Inventory for Critical Managerial Soft Skills (ICMS) – Development and Standardisation
Keywords:
Soft Skills, Managerial soft skills, Assessment, Psychometric tool, Employability, Management Education, Mixed Methods, Reliability, Validity, Scale development
Abstract
Purpose: This paper presents the findings of a group of empirical studies for a conceptual and theoretical validation of the Critical Managerial Soft Skills (CMS) Model and then presents the psychometric properties of a newly developed tool - The Inventory for Critical Managerial Soft Skills (ICMS) for assessing the same. Design/methodology/approach: The CMS model was validated by a set of qualitative and quantitative studies among employers to confirm the importance of soft skills and to derive the critical soft skills framework (N- 95, 206) and this served as a basis of the tool construction. ICMS has been then psychometrically validated for the group of management graduates by conducting a series of qualitative and quantitative research steps (N-975). Findings: ICMS is a self-reported scale for measuring seven critical managerial soft skills of managerial candidates namely, Communication skills, Leadership skills, Interpersonal and Teamwork skills, and Self-Management Skills, Decision-making skills, Goal setting skills, and Task efficacy. Research limitations/implications: The tool developed is limited to the measurement of only the seven dimensions which are derived as “critical” based on various stages of the work. Practical implications: The tool can be used for recruitment screening and as a pre and post-training assessment tool for soft skills development of management students. Social implications: The tool can be used during management education to help the students understand their levels of soft skills and accordingly suitable measures can be undertaken to improve upon during the course of study to enhance their employability. Originality/value: The tool is fully original and has highly useful for researchers and practitioners as it has been empirically validated using appropriate and adequate statistical measures.
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References
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32. Morgan, G., & Adams, J. (2009). Pedagogy first! making web-technologies work for soft skills development in leadership and management education. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 20(2), 129-155.
33. Nick Wilton (2008): Business graduates and management jobs: an employability match made in heaven?, Journal of Education and Work, 21:2, 143-158
34. Paadi, K. (2014). Perceptions on employability skills necessary to enhance human resource management graduates prospects of securing a relevant place in the labour market. European Scientific Journal.
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36. Phillips, D.C., Phillips, D.C. and Burbules, N.C., (2000). Postpositivism and educational research. Rowman & Littlefield.
37. Reich, R. B. (1992). The work of nations. New York: Vintage
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39. Rosenberg Stuart, Ronald Heimler, Elsa-Sofia Morote, (2012), Basic employability skills: a triangular design approach, Education + Training, Vol. 54 Iss: 1 pp. 7 – 20
40. Ritter, B. A., Small, E. E., Mortimer, J. W., & Doll, J. L. (2018). Designing management curriculum for workplace readiness: Developing students’ soft skills. Journal of Management Education, 42(1), 80-103.
41. Chandra Vadhana R. & Zakkariya K.A. (2014). Management Education- Can we bridge the gap? A qualitative study on the Employer’s Perception of Soft Skills of Management Graduates. In Proceedings of the National Seminar on Management Education In India-Changing Role and New Strategies (pp. 4-12). Ernakulam: MES College, Marampilly
42. Schulz, B. (2008). The importance of soft skills: education beyond academic knowledge. Nawa (Windhoek, Namibia), 2(1), 146-154.
43. Razali, S. N., Hussin, H., & Shahbodin, F. (2014). 21st century core soft skills research focus for integrated online project-based collaborative learning model. Journal of Applied Science and Agriculture, 9(11), 63-68.
44. Sharma, M., (2009).How Important Are Soft Skills from the Recruiter's Perspective. ICFAI Journal of Soft Skills, 3(2).
45. Naineni, K., Desu, R., Bhat, N. R., Mada, S., Reddy, G. V., Sateesh, S., & Anderson, J. L. (2019). Interns’ perceptions of the importance of “soft skills” in clinical practice in India. Journal of Research in Medical Education & Ethics, 9(1), 7-12.
46. Ngang, T.K., and Chan, T.C. (2015). Critical issues of soft skills development in teaching professional training: Educators’ perspectives. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 205, pp.128-133.
47. Nida’a, K. A., & Worley, J. A. (2018). Leading toward new horizons with soft skills. On the Horizon. Emerald Publishing
48. Nusrat, M., & Naz, K. (2018). Soft Skills for Sustainable Employment: Does it really matter? International Journal Of Management And Economics Invention, 4(07), 1835-1837. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.31142/ijmei/v4i7.03
49. Treese, I.M.E. and Park, S.E., (2012). The Development of Soft Skills as an Aid to Job Retention and Advancement. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ef39/77d190b56acbe7e2f9c53584de45ccbe49ca.pdf
50. Tsirkas, K., Chytiri, A. P., & Bouranta, N. (2020). The gap in soft skills perceptions: a dyadic analysis. Education + Training. Retrieved from: https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/19156
51. Wardrope, W. J. (2002). Department chairs' perceptions of the importance of business communication skills. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(4), 60-72.
52. Wilton, N. (2008). Business graduates and management jobs: an employability match made in heaven?. Journal of Education and Work, 21(2), 143-158.
53. William Hinchliffe, G., & Jolly, A. (2011). Graduate identity and employability. British Educational Research Journal, 563-584.
2. Andrews, J., & Helen, H. (2008). Graduate Employability, ‘Soft Skills’ Versus ‘Hard’ Business Knowledge: A European Study. Higher Education in Europe, 33 (4), 411-422.
3. Babbie, E., 1990. Survey Research Methods. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Inc
4. Bigelow, J.D. (1995). Teaching managerial skills: A critique and future directions. Journal of Management Education, 19, 305-325.
5. Boyatzis, R.E., (1982). The competent manager: A model for effective performance. John Wiley & Sons.
6. Bridgstock, R., (2009). The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: Enhancing graduate employability through career management skills. Higher Education Research & Development, 28(1), pp.31-44.
7. Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2005). Mixed methods research: Developments, debates, and dilemmas. Research in organizations: Foundations and methods of inquiry, 315-326.
8. Creswell, J. W. (2010). Mapping the developing landscape of mixed methods research. SAGE handbook of mixed methods in social & behavioural research, 2, 45-68.
9. Churchill, G. A.(1979). A paradigm for developing better measures of marketing constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 16, 64–73
10. Curtis, D.D., (2010). Teaching, learning, and assessment in TVET: The case for an ecology of assessment. SEAVERN Journals, 2(1).
11. Daud, S., Abidin, N., Sapuan, N. M., & Rajadhurai, J. (2011). Enhancing university business curriculum using an importance‐performance approach: A case study of the business management faculty of a university in Malaysia. International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 25 Iss: 6, 545 - 569.
12. Datar, Srikant M. et al (2011), Rethinking the MBA: business education at a crossroads. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 30 Iss: 5 pp. 451 – 462
13. Dubey, Richa Singh & Tiwari, Vijayshri (2019). Operationalisation of soft skill attributes and determining the existing gap in novice ICT professionals. International Journal of Information Management. Volume 50, 2020, Pages 375-386, ISSN 0268-4012, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.09.006.
14. Gibb, S., (2014). Soft skills assessment: Theory development and the research agenda. International journal of lifelong education, 33(4), pp.455-471.
15. Gallivan, M., Truex III, D. P., & Kvasny, L. (2002, May). An analysis of the changing demand patterns for information technology professionals. In Proceedings of the 2002 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research (pp. 1-13).
16. Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., & Anderson, R.E. (2010). Multivariate Data Analysis. Seventh Edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
17. Heckman, J.J., and Kautz, T., (2012). Hard evidence on soft skills. Labor economics, 19(4), pp.451-464.
18. Hinkin, T. R. (1995). A review of scale development practices in the study of organizations. Journal of Management, 21(5), 967-988.
19. Hughes, D. (2018). Psychometric Validity: Establishing the Accuracy and Appropriateness of psychometric measures. In The Wiley Handbook of Psychometric Testing: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Survey, Scale, and Test Development. John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
20. Ibrahim, R., Boerhannoeddin, A., & Bakare, K. K. (2017). The effect of soft skills and training methodology on employee performance. European Journal of Training and Development.
21. Jackson, D., and Wilton, N., (2017). Perceived employability among undergraduates and the importance of career self-management, work experience, and individual characteristics. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(4), pp.747-762.
22. Jusoh, M., Mohd Rizal, A. R., & Choy Chong, S. (2007). Employers' preference and assessment of the qualities of fresh business graduates: empirical evidence from Malaysia. International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2007.012682.
23. Kantrowitz, T. (2005). Development and Construct Validation of a measure of Soft skills Performance. Georgia: Georgia Institute of Technology.
24. Khain Wye, C., & Mee Lim, Y. (2009). Perception Differential Between Employers And Undergraduates On The Importance Of Employability Skills. International Education Studies ISSN 1913-9020, 95
25. Kyllonen, P. C. (2013).Soft skills for the workplace. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 45(6), 16-23
26. LaPrince, S. L. (2013). A qualitative exploration of management education: Business school offerings in comparison to employer expectations. Minnessotta: Capella University.
27. Linkedin Learning (2020). 4th Annual 2020 Workplace Learning Report, Available at https://learning.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/learning/resources/pdfs/LinkedIn-Learning-2020-Workplace-Learning-Report.pdf
28. Luse, D. (1999). Incorporating business communication in an integrative business seminar. Business Communication Quarterly, 62(1), 96-100.
29. Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. (2006). Development of soft skills for Institutions of Higher Learning. Malaysia: Universiti Putra Malaysia
30. McConnell, R.V., and Seybolt, J.W., (1991). Assessment center technology: One approach for integrating and assessing management skills in the business school curriculum. Managerial skills: Explorations in practical knowledge, pp.105-115.
31. McMurtrey, M. E., Downey, J. P., Zeltmann, S. M., & Friedman, W. H. (2008). Critical skillsets of entry-level IT professionals: An empirical examination of perceptions from field personnel. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 7(1), 101-120.
32. Morgan, G., & Adams, J. (2009). Pedagogy first! making web-technologies work for soft skills development in leadership and management education. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 20(2), 129-155.
33. Nick Wilton (2008): Business graduates and management jobs: an employability match made in heaven?, Journal of Education and Work, 21:2, 143-158
34. Paadi, K. (2014). Perceptions on employability skills necessary to enhance human resource management graduates prospects of securing a relevant place in the labour market. European Scientific Journal.
35. Pellegrino, J.W., and Chudowsky, N., (2003). FOCUS ARTICLE: The foundations of assessment. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, 1(2), pp.103-148.
36. Phillips, D.C., Phillips, D.C. and Burbules, N.C., (2000). Postpositivism and educational research. Rowman & Littlefield.
37. Reich, R. B. (1992). The work of nations. New York: Vintage
38. Riggio, R. E., Mayes, B. T., & Schleicher, D. J. (2003). Using assessment center methods for measuring undergraduate business student outcomes. Journal of Management Inquiry, 12, 68-79.
39. Rosenberg Stuart, Ronald Heimler, Elsa-Sofia Morote, (2012), Basic employability skills: a triangular design approach, Education + Training, Vol. 54 Iss: 1 pp. 7 – 20
40. Ritter, B. A., Small, E. E., Mortimer, J. W., & Doll, J. L. (2018). Designing management curriculum for workplace readiness: Developing students’ soft skills. Journal of Management Education, 42(1), 80-103.
41. Chandra Vadhana R. & Zakkariya K.A. (2014). Management Education- Can we bridge the gap? A qualitative study on the Employer’s Perception of Soft Skills of Management Graduates. In Proceedings of the National Seminar on Management Education In India-Changing Role and New Strategies (pp. 4-12). Ernakulam: MES College, Marampilly
42. Schulz, B. (2008). The importance of soft skills: education beyond academic knowledge. Nawa (Windhoek, Namibia), 2(1), 146-154.
43. Razali, S. N., Hussin, H., & Shahbodin, F. (2014). 21st century core soft skills research focus for integrated online project-based collaborative learning model. Journal of Applied Science and Agriculture, 9(11), 63-68.
44. Sharma, M., (2009).How Important Are Soft Skills from the Recruiter's Perspective. ICFAI Journal of Soft Skills, 3(2).
45. Naineni, K., Desu, R., Bhat, N. R., Mada, S., Reddy, G. V., Sateesh, S., & Anderson, J. L. (2019). Interns’ perceptions of the importance of “soft skills” in clinical practice in India. Journal of Research in Medical Education & Ethics, 9(1), 7-12.
46. Ngang, T.K., and Chan, T.C. (2015). Critical issues of soft skills development in teaching professional training: Educators’ perspectives. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 205, pp.128-133.
47. Nida’a, K. A., & Worley, J. A. (2018). Leading toward new horizons with soft skills. On the Horizon. Emerald Publishing
48. Nusrat, M., & Naz, K. (2018). Soft Skills for Sustainable Employment: Does it really matter? International Journal Of Management And Economics Invention, 4(07), 1835-1837. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.31142/ijmei/v4i7.03
49. Treese, I.M.E. and Park, S.E., (2012). The Development of Soft Skills as an Aid to Job Retention and Advancement. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ef39/77d190b56acbe7e2f9c53584de45ccbe49ca.pdf
50. Tsirkas, K., Chytiri, A. P., & Bouranta, N. (2020). The gap in soft skills perceptions: a dyadic analysis. Education + Training. Retrieved from: https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/handle/2086/19156
51. Wardrope, W. J. (2002). Department chairs' perceptions of the importance of business communication skills. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(4), 60-72.
52. Wilton, N. (2008). Business graduates and management jobs: an employability match made in heaven?. Journal of Education and Work, 21(2), 143-158.
53. William Hinchliffe, G., & Jolly, A. (2011). Graduate identity and employability. British Educational Research Journal, 563-584.
Published
2022-10-31
How to Cite
Radhakrishnan, C. V., & Zakkariya, K. (2022). Inventory for Critical Managerial Soft Skills (ICMS) – Development and Standardisation. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 18(31), 72. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2022.v18n31p72
Section
ESJ Social Sciences
Copyright (c) 2022 Chandra Vadhana Radhakrishnan, K.A. Zakkariya
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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