Transfer from Here-and-Now to There-and-Then: Changes in Organizational Problem Diagnosis Stemming from T-Group Training

Abstract

The authors of this paper are interested in the transfer of training issue. Does the inward orientation of the T-Group experience turn outward and have significance for the participant's work world? They report data collected from 46 participants in a two-week laboratory for middle managers through the Problem Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ), designed to measre diagnostic style in individual patterns of analyzing interpersonal work problems. The study does not follow the participant back home but does describe how his work would look to him at the end of the laboratory and at the point of reentry into his back-home organization. The data suggest that diagnostic orientations learned about self in relation to T Group do generalize to learnings about self in relation to work. Learnmngs are summarized thus: The participant sees his work world as more human and less impersonal; he sees clearer connections between how well interpersonal needs are met and how well the work gets done; he sees himself more clearly as the most significant part of his work problems; he sees no clear connection, however, between his new perceptions and how he translates these into action. In their current research, the authors are exploring the extent to which diagnostic style is predictive of behavior and the extent to which changes in diagnostic style are accompanied by changes in action.