Soft Skills are intangible entities which are very difficult to assess in an objective manner. Often it is very difficult for a trainee to accurately assess the changes brought about in oneself after the training. Another area where young aspiring professionals encounter problems, is in providing `proof' of certain skill sets to recruiters in a convincing manner. Maintaining portfolios of training may offer a solution to this vexing problem. A well-documented portfolio would not only facilitate the trainer in holistic assessment, but also help the trainee in gaining a measure of self- confidence and faith in the training inputs. Sireesha Mamidenna, in her paper, "Use of Portfolios in a Soft Skills Course", discusses the significance of portfolios in soft skills training.

More often than not, people equate excellence in communication with good language skills, good body language, etc. While there is no dispute regarding this, there is a tendency to ignore a vital part of the communication processthe receiver. Ultimately, the one who decides whether a communication was effective or not is the receiver of the communication. Very costly advertising campaigns have failed because they have ignored the target population. In her article, "Target Group and Communication", Sutapa Banerjee discusses how the target group influences the communication process.

Organizational culture is the result of the technical excellence and the non-technical ethos of the workforce. Technical excellence is the foundation on which organizational structure is built. However, making technical excellence work for the organizational objectives requires an ethos (culture), which acts as an enabler and an agent of empowerment of the people who deliver the technical expertise. However, the recognition of the softer aspects of organizational culture is being realized in India only recently. Manishankar Chakraborty, in his paper, "Impact of Soft Skills in the Professional Domain", discusses how corporate organizations relate to soft skills.

Functioning in a cross-cultural environment requires excellent language skills. In the Indian context, professionals are reasonably correct in the usages and grammatical requirements of English in its written form. However, Indians find it difficult to converse with the Westerners in English. This seriously affects business dealings. The main problem is that Indians are generally not able to speak in a neutral accent which the Westerners find easy to grasp and understand. The Indian BPO industry is the most affected by this problem. The paper, "Indian BPOs: Transforming Aloks and Nainas into Alecs n Nancys", by Salonee Priya, discusses some of the aspects of language training.

Very often, corporate organizations demand from their workforce maximum efficiency at all times. This causes tremendous stress among the employees, often resulting in burnouts. In the long run, such organizations suffer because of a fatigued and stressed out workforce. Of late, some organizations have realized the influence of stress on the employees and its result on organizational efficiency, and have initiated stress management programs for their employees. The article, "Stress Management Training: A Boon to Employee Wellness", by Rajasshrie Suressh Dhobale, highlights the importance of stress management training in the corporate organization.

One often comes across gifted individuals who are efficient when working alone. However, it has also been observed on occasions, that when such individuals work in a team, their performance drops significantly. Whenever requirements arise, teams of experts comprising very effective individuals, are constituted for specific purposes. At the surface level, these team members are willing to contribute to the team's effort. However, on many occasions, these willfully constituted teams fail. Vandana Sharma, Iti Roychowdhury and Meenu Verma, in their paper, "Why Do Willfully Designed Teams Fail? Factors Leading to Team Dysfunction", discuss the causes of failure of such teams.

A fair number of studies have been conducted on factors causing stress among student communities. Specific studies related to stressors among management students, are limited in number. Neeta Sinha and Ritu Sharma, in their paper, "Sources of Stress for Management Students: A Descriptive Analysis", discuss this issue.

The scope for communication skills is unimaginably immense. This is because no two humans are exactly alike. Hence, research in the process of interpersonal communication will never end. Notwithstanding this, there is a definite need to formulate some thumb results and guidelines to simplify this complicated process. In this context, Rita Rangnekar reviews the book, Hard-Knocks Communication: Thirty Six Timeless Rules for Success, by Giri Subramanian.

-- T D Prasad
Consulting Editor