Restaurant Food Safety: The Influence of Employee Outlooks on Transfer of Training

This exploratory case study hypothesized that improvements in food safety transfer of training were linked to employees' outlooks on key behavioral factors. Employee perceptions of 6 theorized, latent behavioral variables were analyzed to see if they had a relationship with health inspection outcomes of a casual-theme restaurant concept in the Southeastern U.S. A total of 15 restaurants were sampled, yielding 210 observations, which represented a 40% response rate. The results advocate that the employees' outlook played a significant role in the transfer of food safety knowledge and skills gained in training. There was also evidence that the employee's self-efficacy and sense of social responsibility had positive relationships with restaurant inspection scores.