The Effect of Interpersonal Skills on Worker Performance

Despite a great deal of narrative and anecdotal evidence that communication and interpersonal skills are important for workplace success, little is known about why those skills are important and how possibly to train those skills. This study uses personnel records of a Japanese manufacturing company as well as its training attendance records, and examines the relationship between participation in their interpersonal skills training program and job performance. We compare those who participated in the training program with those who did not using propensity score matching and difference-in-difference method. The results show that experience in the training program was significantly associated with post-training evaluation and promotion probability, suggesting that improving interpersonal skills through participation in off-the-job training programs may improve worker's post-training performance and lead to future promotion.