Relationship Between Soft Skills Hard Skills Training

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

MIBA

Master of international business administration

The relationship between Soft skills-Hard skills Training and Job Satisfaction

Intake Bmba03

Supervised by: Dr/ Abdul-Moniem

Presented by: Mostafa Abu-Bakr Mahmoud

Abstract

Nowadays almost all growing local and multinational companies started to focus on Training programs specially soft skills – Hard skills programs as it helps the employees to gain The experience of dealing with their daily problems and routine

Then Stress management Training programs started to exist as it helps employees control their mood, nerves and stress in order not to lose the relation between them and their employers or clients. In this research we will talk about the difference between Soft Skills Training and Hard skills Training and its effect on the job Satisfaction which higher employee’s performance and productivity as we all have noticed in our jobs and university most of successful bosses and professors are used to involve humor and simple jokes to grab our attention and in the end we find that we did our tasks clearly and effectively. There should be a relationship between soft skills – Hard skills training and job satisfaction as well trained employees can deal with such events which may happen during working and they know very well how to use their gained skills in improving their productivity for example salesmen they do know the importance of eye to eye contact and voice tune while dealing with their clients

Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………….……………………………….i List of figures……………………………………………………………………….…....ii List of tables…………………………………………………………………….………..iii List of acronyms……………………………………………….…………….…………...iv Table of content…………………………………………….…………………………….v Chapter 1 introduction

1 problem statement………………………………………………...………….………….6

1.1 importance of the study…….........……………………….........…………..…………..6

1.2 research questions…………………………………………………………..…………6

1.3 Hypotheses……………………………………………………………………………6

Chapter 2

2 The definition of soft skills training and hard skills training……………………….…7

2.1 Soft skills training Versus Hard Skills………… ……………….………………………8

2.2 The distinction Between Hard skills and Soft skill Training….…………………..……..…..9

2.3 Differences Between Hard- and Soft-Skills Training………………………..…….……….10

Chapter 3

3 The definition of job satisfaction …………………………………………..…...……..12

3.1 Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior ………………………………13

3.2 Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment……………………………………..….14

3.3 job satisfaction and Employee engagement:……… …… ……………………..…….15

Chapter 4

4 The relationship between Soft skills-hard skills training and job satisfaction………..…..16

4.1 Impact of High Performance of soft-hard skills Practices on Job Satisfaction…...…19

4.2 Recognition of the effect of soft and hard skills training on the job satisfaction ………19

4.3 the satisfaction with job training……………………………..…………………...…...21

5 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………24

6 References…………………………………………………………………………………25

7 Appendix ………………………………………………………………………………….28

Copyright © 2013 by Mustafa A. Mahmoud

V

Chapter 1 Introduction

1 problem statement

There’s a direct relationship between Soft - Hard skills training and employee productivity and this relationship is consistent. the more we care about soft skills training the more it will effect the employee productivity so investigating such relation would help us to improve the employee performance specially the productivity

1.1 importance of the study

The importance of this research is investigating and analyzing the relationship between Soft and hard skills training and employee productivity as it would be an indicator that shows the success of our companies and its reflection on the Economics of the country (GDP)

1.2 Research question

Do Soft Skills Training and Hard Skills Training have an effect on Employees Productivity and performance ?

1.3 Hypotheses

ï‚· H0 There is a relation between Soft skills and job satisfaction .

ï‚· H1 There is a relation between Hard Skills Training and job satisfaction .

Copyright © 2013 by Mustafa A. Mahmoud

6

Chapter 2

2 The definition of soft skills and hard skills training :

The Most Accurate Definition of soft skills training is The ability, coming from The Practice , Knowledge and Aptitude of a person , to do something better , competent better in performance needed as the job’s requirements or The special training in The field where the person has experience and competence as Soft Skills = Interpersonal Skills + Personal Attributes ( Evenson, R. (1999).

The workplace of Today shows that the technical skills are not enough to keep employees employed when Companies are Cutting positions or right sizing right That’s all Because soft skills nowadays are critical and important for highly productive performance the workplace therefore now and in close future business elites are emphasizing the development of what called soft skills training ( Nealy, C. (2005).

Soft skills are the character’s behavior which effects the person’s Interactions , job prospects and job performance, the best feature of soft skills training program is that the program or the application of soft skills isn’t limited to specific profession , Soft skills can be developed eventually through practical applications during a single approach toward the daily life and the workplace environment .

unlike the hard skills , which are about the employee’s skill set and the ability of performing a type of task or mission or activity by the end of paragraph we can get that the soft skills are interpersonal and internationally applicable ( Parsons, T. L. (2008).

Copyright © 2013 by Mustafa A. Mahmoud

7

2.1 Soft skills training Versus Hard skills training

The development perspective in the human resources defined the training transfer as linking what is learned in training to a job and apply it personally just to enhance the job-related performance , Many factors got identified as supporting the training transfer , the training design, managerial support, individual characteristics and the organizational climate , one of the most important factor that might support the training transfer and could be the specific element of the training (Baldwin, T. T., & Ford, J. K. (1988 ).

The Difference between the hard skills and the soft skills is that the Hard skills contains the Technical skills which involve the Data , equipment and software in the employee’s character, and the Soft Skills is a kind of intrapersonal skills such as personal time management and self control to work under great pressure without losing The Temper and how to Handle the behavior of others just to let the job pass as well However Many researches showed that soft skills training is harder to transfer to the job than hard skills training ( Foxon, M. (1993).

In comparison with hard skills learners The Employees who get Soft skills training are affected by many factors such as The experience and the prior learning, their personal resistance, The organizational resistance, The shortage of managerial support and the bigger managerial resistance, The difficulty of defining the training needs and the objectives, The Lake of feedback and consequences, The difficulty of connecting between training and The work environment, The lower Ability to apply what the employee got in the training and the real practice , the decrease of self-efficacy and The differences in the trainers and The methods of instruction ( Laker, D. R. (1996, April).

Copyright © 2013 by Mustafa A. Mahmoud

8

2.2 The distinction Between Hard skills and Soft skill Training

There are many reasons why getting the difference between Soft Skills and Hard skills would be so useful and beneficial. First of all most people quickly recognize that the differences between hard skills (technical training) like working with equipment or tools and software) and soft skills training equal interpersonal or intrapersonal focus ,

Second, those who train employees in Hard skills training are so different and away from those who train employees in Soft skills training as they are usually unfamiliar with the training methods of the other trainers ,

Third, there is increase in awareness nowadays for technical skills, even for technical positions as they aren’t enough for subsequent success for the entry-level positions , the high success in entry positions requires high degree of soft skills areas such as leadership, self management, communication, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution ( Goleman, D. (1995).

Nowadays technical Training is the most common in U.S.A and it is estimated to exceed 85 percent of all training delivered and by the end of all there are many researches covered such topic and ended with many theories , most of them would agree that hard skills training transfers more easy to the work environment than soft-skills training ( Merriam, S., & Leahy, B. (2005).

Given the perceived dismal side effect of soft-skills training that some employees have even suggested employers would find it better to hire employees who were already proficient in soft skills as they assume that they can successfully train such employees in these types of skills ( O’Sullivan, O. (2000).

Copyright © 2013 by Mustafa A. Mahmoud

2.3 Differences Between Hard skills and Soft Skills Training

There are many elements make a difference between Hard Skills and Soft Skills in Training

and These differences are Trainee Resistance to Learning.The Immediacy and Salience of Feedback and Consequences. Prior Learning and Experience. . Identification of Training Needs and Objectives. Degree of Similarity Between Training, Work, and Work Environments. Degree of Self-Efficacy Achieved. Scope of Training Responsibilities and Methods of Instruction and Level of Proficiency (Mastery) Achieved In and After Training. (Laker, D. R. (1996, April).

Prior Learning and Experience :

This prior learning experience creates huge interference in learning and applying that learning to the job. With hard skills the transfer environment will not have a high change along with the need for different skills. That is because technology and the skills required for that technology usually change together in the same time ( Williams, S. W. (2001).

Trainee Resistance to Learning :

In the hard training there is a low level of trainee resistance to the acquisition and subsequent transfer of training back to the job in comparison with soft skills training. This difference in trainees resistance is up to many factors like in technical training the trainee deal with nonhuman tools which just work successfully if used in the proper manner and the trainee just get training about How to use the machine ( Williams, S. W. (2001).

Degree of Similarity Between Training, Work, and Work Environments :

The performance for hard skills is invariant in the terms of the task's nature. one by one , we can creat training events to be almost identical to the performance, With soft skills, the events or the situations of reality have much more complex information than what can be offer in the training environment But in hard Skills training it could be so similar as the situations are related with a hardware or equipments so it is so similar to reality ( Goldstein, A., & Sorcher, M. (1974).

3 The definition of job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is the feeling you which just lucky employees get while doing their jobs , when they feel that they are doing the right job with then right people in the right place

Job Satisfaction is a useful summary to measure of utility at work. The effects of job satisfaction on the diverse of labor market outcomes such as employee’s quitting behavior, absenteeism, and job performance have been explored in the literature. ( Warr, Peter. 1999 ).

The benefits of job satisfaction are so clear as it is about the employment turnover and satisfaction as human resources management suggest several channels through which job satisfaction can improve the company value , as satisfying it is hard to keep the employees because good employees can walk out of the door. This is where the role of job satisfaction lays . A satisfying workplace can foster job ( Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C , Lee, T. W., Sablynski, C. J.,& Erez, M. (2001).

The job satisfaction is a way to improve the company’s value is through worker ‘s highly motivation as motivation can be achieved by more factors such money chic or the threat of firing. This approach is useful and applicable because employee’s output was easy to measure like the units of production ,

Nowadays, the tasks given to employees like building client relationships and mentoring subordinates are more hard to quantify. Thus, providing incentives based on output may be ineffective or even destructive ( Kohn, A. (1993).

3.1 Job Satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior

There is a relationship between job satisfaction and organizational citizenship , this relation is constant and strong and can be represented in several ways the job satisfaction is the strongest variable which has an accurate relationship with organizational citizenship behavior and more than 15 research and studies has shown and proved such a relation wither it is with blue collar workers or university staff or technical workers and all kind of jobs ,

as job satisfaction comes from the all factors inside an organization such as management , appreciation and team work so once you feel job satisfaction which means I’m in the right place with the right people and doing the right job you start to get a trust in your company and adapt its culture which lead in the end to the organizational citizenship behavior which means that the employee feels that his nationality is the company’s values and feels that he can not be more happy or satisfied with his job , money and company in other places and companies ( Foote, D.A., & Tang, L.T. (2008).

The first research which keened about organizational citizenship was 24 years ago and now it is gaining its momentum and it has revealed that the organizational citizenship behavior could affect the performance of employees and in the organization and such studies explained that the organizational citizenship behavior is an excellent behavior which is too hard to understand and notice by the formal reward system inside the organization but it may promote the employees productivity,

So understanding the Organizational citizenship behavior is so important because it would help the company in amazing way while facing economic issues which force the company to deal with Down sizing and write sizing in order to resist the our side pressure and to keep the reputation of the company in a good shape without destroying the employee’s trust and the employee’s loyalty ( Lo, M.C. & Ramayah, T. (2009) .

3.2 Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

Researches have shown that there is a direct and positive relationship between the organizational commitment and the job satisfaction and it is the strongest for an effective commitment , Employees who feel job satisfaction may develop emotional attachments which is a high effective commitment , For example if someone works in a firm , and inside such a firm this employee made friendship and relationships with other employees , this employee go daily to the same office to stay with the same people he love for many hours and at night they may hang out together , this employee will get the feeling that this company equals his social and professional lives as he enjoys The working environment even if he doesn’t gain financial the financial rewards that he deserves , he will not think about leaving the organization at all because of people not because of system and financial rewards , even he may dislike the organization top management and his supervisor but he will have a relation with other employees and consider them as friends so he will never even think about shifting the career because simply he will get the feelings that he cannot work in any other places or firms ( Mathieu, J.E., and Zajac, D.M. (1990).

The organizational procedures may has an impact on the organizational commitment as the procedures shows the organization’s capacity to treat the employees in fair way and equally which we can call the rules , If we apply the rules equally and fair without oppression or like and dislike the organizational commitment would exist for example if the financial rewards in an organization is based on performance and there is an accurate structure and measurements which tell if you follow the rule A and achieve B you will get Z as a reward so if an employee failed to get the reward , he won’t get mad and upset and attribute it to the unfair management and translate his feelings to a negative energy towards his super vision or company which may even drive him to tarnish the company’s reputation ( Tang, T.L. and Sarsfield-Baldwin, L.J. (1996).

3.3 job satisfaction and Employee engagement

When we talk about job satisfaction we find that the employee engagement floating on the surface the controlling of company's members due to their work roles . in engagement, employees express themselves cognitively , physically and emotionally during role performances ,

for psychological engagement, there are two dimensions are emotional and cognitive engagement. Emotional engagement means having good relations with others especially the superiors and experiencing empathy for others. the employees who are cognitively engaged know very well about the tasks they should do inside their organizations and they do it with great pleasure and they feel that they are having fun ( Kahn, W. A. (1990).

the employee’s involvement, interaction and satisfaction with enthusiasm for work. Employee engagement is the degree to push employees to feel job satisfaction and an emotional connectivity to the success of the business, resulting in pushing productivity, innovation and retention up . Engaged employees feel loyalty and dedicated themselves to their work and will stay in the company for a very long time, more productive, give better customer service and enhance their skills as the equation is so easy , Enhance and support the employee engagement so the employees will feel job satisfaction which will have amazing effect on the employees productivity and offering better customer service even if it is not required or written in the job description from the beginning but as long as they love their job and they have emotional relationship with the job , company and members they will do their best to push the business success higher and higher which will end up with the success of the whole organization and this success will be dedicated to the employees and will cheer them so much when they get a financial reward based on success and performance and may work as a moral rewards too (Harter, James K., Schmidt, Frank L. & Hayes, Theodore L. (2002),

4 The relationship between Soft skills-hard skills training and job satisfaction

The relationship between the Soft skills training , hard skills training and the job satisfaction is constant the more soft and hard training employee get , the more satisfaction he/she feels and analyzing such relation is beneficial as job satisfaction leads to higher productivity , less turnover and job stability.

Soft skills training and hard skills training are an important major in human resources as it pushes the productivity higher and pulls the negative energy down so most of researchers in the past 24 years have pay high attention to analyze such relation and the impact of it on employees so they started with defining what is the soft skills training so they found that it is training employees on improving their interpersonal skills such as managing the time and the hard skills training is training employees on using an equipment or job tools which enhances the work environment as it has always been recognized as having an effect ( profound one ) on the employee performance and the attitude of employees toward their managers , coworker and the company is always reflect in their output in the progress principle ( Amabile, T. M., & Kramer, S. J. (2011).

In the company’s policy the Employee satisfaction is one the most important element of the organization and has the main priority to the top management inside the organization , we cannot deny the reality that the future of business depends on the satisfaction level of the employees. Dissatisfied employees cause unnecessary problems only to their particular businesses. High performance of human resources practices has provided a big number of important resources in the company performance ( Pfeffer, J., and Veiga, F. J. (1999).

4.1 Impact of High Performance of soft-hard skills Practices on Job Satisfaction

High performance of soft skills and hard skills have gained great interest the last years as the main aim of high performance training in soft skills , hard skills in human resource management is to increase corporate performance by the help of its employees by helping them to get job satisfaction so they won’t have any negative feelings toward their workplace ( organization ) so it will push the productivity high which will lead by the end of the work to the predicted success of the company.

Due to human resources management studies and researches , human resources is consist of there main elements the first is people flow which includes selective staffing process , training (such as extensive, general skills-soft and hard skills training), employee mobility and the guarantee of job security.

the appraisal and the rewards, it includes the performance) , compensation and other beneficial benefits , such as extensive and the open ended rewards,

Third the employment relations, such as job design which explains the just description and easy assignment in order not to drive the employee to burn up ( Bamberger, P. & Meshoulam, I. (2000)

Job satisfaction is a dream and request to raise the employee performance in any company , It is beneficial for both the employee and the employer , as for the employee the job satisfaction provides them with a sense of security and fulfillment then it leads to the employees commitment and the reduced absenteeism and by the end it decrease the employees turnover.

if is important for the employer as the employee job satisfaction ensures committed staff and offers a good stable workforce perfectly which reduces cost of recruitment and the training as the job satisfaction refers to an employee’s general attitude toward his or her job in a company ( Locke, E. A. (1976).

4.2 Recognition the effect of soft and hard skills training on the job satisfaction

Recognition is one of the most important elements in the organization as it is a kind of motivating the employees to reach the highest productivity while enjoying the job without the negative feeling the high pressure and the dissatisfaction as it shows how much the employee's performance is appreciated inside the organization as the recognition maintains a strong bond between the higher performance and the motivation. and the most efficient result that the employees stay very high almost the as without appreciation the employee feels that his effort is just like a bullet in air and he / she just measure his job with the salary and other incomes and if it is not that much or it doesn’t suit his effort he/she will look for a new job in other firm which will appreciate his/her effort and pays more and would prefer it even if it doesn’t pay well just in order to feel self-confidence , appreciation and satisfaction (Ali, R., & Ahmed, M. S. (2009).

The recognition of Job satisfaction means the appreciations towards feelings of different individuals about the dimensions of their jobs . it is a level of the satisfaction and the dissatisfaction is another side which is very related to employee job satisfaction .

Job satisfaction may become a general behavior due to different issues at the work place , it would be a manager’s behavior, relation with colleagues or the work environment .

other elements such as an employee needs and dreams , social relations, job design , developmental opportunities and aspects of work-life balance are considered to be the main elements of the job satisfaction ( Doyle, M., (1997).

4.3 the satisfaction with job training

CONCLUSION

Soft Skills Training programs do influence employee satisfaction and increase Productivity. New employee soft skills training, in-house training, and support for continuing education each reduces the probability of employees being dissatisfied with the performance appraisal process.

However, the influence of training is not the sole factor in determining how to increase employee productivity. The greatest improvement in satisfaction occurs when training takes place in conjunction with a performance appraisal system that provides specific measurable feedback to the employee.

A system of improved training programs and support combined with effective specific feedback can increase employee satisfaction then productivity will increase with the same rate and firms can attempt to reduce turnover costs through the use of training and soft skills training processes to increase employee satisfaction and commitment. Particularly during periods of low unemployment rates, turnover costs increase in significance and companies have an incentive to pay attention to the influence of training on employee Satisfaction.

Copyright © 2013 by Mustafa A. Mahmoud

24

References

Evenson, R. (1999). Soft skills, hard sell [Electronic version]. Techniques: Making Education

& Career Connections, 74(3), 29-31.

Nealy, C. (2005). Integrating soft skills through active learning in the management classroom.

Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 2(4), 1-6.

Parsons, T. L. (2008). Definition: Soft skills. Retrieved from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/

definition/soft-skills

Baldwin, T. T., & Ford, J. K. (1988). Transfer of training: A review and directions for future

research. Personnel Psychology, 41, 63–105.

Foxon, M. (1993). A process approach to the transfer of training. Australian Journal of Educational

Technology, 9(2), 130–143.

Laker, D. R. (1996, April). Maximizing training transfer: Linking obstacles to specific support. Presented

at the International Society for Performance Improvement, Dallas.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional intelligence. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Merriam, S., & Leahy, B. (2005). Learning transfer: A review of the research in adult education

and training. PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, 14, 1–25.

O’Sullivan, O. (2000). Hard lessons in soft skills. USBanker, 110(3), 44–47

Laker, D. R. (1996, April). Maximizing training transfer: Linking obstacles to specific support. Presented

at the International Society for Performance Improvement, Dallas.

Williams, S. W. (2001). The effectiveness of subject matter experts as technical trainers. Human

Resource Development Quarterly, 12(1), 91–97.

Goldstein, A., & Sorcher, M. (1974). Changing supervisor behavior. New York, NY: Pergamon Press.

Warr, Peter. 1999. Well-being and the workplace. In Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener, and Norbert

Schwartz (Eds.), Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, pp. 392–412. New

York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Mitchell, T. R., Holtom, B. C , Lee, T. W., Sablynski, C. J.,& Erez, M. (2001). Why people stay: Using job embeddedness to predict voluntary turnover. Academy of Management

journal, 44, 1102-1121.

Kohn, A. (1993). Why incentive plans cannot work. Harvard

Business Review, 71, 54-64.

Foote, D.A., & Tang, L.T. (2008), "Job satisfaction and Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB): Does team commitment make a difference in self–directed teams?" Management Decision, 46, 933–947.

25

Lo, M.C. & Ramayah, T. (2009), "Dimensionality of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in a Multicultural Society: The Case of Malaysia", International Business Research, 2, 48–55.

Mathieu, J.E., and Zajac, D.M. (1990), "A review and meta-anlaysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment". Psychological Bulletin, 108(2):pp. 171-194.

Tang, T.L. and Sarsfield-Baldwin, L.J. (1996), "Distributive and procedural justice as related

to satisfaction and commitment", SAM Advanced Management Journal, 61(3): pp. 25-

31.

Harter, James K., Schmidt, Frank L. & Hayes, Theodore L. (2002), Business unit- level Relationship between Employee Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, and Business Outcomes: A Meta-analysis, Journal

of Applied Psychology. 87(2), pp. 268-79.

Amabile, T. M., & Kramer, S. J. (2011). The progress principle: Using small wins to ignite joy, engagement, and creativity at work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Kahn, W. A. (1990), "An Exercise of Authority", Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, 4 (2), pp. 28-42

Pfeffer, J., and Veiga, F. J. (1999). Putting people first for organizational success. Academy of Management

Bamberger, P. & Meshoulam, I. (2000) Human Resource Management Strategy, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Locke, E. A. (1976) the nature and causes of job satisfaction, In M. D. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational ", Chicago: Rand McNally, 1297-1349.

Ali, R., & Ahmed, M. S. (2009). The impact of reward and recognition programs on

employee’s motivation and satisfaction: an empirical study. International Review of Business

Research Papers, 5(4), 270-279.

Doyle, M., (1997). Management development, in Beardwell, I. and Holden, L. eds Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Perspective,. London: Pitman.