<p>Arbetet bygger på frågorna om vad som är god anställningsbarhet för ekonomer och hur stor roll mjuka egenskaper spelar för anställningsbarheten. Frågorna uppstod i samband med den omstrukturering av ekonomutbildningen vid Karlstad Universitet som kommer ske i samband med att den nya handelshögskolan etableras. Vi tar även upp vår syn på hur Bolognaprocessen påverkar anställningsbarheten och ytligt hur rekryteringsprocessen är uppbyggd för att få en bättre förståelse för hur en anställning går till.</p><p> </p><p>I uppsatsen har vi redovisat de nio intervjuer vi genomfört med olika personer från olika företag och organisationer angående deras syn på anställningsbarhet och hur de värderar mjuka egenskaper. Med teori som grund har vi även valt att presentera en egen modell över vad vi anser är mjuka egenskaper.  </p><p> </p><p>Vår slutsats är att en god anställningsbarhet uppnås genom en slutförd ekonomutbildning i kombination med goda mjuka egenskaper. Det första steget är att ta sig till intervju och för att göra det behöver den arbetssökande ekonomen vara kvalificerad och ha en examen. Betygen spelar mindre roll. Bland de som tar sig till anställningsintervjun är det den sökande med bäst mjuka egenskaper som oftast får jobbet. Därför kan vi konstatera att mjuka egenskaper är en nyckelegenskap för att få jobb som ekonom och att det vore en bra idé att försöka införa det som ett koncept på den nya ekonomutbildningen. Vi anser också att skolan bör satsa på att erbjuda bra masterutbildningar istället för att lägga all kraft på att få erhålla en civilekonomexamen, då en masterexamen kvalitetsmässigt tycks väga minst lika tungt som en civilekonomexamen i Sverige.</p>

Arbetet bygger på frågorna om vad som är god anställningsbarhet för ekonomer och hur stor roll mjuka egenskaper spelar för anställningsbarheten. Frågorna uppstod i samband med den omstrukturering av ekonomutbildningen vid Karlstad Universitet som kommer ske i samband med att den nya handelshögskolan etableras. Vi tar även upp vår syn på hur Bolognaprocessen påverkar anställningsbarheten och ytligt hur rekryteringsprocessen är uppbyggd för att få en bättre förståelse för hur en anställning går till.   I uppsatsen har vi redovisat de nio intervjuer vi genomfört med olika personer från olika företag och organisationer angående deras syn på anställningsbarhet och hur de värderar mjuka egenskaper. Med teori som grund har vi även valt att presentera en egen modell över vad vi anser är mjuka egenskaper.     Vår slutsats är att en god anställningsbarhet uppnås genom en slutförd ekonomutbildning i kombination med goda mjuka egenskaper. Det första steget är att ta sig till intervju och för att göra det behöver den arbetssökande ekonomen vara kvalificerad och ha en examen. Betygen spelar mindre roll. Bland de som tar sig till anställningsintervjun är det den sökande med bäst mjuka egenskaper som oftast får jobbet. Därför kan vi konstatera att mjuka egenskaper är en nyckelegenskap för att få jobb som ekonom och att det vore en bra idé att försöka införa det som ett koncept på den nya ekonomutbildningen. Vi anser också att skolan bör satsa på att erbjuda bra masterutbildningar istället för att lägga all kraft på att få erhålla en civilekonomexamen, då en masterexamen kvalitetsmässigt tycks väga minst lika tungt som en civilekonomexamen i Sverige.

When our society is undergoing a shift from a product driven to a service driven economy, this affects the competences that is needed in the work with IT. Research regarding soft skills and evaluation of IT-project success have been conducted throughout the years. There is, however a gap in knowledge around which these soft skills are and how they bring value to different stakeholders in the IT-industry. This research paper therefore aims to fill this gap and answer the questions: What is soft skills? and What are the possibilities and challenges associated with soft skills? To answer these questions data is collected through literature and interviews with people within the IT-field. The research paper focuses on an IT-consultancy and the majority of the interviews are therefore conducted with people within this consultancy. To make a broader understanding on the subject two additional interviews are conducted with representatives from two other IT-organisations. The results from the data collection show that soft skills include: analytical skills, empathic skills, leadership skills, social skills and problem solving skills. The results also show that soft skills lead to better use of systems for customers, more business opportunities for the IT- consultancies and the provider. It also becomes apparent that soft skills come with different types of challenges. These are issues such as how to argue the importance of soft skills for customers, as well as how to value the performed labour carried out by a consultant in possession of soft competence. Our conclusion shows that soft skills are needed in IT- projects and that the competence must get more space both in the literature and within the industry. To solve the issues, communication is concluded to be the key. This study contributes with a framework for how value is contributed to all the included parties in an IT-project.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Keith Harris / Iowa State University’s Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative (AgEI) was founded in 2005 from a generous gift given by Roger and Connie Underwood of Ames, IA. The original mission for the initiative was to provide undergraduate students at Iowa State University, specifically in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), with practical business development and entrepreneurial experiences essential for their success in future careers and endeavors. A non-conventional case study structure will walk readers through the history of how the AgEI program came to be and introduce them to the present day, while acknowledging tribulations the program has faced along the way. The purpose of this study is to determine wether the addition of soft skills programming will strengthen the value of the program to Iowa State University CALS students and generate actionable ideas on how to do so. Further analysis will ascertain whether enticing additional participation in the program, while maintaining its original entrepreneurial goals, will allow the AgEI program to grow in value and size. Quantitative, as well as qualitative, means of analysis are utilized to understand the students’ needs for soft skills development and identify skills deemed necessary by entrepreneurs to find success in the marketplace. Results indicate that it is advantageous to add a focus in soft skills development for undergraduate students who have an interest in entrepreneurship and small business development. These skills compliment their technical skills nicely when considering all aspects of creating a successful startup business. By implementing soft skills development programming, the AgEI program will be able to produce more well-rounded individuals and enhance their likelihood to successfully start their own businesses.

Orientadora: Raquel Cabral / Banca: Maximiliano Martin Vicente / Banca: Maria Aparecida Ferrari / Resumo: O presente trabalho objetiva entender como a comunicação intercultural é compreendida por empresas de treinamento intercultural. É vislumbrado atender o objetivo proposto partindo da análise de três empresas brasileiras que possuem em comum o fato de afirmarem oferecer treinamento intercultural e darem grande foco para esses treinamentos no cenário organizacional. Portanto, para sanar o objetivo principal, foi definido o procedimento metodológico que se encontra dividido em três etapas: pesquisa bibliográfica, abordando a comunicação intercultural, interculturalidade, treinamento intercultural, desenvolvimento de competências interculturais e as Epistemologias do Sul através de diversos prismas, buscando aprofundamentos; análise de conteúdo dos sites institucionais e interpretação hermenêutica e por último, entrevistas em profundidade com os responsáveis pela área de treinamento intercultural das empresas estudadas e questionários realizados com brasileiros e estrangeiros em processos de internacionalização. A partir das análises, os principais resultados discutem como os aspectos linguísticos estão fortemente presentes quando se é falado de interculturalidade, competências interculturais e principalmente, de comunicação intercultural. Em suma, conseguimos depreender certas instrumentalizações dos conceitos estudados. Com este estudo, pretende-se iniciar um primeiro passo em direção à perspectiva do Sul, procurando compreender como ela pode contribuir para o entendimento da c... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present work aims to understand how intercultural communication is understood by intercultural training companies. It is envisaged to meet the proposed goal starting from the analysis of three Brazilian companies that have in common the fact of claiming to offer intercultural training and give great focus to these training in the organizational scenario. Therefore, in order to reach the main objective, the methodological procedure was defined, which is divided into three stages: bibliographic research, addressing intercultural communication, interculturalism, intercultural training, intercultural competence development, and South Epistemologies through several prisms, searching for deepening; content analysis of institutional sites and hermeneutic interpretation, and finally, in-depth interviews with those responsible for the intercultural training area of the companies studied and questionnaires conducted with Brazilians and foreigners in internationalization processes. From the analyzes, the main results discuss how the linguistic aspects are strongly present when it is spoken of interculturality, intercultural competences and mainly, intercultural communication. In short, we have been able to infer certain instrumentalities of the concepts studied. With this study, we intend to begin a first step towards the South perspective, trying to understand how it can contribute to the understanding of intercultural communication, starting from the Brazilian reality. / Mestre

Despite the growing interest in studying the dimensions and prediction of task and contextual performance, little empirical attention has been given to studying the nature of soft skills performance. Soft skills (i.e., intra- and inter-personal work skills that facilitate the application of technical skills and knowledge), such as interpersonal skills (e.g., developing rapport) and communication skills (e.g., adjusting your message to the target audience) are highly sought by organizations (Zedeck and Goldstein, 2000). However, little is known about the underlying dimensions of soft skills performance, or about the individual differences variables that predict performance in this domain. In the current set of studies I examined the dimensionality of soft skills performance, developed measures to assess soft skills performance from self and supervisor perspectives, and validated the measures of performance in a nomological network of non-ability individual differences and existing performance measures. Study 1 involved asking subject matter experts to provide a master list and critical incidents of soft skills. Data from Study 1 served as the stimuli in Study 2 for sorting and reduction of skills into dimensions of soft skills performance. A construct and criterion validation approach was taken in Study 3 to measure soft skills performance in relation to individual differences variables in a nomological network. Results showed that the taxonomy of soft skills performance was composed of seven clusters, but that the measure of soft skills performance was unidimensional. Personality and motivational variables significantly predicted soft skills performance through their influence on proximal motivational processes.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 101-113).

Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-45).

Mentoring is a powerful developmental tool that can be utilised in organisations to enable learnerships to learn various skills – hard and soft – that will enable them to become more equipped for the workplace. The hard skills refer to technical competencies, e.g. computer literacy, and soft skills refer to competencies such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, work etiquette, etc. Mentoring is no quick fix to filling all the gaps within a learnership, but it can add significant value to have a formal mentoring strategy within organisations to transfer much needed skills and competencies. The literature on mentoring provides many examples of possible strategies, and in this research project, the competencies of both mentor and mentee were highlighted, together with the advantages, disadvantages, myths and challenges in formal mentoring strategies. The process of developing a mentoring strategy is not complex, but requires support and involvement from various stakeholders to ensure the sustained success of a mentoring strategy. The different models of mentoring strategies in the literature review provided a framework for the researcher to develop a mentoring strategy that was tested through the completion of questionnaires sent to organisations that employ learnerships. The research study rated the responses of the respondents on the suggested model and various steps to be followed in the process. The research study concluded with a formal mentoring strategy or model that can be used within organisations that employ learnerships.

The thesis compounds three views on the Key Account Management (KAM). Firstly, KAM is defined from a theoretical perspective. Secondly, a practical example of KAM is described within the international organization AIESEC; including feedback from a client. Finally, there are suggestions in order to improve KAM in terms of soft skills of Account Managers.