This was the first empirical study on the popular practitioner model of capability development. We explored how the framework is applied in the Australia public sector and if it improves the transfer of learning. This study explores how the framework is being implemented and whether it facilitates the transfer of learning to build middle management capability. Results showed that despite middle managers' awareness of, and willingness to take part in, ongoing skill development, attempts to develop capability through learning transfer by implementing the 70:20:10 framework were not achieving the desired outcomes. The research suggests that learning transfer and managerial capability development was hindered through four misconceptions regarding the framework's implementation. These are: an overconfident assumption that unstructured experiential learning automatically results in capability development; a narrow interpretation of social learning; the expectation that managerial behavior would automatically change following formal training and development activities without the need to actively support the process; and a lack of recognition of the requirement of a planned and integrated relationship of all three aspects of the framework.
Johnson, Blackman & Buick, 2018 The 70:20:10 framework and the transfer of learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 29:383 – 402.
