Emotions Meet Reflexivity in Workplace Training: A Person-Centered Approach to Understanding Transfer of Learning

Area of Science:

• Organizational Learning
• Workplace Training
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Emotional and reflexive processes are crucial for workplace learning transfer.
• Existing theories often overlook the interplay between emotions and metacognition in learning.
• Reflexivity on Emotions (RoE) is proposed as a key metacognitive capability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the joint relationship between emotional and reflexive processes and workplace learning transfer.
• To introduce and integrate Reflexivity on Emotions (RoE) into a person-centered framework.
• To identify distinct emotional-reflexive profiles and their impact on learning transfer.

Main Methods:

• Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) applied to data from 609 correctional officer cadets.
• Integration of RoE, reflexivity on practice, positive affect, and negative affect.
• A person-centered framework was utilized to analyze individual differences.

Main Results:

• Four distinct emotional-reflexive profiles were identified: Generative-Reflexive, Balanced-Reflexive, Detached-Unreflexive, and Inhibited-Unreflexive.
• The Generative-Reflexive profile, with high negative affect and strong reflexive resources, showed the highest learning transfer.
• Learning transfer is better explained by emotional-reflexive configurations than by isolated factors.

Conclusions:

• Negative emotions are not inherently detrimental to learning and can be beneficial when combined with reflexivity.
• Person-centered approaches and understanding emotional-reflexive configurations are vital for workplace learning research.
• Findings offer practical implications for designing effective training and fostering emotionally reflective learning environments.