Dr.Chandra Vadhana R

Organizations today believe that “soft skills” are the most important ones in an employee /potential employee and all the technical skills can be trained as per requirement (Linkedin 2020, Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin &Bakare 2017, McMurtrey et al 2008, Gallivan, Truex &Kvasny 2002, Luse, 1999; Pittenger, Miller & Mott, 2004; Wardrope, 2002). The role of “soft skills” is more relevant in people intensive roles like that of managers. Despite the importance and relevance of soft skills, we are yet to arrive at a proper soft skills training curriculum and assessment in most of the management degree programs (Morgan & Adams 2009, Schulz 2008, Ritter et al 2018). The preliminary literature review on this area revealed that the concept of “soft skills”, specifically for the managers in the Indian context was not established empirically. An assessment model for the same was also not found. In this context, the research work was commenced with the following objectives • To identify and arrive at a set of “Critical Soft skills” which are necessary for an entry level management graduate. • To develop a tool or a battery of psychometric tools for assessment of the identified “Critical soft skills” and conduct primary validation in the Indian context. The research work has been carried out in the following four phases. Phase one - Conceptual Clarification Study comprised of literature review, content analysis of admission advertisements of MBA institutions and conducting a qualitative and quantitative survey among the employers to understand their preferences of soft skills. And finally, the researcher derived the conceptual framework of Critical Soft Skills using the results of the empirical study as well as the rating study done among the group of HR experts. The seven Critical Soft skills are therefore concluded as Communication Skills, Leadership and Initiative Skills, Interpersonal and Team building skills, Self- management skills, Goal Setting skills, Problem Solving and Decision making skills and Task & Operations Efficacy. Phase Two – Tool Development and Preliminary Analysis included item generation based on the results from previous phase and then the pilot administration with which the first level item reduction was completed. A series of Statistical Factor analysis enabled removing items which were not loading to each of the seven scales. Phase Three - Empirical Validation Study helped arrive at the Psychometric properties of the tool. The final inventory is presented with 37 items and is named as Inventory for Critical Managerial Soft skills (ICMS). The norm values as well as the Tool final version along with the Scoring Key is also presented in the Thesis We have been hearing the words “Soft skills” much in the past few decades. Training and development industry is a multi-billion industry and without proper outcomes, it becomes a bad investment. This study accomplished the task of furthering theory through the development of a critical soft skills framework for understanding soft skills competencies of management graduates.

Organizations today believe that “soft skills” are the most important ones in an employee /potential employee and all the technical skills can be trained as per requirement (Linkedin 2020, Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin &Bakare 2017, McMurtrey et al 2008, Gallivan, Truex &Kvasny 2002, Luse, 1999; Pittenger, Miller & Mott, 2004; Wardrope, 2002). The role of “soft skills” is more relevant in people intensive roles like that of managers. Despite the importance and relevance of soft skills, we are yet to arrive at a proper soft skills training curriculum and assessment in most of the management degree programs (Morgan & Adams 2009, Schulz 2008, Ritter et al 2018). The preliminary literature review on this area revealed that the concept of “soft skills”, specifically for the managers in the Indian context was not established empirically. An assessment model for the same was also not found. In this context, the research work was commenced with the following objectives • To identify and arrive at a set of “Critical Soft skills” which are necessary for an entry level management graduate. • To develop a tool or a battery of psychometric tools for assessment of the identified “Critical soft skills” and conduct primary validation in the Indian context. The research work has been carried out in the following four phases. Phase one - Conceptual Clarification Study comprised of literature review, content analysis of admission advertisements of MBA institutions and conducting a qualitative and quantitative survey among the employers to understand their preferences of soft skills. And finally, the researcher derived the conceptual framework of Critical Soft Skills using the results of the empirical study as well as the rating study done among the group of HR experts. The seven Critical Soft skills are therefore concluded as Communication Skills, Leadership and Initiative Skills, Interpersonal and Team building skills, Self- management skills, Goal Setting skills, Problem Solving and Decision making skills and Task & Operations Efficacy. Phase Two – Tool Development and Preliminary Analysis included item generation based on the results from previous phase and then the pilot administration with which the first level item reduction was completed. A series of Statistical Factor analysis enabled removing items which were not loading to each of the seven scales. Phase Three - Empirical Validation Study helped arrive at the Psychometric properties of the tool. The final inventory is presented with 37 items and is named as Inventory for Critical Managerial Soft skills (ICMS). The norm values as well as the Tool final version along with the Scoring Key is also presented in the Thesis We have been hearing the words “Soft skills” much in the past few decades. Training and development industry is a multi-billion industry and without proper outcomes, it becomes a bad investment. This study accomplished the task of furthering theory through the development of a critical soft skills framework for understanding soft skills competencies of management graduates.

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

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, Deci...

This paper discusses a comprehensive survey of employers' perceptions of graduates of the state of Kerala towards assessing measurable qualities and skills that the employers think are mandatory for recruitment. For the purpose of this paper, entry level job roles across domains have been classified into four clusters considering the nature of the activity involved and associated skills with each cluster was arrived at. A job classification matrix based on interactivity and creativity was designed and used as a job classification framework for the purpose of the study. A total of 100 employers from the domains of IT / ITES, BPO, Software, Banking, Automotive, BFIS, FMCG, Education and Manufacturing sectors were chosen for the survey by using a set of questionnaires on five-point Likert scale, to rank indicated skills within job clusters to arrive at must have skills to enhance employment options. The study conducted during June-September 2018 also extends cues towards key insights and supplementary findings, which will help businesses formulate new HR policies and re-thinking the existing ones as to welcome the millennials into the workforce. It intends to be a generic guideline to the jobseekers irrespective of domain to associate themselves and the jobs they aspire to; to perform a skill match, assess themselves for the competencies sought for by the employers and improve to surpass required levels in the desired profiles. Key words : Employability skills, softs skills , HR recruitment

Purpose - This paper explores the important challenges of the field of organisational behaviour (OB) in the current working environment to identify the areas where OB practitioners and HR professionals can contribute positively towards the organisational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach - The paper reviews existing literature on the challenges of the present day business environment and proceeds to identify and elaborate on two major inclusions in the scope of OB for the future. The paper does this by analysing the four major challenges faced by any organisation in today's fast changing world i.e. Impact of globalisation, growing workforce diversity, managing ethical and moral issues and the use of advanced information technology to arrive at the present day organisational context, which in turn is called as the Organisational Milieu. Findings - The authors are trying to reorient the focus of the field of organisational behaviour by explaining the need for giving priority to both micro and macro variables of OB while studying the human behaviour in organisation. This paper proposes two areas- Organisational Milieu and Training in "People Skills"- where OB professionals can contribute as part of the changing focus in the current challenging and constantly changing working environment. Practical implications - The paper identifies two major areas of focus for modern day OB practitioners. One- Focusing on Organisational Milieu and developing suitable OD strategies based on it. Two- Identifying the Training needs of the organisation and providing "people skills" training. Originality/value - The paper tries to present arguments to support the necessity for reorienting the focus of OB from an individual perspective to an environmental perspective as well. The paper suggests the terminology "organisational milieu" to denote the changing organisational context and also provides one of the most important practical aspects of the field of OB - Training in "People skills" , which is an important skill in today's business world.

Subject area Human resource management, strategic management, organisational behaviour. Study level/applicability Graduate and post graduate students of management, organisational behaviour and strategic HRM. Case overview This case is about a small company named Pointsoft Pvt. Ltd, which is a 25-year-old software company situated in Pune, India. Thanks to the IT boom, the company grew well under the leadership of Aravind, who is the managing director. Aravind took care of all matters related to human resources (HR) directly. So far, the company never had any HR manager, but now Aravind thought about handing over HR matters to an HR manager. After much scrutiny Meenaxi was appointed as HR manager. The case then proceeds narrating a series of incidents after the arrival of the new HR manager and how there began a clash between the new HR manager and the senior management team of the firm. A situation then arose where the HR manager, after one year of service, submitted her resignatio...

Abstract
There are over 4700 B-schools in India, as per records and more than Four lakh management graduates are passing out every year. But, it is an undisputable fact that a vast majority of these graduates fail in acquiring a decent placement. One of the reasons cited for poor employability is the gap between the industry expectations and the academic inputs in management education. Bridging this gap is a widely discussed problem in the field of management education. In this context, it will be interesting to understand in detail the employer perception of the quality of the present generation of management graduates and methods to improve the same.
Objectives: To understand the employer’s viewpoint about the quality of current generation of management graduates and suggestions for improving the same. Also, to share the perception of Industry to those involved in the development of Business Education Curriculum.
Method: The study was conducted by analyzing the content of the open ended questions which were asked to Employers who hire fresh management graduates regularly. The dataset comprised of 95 respondents who belonged to a few different sectors of industry in India.
Findings: The employers rate the overall quality of the fresh management graduates at 60 percent only. The content analysis of the responses of the respondents also brings out the major areas of focus needed in order to improve student quality and overall quality of the institution.
Implications: The paper brings out the necessity for improving the quality of management education with regard to “Soft skills” of future managers and the need for benchmarking the levels of these skills to an accepted standard.

Key words: soft skills, B-Schools, quality of education, skill development