Specific Soft Skills Research Articles

Soft skills unveiled: a comprehensive exploration of employer preferences and employability essentials

Soft skills have become a critical factor in enhancing individual employability. A deeper understanding of the specific soft skills valued by employers in various types of enterprises enables higher education institutions to more precisely cultivate these qualities in students. This study focuses on 15 essential soft skill indicators categorized into three key facets: personal, social, and methodological skills. Through the analysis of 366,077 job advertisements, we establish keyword libraries for different indicators, facilitating the identification of the types of soft skills emphasized in each advertisement. Our findings reveal that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) prioritize a range of soft skills, except for creativity/innovation skills, analytical skills, and continuous improvement skills. On the other hand, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) exhibit a demand for as many as 14 out of 15 soft skill indicators, surpassing private enterprises, except for creativity/innovation skills. However, this emphasis on different soft skills does not necessarily result in salary differentials. Soft skill requirements linked to personal traits, such as professional ethics, commitment to work, stress resistance, and self-learning abilities, do not correlate with higher salaries. Conversely, soft skills related to socialization, like teamwork, leadership, and social networking, are associated with higher salaries. The results of this study reveal employers’ demand for various soft skills. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that this demand is not adequately reflected in salary levels. Employers should carefully consider and strive for a more equitable representation of soft skills in the determination of salaries.

Evaluating Rwanda Polytechnic Graduates’ Self-assessment on the Application of Soft Skills in the Workplace.

The global appreciation for graduates possessing strong soft skills is evident, especially in the evolving nature of the engineering workplace. However, studies across the world highlighted a disconnect between employers’ expectations and the soft skills of entry-level engineers, impacting their employability. This research evaluated the Rwanda Polytechnic graduates’ self-assessment regarding the application of soft skills in the workplace. A survey on 107 graduates, after piloting soft skills and career development training, utilized a semi-structured questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, graphs, and thematic analysis. The results indicated that graduates attested a high application of professional ethics and time management skills (M=4.38, SD=0.66) and communication skills (M=4.29, SD=0.70). On the other hand, professional writing, management, leadership skills, and interpersonal abilities scored a moderate level of application (3.41<M<4.20). Qualitative responses underscored the importance of soft skills in determining the level of graduates’ performance in the workplace. However, it was also emphasized that there is a need to reinforce computer literacy, collaboration skills, and time management skills. The findings of the present study underscored a meaningful connection between soft skills needed in the current and future engineering workplace and soft skills applied by the graduates. It is recommended that training institutions collaborate with industries to identify the precise soft skills needed to plan for effective training. Future researches in the form of experimental and correlational studies are recommended for getting a clear impact of specific soft skills on the graduates’ performance in the workplace.

Oral health literacy strategies focused on community-based learning

Abstract Background Oral health literacy relates to the capacity of individuals to acquire, understand and to act upon oral health information to make appropriate health decisions. The objective of this work is to present the strategies under development in the community, focusing interventions of oral health literacy by the application of community-based learning models in the central region of Portugal. Methods At the Faculty of Dental Medicine of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Viseu, Portugal), various community oral health projects have been developed focusing on oral health literacy promotion among the most vulnerable population, with the goal of achieving acceptable levels of empowerment towards adequate oral health behaviors. One of the main strategies consists in the application of the Service-Learning methodology that has allowed the identification of community needs and the active participation of dental medicine students in community interventions and scientific research in oral health. Results Innovative oral health community strategies should be performed to improve oral health literacy within the most vulnerable risk groups of society, specifically oriented to a community-based learning model. Service-Learning is an educational approach where the student learns specific soft skills, collaborating directly with a social institution and society “outdoors” and engages in reflection activities to deepen their understanding of what is being taught. Conclusions One of the main strategies to incorporate the health professional in social responsibility and direct contact in community is by experiencing Service-Learning programs during their training phase. It is important to highlight that health-related degreeś curriculum should favor community-based learning as a successful and engaging learning model that addresses both professionalism and humanism. Key messages • Community-based learning projects can be developed in order to work with and for the community contributing, simultaneously, for the development of soft-skills among future oral health professionals. • Public health strategies should be performed to improve oral health literacy within the most vulnerable risk groups of society, specifically oriented to a community-based learning model.

Oral Health Strategies: Surveying the Present to Plan the Future of Community-Based Learning.

Introduction: Oral health literacy relates to the capacity of individuals to acquire, understand and to act upon oral health information to make appropriate health decisions. This scientific review's main goal is to analyze the strategies that improve oral health literacy within the community, specifically oriented to a community-based learning model focused on the most vulnerable risk groups in society. Materials and Methods: The current review is based on the literature on oral health literacy within community-based learning strategies. The present review selected scientific studies by searching MEDLINE and related databases, such as Web of Science and PUBMED, and by consulting existing bibliographies. Results: Based on the application of the inclusion criteria to the abstracts, 45 publications were retrieved which explicitly dealt with the definitions of oral health literacy, community-based learning, and service learning. Several studies have demonstrated that health consumers with low health literacy fail to understand the available health information. Therefore, innovative oral health literacy strategies should be undertaken. Service learning is an example of an educational approach where the student learns specific soft skills in the classroom and collaborates directly with an agency or institution and engages in reflection activities to deepen their understanding of what is being taught. Conclusions: One of the main strategies used to incorporate the oral health professional in social responsibility and direct contact in the community is through experiencing community-based learning projects. The future graduate must be an educator capable of educating patients in order to themselves acquire high-level skills in oral health literacy.

Fostering Holistic Development: A Comprehensive Empirical Analysis of Soft Skill Acquisition and Enhancement in the Bhopal Region

This study investigates the level of preparedness of individuals within the Madhya Pradesh Region concerning the acquisition and comprehension of soft skills within the workplace context. Employing a sample of 119 respondents through the Snowball sampling technique, data analysis was conducted utilizing an Abductive approach. The assessment focuses on evaluating the proficiency of respondents in various soft skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, and leadership abilities. This exploration addresses the critical need to bridge the gap in soft skills within the Indian professional landscape. The distinctiveness of this research lies in its contribution to the understanding of the current status of soft skill development among individuals in the Madhya Pradesh Region. In the face of a significant soft skills deficit in India's workforce, this study highlights the specific soft skills that individuals are adept at and actively cultivating within their workplace environments. The findings of this research have profound implications for the optimization of human resource development and training programs. They offer crucial insights into the areas warranting focused enhancement in soft skill cultivation to enhance overall workforce readiness.

Assessment of a Practitioner-Derived Framework for Measuring Girl’s Agency in East Africa

Although soft skills are considered important for quality education, there is little consensus on which skills matter for which populations and few cross-culturally validated measures. We propose a conceptual and methodological remedy to this quandary through an investigation of “agency” as an outcome measure for adolescent girls’ life skills programs. We engage community practitioners in East Africa to derive a four-dimensional structure of agency from theory, practitioner expertise, and empirical evidence. We develop and pilot this regional measure of agency for adolescent girls, utilizing confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the underlying structure of our instrument and to investigate its use as a pre-post measure. Analysis was conducted using data collected from 1,953 girls in four countries. Results indicate a four-latent factor structure representing the construct of agency. We argue that researchers should prioritize investigating the regional limits to validity of contextually specific soft skills measures over establishing universal metrics.

Формирование soft skills посредством применения дидактических игр с цифровыми компонентами на ступени общего образования

Digitalization has changed the methods of developing new skills and abilities in schoolchildren. New approaches have to be designed to plan training sessions and implant the basic ideas about professional competence. Modern supra-professional skills also require novel methods. This research featured digital didactic games as a means of developing supra-professional competencies. The authors reviewed available publications on professional and supra-professional competencies and their development methods. They described the semantic structure of the soft skills formation model through the use of digital didactic games. Didactic games are effective in developing soft skills and have a great digital potential, e.g., certain parts of a didactic game can be digitally personalized. The article describes didactic games, their requirements, and specific soft skills that are considered mandatory as part of supra-professional skills. The research relied on the principles of consistency and the holistic approach to academic processes, as well as on the connection between logic, history, theory, and practice. The article can help educators to develop new didactic games for various disciplines.

From Transformational to Agile Leadership: What Future Skills it Takes to Act as Agile Leaders

Agile leadership is “in vogue” in today’s fast changing and increasingly digitally connected world of work, yet many business leaders struggle to adapt their leadership skills accordingly. Using insights drawn from transformational leadership theory and a case study of the IT subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, we present a guide for future management skills to create sustainable organizations for a better world. This article argues for the importance of transformational leadership traits, including empowerment, trust, openness, and coaching, in successful agile leadership. Furthermore, affective factors, namely mindfulness and empathy, are important future leadership competencies, especially in a digital work environment. In addition to these specific soft skills derived from transformational leadership theory, managers also need to be equipped with certain hard skills related to technological expertise as well as practical knowledge of agile methods. Finally, the paper addresses the competence to act in network structures as a key success factor for executives and recognize an ongoing paradigm shift from centralized to shared leadership and from the individual to the team perspective.

Розвиток soft skills сучасного фахівця в закладі вищої освіти

The article is aimed at studying soft skills that need to be developed by a modern specialist, taking into account trends in their demand both in the domestic and international labor markets and forecasts for their changes in the future, as well as skills that will help a modern specialist to be more confident and competitive in the labor market, will contribute to successful employment, further professional development and career growth. Analyzing, systematizing and summarizing the information of reports and forecasts of the World Economic Forum on the skills in demand in the labor market for the period 2015-2025, as well as information from job search sites, the dynamics of changes taking place as part of the soft skills demanded in the international labor market and the composition of skills that are important for the employment and career of a modern specialist were defined. Based on the generalization of the skills in demand for a modern specialist, the main thematic directions for the formation of the structure of the training course for the development of soft skills are identified, the course itself is focused on mastering specific soft skills in demand both in the current conditions and for the future until 2025, upon which it is necessary to focus more attention in the process of training higher education applicants. Prospects for research in this direction are to determine the dynamics of further changes in the demand for the development of soft skills of future specialists and the development of approaches and technologies for the development of specific soft skills of students in a higher educational institution.

Multi-Skills Resource Constrained and Personality Traits Based Project Scheduling

One of the primary jobs of a software project manager is to assign available resources to software development tasks in such a way that results in a high-quality product at a low cost. Software Project Scheduling (SPS) allocates the most appropriate human resource to project activities at the right time to reduce software project failure risks and minimise project makespan. In literature, the SPS problem is referred to as the Multiple Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (MRCPSP). The MRCPSP assigns human resources with multiple skills and proficiency levels to various project activities. Human abilities can be distinguished into technical/hard and non-technical/soft skills. The former describes the skills related to technology, tools, etc. While the latter deals with the skills related to the personality, such as being introvert, extrovert, sensing, etc. Recent studies have shown that some tasks may require specific soft skills. Moreover, the efficiency and productivity of the assigned resource significantly reduce if the soft skill requirements are ignored during task allocation. Ultimately, the development process might end up in lower-quality software products with higher development costs; worst case, the project may even fail. Several MRCPSP-based SPS approaches have been designed to reduce the development costs of software projects. These mechanisms consider the hard skills of a human resource with different proficiency levels. However, they overlook the soft skills required leading to the inefficiency of the allocated human resources. This will increase the project makespan and may cause higher development costs or even project failures. Therefore, to fill this gap, we propose Multi-Skill Resource Constrained and Personality Traits based Project Scheduling (MSRCPPS) considering the soft skills as well as the technical skills of a human resource during SPS. The main objective is to minimize software project makespan. Finally, the effectiveness of our proposed approach is evaluated against existing state-of-the-art using extensive simulations.

СИСТЕМНОЕ МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ НАВЫКОВ SOFT SKILLS КАК УСЛОВИЕ СОТРУДНИЧЕСТВА МОЛОДЁЖИ РАЗНЫХ СТРАН

Introduction. The paper examines specific features of the system modeling of soft skills as a condition for constructive international cooperation of young people. Consideration is also given to pedagogical technologies and methods for building this type of skills. The study aims to identify the principles of and conditions for creating a digital and creative environment in which the future specialist will develop soft skills in the main disciplines of the basic level of training in the system of higher education. Materials and methods. The object of the study is the student community. Modern and relevant pedagogical technologies and methods that influence the formation of soft skills necessary for the international student cooperation were considered as effective tools for the system modeling of these skills. The study employs general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, comparison) and dedicated research methods (the system-structural analysis and the method of pedagogical observation). The results of the study. Intermediate findings have identified the conditions for successful system modeling of soft skills in students. They have provided the understanding of the specifics of joint interaction and problem solving in the field of scientific integration, demonstrated the effectiveness of soft skills, because they make it possible to build constructive communication, to communicate, and show understanding. The identified block of specific soft skills included the skills such as empathy, self-management, self-learning, feedback through communication and mentworking. Conclusion. The technologies and methods proposed in the paper can be used in the process of generating a creative environment for building soft skills in students, i.e., system modeling. The use of the identified tools will allow creating a single educational space, stimulating international cooperation of students, and developing a mentoring system.

Soft Skills Enhance Employee Contextual Performance: The Case of the Maritime Industry

The maritime industry holds a prominent position in international business and world trade. This competitive and rapidly growing sector requires a highly trained workforce with specific soft skills, such as the abilities and traits that pertain to personality, attitude, and behavior. Soft skills combined with hard skills influence employees’ ability to work effectively by enhancing their performance. This study focused on the maritime industry and empirically examined the effect of four soft skills (adaptability, communication, problem-solving, teamwork) on employee contextual performance. It also explored whether there is a significant relationship between soft skills and income. An empirical survey was carried out through a self-assessment questionnaire which was administered to managers and employees of Greek shipping companies resulting in 191 usable questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis, correlation, regression analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied to examine the data. It was found that teamwork, problem-solving, adaptability and communication positively affect employee contextual performance. In addition, it was confirmed that problem-solving skills are related to employee income. This study contributes to the literature, defining which soft skills are significant factors in employee contextual performance and income. There is little literature exploring these relationships, and even fewer studies have focused on the maritime industry. This paper highlights the importance of employees developing transferable soft skills to perform effectively in the workplace.
 Keywords: maritime industry, soft skills, employee contextual performance, income

РОЗВИТОК SOFT SKILLS НА УРОКАХ ІНФОРМАТИКИ В ОСНОВНІЙ ШКОЛІ

The paper describes the complex of computer science lessons for secondary school students, aimed at forming soft skills, among which are communication skills (in particular, the ability to dialogue and discussion), teamwork (cooperation), leadership, logical thinking, creativity, time management. The relevance of the study is due to the need to understand the possibilities of computer science lessons in terms of development of modern schoolchildren soft skills, which are the key to successful further study and future professional realization. The research methodology contains general theoretical and special methods. The aim of the study is to describe and characterize the author's set of non-standard computer science lessons for secondary school students, which promotes the development of soft skills. The complex consists of three consecutive lessons and involves students working on their own projects in microgroups, a competition for these projects and a press conference of the jury, during which the results of the competition are discussed. The project method stimulates creativity, elements of competition contribute to the formation of teamwork and leadership skills. Independent elaboration of the topic with the subsequent acquaintance with several variants of its presentation consolidates knowledge. An additional factor in strengthening knowledge is the visualization of educational material, implemented in presentations. The paper examines the correlation between the type of lesson and the development of specific soft skills. The main educational tasks that should be used in computer science lessons for the development of soft skills include problem (identify the most interesting topics) and creative (create your own project-presentation) ones. Involvement of the element of competition (project competition) contributes to the intensification of learning, helps to form teamwork, and increases student motivation. Prospects for further research are seen in the implementation of the proposed complex into the teaching of computer science in Kremenchuk secondary schools in order to prove its effectiveness. Key words: primary school, computer science lesson, soft skills, non-standard lesson, project work, lesson-competition, lesson-press conference.

Key competencies for critical infrastructure cyber-security: a systematic literature review

Purpose The purpose of this paper can be encapsulated in the following points: identify the research papers published on the topic: competencies and skills necessary for critical infrastructure (CI) cyber-security (CS) protection; determine main focus areas within the identified literature and evaluate the dependency or lack thereof between them: make recommendations for future research. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a systematic literature review conducted to identify scientific papers discussing and evaluating competencies, skills and essential attributes needed by the CI workforce for CS and preparedness to attacks and incidents. Findings After a comparative analysis of the articles reviewed in this study, a variety of skills and competencies was found to be necessary for CS assurance in CIs. These skills have been grouped into four categories, namely, technical, managerial, implementation and soft skills. Nonetheless, there is still a lack of agreement on which skills are the most critical and further research should be conducted on the relation between specific soft skills and CS assurance. Research limitations/implications Investigation of which skills are required by industry for specific CS roles, by conducting interviews and sending questionnaire\surveys, would allow consolidating whether literature and industry requirements are equivalent. Practical implications Findings from this literature review suggest that more effort should be taken to conciliate current CS curricula in academia with the skills and competencies required for CS roles in the industry. Originality/value This study provides a previously lacking current mapping and review of literature discussing skills and competencies evidenced as critical for CS assurance for CI. The findings of this research are useful for the development of comprehensive solutions for CS awareness and training.

Mental work ability: young professionals with mental health problems perceive lower levels of soft skills

This article published in Gruppe Interaktion Organisation (GIO) reports study results on soft skills and mental work ability in young professionals ready to enter the job market. The so-called soft skills (psychological capacities) are nowadays an entrance ticket into the modern working world. Thus, the question is to which degree young professionals who will soon enter the labor market are fit in their soft skills. Are physical or mental health problems related with deficits in soft skills? Which dimensions of soft skills are impaired?365 young professionals in advanced education from a technical college, who will soon enter the labor market, were investigated via online-questionnaire. Participants were asked to rate their self-perceived capacity level according to Mini-ICF-APP, mental and physical health problems, exam and education-related anxiety, self-efficacy and procrastination.Students with mental health problems had higher exam anxiety, and lower study-related self-efficacy as compared to students without health problems at all, or students with physical health problems. But, procrastination behavior was similarly present among students with mental health problems and students with physical health problems. Students with health problems did not report globally weaker capacity levels. Lower levels of capacities depend on the type of health problem: In students with mental health problems, social soft skills were impaired rather than content-related capacities. Physical health problems do not affect the self-perceived psychological capacities.In conclusion, focusing on specific soft skills in training and work adjustment could be fruitful in addition (or as an alternative) to training of profession-specific expertise.

Towards Identifying the Soft Skills Needed in Curricula: Finnish and Italian Students’ Self-Evaluations Indicate Differences between Groups

Background: The identification of soft skills by Higher Education (HE) students is important for curriculum design, as is to evaluate if the students’ soft skills are adapted to the needs of the socioeconomic environment. This paper presents a study conducted to determine to what extent Finnish and Italian students’ perceptions of their own soft skills differ. Methods: The cohort of the study consisted of 80 Finnish and 80 Italian HE students. Results: The results reveal that, regardless of cultural aspects, both groups share specific soft skills whilst showing significant differences in others. The observed differences in the profiles of the two countries are explained on the basis of the cultural and curricula design frameworks that are well established in Finland and Italy. Conclusions: The implications of the findings for HE teachers and researchers are presented, which may bear relevance in guiding the implementation of curriculum design in Finland, Italy and beyond.

A new approach for improving work distribution in business processes supported by BPMS

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is regarding the execution of business processes by Business Process Management Systems (BPMS), during design-time modelers have to specify the potential performers of a work activity according to their organizational position or role. Once several workers may share the same role, at run-time all of them (indistinctively) can be assigned by BPMS to execute a work activity. However, distinct individuals have different personality traits and, for certain instances of work (requiring, for example, specific soft skills) some of them might perform better. A new approach to work distribution in business processes supported by BPMS, which takes into account the psychological characteristics of workers was proposed.Design/methodology/approachAs stated in Section 3 of the paper, in this work the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology, as proposed by Kuechler and Vaishnavi (2008) was used. All the five steps, from the “Awareness of problem” to the “Conclusion” were accomplished, being described in the paper.FindingsIt is demonstrated that, by using the proposed approach, BPMS might deliver work to people in a more effective way, by selecting those workers that seem to be more suitable to accomplish each particular piece of work, taking into account the characteristics of the work itself and the specific profiles of the workers eligible to execute it.Originality/valueBPMSs are responsible for the execution of business process models, by delivering work activities to suitable agents (human or artificial), which execute them. Addressing a gap in the BPM literature, this paper presents a new approach for improving work distribution in business processes supported by BPMS, enabling to assign (in run-time) the most suitable workers to perform specific work activities, grounded on the concept of psychological profile and taking into account technical, human and social aspects.

Snapshot on the Career and Employability of Islamic Studies Graduates in Malaysia

There are many challenges faced by the graduates of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in getting themselves employed. One of which is the lack of soft skills which is directly related to employability. Thus improving the soft skills means increasing the graduate’s opportunity to be employed. As such, employability of HEI graduates is one of the key agendas of the Ministry of Education (MOE). The objective of this paper is two prongs. First, is to highlight the scenario of Islamic Studies Graduates (ISGs) career and employability status after they have graduated from the Public Universities (PUs). The second, is to identify the elements of soft skills of these graduates who are employed in industry unrelated to their academic qualification. The first objective is achieved by obtaining data of both job career and employability rate of five PUs that offered Islamic Studies Programmes (ISPs). The data obtained from Univerisity Sains Islam Malaysia’s (USIM’s) career unit and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin’s (UniSZA’s) alumini were collected and analyzed descriptively. The second objective is achieved by interviewing the personnel of the organizations who employ these graduates. The data of the interviews will be transcribed and analyzed qualitatively by using Atlas. The first objective is achieved through two parts of the finding. The first part revealed that 40% of USIM’s ISGs are employed in the professional and educational job. The other part of the finding interestingly revealed that out of five ISPs offered by PUs, UniSZA’s two ISPs which Degree in Education (Islamic Studies) and Degree in Education (Primary Studies) achieved a 100% employability for two consecutive years, 2015 and 2016. This finding concur with study conducted by Aini, Azizi and Yahya (2002); Fasan, Marcon, (2018). Besides the existing elements of soft skills crafted by the MOE, the finding of second objective is expected to reveal new emerging themes of ISGs soft skills. These themes are the elements that will form the structure of soft skills of the ISGs for PUs in Malaysia. It is expected that these soft skills would provide profound insight to researchers and educators alike what specific soft skills that ISG should have or acquire before they graduate from HEIs, especially in the PUs. Thus, it is envisaged that the new structure of soft skills could perhaps be a guiding principles during the process of relooking and redesigning the current curriculum for ISPs offered at the Malaysian HEIs.

The Soft Skill Elements in an On-Job Training (OJT) (Organisation) Assessment Rubric for Construction Technology Students in Malaysian Vocational Colleges

During on-Job Training (OJT), students are assessed by using the OJT (Organisation) assessment rubric. However, soft skill elements in the current assessment rubric are quite general in assessing students according to the job scope for Diploma in Construction Technology. The items in the current assessment rubric are not specific to assess soft skills of site supervisors which are important in the construction industry. Therefore, this study aims to identify the soft skill elements for OJT (Organisation) assessment rubric for Construction Technology students. The research design for this study is a survey that was carried out quantitatively through questionnaires involving contractors of G4 to G7 as the population of this study and administered to 180 contractors by using simple random sampling. After document analysis and expert validation process, five items were selected to be the constructs of soft skills and 21 items were chosen to be the elements for soft skills. From the Rasch Model analysis which referred to the Infit and Outfit values, one item was discarded which was Item C05 because it showed out-of-range values for both the Mean Square Infit and Outfit as well as the Z Standard value for Infit and Outfit. This finding was validated by experts. As a result, only 20 elements were accepted to be elements of the OJT (Organisation) assessment rubric. However, according to the item polarity analysis, all 21 elements were accepted to be elements in the OJT (Organisation) assessment rubric. The data analysis also indicated that both item and person reliability were good. The five constructs identified from this study were communication skill, critical thinking and problem-solving skill, teamwork, ethics and professional moral and leadership skill. In conclusion, this study was able to identify specific soft skills for site supervisors which could help to solve the problem of the general assessment elements in the current OJT rubric. Students may use these elements as a reference for job scope during OJT. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct a study for determining the descriptors for the soft skill elements.

Impactful Leadership Traits of Virtual Leaders in Higher Education

Universities are increasingly leveraging virtual teams into the organizational structure and strategic framework for many functions including academic administration and faculty leadership. One benefit of a virtual workforce is the ability to hire the most qualified individuals regardless of where they are physically located. As the virtual workforce expands, leaders may intuitively rely on traditional face-to-face approaches and strategies for employee oversight and motivation. These techniques may be ineffective or challenging to use in the virtual environment necessitating new approaches. Leaders of virtual teams need to understand the intricacies associated with these groups and be cognizant of factors that assist in creating cohesiveness, trust, and communication amongst virtual teams. This qualitative phenomenological study explores leaders’ perceptions surrounding competencies needed to effectively lead virtual teams in online education. A decisive sampling method was used to identify 10 experienced academic leaders who supervise virtual teams. As a result of the interviews, seven major themes emerged: (a) training and development; (b) trust; (c) emotional intelligence; (d) communication/team building/technology; (e) employee recognition and motivation; (f) leadership styles; and (g) virtual leadership competencies unique to higher education. Based on these themes and further evaluation the need for specific soft skills and robust technology emerged. Specifically, organizational success partially hinges on comprehensive training for virtual leaders, the significance of trust, emotional intelligence, and effective, respectful communication.