Career Development International
Emerald Article: The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Eddie W.L. Cheng, Danny C.K. Ho

Article information:
To cite this document: Eddie W.L. Cheng, Danny C.K. Ho, (2001),"The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer", Career Development International, Vol. 6 Iss: 1 pp. 20 - 28 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13620430110381007 Downloaded on: 11-06-2012 References: This document contains references to 32 other documents Citations: This document has been cited by 6 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com This document has been downloaded 4415 times since 2005. *

Users who downloaded this Article also downloaded: *
James DeLisle, Terry Grissom, (2011),"Valuation procedure and cycles: an emphasis on down markets", Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Vol. 29 Iss: 4 pp. 384 - 427 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14635781111150312 Olusegun Folorunso, Oluwafemi Shawn Ogunseye, (2008),"Challenges in the adoption of visualization system: a survey", Kybernetes, Vol. 37 Iss: 9 pp. 1530 - 1541 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03684920810907841 Charles Inskip, Andy MacFarlane, Pauline Rafferty, (2010),"Organising music for movies", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 62 Iss: 4 pp. 489 - 501 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00012531011074726

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA For Authors: If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service. Information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com With over forty years' experience, Emerald Group Publishing is a leading independent publisher of global research with impact in business, society, public policy and education. In total, Emerald publishes over 275 journals and more than 130 book series, as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER 3 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.
*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer

Eddie W.L. Cheng The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong Danny C.K. Ho The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Keywords

Learning, Motivation, Job satisfaction, Involvement, Commitment, Career development

Introduction
In the twenty-first century, fierce competition among organisations will continue to be the central issue. While employee performance is one of the critical measures emphasised by the top management, employees are more concerned about their own productivity and are increasingly aware of the accelerated obsolescence of knowledge and skills in this turbulent environment. Better equipping oneself by learning new knowledge becomes a survival strategy in the career world. As a result, ``upgraded'' employees look for improving their job performance, as well as enhancing their future career prospects. Obviously, when employees transfer the learning content to their jobs, a win-win situation for both organisations and employees can be accomplished. This inevitably provides the strong ground for undertaking the test of the degree of actual transfer of newly acquired knowledge and skills to the jobs. During the past decade, learning transfer was a popular research topic that had attracted a lot of applied psychologists and management researchers to examine its effectiveness in task skill learning. In general, learning transfer can be defined as the application, generalisation and retention of newly acquired knowledge and skills in the workplace (Ford and Weissbein, 1997). Yet, among all kinds of knowledge and skills, managerial skills (also known as management knowledge) are relatively more crucial but less focused (Ford and Kraiger, 1995). Managerial skills, including interpersonal and supervisory skills, are said to be transferable to different work settings while task skills are specific to individual job requirements. Research focusing on managerial skills should therefore have higher value to learning transfer literature
The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers

This article examines a parsimonious model that specifies the effects of job involvement and career commitment on learning motivation and learning transfer, using structural equation modelling. The ``best fitting'' model is achieved because it has surpassed all the goodness-of-fit indices including the chi-square statistic. The results indicated that career commitment was positively related to learning motivation and learning transfer. In addition, suppressor effect may help to explain the non-significant relationships between job involvement and learning motivation, and between job involvement and learning transfer.

Abstract

Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27 # MCB University Press [ISSN 1362-0436]

with regard to the applicability of learning. In addition to improving job performance, upgrading managerial skills may enhance employees' employability. Management development is therefore essential in the contemporary management philosophy, which involves the provision of management learning programs. Generally, management learning programs can be either formal education programs (e.g. Master's degree in Management) or other short-term skillspecific courses (e.g. Certificate of Interpersonal Skill Training). In the sense of management development, formal programs are more appropriate and become more popular. Kirkbride and Tang (1990), in a recent survey, revealed that formal management courses were the most popular method of management development in Hong Kong. This may be explained by the cultural preference of Chinese who are fond of didactic teaching and learning styles (Kirkbride et al., 1989). Besides, due to a high credentialism in Asia, employees with a higher level education (e.g. a higher degree) are what Asian organisations want. Among different higher degree programs, the MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree is widely accepted as the most promising stepping-stone to management development. Since an MBA program incurs a rather expensive investment to both employees and organisations, it is worth ascertaining the transferability of the MBA knowledge to the workplace. The past learning transfer literature is not expected to have high value in helping practitioners to increase positive transfer (Baldwin and Ford, 1988). Although the early work of Noe (1986) and Baldwin and Ford (1988) attracted many research efforts to investigate factors affecting transfer of learning, the growth of theoretical knowledge and the advancement of training practices are loosely coupled. In fact, training
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft

[ 20 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

practitioners have difficulties in transforming some highly abstract constructs and complicated theoretical models into a set of principles and procedures, so that they can be applied to design, conduct, and improve training programs easily. Additionally, most of the previous studies examined task skill transfer, which were tailor-made for designing and testing the tasks required by the participating organisations. These task skills are specific to particular contexts which other organisations may not share. Practitioners hesitate to adapt such research findings to training programs and work settings that are different from the original ones. For obtaining ``generic'' results, MBA learning transfer would be an appropriate research focus. Because employees studying an MBA program might improve their job performance and enhance their future career prospects, it is worth looking into to what extent their job and career attitudes motivate them to learn and facilitate the transfer of what they have learned back to their jobs. Among different constructs of job and career attitudes, job involvement and career commitment are essential for examination (Baldwin and Ford, 1988), which has been tested recently (e.g. Mathieu et al., 1992). The study of their effects on learning motivation and learning transfer from MBA programs can make a contribution to the literature of the learning field. This research also attempts to contrast the effects of these two independent variables in order to develop a strategy for facilitating the MBA learning and transfer.

Learning motivation can be defined as the specific desire of a learner to learn the content of a training program (Noe, 1986; Noe and Schmitt, 1986). Noe (1986) suggested that, when there is no motivation, individuals, who may have the ability to master the training content, may fail to do so. Clark et al. (1993) further stated that training motivation is crucial for the most sophisticated training program to be effective. Some studies have indicated that learning motivation is related to program completion (Hicks and Klimoski, 1987; Quinones, 1995; Ryman and Biersner, 1975), training performance (Baldwin et al., 1991; Facteau et al., 1995; Mathieu et al., 1992; Noe and Schmitt, 1986; Tannenbaum et al., 1991) and task performance (Quinones, 1995). In general, past studies have revealed that higher levels of motivation to learn result in improved performance in learning (Quinones, 1995). However, there is a paucity of research that has examined the effect of learning motivation on learning transfer. Therefore, the impact of learning motivation on learning transfer of MBA graduates should be examined. Given the reported influence of learning motivation on learning performance, our proposition relates learning motivation to learning transfer. H1: Learning motivation will be positively related to learning transfer. As it is suggested that trainee motivation and attitudes play an important role in determining training effectiveness (Noe, 1986), identifying factors that have strong influence on learning motivation is of high interest to both academics and practitioners. Job involvement is proposed as having such influence. Job involvement is defined as the extent to which individuals identify psychologically with work or the importance of work to the total self-image (Lodahl and Kejner, 1965). Job involvement is conceptualised as a cognitive state of psychological identification with the job which, in turn, depends on the needsatisfying potentialities of the job (Kanungo, 1982). In a training situation, highly jobinvolved trainees anticipate higher performance as a result of doing well in training (Mathieu et al., 1992). Therefore, trainees' motivation to improve job-related skills may be affected by the extent to which they are involved in their jobs (Noe, 1986). In other words, trainees with a high level of job involvement are more likely to be motivated to learn new skills. This is because participation in training activities is perceived by individuals as a way to increase skill levels, improve job performance and elevate feelings of self-worth (Noe, 1986). Noe

Learning motivation

Job involvement

The proposed model
Figure 1 exhibits the proposed model, which hypothesises that both job involvement and career commitment will positively affect learning motivation and learning transfer, while learning motivation will positively affect learning transfer.

Figure 1 The proposed model

[ 21 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

and Schmitt (1986) found that highly jobinvolved trainees are more motivated to learn and transfer the skills to the job. Clark, cited in Facteau et al. (1995), also found that the variation in training motivation is significantly explained by individuals' job involvement. So, in the current study, job involvement is hypothesised to predict learning motivation and learning transfer positively. H2a: Job involvement will be positively related to learning motivation. H2b: Job involvement will be positively related to learning transfer. Trainees with high commitment to their career or work are likely to exert considerable effort towards learning the training content, because these trainees have the intention of improving their job performance. When they attend training programs, they invest more effort in learning new skills or knowledge. The purpose of their investment is to increase their competence in performing their work and/or to secure their employability. Although career commitment and work commitment are correlated, they are two different concepts (Hall, 1971; Morrow, 1983) and may often have different antecedents and consequences (Morrow, 1983). Career commitment is a component of the subjective dimension of career. It is defined as ``an affective concept which represents identification with a series of related jobs in a specific field of work and is behaviourally expressed in an ability to cope with disappointments in the pursuit of career goals'' (Aryee and Tan, 1992, p. 189). One who shows more career commitment is able to persist in pursuing career goals, even if confronting obstacles and setbacks (Colarelli and Bishop, 1990). Career commitment has been included in several integrative models of organisational behaviour to study its relationship with various work-related outcomes (e.g. Aryee and Tan, 1992; Mobley et al., 1979; Price and Mueller, 1981). For example, it is positively and significantly related to both skill development (Aryee and Tan, 1992) and job performance (Darden et al., 1989), whereas it is negatively related to actual turnover (Bedeian et al., 1991). Although its effect on training has not been widely studied, the influence of its energising component (i.e. career planning) on learning transfer has been investigated (London, 1985). Colarelli and Bishop (1990) also suggested that career commitment is specifically relevant to individuals who try to develop a high level of skills, as it can help them persist long enough through years of training, development and experience across different

organisational settings. In an MBA program, which involves a high level of skill acquisition, individuals with a high level of career commitment may be motivated to sustain learning when they think that acquiring new knowledge and skills would help them remain in their chosen careers. Therefore, career commitment is proposed to influence learning motivation and learning transfer positively. H3a: Career commitment will be positively related to learning motivation. H3b: Career commitment will be positively related to learning transfer.

Career commitment

Research method
Data for the study were collected from those who had graduated from part-time MBA programs offered in Hong Kong not more than one year ago. Graduates within this range were assumed to be more likely to prevent memory distortion of perception responses and avoid obsolescence of the learned MBA content. All MBA program providers in Hong Kong (altogether 45 local and overseas higher institutions) were invited through telephone contacts. Only four (two local and two overseas) universities agreed to participate. Of those 155 identical questionnaires already sent out, 81 completed questionnaires were returned and usable, representing a response rate of 52.3 per cent. With respect to the demographic profile, 70.4 per cent of the respondents were in the 31-40 age group (n = 81). This was consistent with the job positions in that 63 per cent (n = 81) were middle level managers. In addition, 77.8 per cent of the respondents (n = 80) were male, while 66.7 per cent (n = 77) were married. Approximately half of the respondents (49.4 per cent, n = 80) reported that the organisation in which they worked employed more than 900 employees. Of the respondents, 77.8 per cent (n = 81) were working in the service sector, which might reflect the importance of this sector in Hong Kong's economy. Respondents' (n = 81) undergraduate majors were Business (34.6 per cent), Social Science (8.6 per cent), Arts and Humanities (8.6 per cent), Engineering (28.4 per cent), Computing and Information Management (8.6 per cent), and others (11.2 per cent). Their job functions included Human Resources (11.1 per cent), Marketing/ Sales (17.3 per cent), Finance/Accounting (19.8 per cent), Production (12.3 per cent), MIS (9.9 per cent), Engineering (8.6 per cent), and others (21 per cent). The demographic profile of respondents indicates that non-response biases were not likely to affect further analysis.

Participants

[ 22 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

The endogenous and exogenous variables depicted in the model were measured using multi-item scales. Measures for the variables examined in the study are described hereinafter. The respondents were asked to provide their answers according to a ``perceived'' learning transfer measure. A 4-item scale was used to measure the extent to which MBA graduates transfer what they have learned back to the workplace. Response options ranged from (1) ``strongly disagree'' to (5) ``strongly agree''. A sample item is ``I incorporate skills, competencies, and knowledge learned in the MBA program into my daily work activities''. The scale's alpha reliability in this study is 0.88. A 4-item scale was used to measure the degree of learning motivation in an MBA program. Response options ranged from (1) ``strongly disagree'' to (5) ``strongly agree''. A sample item is ``I tried to learn as much as I could from the MBA program''. The scale's alpha reliability in this study is 0.85. A 4-item scale was used to measure the degree of job involvement of MBA graduates. Response options ranged from (1) ``disagree very much'' to (6) ``agree very much''. A sample item is ``I am very much involved personally in my job''. The scale's alpha reliability in this study is 0.76. A 4-item scale was used to measure the degree of career commitment of MBA graduates. Response options ranged from (1) ``strongly disagree'' to (5) ``strongly agree''. A sample item is ``I strongly identify with my chosen line of work/career field''. The scale's alpha reliability in this study is 0.71. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to examine statistically the specified relationships for this study. Recently, SEM has been extensively used for model testing. It is a powerful statistical tool that can examine the extent to which the model fits the data and the level of statistical significance of the hypothesised relationships. This research involved the test of the relationships between variables that could not be directly observed and measured (known as latent constructs), which were then measured by some observable indicators or items. These observable indicators formed the multi-item scales, which, for ensuring measurement adequacy, must secure reliability and construct,

Measures

Learning transfer

Learning motivation

Job involvement

convergent and discriminant validity. SEM can be used to validate scales and possibly modify scales for better psychometric properties since the validity of measuring scales is crucial to establish the confidence in substantive theory building and research findings (Chau, 1997). SEM permits the simultaneous estimation of both the parameters linking observable indicators to latent variables (the measurement equations) and the parameters linking the latent variables to each other (the structural equations). The model allowed for reciprocal causation among variables and correlated measurement errors (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993). Procedurally, it helps to find the ``best fitting'' model by, in the first stage, establishing the ``best fitting'' measurement model, which then enters the second stage of testing the hypothesised structural model. The measurement model (or confirmatory factor model) specifies the relationships of the observed indicators to their posited underlying factors, while the structural model specifies the causal relationships among the latent variables as posited by the underlying theories (Segars and Grover, 1993). For computing the measurement and structural equations, LISREL (Linear Structural Relationships), which is a popular commercial statistical software, was used. Hypothesised relationships with strong theoretical support, multivariate normal distributions, interval scales, and an adequate size of sample are essential for model testing using LISREL (Chau, 1997).

Career commitment

Findings
The measurement model
Table I presents the goodness-of-fit indices for the a priori measurement model or the so-called ``combined'' measurement model (Clark et al., 1993). These indices suggested a moderate fit of the measurement model to the data. Except for the chi-square statistic and AGFI, other indices surpassed the recommended values suggested by Chau (1997). As shown in LISREL output, some indicators had very large positive standardised residuals, and attempted to load on more than one factor, as demonstrated by large modification indexes. These indicators were then deleted one by one, since the deletion of one indicator in a model may affect other parts of the model simultaneously (Segars and Grover, 1993), until the ``best fitting'' measurement model has been achieved. Based on the above-mentioned revisions, the revised measurement model, as shown in Table I, attained improvements in all goodness-of-fit indices (12 /df: 2.21 ? 1.15;

Statistical method

[ 23 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

Table I Goodness-of-fit indices for the a priori and revised measurement models Measurement model A priori Revised Recommendeda value for good fit Chi-square (12 ) 702.75 [p = 0.0] 112.74 [p = 0.15] df 318 98 ± 12 /df 2.21 1.15 3.0 AGFI 0.55 0.80 ! 0.80 RMSR 0.095 0.071 0.10 NNFI 0.89 0.99 ! 0.90 CFI 0.90 0.99 ! 0.90

p ! 0.05

Notes: AGFI = adjusted goodness-of-fit index; RMSR = root mean square residual; NNFI = non-normed fit index; CFI = comparative fit index Source: aChau (1997)

AGFI: 0.55 ? 0.80; RMSR: 0.095 ? 0.071; NNFI: 0.89 ? 0.99; CFI: 0.90 ? 0.99), and a nonsignificant chi-square statistic (p = 0.15) which exceeded the recommended level (p > 0.05). Individual measurement models for each variable were also computed to check whether they achieved a good fit to the data (Chau, 1997). As shown in Table II, all individual measurement models achieved a very good fit. Thus, the ``combined'' measurement model possessed good psychometric properties. The correlation matrix was shown in Table III. After the measurement model had been ``cleaned'' and said to be the best fit to the data, the revised model would enter into the second stage for testing the structural model. This stage of analysis involved the testing of the hypothesised relationships among the latent variables. The computation was based upon a simultaneous regression of the endogenous variable in the structural model on the predicted antecedents. Table IV

The structural model

presents the goodness-of-fit indices for the hypothesised structural model. All these indices surpassed the recommended values, and indicated that the model had a very good fit to the data (12 /df = 1.15; AGFI = 0.80; RMSR = 0.071; NNFI = 0.99; CFI = 0.99) and attained a non-significant chi-square statistic (p = 0.15). The results of the hypothesised structural model are depicted in Figure 2. The strength of the relationships among the constructs was represented by their path coefficients. The results indicate that learning motivation was a significant predictor of learning transfer (r = 0.31, p < 0.01), supporting H1. The hypotheses of career commitment being positively related to learning motivation (r = 0.74, p < 0.01) and learning transfer (r = 0.54, p < 0.01) were statistically significant. Thus, H3a and H3b were supported. The results also indicate that job involvement was not significantly related to learning motivation and learning transfer (H2a and H2b). These results appear to be consistent with the findings of previous

Table II Goodness-of-fit indices for individual variables in the revised measurement model Measurement model Job involvement Career commitment Learning motivation Learning transfer Chi-square (12 ) 0.15 [p = 0.93] 3.68 [p = 0.16] 0.11 [p = 0.95] 0.46 [p = 0.79] df 2 2 2 2 AGFI 1.00 0.89 1.00 0.99 RMSR 0.009 0.028 0.004 0.004 NNFI 1.00 0.99 1.00 1.00 CFI 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Table III Correlations among latent variables Variable 1. Learning transfer 2. Learning motivation 3. Career commitment 4. Job involvement Likert scale (L) 5 points 5 points 5 points 6 points Mean (M) 3.74 3.88 3.51 3.76 M/La 0.75 0.78 0.70 0.63 SD 0.64 0.76 0.64 0.93 1 (0.88) 0.338* 0.527* 0.409* 2 (0.85) 0.151 0.079 3 4

(0.71) 0.488* (0.76)

Notes: Numbers in parentheses on diagonal are coefficient alphas; n = 81; a M/L ratios make the comparison of variables meaningful. The higher the ratio's value, the more the respondents agreed on the extent of the variable's existence; * p < 0.01 (two-tailed) [ 24 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

Table IV Goodness-of-fit indices for the hypothesised structural model Model Structural model Recommended* value for good fit Source: * Chau (1997) research (Mathieu et al., 1992; Facteau et al., 1995). Comparing the results of the job and career attitudes, it seems that the pursuit of an MBA degree may represent an individual's desire to enhance his/her employability rather than job performance. moderating effects can be integrated into a series of small models for testing. From their findings, a comprehensive view can be synthesised. The non-significant relationship between job involvement and learning transfer may be explained by one of the two conditions for detecting the presence of a suppressor effect (Cohen and Cohen, 1983). According to the correlation matrix (in Table II), job involvement and learning transfer were significantly correlated (r = 0.409, p < 0.01). However, the correlations of career commitment with job involvement (r = 0.488, p < 0.01) and learning transfer (r = 0.527, p < 0.01) are even more significant; and thereby, career commitment, acting as a suppressor, suppressed the effect of job involvement on learning transfer. As Facteau et al. (1995) suggested, a suppressor variable suppresses the effect of other independent variables in explaining variance in a dependent variable. Since career commitment is positively related to learning motivation and learning transfer, it is interesting to know what factors affect career commitment. By identifying these factors, strategies for improving the level of career commitment of individuals can be formulated. Darden et al. (1989), in their study of the retail salespeople, found that a friendly, participatory approach to supervision and perceived rewards are antecedents of career commitment to retailing. Future research can incorporate these variables to examine this in the context of managerial skills' transfer. It is likely that employees working under supervisors with participative management style feel more favourable in predicting their future career paths, which in turn increases their commitment to their vocation. Moreover, the more the employees perceive that rewards such as recognition, promotion, and bonuses are associated with their respective performance, the greater will be their career commitment. Other personal attributes, such as mastery orientation (Ford et al., 1998), and environmental factors, such as rate of technology advancement and demands for new skills, are expected to affect career commitment. The major findings of this research reveal that career commitment is positively related

Chi-square (12 ) 112.74 [p = 0.15]

df 98 ±

12 /df 1.15 3.0

AGFI 0.80 ! 0.80

RMSR 0.071 0.10

NNFI 0.99 ! 0.90

CFI 0.99 ! 0.90

p ! 0.05

Discussion
This research used a cross-sectional, selfreported methodology to collect a set of data for deriving the hypothesised model. Despite the criticism of using such a design, this methodology provides a relatively early step in explaining phenomena of interest and is possible to draw important insights (Spector, 1994). The methodology helps to understand how people feel about their career and jobs, and view their learning efforts and the use of their newly acquired knowledge and skills. On the other hand, the sample used was limited to MBA learning transfer. Caution is necessary in making any generalisation of the results to other management development programs, including formal programs (e.g. Master of Management or Doctor of Business Administration) and short courses. Nevertheless, the study has implications for researchers and practitioners. This research examined a parsimonious model of learning transfer. As mentioned previously, it is good to start testing a smaller or simple model using SEM. A series of small models can be developed to examine different sets of associated variables. For example, variables with mediating and/or

Implications for research

Figure 2 Path coefficients of the hypothesised structural model

Implications for practice

[ 25 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

to learning motivation and learning transfer. It is clear that people with strong career commitment are more likely to plan for their career paths. Enhancing future career prospects and improving personal performance are two major career goals. For enhancing future career prospects, people should expand their employability. The demographic profile of this study disclosed that 65 per cent of the respondents were non-business graduates. It appears that these graduates pursued an MBA because they perceived their inadequacy in management competencies. In general, managerial skills appear to be as important as task skills. Most often, some short courses, such as supervisory or interpersonal skills training, are useful to those who are unsure of their ability to deal with human-relations problems. However, pursing an MBA degree would not only benefit them in fulfilling their job assignments productively, but also upgrade their managerial skills to expand their employability. On the other hand, improving personal performance can enhance the chance for promotion. As shown in the descriptive findings of Kirkbride and Tang (1990), organisations in Hong Kong selected managers for further management development on the basis of promotion prospects or plans. For achieving their career goals, such strong career committed people would enrol in a highstanding management program, such as the MBA. They would put more effort into completing the program, and would try to apply what they have learned in the program back to their jobs, intending to improve their job performance and advance in their career paths. Although the results did not show a significant relationship between job involvement and learning motivation, and between job involvement and learning transfer, organisations could not ignore the effect of job involvement on personal performance. As shown in Table III, the relatively low score (M/L = 0.63) of job involvement may be explained by those graduates who are more concerned about their own personal development. They may not prepare them for long-term engagement with the organisations in which they work. This is consistent with the work culture in Hong Kong where job security is not anticipated. Owing to various reasons such as uncertain business environment, pressure to cut costs, reengineering and restructuring, more organisations would like to sign short-term contracts with employees. For example, universities in Hong Kong usually sign a threeyear renewable contract with academic staff. In addition, due to the lack of a life-long retirement fund and inadequate lay-off subsidy, people in Hong Kong are striving to

earn more money to secure their retirement and unexpected jobless living. As a result, jobhopping is common in Hong Kong. This may influence the graduates to distinguish their jobs from their careers. They treat their careers as a life-long process and their jobs as fulfilling short-term objectives. They pay more attention to their careers, especially when they know that organisations are not concerned about their advancements. This is reflected by the fact that most of the MBA students in Hong Kong are self-financed. Nevertheless, career commitment and job involvement are significantly correlated (as shown in the correlation matrix). Therefore, employees may feel there is a brighter future if they become more involved personally in their jobs, leading to better job performance. To enhance the learning habits of employees, organisations should plan to establish employee development schemes and give employees a visible future promotion ladder from within the organisation. Prospectively, a mandatory provident fund scheme for unemployment and retirement protection will be implemented in Hong Kong in the near future, which is expected to improve the degree of job involvement of employees. Once this is achieved, the more employees become involved in their jobs, the greater their learning attitudes and their eagerness to apply what they have learned on their jobs.

Conclusion
This paper examined a parsimonious model that specifies the effects of job involvement and career commitment on learning motivation and learning transfer. The results indicated that career commitment significantly predicted learning motivation and learning transfer. This reflects that MBA graduates were more willing to learn and transfer what they have learned to their jobs when they were more concerned about their personal development and employability. Although the path coefficients of the relationships between job involvement and learning motivation and between job involvement and learning transfer were not significant, they were still significantly correlated. The likely emergence of the suppressor effect preserves our attention to its impact on learning. This paper also suggests further research to identify the antecedents of career commitment in order to design strategies for improving the performance of management development programs.

References

Aryee, S. and Tan, K. (1992), ``Antecedents and outcomes of career commitment'', Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 40, pp. 288-305.

[ 26 ]

Eddie W.L. Cheng and Danny C.K. Ho The influence of job and career attitudes on learning motivation and transfer Career Development International 6/1 [2001] 20±27

Baldwin, T.T. and Ford, J.K. (1988), ``Transfer of training: a review and directions for future research'', Personnel Psychology, Vol. 41, pp. 63-105. Baldwin, T.T., Magjuka, R.J. and Loher, B.T. (1991), ``The perils of participation: effects of choice of training on trainee motivation and learning'', Personnel Psychology, Vol. 44, pp. 51-65. Bedeian, A.G., Kemery, E.R. and Pizzolatto, A.B. (1991), ``Career commitment and expected utility of present job as predictors of turnover intentions and turnover behaviour'', Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Vol. 39, pp. 331-43. Chau, P.Y.K. (1997), ``Reexamining a model for evaluating information center success using a structural equation modeling approach'', Decision Sciences, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 309-34. Clark, C.S., Dobbins, G.H. and Ladd, R.T. (1993), ``Exploratory field study of training motivation: influences of involvement, credibility, and transfer climate'', Group & Organization Management, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 292-307. Cohen, J. and Cohen, P. (1983), Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ. Colarelli, S.M. and Bishop, R.C. (1990), ``Career commitment: functions, correlates and management'', Group & Organisation Studies, Vol. 15, pp. 158-76. Darden, W.R., Hampton, R. and Howell, R.D. (1989), ``Career versus organisational commitment: antecedents and consequences of retail salespeople's commitment'', Journal of Retailing, Vol. 65, pp. 80-106. Facteau, J.D., Dobbins, G.H., Russell, J.E.A., Ladd, R.T. and Kudisch, J.D. (1995), ``The influence of general perceptions of the training environment on pretraining motivation and perceived training transfer'', Journal of Management, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 1-25. Ford, J.K. and Kraiger, K. (1995), ``The application of cognitive constructs to the instructional systems model of training: implications for needs assessment, design and transfer'', in Cooper, C.L. and Robertson, I.T. (Eds), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Wiley, Chichester, pp. 1-48. Ford, J.K. and Weissbein, D.A. (1997), ``Transfer of training: an update review and analysis'', Performance Improvement Quarterly, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 22-41. Ford, J.K., Smith, E.M., Weissbein, D.A., Gully, S.M. and Salas, E. (1998), ``Relationships of goal orientation, metacognitive activity, and practice strategies with learning outcomes and transfer'', Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 83 No. 2, pp. 218-33. Hall, D. (1971), ``A theoretical model of career subidentity in organizational settings'', Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Vol. 6, pp. 50-76. Hicks, W.D. and Klimoski, R.J. (1987), ``Entry into training programs and its effects on training outcomes: a field experiment'', Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 30, pp. 542-52. Joreskog, K.G. and Sorbom, D. (1993), LISREL 8: Structural Equation Modeling with the

Simplis Command Language, Scientific Software International Inc., Chicago, IL. Kanungo, R.N. (1982), ``Measurement of job and work involvement'', Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 67 No. 3, pp. 341-9. Kirkbride, P.S. and Tang, S.F.Y. (1990), ``Training in Hong Kong: the missing link in industrial development?'' Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, Suppl. 2, pp. 293-312. Kirkbride, P.S., Tang, S.F.Y. and Shae, W.C. (1989), ``The transferability of management training and development: the case of Hong Kong'', Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 7-20. Lodahl, T.M. and Kejner, M. (1965), ``The definition and measurement of job involvement'', Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 49, pp. 24-33. London, M. (1985), Developing Managers: A Guide to Motivating People for Successful Managerial Careers, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Mathieu, J.E., Tannenbaum, S.I. and Salas, E. (1992), ``Influences of individual and situational characteristics on measures of training effectiveness'', Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 828-47. Mobley, W., Griffeth, R., Hand, H. and Meglino, R. (1979), ``Review and conceptual analysis of the employee turnover process'', Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 86, pp. 493-522. Morrow, P. (1983), ``Concept redundancy in organizational research: the case of work commitment'', Academy of Management Review, Vol. 8, pp. 486-500. Noe, R.A. (1986), ``Trainees' attributes and attitudes: neglected influences on training effectiveness'', Academy of Management Review, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 736-49. Noe, R.A. and Schmitt, N. (1986), ``The influence of trainee attitudes on training effectiveness: test of a model'', Personnel Psychology, Vol. 39, pp. 497-523. Price, J.L. and Mueller, C.W. (1981), ``A causal model of turnover for nurses'', Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 24, pp. 543-65. Quinones, M.A. (1995), ``Pretraining context effects: training assignment as feedback'', Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 80 No. 2, pp. 226-38. Ryman, D.H. and Biersner, R.J. (1975), ``Attitudes predictive of driving training success'', Personnel Psychology, Vol. 28, pp. 181-8. Segars, A.H. and Grover, V. (1993), ``Re-examining perceived ease of use and usefulness: a confirmatory factor analysis'', MIS Quarterly, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 517-25. Spector, P.E. (1994), ``Using self-report questionnaires in OB research: a comment on the use of controversial method'', Journal of Organizational Behavior, Vol. 15, pp. 385-92. Tannenbaum, S.I., Mathieu, J.E., Salas, E. and Cannon-Bowers, J.A. (1991), ``Meeting trainees' expectations: the influence of training fulfillment on the development of commitment, self-efficacy, and motivation'', Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 76 No. 6, pp. 759-69.

[ 27 ]