A path analysis of relationships among job stress, job satisfaction, motivation to transfer, and transfer of learning: perceptions of occupational safety and health administration outreach trainers

Abstract

Many researchers have examined the effect of various work-related factors on transfer of learning. However, there has been little or no focus on the effect of key workplace factors such as job stress and job satisfaction on transfer of learning. The current study examines the relationship among job stress, job satisfaction, motivation to transfer and transfer of learning based on the perceptions of selected Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) outreach trainers who underwent training conducted by the Texas Engineering Extension, Texas. A 24-item questionnaire was utilized to collect data. The questionnaire was sent electronically to all outreach trainers who underwent the OSHA General Industry Course 501 during 2005, and the first six months of 2006. The sample included 418 respondents representing a population of 1234 outreach trainers. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha estimates for reliability, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, path analysis, and Sobel tests were the analysis methods used in the study. The results from the analysis suggest that job stress and its related dimensions, time stress, and anxiety had an indirect correlation with transfer of learning through job satisfaction and motivation to transfer. Further, it was found that job stress, time stress, and anxiety predicted job satisfaction; time stress predicted anxiety; job satisfaction predicted motivation to transfer; and motivation to transfer predicted transfer of learning. Finally, path analysis results and mediation tests showed that: (1) the relationship between job stress and transfer was mediated by job satisfaction and motivation to transfer, (2) the relationship between time stress and transfer was mediated by job satisfaction and motivation to transfer, (3) the relationship between anxiety and transfer was mediated by job satisfaction and motivation to transfer, and finally (4) the relationship between time stress and transfer was mediated by anxiety, job satisfaction, and motivation to transfer.