questionable and this limits the scope of the research. However future studies can be done including the said sectors and the results can be generalized in the Palestinian context. The study suggests how training is important for the employees for the betterment of their productivity and job performance and implies that there should be a proper arrangement of process training for the employees and a continuous support need to be provided to them so as to improve their learning curve and help retaining the acquired knowledge. This is very important for the fresh and inexperienced employees as they are still not done much practice and they have certain doubts about implementing what they have learnt from a particular training.