The extant research has not been consistent in the way motivation is conceptualized and measured in learning contexts, with prior research utilizing five different types of motivation derived from three theoretical frameworks—self-determination theory, expectancy theory, and the expectancy-value model. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether type of motivation impacts the motivation–training outcome relationships.

Researchers have been applying their knowledge of goal-oriented behavior to the self-regulated learning domain for more than 30 years. This review examines the current state of research on self-regulated learning and gaps in the field's understanding of how adults regulate their learning of work-related knowledge and skills. Self-regulation theory was used as a conceptual lens for deriving a heuristic framework of 16 fundamental constructs that constitute self-regulated learning. Meta-analytic findings (k=430, N=90,380) support theoretical propositions that self-regulation constructs are interrelated-30% of the corrected correlations among constructs were .50 or greater. Goal level, persistence, effort, and self-efficacy were the self-regulation constructs with the strongest effects on learning. Together these constructs accounted for 17% of the variance in learning, after controlling for cognitive ability and pretraining knowledge. However, 4 self-regulatory processes-planning, monitoring, help seeking, and emotion control-did not exhibit significant relationships with learning. Thus, a parsimonious framework of the self-regulated learning domain is presented that focuses on a subset of self-regulatory processes that have both limited overlap with other core processes and meaningful effects on learning. Research is needed to advance the field's understanding of how adults regulate their learning in an increasingly complex and knowledge-centric work environment. Such investigations should capture the dynamic nature of self-regulated learning, address the role of self-regulation in informal learning, and investigate how trainees regulate their transfer of training.

Leadership coaching reflects an evolving dynamic between the client and coach that is qualitatively different from most approaches to leadership development and therefore holds particular challenges for evaluation. Based on reviews of academic and practitioner literatures, this paper presents an integrated framework of coaching evaluation that includes formative evaluations of the client, coach, client–coach relationship, and coaching process, as well as summative evaluations based on coaching outcomes. The paper also includes a quantitative synthesis examining evaluation methodologies in 49 leadership coaching studies. The results revealed that self-reported changes in clients' leadership behaviors are the most frequently assessed coaching outcome, followed by clients' perceptions of the effectiveness of coaching. Recommendations to advance coaching evaluation research include the creation of collaborative partnerships between the evaluation stakeholders (client, coach, client's organization, and coaching organization) to facilitate systematic formative evaluations, the collection of multi-source and multi-level data, and the inclusion of distal outcomes in evaluation plans.

Prompting self-regulation involves asking trainees reflective questions to stimulate self-regulatory engagement. Research has found positive effects for prompting self-regulation on learning, but a scarcity of evidence exists regarding whether self-regulatory processes mediate the effect of prompting self-regulation, whether the intervention reduces attrition, and the optimal timing of implementing the intervention. Using a longitudinal design, we found that prompting self-regulation throughout training increased learning and reduced attrition, relative to the control condition. Moreover, the effect on learning was fully mediated by time on task. The intervention also moderated the effect of learning on subsequent self-regulatory activity and attrition. Learning performance had less of a positive effect on subsequent self-regulatory activity and less of a negative effect on subsequent attrition when trainees were prompted to self-regulate. These results highlight the importance of adopting a longitudinal design to examine how self-regulatory interventions affect the cyclical relationships among self-regulatory processes, learning, and attrition.

Although online instruction has many potential benefits, technical difficulties are one drawback to the increased use of this medium. A repeated measures design was used to examine the effect that technical difficulties have on learning and attrition from voluntary online training. Adult learners (N = 530) were recruited online and volunteered to participate in a 4-hr training program on using computer spreadsheets. Technical difficulties were inserted in some of the training modules in the form of error messages. Using multilevel modeling, the results indicated that the presence of these technical difficulties impaired learning, such that test scores were lower in modules where trainees encountered technical difficulties than in modules where they did not encounter technical difficulties. Furthermore, the effect on learning was greater among trainees who eventually withdrew from the course than among trainees who completed the course. With regards to attrition, pretraining motivation provided a buffer against dropping out, especially when trainees encountered technical difficulties. Learning also predicted attrition from the subsequent module, such that attrition was higher among trainees with low test scores in the previous module. The current study disentangles some of the implications of technical difficulties and suggests that organizations should provide trainees with the technical support required to overcome technical difficulties in training. Furthermore, the findings contribute to our theoretical understanding of the implications of interruptions on performance in online training.

We conducted a meta-analysis to clarify the construct validity of self-assessments of knowledge in education and workplace training. Self-assessment's strongest correlations were with motivation and satisfaction, two affective evaluation outcomes. The relationship between self-assessment and cognitive learning was moderate. Even under conditions that optimized the self-assessment–cognitive learning relationship (e.g., when learners practiced self-assessing and received feedback on their self-assessments), the relationship was still weaker than the self-assessment–motivation relationship. We also examined how researchers interpreted self-assessed knowledge, and discovered that nearly a third of evaluation studies interpreted self-assessed knowledge data as evidence of cognitive learning. Based on these findings, we offer recommendations for evaluation practice that involve a more limited role for self-assessment.

As the nature of organizational work shifts away from the repetitive and well defined toward the increasingly novel and ambiguous, the need for leaders to be adaptive has become paramount. The essence of organizational leadership does not occur in the routine activities of an organization, but rather in the nonroutine organizational events (Katz & Kahn, 1978). This suggests that organizational leadership involves solving novel and ill-defined problems that cannot be solved through the routine application of knowledge (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs & Fleishman, 2000), and requires leaders to be adaptive – drawing on their knowledge and past experiences to generate novel solutions under changing circumstances. As such, leadership development should focus not only on providing leaders with a repertoire of relevant knowledge and skills, but also on training adaptability.

The current study investigates antecedents and outcomes of motivation to learn across nine Web-based courses. The results supported a cyclical model of motivational processes across courses in a training curriculum. Trainees' course expectations had a positive effect on motivation to learn, motivation to learn had a positive effect on trainee reactions, and trainee reactions predicted expectations for subsequent courses in the curriculum. In addition, motivation to learn decreased across the nine courses such that the average level of motivation was 0.30 points lower (on a 5-point scale) for the ninth than the first course. Agreeableness predicted changes in motivation to learn such that motivation decreased at a steeper rate for highly agreeable trainees across courses. The results suggest that there is a dynamic interplay among motivational constructs over time, and motivation should be examined from a systems perspective to understand carryover effects across training courses.

A review and meta-analysis of studies assessing trainee reactions are presented. Results suggest reactions primarily capture characteristics of the training course, but trainee characteristics (e.g., anxiety and pretraining motivation) and organizational support also have a moderate effect on reactions. Instructional style (rho = .66) followed by human interaction (rho = .56) were the best predictors of reactions. Reactions predicted pre-to-post changes in motivation (beta = .51) and self-efficacy (beta = .24) and were more sensitive than affective and cognitive learning outcomes to trainees' perceptions of characteristics of the training course. Moderator analyses revealed reactions- outcomes correlations tended to be stronger in courses that utilized a high level rather than a low level of technology, and affective and utility reactions did not differ in their relationships with learning outcomes. The current study clarifies the nomological network of reactions and specifies outcomes that are theoretically related to reactions.

This study examined the role of goal orientation dimensions in understanding differences in time spent in an online, occupational training program. In predicting time to train, there was a significant interaction between mastery and performance-avoid goal orientations (beta=-.32), highlighting the value of considering goal orientation dimensions in concert. Trainees with low mastery and low performance-avoid goal orientations completed training considerably faster than trainees who were high on one or both of these dimensions. Although trainees varied greatly in the amount of time spent in training (lengths ranged from 21 to 72 days), time spent in training did not significantly predict knowledge levels (beta=-.14). As organizations move toward Web-based instruction. research is needed to elucidate the decisions that trainees make in self-paced training environments and the impact that individual differences have on these decisions. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

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