Taking a step back to move forward

Understanding communication skills and their characteristics in the workplace

Bibliographic Data

ID21458775
AuthorsAnna Κ Touloumakos (0000-0002-4610-8418, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume45
Issue2
Pages188-207
Publication date2023-05-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Continuing Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0158-037X • E-ISSN: 1470-126X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0158037x.2022.2030698
OpenAlexW4210312958
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited47

Soft skills have been increasingly recognised as important in the workplace. They have been incorporated, moreover, in education and training curricula internationally. However, their conceptualisation lacks in theoretical grounding. This study fills this gap by taking a skills-utilisation approach (rather than a skills-requirements approach) and studying communication skills in the Human Resource function of two organisations, Flow and Energy. Key informants were participants in the events that were theoretically sampled (e.g. employees, candidates). Observations of interactions between HR professionals and their interlocutors, combined with conversations, interviews and organisational documents provided the data corpus. The analysis combined the key mechanics of grounded theory and discourse analysis. The conceptual framework drew on situated learning. Results indicate that communication skills should not be seen as decontextualised communication behaviours. Instead, communication skills require constant manoeuvring and alignment of communication behaviour (what people do) with the following three factors: the aim of the communication encounter, the actors’ positional identities and the various forms of knowing they bring to the practice. This view unveils the tentative and elusive (rather than transferrable and universally applicable) nature of communication skills. Such an evidence-driven conceptualisation has implications for how soft skills should be researched, understood and developed/accredited

Accreditation · Communication skills · Conceptual framework · Curriculum · Grounded theory · Knowledge management · Medical education · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative research · Situated · Skills management · Social science · Sociology · Soft skills · Computer Science · Higher Education and Employability · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Management and Organizational Studies · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access