IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osk/wpaper/1808.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Fostering Organizational Capabilities Through Soft Skills: A Strategic Imperative For A Vuca World

Author

Listed:
  • Dora Abidi

    (Ph.D. Student, Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University)

Abstract

During the last decade, the need and importance of soft skills are significantly increasing because of three main reasons. Firstly, the firm fs performance is highly associated to the firm f interaction with its external environment that involves customers and local stakeholders. Secondly, the workplace productivity is highly depending on the quality of relationship and communication among the employees. Thirdly, today fs environment is considered as a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) situation and represents serious challenge. Thus, firms should create people oriented skills such as problem solving and communication. In addition, decisions makers should develop an accurate response when they meet the unexpected. They could be the employees from upper to mid-level position employees. Drawing on these critical conclusions, this study aims at providing empirical evidence on the positive impact of employees f soft skills on firm fs capabilities in terms of innovation performance, firm fs knowledge, explorative and exploitative behavior and strategic flexibility. The survey was conducted with 67 firms based in Tunisia, which is one of the leading emerging countries in the MENA region that has recently faced social and economic changes. Our results concur with the employer survey and explain the reason why employers are increasingly looking for these skills in their employees.

Suggested Citation

  • Dora Abidi, 2018. "Fostering Organizational Capabilities Through Soft Skills: A Strategic Imperative For A Vuca World," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 18-08, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:osk:wpaper:1808
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www2.econ.osaka-u.ac.jp/library/global/dp/1808.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ikujiro Nonaka, 1994. "A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(1), pages 14-37, February.
    2. Ron Sanchez, 1995. "Strategic flexibility in product competition," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(S1), pages 135-159.
    3. Anil K. Gupta & Vijay Govindarajan, 2000. "Knowledge flows within multinational corporations," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 473-496, April.
    4. Michael Lubatkin & Zeki Simsek & Yan Ling & John F. Veiga, 2006. "Ambidexterity and Performance in Small-to Medium-Sized Firms : The Pivotal Role of Top Management Team Behavioral Integration," Post-Print hal-02311781, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chien-Hsing Wu & Shu-Chen Kao, 2016. "Appraisal of Knowledge Object Use via a Three-Phase Flow Profile," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(02), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Matsuno, Ken & Kohlbacher, Florian, 2020. "Proactive marketing response to population aging: The roles of capabilities and commitment of firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 93-104.
    3. Pettus, Michael L. & Kor, Yasemin Y. & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2007. "A Theory of Change in Turbulent Environments: The Sequencing of Dynamic Capabilities Following Industry Deregulation," Working Papers 07-0100, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    4. Klaus E. Meyer & Chengguang Li & Andreas P. J. Schotter, 0. "Managing the MNE subsidiary: Advancing a multi-level and dynamic research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-39.
    5. Fortwengel, Johann & Gutierrez Huerter O, Gabriela & Kostova, Tatiana, 2023. "Three decades of research on practice transfer in multinational firms: Past contributions and future opportunities," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 58(3).
    6. Burmeister, Anne & Lazarova, Mila B. & Deller, Jürgen, 2018. "Repatriate knowledge transfer: Antecedents and boundary conditions of a dyadic process," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 806-816.
    7. Maria Bengtsson & Anders Soderholm, 2002. "Bridging Distances: Organizing Boundary-spanning Technology Development Projects," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(3), pages 263-274.
    8. Maryam Sanaei & Amy Nicole Javernick-Will & Paul Chinowsky, 2013. "The influence of generation on knowledge sharing connections and methods in construction and engineering organizations headquartered in the US," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(9), pages 991-1004, September.
    9. Tippmann, Esther & Sharkey Scott, Pamela & Mangematin, Vincent, 2014. "Subsidiary managers’ knowledge mobilizations: Unpacking emergent knowledge flows," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 431-443.
    10. Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, Pia & Nätti, Satu, 2012. "Network orchestration for knowledge mobility: The case of an international innovation community," jbm - Journal of Business Market Management, Free University Berlin, Marketing Department, vol. 5(4), pages 244-264.
    11. Casillas, José C. & Moreno, Ana M. & Acedo, Francisco J. & Gallego, María A. & Ramos, Encarnación, 2009. "An integrative model of the role of knowledge in the internationalization process," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 311-322, July.
    12. Maria Adenfelt & Katarina Lagerström, 2008. "The development and sharing of knowledge by Centres of Excellence and transnational teams: A conceptual framework," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(3), pages 319-338, May.
    13. Adenfelt, Maria & Lagerström, Katarina, 2006. "Knowledge development and sharing in multinational corporations: The case of a centre of excellence and a transnational team," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 381-400, August.
    14. W. Sofka, 2008. "Globalizing Domestic Absorptive Capacities," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 48(6), pages 769-792, December.
    15. Qi Ai & Hui Tan, 2018. "The intra-firm knowledge transfer in the outward M&A of EMNCs: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 399-425, June.
    16. Eric Christian Brun, 2016. "Ambidexterity and Ambiguity: The Link Between Ambiguity Management and Contextual Ambidexterity in Innovation," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(04), pages 1-29, August.
    17. Stewart Johnston & Angela Paladino, 2007. "Knowledge management and involvement in innovations in MNC subsidiaries," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 281-302, March.
    18. Anna S. Cui & Fang Wu, 2016. "Utilizing customer knowledge in innovation: antecedents and impact of customer involvement on new product performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 516-538, July.
    19. Li Chen & Shaoming Zou & Hui Xu & Yiwen Chen, 2020. "Entrepreneurial Orientation in Multinational Corporations: Antecedents and Effects," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 123-148, February.
    20. Lívia Lopes Barakat & Torben Pedersen & Marcio Amaral-Baptista & Sherban Leornardo Cretoiu & Paulo Bento, 2022. "Too Much of Two Good Things: Explicating the Limited Complementarity Between Drivers of MNC Headquarters’ Absorptive Capacity," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 393-426, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Soft skills; innovativeness; VUCA; Tunisia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osk:wpaper:1808. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The Economic Society of Osaka University (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feosujp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.