Employers’ Perspectives on Workplace Communication Skills: The Meaning of Communication Skills

Abstract

Employers provide their interpretation of the meaning of communication skills in this qualitative study of 22 managers. Employers understand written communication to be types of documents, a way to write, and a mode of communication. Oral communication skills mean a style of interacting, presenting, and conducting meetings. Visual communication skills were understood to be data visualization or nonverbal communication. Electronic communication was interpreted as email. The findings contribute to closing-the-gap research by highlighting areas where meaning converges for employers and instructors. Faculty members in communication disciplines can incorporate these findings into their course design and learning outcome discussions.

Exemplary and Unacceptable Workplace Communication Skills

“…1997) and indicates processes of translating, relating, and executing are paramount regardless of the mode of delivery (Coffelt et al, 2019). Even among lists of soft skills, interpersonal communication skills tend to rank highest when measuring importance (Clokie & Fourie, 2016;Maes et al, 1997).…”

The what – how – why of English in the workplace: perspectives from Turkish engineers

“…In research in EFL contexts, however, reading stood out as the most important language skill, as it would enable employees to sustain their professional competency by accessing resources related to their professional life and the workplace, which were available only in English (Cambridge 2016;Rajprasit et al 2014). In general, research on the most important language skill for the workplace has shown varying results, sometimes even within the same country, because communication skills for the workplace are context-dependent (Coffelt, Grauman, and Smith 2019). For example, Spence and Liu (2013) identified writing as the most important skill in the workplace in Taiwan, while Rajprasit et al (2014) stated reading as the most important in the same context.…”

Social Justice and Entrepreneurial Identity

“…Soft skills have been identified as a major factor of employability and promotion in the workplace because they hinge on a recognition of the importance of interpersonal communication among individuals. For this reason, they are often variously referred to as communication skills [9], emotional intelligence [22], interpersonal communication skills [25], and leadership ability [16]. In contrast to "hard" skills that rely on technical content knowledge, "soft skills" are often viewed as "non-cognitive" [52] and affective qualities or abilities that are not taught in school.…”

“…In contrast to "hard" skills that rely on technical content knowledge, "soft skills" are often viewed as "non-cognitive" [52] and affective qualities or abilities that are not taught in school. Like entrepreneurship, soft skills have enjoyed significant attention in TPC scholarship, often in connection to internships [6,40] or fostering communication skills [1,8,9]. One reason for this attention is that soft skills have been identified as important for success across professional workplaces [20,32].…”