Soft Skills for MBA's

Soft Skills for MBA's

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  Importance of SoftSkills in Management Education Paper presented by Mr. Venkataram Bhat Assistant Professor in Commerce Government First Grade College, Shankaranrayana, Karnataka state – 576227 E-mail: nsvbhat@gmail.com Mobile -91-9900199644 8th and 9th April -2011 International Conference on Re-engineering Management Education Karnataka State Open University, Mysore.
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  Introduction • Need forre-inventing and re-engineering management education. • 75 percent of long term job success depends on soft skills and only 25 percent on technical skills. • Progress and profits of any company depend on soft skills (marketing and consumer service) • Soft skills play a vital role for professional and personal success • Quality issues with business schools. • Reason for employability deficit is lack of soft skills among management graduates.
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  Objectives •What is theimportance of soft skills in management education? •What are the important soft skills for management graduates? •What are the suitable methods of teaching the soft skills in management institutes?
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  Methodology Primary data collectedfrom the • management students Primary data collected from • management educators •Descriptive data collected from books and prior survey reports of industry associations and research institutes. *Subject to limitations of time, resources and samples survey. •
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  Findings - Analysis Students:- •Soft skills are most important for employability and success. •Agreed that at present academic environment had highest impact soft skills learning level. •Communication skills and attitude are most important soft skills. • Academics stress on teaching technical aspects than soft skills. •They suggested that team projects, corporate visits, guest lectures and seminar presentations are methods to inculcate soft skills.
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  Findings - Analysis BusinessEducators :- •Soft skills are most important for employability and success of their students. •There is limited scope for teaching soft skills in management courses due to the present academic policies. •Every teacher has his own method of imbibing soft skills amongst students beyond the university syllabus. •Industry wants management graduates who are “job ready”, so that the training costs can be reduced.
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  Important soft skills •Havea "winner" attitude •Be a team player •Communicate effectively •Exude confidence •Hone your creative skills •Accept & learn from criticism •Motivate yourself & lead others •Multitask & prioritize your to-do list •See the big picture
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  Suggestions •Suitable academic policies. •Structureprograms to simulate the workplace. •Outdoor Learning Programs. •Feedback and mentoring. •Two parts in soft skills training • Developing attitudes and attributes • Fine-tuning communication skills to express attitudes, ideas, and thoughts well
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  Conclusion Soft skill isthe ability required and expected from persons for finding a suitable job, its maintenance and promotion. To conclude, soft skills training is about enabling and empowerment of management graduates for individual and organizational success.
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  References Web References •Soft skillstraining, http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/lrnanddev/general/_head-heart-work (accessed on 12-03-2011) •Survey on Career Competencies & Employability Skills for B-School Students, http://www.nasscom.in/Nasscom/templates/NormalPage.aspx?id=54827 ( accessed on 12-03-2011) •Nine Soft Skills For Success By Sean Hewitt, Career Advisor, http://competency-matrix.blogspot.com/ ( accessed on 16-03-2011) •E-Learning Formats for soft skills, research paper from www.ddiworld.com ( on 13- 03-2011) •Carole Nicolades “Focus on Soft Skills: A Leadership Wake-up Call”, http://www.businessknowhow.com/growth/softskills.htm, 2002. •Soft skills training, http://www.softskillsinstitution.com/faq.htm (accessed on 16-03- 2011) •Soft skills in curriculum, times news, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009- 02-07/kanpur/28024118_1_soft-skills-curriculum-stress-free-life (accessed on 16-03- 2011) • Article by Archna Sharma http://schoolofeducators.com/2009/02/importance-of-soft- skills-development-in-education/ dated February 22nd, 2009 (accessed on 18-03- 2011)
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  References Books and JournalReferences •Management texts and cases, Rao V.S.P and Harikrishna V., Excel books, New Delhi, 2010, Pp829. •Management of Organization Behavior leading to Human Resources Management, Hersey P., Blanchard K. and Johnson D.E., Prentice Hall India, 2002, Pp176.+ •Skills in demand for fresher’s, lets master American soft skills –Raj Gadasalli,Vipra Books Inc, Norwalk,USA,2005, P126 •Valuable soft skills, article from Times of India dated 4th January, 2004. •‘Training Students in Soft Skills for the Liberalization, Privatization & Globalization Era’ - Research Article by Dr. Richa Tewari in ETW. •Integrating Soft Skills Through Active Learning In The Management Classroom – article by Chynette Nealy, University of Houston-Downtown, 2005. •M.B.A. Programs Hone 'Soft Skills' article by PHRED DVORAK, February 12, 2007, Page B3 of Wall street Journal Online. •Importance of Soft Skills: Students Perspective, ASSOCHAM business barometer study by Nusrat Ahmad, June 2009. • Management Education in India, Paper presented at State University of Management, Moscow, Russia during October 22 – 24, 2008 by Prof. J. Philip, (XIME), Bangalore.