Literature Review #5

Robles, Marcel M. "Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today's Workplace."Business Communication Quarterly: 453-66. Print.

This article discusses the new perception on soft skills that employers are finding are a necessity in the modern workplace. It emphasizes that while technical skills are important, soft skills open up much more opportunities for workers because it makes them versatile, easy to work with, and productive. The article then goes on to mention the top 10 skills experts claim to me the essentials: communication, courtesy, flexibility, integrity, interpersonal skills, positive attitude, professionalism, responsibility, teamwork, and work ethic.

Marcel M. Robles is a Business Communications professors and Eastern Kentucky University. He has published studies in Business Communication Quarterly a few times before. Robles was also the recipient of the 2012 Federation of Business Disciplines Outstanding Educator Award.

Robles mentions that soft skills are "transferrable". I liked this phrase because it shows that the possessors of these skills are versatile workers. Being versatile is quite a relevant topic in the modern workplace. Another key term that Robles used was "people skills". He continued on to say that they are only one aspect of soft skills. Soft skills are a much broader quality to possess.

"Soft skills have more to do with who we are than what we know" (458). I used this quote in my paper because I felt like it was relevant to Greek life. Fraternities and sororities are an activity outside of the classroom, it is more about personal development than intaking information.

"In fact, soft skills are so important that they are actually ranked as number one and extremely important for potential job hires in many occupations and industries" (459). This quote will help me combat my counterargument that soft skills are just fluff added on top of real work. This quotation shows that workers who possess soft skills could definitely see more success than those who do not.

This source is valuable because it includes scholarly research and plenty of evidence that soft skills are beneficial in the work place. Although this source does not discuss the origin of these skills, it will help me explain the importance of possessing these skills.