Importance Of Social Skills

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WHAT IS SKILL? CRITICALLY DISCUSS BY REFERRING TO THE THREE KEY APPROACHES TO DEFINING SKILL, I.E. SKILL IN THE PERSON, SKILL IN THE JOB AND SKILL IN THE SETTING.

INTRODUCTION

Within core leadership, management and business texts, skill is a clearly recognised requirement for success, but one which is rarely discussed in depth. For example, Henry (2011) sees the skills of individual employees as one of the key resources of production and recognises the importance of social skills but makes no further definitive statement. Morrison (2009: 334) addresses how a national environment is influential in the fostering of an educated and skilled workforce and its importance for foreign investment, balanced against the cheap-labour attraction of low-skill environments. However, the factors shaping the important concept and resource of skill and the associated human aspects are not explored.

In creating his successful automotive business empire, Henry Ford (1923) considered individual skill as one aspect of an overall production process – a balance of being able to work hard, a capacity to think or learn, but where the aspect or impact of personality or personal factors was limited as much as possible. Every person ended up working at a level that suited their skills i.e. where they belonged (Ford, 1923: 97). Today, work remains an important aspect of personal identity, with people wishing to be recognised for their skills (Doherty, 2009).

However, in a post-Fordist era with globalisation, trans-national labour availability and the increasing importance of the service sector, it is appropriate to contemplate the concept of skill and the associated challenges in greater depth (Kumar 1995). This paper seeks to do so through a discussion...

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...ling to the far away towns’ the call centre labour process and globalization. Work, Employment & Society, 19(2), pp.261--282.

The Week (2013). Will British Army allow women to serve in combat roles [Online], Available: http://www.theweek.co.uk/defence/51198/will-british-army-allow-women-serve-combat-roles [25 July 2014].

Van Echtelt, P., Glebbeek, A., Lindenberg, S. (2006). The new lumpiness of work explaining the mismatch between actual and preferred working hours. Work, Employment & Society, 20(3), pp.493--512.

Walby, S. (1986). Patriarchy at Work, Cambridge: Polity Press.

Weber, M. (1962). Basic Concepts in Sociology, London: Peter Owen Ltd.

Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Women in the Army (2014) [Online], Available: http://www.army.mod.uk/join/20221.aspx [25 July 2014].

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