Title:	“SOFT” SKILLS FOR YOUNG IS PROFESSIONALS: A VIEW FROM THE FIELD
Author(s):	José Carlos Nascimento , Pedro Pimenta , Sanaz Schroeder , Ellen Sjoer , Eamonn Mcquade , Peter Fabian
ISBN:	ISSN: 1646-3692
Editors:	Pedro Isaías and Marcin Paprzycki
Year:	2009
Edition:	V IV,2
Keywords:	Human resources, “Soft” Skills, Nontechnical Skills, IS professionals, Knowledge
Type:	Journal Paper
First Page:	158
Last Page:	174
Language:	English
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Full Contents:	click to dowload
Paper Abstract:	The subject of nontechnical “soft” skills is well recognized as being an important concern of today’s organizations and a critical issue to the success of Information Systems (IS) professionals. This paper acknowledges these concerns and aims to improve our knowledge about how the subject is perceived and managed by the industry and which are the most relevant “soft” skills in order to assure that new IS professionals can smoothly integrate into ”real world” organizations. Moreover, the present study is part of a wider project – the WeKnow Project - that deals with methodologies and tools that could support the process of knowledge transfer between experienced and new professionals. The outcome of WeKnow will be an innovative web-based learning support system - The Web Knowledge Map – that would assist the process and, for that reason, this study also intends to identify which “soft” skills can be more efficiently transferred by knowledge exchange between professionals of distinct generations. To accomplish these goals, a questionnaire was completed by senior professionals of both IS and non-IS companies and several semi-structured interviews were conducted with a selected panel of senior managers. With the combination of these quantitative and qualitative approaches it was possible not only to identify the most relevant “soft” skills as perceived by the field but also to understand the rational that supported the choices. Our findings show that organizations and senior managers have a significant awareness about the subject and that structured and consistent opinions are reasonably disseminated. Both IS and non-IS respondents agreed on the primacy of structural “soft” skills, such as responsibility, ethical mind-set, self motivation and learning attitude, that appear as the foundation for any professional development, in all the domains. In contrast, different opinions where expressed in terms of IS and non-IS professional needs. While the general panel showed a more conservative approach in terms of “soft” skills, senior IS professionals and IS managers stressed the importance of skills linked with change management, risk taking and network collaboration. The findings also stressed that work experience and real world exposure are fundamental and irreplaceable tools in developing nontechnical “soft” skills. Therefore, higher education institutions need to pool resources with industry in order to build a “growth medium” where IS students may well develop the skills they need as future IS professionals.
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