Search results
1 – 10 of over 13000Nienke A. Boere, Bastian de Jong, Joost Jansen in de Wal and Frank Cornelissen
Transfer motivation has been identified as a pivotal factor influencing transfer of training. However, the role of training content has often been overlooked as explanatory…
Abstract
Purpose
Transfer motivation has been identified as a pivotal factor influencing transfer of training. However, the role of training content has often been overlooked as explanatory variable for the rate of transfer motivation. This study aims to examine to what extent experiences in transfer motivation and its personal and contextual antecedents depend on whether the training content is soft or hard skill. To this end, this study used the perspective of the unified model of task-specific motivation.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 1,122 trainees (462 soft skill and 660 hard skill) filled out a questionnaire representing the components of transfer motivation and its personal- and contextual antecedents. Data were analyzed by means of multi group structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results showed mean differences between soft- and hard-skill trainings in personal- and contextual antecedents of transfer motivation and for different types of transfer motivation. However, no differences in transfer intention were found.
Practical implications
The outcomes provide insight as to what practitioners and trainers could do in training design and work environments to raise personal and contextual antecedents and to what extent a differentiation should be made between soft- and hard-skill trainings. This can eventually help them in raising transfer motivation among trainees.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that examines whether experiences in personal and contextual antecedents of transfer motivation, transfer motivation and transfer intention differ for trainings consisting of different characteristics.
Details
Keywords
Susanne Wisshak and Sabine Hochholdinger
This study aims to investigate whether soft-skills trainers and hard-skills trainers have different perspectives regarding their required instructional knowledge and skills.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate whether soft-skills trainers and hard-skills trainers have different perspectives regarding their required instructional knowledge and skills.
Design/methodology/approach
An online questionnaire was completed by 129 soft-skills trainers and 61 hard-skills trainers. The authors used 14 items covering relevant instructional knowledge and skills based on the training literature.
Findings
An exploratory factor analysis identified the following two factors: managing interactions and instructional activities. A multivariate analysis of variance showed significant differences in the assessments of managing interactions (p = 0.00) and instructional activities (p = 0.01) between soft- and hard-skills trainers. The differences in managing interactions were larger than those in instructional activities. The soft-skills trainers showed higher agreement with all items. Most individual items had medium effect sizes. The differing perspectives of soft- and hard-skills trainers are not an effect of different educational backgrounds.
Research limitations/implications
These findings suggest that differences exist in the required instructional knowledge and skills depending on whether trainers teach soft or hard skills. Further research should consider the training content.
Practical implications
Practitioners can ensure that soft-skills trainers meet the respective requirements.
Originality/value
This study is the first to investigate the differences in soft- and hard-skills trainers’ perceptions of instructional requirements.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to achieve sanctimonious status to the soft skills discipline. It explores soft skills in global organizations and educational institutions.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to achieve sanctimonious status to the soft skills discipline. It explores soft skills in global organizations and educational institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explains the significance of soft skills and the methods to acquire these. It differentiates between soft and hard skills with examples and illustrations. It draws a blueprint to offer soft skills program. It unveils expository strategy, guided strategy and active strategy for teaching and training soft skills.
Findings
The finding of this study reminds that the world is shifting from knowledge economy to self-knowledge economy and of the importance of soft skills with the advent of artificial intelligence. It enlightens that a judicious blend of hard and soft skills is essential for achieving professional and leadership success. It implores not only to build hard skills but also mind soft skills. It concludes that soft skills are essential for everyone from janitors to chief executives to achieve the desired outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
This paper explains from the academic and organizational perspectives only.
Practical implications
This methodology can be applied in any industry and in any size of organization globally.
Social implications
The social implications of this research suggest that educational institutions and global organizations can adopt these methods and strategies to impart and improve soft skills.
Originality/value
This research explores tools and techniques to measure soft skills. It encourages experiential learning to impart soft skills. It coins an innovative evaluation tool – Meka’s five-level model – to measure soft skills training. It outlines a few sample questions to measure soft skills training. It crafts course curriculum for soft skills. It unveils a list of soft skills essential for leaders.
Details
Keywords
Ana Paula Lista, Guilherme Luz Tortorella, Marina Bouzon, Matthias Thürer and Daniel Jurburg
This study aims to investigate the impact of traditional teaching and active learning methods in lean management (LM) on the development of both soft and hard skills.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of traditional teaching and active learning methods in lean management (LM) on the development of both soft and hard skills.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a longitudinal study, team members from two different organisations (the administrative sector of a public higher education institution and a public teaching hospital), each adopting different teaching methods to support their LM trainings, were systematically examined at four moments during an 18-month period. How teaching methods impacted team members’ development and knowledge was then assessed using multivariate data analysis techniques.
Findings
Results indicated that LM trainings can provide significant impacts when a combination of traditional teaching methods and active learning is adopted. Traditional teaching methods can be a good choice for learning hard skills depending on resources’ availability. However, it is recommended to include active learning methods to assist in the comprehension of more complex and abstract LM concepts (soft skills).
Originality/value
Although there exists a large number of publications on the relationship between LM implementation and teaching methods, the number of studies that consider the development of both hard and soft skills is rather limited. This study complements the existing literature on LM by identifying which teaching methods can support the development of hard skills and which the development of soft skills. Such identification facilitates the work of both scholars wishing either to begin or to dig deeper into this sphere and practitioners pursuing the best outcomes from LM.
Details
Keywords
– Highlights the importance of top people in an organization having both hard and soft skills.
Abstract
Purpose
Highlights the importance of top people in an organization having both hard and soft skills.
Design/methodology/approach
Connects hard and soft skills with left and right-brain respectively. Distinguishes between book-smart and street-smart.
Findings
Argues that leaders with hard and soft skills are more likely to enjoy career success and to achieve organizational excellence.
Practical implications
Observes how successful leaders treat others as partners rather than as subordinates.
Originality/value
Demonstrates how leaders with soft skills along with hard skills handle knowledge workers who crave partnership rather than traditional command-and-control management.
Details
Keywords
Kara Hunter, Joan Lee and Dawn W. Massey
Stuebs et al. (2021, p. 38) note that soft skills “are essential for accountants to carry out their moral agency role in society.” Indeed, calls for aspiring accounting…
Abstract
Stuebs et al. (2021, p. 38) note that soft skills “are essential for accountants to carry out their moral agency role in society.” Indeed, calls for aspiring accounting professionals to have well-developed soft skills have been ongoing for decades (American Accounting Association [Bedford] Committee on Future Structure, Content, and Scope of Accounting Education, 1986; Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990; Albrecht & Sack, 2000; Big 8 White Paper, 1989; Lawson et al., 2014; Pathways Commission, 2012). Despite these calls, the development of accounting students’ soft skills remains elusive (Fogarty, 2019; Rebele & St. Pierre, 2019). Perhaps this is not surprising as a commonly accepted, profession-specific definition of the term is lacking, as is consensus about the corresponding capabilities comprising accounting professionals’ soft skills. Instead, those in the accounting profession have treated the term soft skills much the way Justice Potter Stewart famously described hard-core pornography: “I know it when I see it” (Jacobellis v. Ohio 1964, p. 197). The problem, of course, is that such a description is individualistic and can lead to conflicts and inconsistencies not only in identifying the phenomenon (Baskin, 2018; Goldberg, 2010) but, more importantly, particularly in the case of soft skills, in taking steps to foster its development and measuring changes in it. Thus, understanding the term soft skills and its fundamental capabilities is a necessary prerequisite to the development of the soft skills deemed critical for future accounting professionals. In this chapter, the authors advance that understanding by developing an accounting-specific definition for soft skills and identifying a set of capabilities that comprise soft skills applicable to accounting professionals. The authors also discuss the implications of the work and conclude by recommending soft skills in accounting be referred to as professional competencies.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Design
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Soft-skills trainers and hard-skills trainers differed in the variety of instructional methods and in their emphasis on interpersonal relations and interactions, group management and communication. Those trainers with train-the-trainer certificates did not differ significantly from those who did not have them. Trainers with a university degree in educational science/psychology were more likely to teach soft skills than hard skills but did not agree more with the relevance of instructional skills and knowledge than those without such a degree.
Originality
The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.
Comment
The review is based on “Perceived instructional requirements of hard skills trainers and soft skills” by S. Wisshack and S. Hochholdinger, published in Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between campus and industry among the management and engineering students to enhance their employability. It equips students and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between campus and industry among the management and engineering students to enhance their employability. It equips students and faculty with creative tools and techniques to acquire soft skills and provides a new perspective to the discipline of soft skills.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper designs an interview questionnaire containing both open and close-ended questions to elicit responses from faculty, students, recruiters, and directors of educational institutions.
Findings
The study found that there must be effective coordination among faculty, students, industry and directors of educational institutions for enhancing employability skills among students. It places emphasis on the role of Training and Placement Officer (TPO) in the educational institutions for better employability and calls for promotion of finishing schools to enhance employability.
Research limitations/implications
The article relies on limited survey and interview data from one particular district in India and from students of engineering and management education only.
Practical implications
The study can be applied in any part of the world as there is a problem of unemployability everywhere currently.
Originality/value
The paper adds value to the little literature available in the area of soft skills. It sets the agenda for discussion in soft and hard skills and employability, presents problems and prospects and calls for blending both hard and soft skills to enhance employability.
Details
Keywords
Thomas Bolli and Ursula Renold
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the questions as to how important skills are; which skills can best be learned at school, and which skills can be acquired better in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the questions as to how important skills are; which skills can best be learned at school, and which skills can be acquired better in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors exploit data from a survey among professional tertiary education and training business administration students and their employers in Switzerland.
Findings
The authors find that skills used in the business processes strategic management, human resource management, organizational design, and project management are most suitable to be taught in school. However, the results further suggest that soft skills can be acquired more effectively in the workplace than at school. The only exceptions are analytical thinking, joy of learning and organizational soft skills, for which school and workplace are similarly suitable.
Practical implications
The paper provides empirical evidence regarding the optimal choice of the learning place for both human resource managers as well as educational decision makers who aim to combine education and training, e.g. in an apprenticeship.
Originality/value
Little evidence regarding the optimal learning place exists.
Details
Keywords
Ana Garcez, Mário Franco and Ricardo Silva
This study aims to analyse the influence of the pillars (hard and soft skills) of digital academic entrepreneurship on students' entrepreneurial intention.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyse the influence of the pillars (hard and soft skills) of digital academic entrepreneurship on students' entrepreneurial intention.
Design/methodology/approach
This was done by adopting a quantitative methodology involving empirical research with a sample of 761 university students from two countries and adopting structural equation analysis to validate the theoretical model proposed.
Findings
The results indicate a direct influence between hard and soft skills and entrepreneurial intention, and a positive, indirect influence between these and entrepreneurial intention mediated by the dimensions of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) – entrepreneurial attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Therefore, the pillars of digital academic entrepreneurship have a direct and indirect influence on university students' entrepreneurial intention.
Practical implications
This study also contributes to better operationalization of entrepreneurial education in university environments, since the development of hard and soft skills can be planned better based on the model proposed here. Considering the relations between the dimensions of hard and soft skills and those of TPB, this study shows there can be an influence on students' entrepreneurial intention.
Originality/value
In this study, a new and innovative construct is inserted in the model of entrepreneurial intention: “structural pillars of digital academic entrepreneurship” through structural equation modelling, to determine the degree of influence of these pillars (hard and soft skills) constructs on HEI students' entrepreneurial intention.
Details