Soft Skill Development at the Workplace: An Empirical Study in Oman

Abstract

Soft skills may be grouped into intrapersonal, interpersonal and situational skills. Intrapersonal skills are those skills individuals need to possess and perfect in order to manage themselves and as a prerequisite to interpersonal skills. Personal soft skills are intrapersonal skills that lead to personal development. Interpersonal skills are required for smooth interaction between co-workers on one hand and with clients on the other. Situational skills are those skills that have relevance in given situation and may be firm or individual specific. These may be a combination of various personal and interpersonal skills applied to specific situations and hence exhibit characteristics of situational analysis. The skill endowment position is empirically verified in an emerging economy like Oman taking banking and oil cases in the context of managerial employees. The skills are assessed before and after training programmes for skill enhancement scores in respect of junior and senior managers. Leadership, communication, team management, time management, emotional intelligence and customer care have been some of the intervention programmes adopted by the sample institutions.Keywords: Management, soft skills; personal; interpersonal; situational; intervention;training; coaching; mentoring; descriptive design, Oman, UAE