Acquiring Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates - Assignment Example

Institute: Acquiring Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates Introduction In the globalised world Bachelors degree is fast gaining importance and the focus is extending beyond simply acquiring traditional and discipline-specific skills. Nowadays business graduate has to learn many non-technical skills also. Their curriculum has extended in accordance with the importance of non-technical skills in today’s graduate level. These include developing professional, generic or core skills for all undergraduates from all discipline. The need to foster such non-technical skills emerged due to presence of industry calls for job-ready entry level graduates. Such kind of job needs to have to have both soft skills and technical expertise to add value in the workplace. For over the past 20 years there has been remarkable push by Higher education boards and governments across developed countries so as to identify undergraduate skills necessary for most industry. Due to such high demand, much efforts and resources are now put in place for successful assessment and development of the skills, which will act as a growing trend for outcome-focused learning programs. This report will look at the importance of developing a non-technical skill set for business level undergraduates. Discussion Research has shown that, in many developed countries like Australia, the non-technical skill set taught at graduate level requires improvement in a number of areas. The things to understand is that why it is so desired, how this skill set can be developed and how can it be measured and assessed. Next it should be seen whether the process of delivering such non-technical skills is generic in nature and the pedagogical processes can be replicated across various disciplines and whether the skill set developed is transferable to different work contexts (Conrad and Newberry 9-15). Non-technical skills Non-technical skills are in huge demand amongst educational practitioners and employers. They are of consensus that many first-degree graduates has to equip them with not only many respective disciplinary knowledge but also a skill set which will enable them to apply and use disciplinary knowledge in the work environment. Employers look at the ability of the graduate to apply disciplinary knowledge using the skill set. This determines their employability so as to successfully achieve the required outcomes in their workplace. Such skill set is perceived to be generic in nature which can be applied across different disciplines and workplace contexts. Such huge demand for soft skills in business undergraduates among the employers can be attributed to three factors. First reason is changing business practices, second is change in attitude of supposed role of higher education. Finally the third reason is change in the job roles across industries. There has been a huge shift in the expectations from undergraduates. Nowadays the goal of undergraduate business education has been to develop skill set within the business graduate so that they can do analysis and reasoning of the relevant disciplinary data. It enhances the critical thinking skills and knowledge of graduates in their respective discipline. But the development of non-technical skills among the business graduates is not without challenges. This is because many are of the view that it would distract undergraduate business education from their fundamental and unique goal, which will reduce the worth and likening of such vocational educational programs (Okoro 1-5). In today’s world there has been a gradual shift for business degrees towards commercialisation. The education providers have to mould the undergraduate curricula according to industry requirements. A recent research revealed that a number of employers and professional associations like Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Business Industry and Higher Education Collaboration Council, Business Council of Australia are not pleased with the level of non-technical skills imparted to business graduates. According to a recent research in Australia, there were a number of reforms which can be applied to universities across the country. It was concluded that all business degree needs to develop a threshold level outcomes which is awarded in Australia as per Australian Qualifications Framework regime (AQF). According to Australian Qualifications Framework, the Bachelor and Masters degree needs the graduates to develop various no n-technical or cognitive skills and other relevant knowledge so as to apply them in required work field. It is seen that development of non-technical skills are an integral part of business degree. Employers now recognise that gaps in soft skills affect the work performance, efficiency and output of an employee. Many argue that it is best to impart such education on higher education before entering into professional world. In today’s world many entry level graduates have to interact with various stakeholders ranging from junior level manager to senior level from their first day at office. Thus it needs in depth understanding along with the ability to apply the technical knowledge in one’s field. This will require self –management, ethical behaviour, excellent communication skills, and self-regulation. There are many reasons for such increasing reliance on soft skills. First refers to the rise in globalisation across the world. In today’s world, companies are operating across various international borders. This requires a collaborative effort of all team members. With international borders becoming more blurred, the professional and educational mobility is on the rise. This puts stress on social and emotional intelligence which is important for managing, interacting and collaborating with team members from different background. With increasing cultural mix within teams, diversity management is a key factor in the workplace. Second, there has been significant shift in the workforce composition. It now includes four generations working at the same time. Each of them is now trying to adapt to other traits like working styles, communication methods and values. There is friction between two generations and thus there is a need to develop strong communication, social intelligence skills and conflict management in entry level graduates. Third, the forms of organisation are becoming more flat. Matrix based structures are now becoming more common. There is no longer vertical and narrow line of authority between the senior management and junior level staff. They are now frequently converging to form a functional team which requires need for collaboration and communication skills between them. Reasons for skill gap among Undergraduates There are many possible reasons for skill gaps within business graduates. First is that the requirement of industry related soft skills are not exactly known in details. This is because of incompetency in modelling processes during empirical studies. For example, the worked competencies meant different thing to employers. The second is that many believe that the expectations of employers are unrealistic and unachievable. The employability framework within which university works may become over ambitious and thus resulting in cynicism within the academics, resulting in breakdown of efforts to bridge the graduate skill gaps (Hynes 67). Developing the skill set Many of the stakeholders in undergraduate education believes that the responsibility of developing soft skills rest largely on respective universities. A comprehensive study of stakeholders of accounting graduates confirmed the above view point. The exception is teamwork where the responsibility is shared on a 50:50 basis between the university and employer. In many undergraduate programs, there is a presence of mapping engagement of the required skill sets with the benchmarking exercises and learning outcomes against other programs. Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TQSA) assesses the threshold learning outcomes for all business degrees. Such a process increases the demands of business undergraduate programs across World. Though there is demand for people with strong disciplinary and soft skills, there is also a passive role of the employers in their development. There is presence of many pedagogical strategies used across several business schools which can be applied across workplace learning. In spite of considerable efforts and resources aimed at developing soft skills, there is still presence of huge gap between entry level graduates skills and employer expectations. According to studies conducted across Australian firms, it was found that many business graduates had deficiency in soft skill set. It implied that graduates lacked the soft skills needed for efficient workplace performance which affected retention, productivity, innovation and motivation within organisations (Baharun, Suleiman and Awang 8789-8794). Transfer of Skills to Workplace As discussed above there is a need to transfer knowledge and learned skills across various contexts. Transfer of skills will help entry level graduates acquire soft skills and apply them to their regular workplace. Specific or near transfer is the process of applying knowledge and learned skills where the learning is similar in nature to a place where learning is to be transferred. In contrast to it, non-specific or far transfer refers to transfer of skills which are different to their learned context. There are many processes of transfer and learning which can be linked in a series to steps. These include Theory of Identical Elements, Generalisation Approach, Formal Disciplines Approach and Knowledge Reconstruction Approach (Wallace and Willow 172). Conclusion With globalised world the technical people are now expected to be well equipped with the soft skills necessary for being part of a team in an organisation. The employers now expect that the employees not only possess technical knowledge which they can apply in the workplace, but they need to have additional non-technical knowledge so that they can mix easily with individual who comes from different background while working in a team. Undergraduate business schools have a huge gap as far as non-technical skills are concerned. It is the responsibility of the both university and employer to develop the soft skills needed for them to achieve profitability. Works Cited Baharun, Rohaizat, Shahrin, Suleiman and Zubaidah, Awang. “Changing skills required by industries: Perceptions of what makes business graduates employable”, African Journal of Business Management 6.30 (2012). 8789-8794. Print Conrad, David and Robert, Newberry. “24 Business Communication Skills: Attitudes of Human Resource Managers versus Business Educators”, American Communication Journal 13.1 (2011): 9-15. Print. Hynes, Jessica. Managerial communications: Strategies and applications. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2005. Print. Okoro, James. “Assessment of Effective Communication Competencies Possessed by University Business Education Graduates for Successful Running of Businesses in South South Nigeria”, Global Journal of Management and Business Research Administration and Management 13.8 (2013). 1-5. Print. Wallace, Hanna and Willow, Wilson. Communicating in business and professional settings. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 1998. Print. Read More