It is commonly
accepted that communication skills are very important
to survive - in the current corporate environment. The
students also do not dispute the fact - that communication
skills are crucial for getting good placements and even
more so, to be successful in their careers. The students
accept the fact that most of them are weak in this area.
The irony, however, is that even after realizing the fact
that these skills are important, the students display
a singular dislike for improving the skill set. Shailja
Agarwal examines this paradox in her paper, "Indian
Business Management Students' Perceptions About and Preferences
for the Business Communication Course Curriculum".
Change
is always difficult to implement. Changes in organizational
philosophy outlook and attitudes are much harder to conceive
and put into effect. This is because all change managers
tend to focus on the problem and ways to bring about change,
assuming that something is wrong. A more painless manner
of bringing about change within the organization is to
focus on the positive potential of the individuals and
departments that form part of the organizations. Thus,
there is a paradigm shift from sickness to wellness. The
philosophy relates to Appreciative Inquiry. The paper,
"Celebrating Change: The New Paradigm of Organizational
Development", by Rachna Sharma, discusses this philosophy.
Anger
is one of the strongest self-destroying emotions an individual
can experience. Anger is both the result and the cause
of intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts and within
an organization by and large, the results of this emotion
are negative. But there is a positive side to anger. Anger
could be just, fair and also positively directed. - The
paper, "Holy Anger: A Soft Touch to the Hard World",
by Samta Jain, Namrata Mehta and Jyotika Saxena, discusses
the positive aspects of anger.
Campus
recruitments are the normal process the students negotiate
while securing good placements. The recruiters also look
for various soft skills in addition to the `hard' domain
knowledge and skills. Though the soft skills required
are not a matter of much debate, hardly any empirical
study had been carried out on any specific set of skills
and their interrelation, and if gender has any effect
on the skills. In their paper, - "An Empirical Study
on Students' Soft Skills Inventory Test: Reliability and
- Non-Parametric Analysis", S A Vasantha Kumara and
C Sahasranam have chosen some skills set and examined
the interrelationship.
Business
Communication has received special attention only recently,
as this aspect of communication has been obscured in the
wider scope of communication. Business communication is
becoming more specialized each day. The paper, "The
Future - of Business Communication", by Suparna Dutta
and Soma Sircar, discuss the various types of business
communication and the factors which influence it.
Organizational
Culture has many expressions within an organization. Some
of them are overt and easily identifiable. Some of them
are hidden artifacts. R Jagajeevan and Priya Shanmugam,
in their paper, "Common Artifacts Contributing to
Organizational Culture: An Indian Perspective", examines
these artifacts and their influence on organizational
culture.
Normally
recruiters look for some specific qualities or attributes
in candidates. Sometimes it is felt that they prefer `extroverts'
to `introverts'. Are there any problems with `introverts'?
Are they anxiety prone? Are they mild natured and subdued?
A study of these will definitely help the trainers and
counselors to address some problem issues. N Vijaya Lakshmi,
in her paper, "Personality Profiling of Introverts
and Extroverts", studies some profiles and draws
some inferences.
-
T D Prasad
Consulting
Editor
