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Abstract – This study aims to investigate the impacts of soft skills possessed by graduates
from a public university on their employment opportunity. Previous studies revealed that soft
skills are crucial for their employability. A total of 234 graduates were selected as the sample
of this study. The data analysis by SPSS found that employability was positively associated
with leadership skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills. Furthermore, leadership
skills possessed by graduates have the strongest influence on employment opportunities
among the three independent variables. The study adds more information to the current debate
in this area and provides practical contributions to the management of the university,
particularly in planning various students’ upskilling programmes to increase the rate of
graduate employability. The findings suggest that the university should focus on leadership,
teamwork, and communication skills in the teaching and learning process.
Keywords: Graduate Employability, Soft Skills, Business Students.
1. Introduction
Nowadays, there is an increasing emphasis being placed on soft skills in the workplace.
Employees can develop their soft skills by participating in various training programmes at
their workplace. Besides that, higher education institutions also play an important role in
developing soft skills (Kyllonen, 2013). According to Nusrat and Sultana (2019),
competitiveness in the current marketplace and soft skills are “must-have” skills. A
student’s soft skill can be defined as his or her abilities, skills, traits, attitudes, behaviour
personality, rather than technical knowledge. Soft skills have been considered as one of the
crucial qualities sought in the corporate world. John (2009) mentions that modern
corporations demand candidates who have the knowledge and soft skills that can be
beneficial to the organisation.
The Role of Soft Skills on
Business Graduates Employability
Journal of
Entrepreneurship and Business
E-ISSN: 2289-8298
Vol. 7, Issue 2, pp. 83 - 94. Dec. 2019
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and
Business, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan
Locked Bag 36, 16100 Pengkalan Chepa
Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia
http://fkp.umk.edu.my/journal/index.html
Date Received: 1st November 2019
Date Accepted:22th December 2019
DOI: 10.17687/JEB.0702.07
Ahmad Ridhuwan Abdullah (Corresponding Author)
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan
City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa
16100 Kota Bharu, Kelantan
Email: ridhuwan.a@umk.edu.my
Mohd Zulkifli Muhammad
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan
City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa
16100 Kota Bharu, Kelantan
Email: zulkifli.m@u mk.edu.my
Noorul Azwin Md Nasir
Faculty of Entrepreneurship and Business
Universiti Malaysia Kelantan
City Campus, Pengkalan Chepa
16100 Kota Bharu, Kelantan
Email: azwin@umk.edu.my
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
License
Ahmad Ridhuwan, Mohd Zulkifli & Noorul Azwin
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The Department of Statistics, Malaysia revealed that the average unemployment rate was 5
(3.3%) in Malaysia from year 2015 until 2019. During this period, most of the graduates
did not get a job due to the lack of basic soft skills required by the employers. It is
important for university students to have extra skills rather than academic knowledge
(Credé & Kuncel, 2008). The employers perceive that students are not prepared to face the
workplace and they expect the universities to improve and produce more employable
graduates (Spowart, 2011). The skills can be achieved through various activities or
programmes related to the teaching and learning process.
The teaching and learning methods must be properly planned, organised, and executed at
the universities to enhance the academic competence of students in every aspect such as
leadership, teamwork, and communication. From the programme, students can improve
their soft skills before facing pursuing their careers. Unemployment among graduates can
be overcomed by gaining employability skills and technical skills. Many solutions can
improve the skills of graduates regarding their marketability. Hence, the government can
encourage Malaysian students to improve their soft skills that can improve the economic
level and motivate fresh graduates to become more successful with better soft skills. Most
graduates have to deal with obstacles in getting a job because they have to compete with
others who have excellent soft skills. Programmes on learning methods should be
organised in universities to improve the academic competence of the students in all
aspects. This approach can help students to develop and polish their skills for their career
as effective skills training can produce graduates who are educated and skilful. According
to Nusrat and Sultana (2019), soft skills are “must-have” skills due to the competitive
nature in the current marketplace for job seekers.
This paper aims to explore the importance of soft skills by investigating their effects on
graduate employability before suggesting the best skills. This study focuses on three
elements, namely communication skills, teamwork skills, and leadership skills. Soft skills
have been appointed as a set of crucial skills required by future work in the corporate
world. As stated by John (2009), modern corporations often seek candidates who possess
this set of skills that are beneficial to the organisation. The purpose of this study is to
promote awareness among university students in equipping themselves with related soft
skills before pursuing their careers. The skills are beneficial in equipping graduates to
become more competitive and efficient at their workplace.
The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of soft skills on the employability
among Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) graduates. It is believed that this study will
help the students to become aware of the importance of the required soft skills. They
should know that graduates with better soft skills have a better chance of their career
compared to those who lack the skills. This study has four research objectives and four
research questions to achieve the aim:
2. Literature Review
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Soft skills are considered as people's skills or personality-specific skills. Soft skills are
non-technical and intangible which are also known as personality-specific skills that can
determine an individual's strength as a leader, listener, negotiator, and conflict mediator.
Soft skills are the traits and abilities of attitude and behaviour rather than knowledge or
technical aptitude (John, 2009). Soft skills are skills that add more value to the hard skills
equipped by an individual. The skills are not a substitute for hard or technical skills, but
they act as harmonising skills that unlock the prospective for highly effective performance
in people with good hard skills.
2.1 Leadership Skills
According to Crowne (2019), leadership is a process of influencing others and it is an
important resource for any group. Sheriff et al. (2017) define leadership as the art of
motivating a group of people to achieve a common goal. Gerhardt (2019) states that the
research serves as an intervention between students’ leadership and their confidence in
employment. The research was conducted in London and used the qualitative method
which has been used as a module across nine disciplines and numerous projects on
leadership. The sample used five group leaders among the students which were evaluated
using content analysis for planning phase, learning, and reflection. The project was
conducted in week 2 during the tutorial session which emphasize on leadership topic .This
phase takes approximately a week to complete the methodology. The reflection of the
group is on their experiences, work-based application, and knowledge. This study
hypothesised that leadership skills would positively affect employment among graduates.
Nolan-Arañez and Ludvik (2018) mention that a leader’s perspective on leadership
development activities can influence the employability rate among graduates. The research
was conducted in the United States of America (USA) and used the qualitative method.
The sample was ten students who were leaders during the Spring programme 2015 — the
students were paired with a mentor to complete the leadership development programme
within two months. The programme has four sections which are leadership workshop, self-
assessment, community service painting murals, and reflection paper. The community
service required students to paint with disabled individuals. Next, Nga and Wai Mun
(2013) studied the effect of leadership towards the organizational changed amongb
business students and the result showed that there was a highly correlated between
leadership and organization change between them.
According to Kelly (2017), undergraduate students need to be well-equipped in facing their
profession in the future. This research was conducted in Australia and used the qualitative
approach. The sample for this research was 100 respondents from the university. The
section describes the leadership skills of graduates in Australia. The section is based on the
week that they want to conduct their research. The researcher took seven weeks to
complete the study and found that leadership skills are critical for the students. The
respondents provided their opinion on important leadership skills to pursue their careers.
Therefore, the study hypothesised the following:
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H1: Leadership skills will positively affect employment among graduates.
2.2 Teamwork Skills
Teamwork can affect the performance and effectiveness of an organisation when the team
members have abilities, knowledge, and skills by working in teams (Hanaysha, 2016).
Furthermore, Gerhardt (2019) studied on the the proficiency of soft skills towards
employability among students. This research was conducted in Tanzania using the
quantitative approach. The questionnaires were answered by 221 respondents in the
Institute of Social Work (ISW) who were in their final year for bachelor's degrees and
postgraduate degrees. The researcher used a two-sample test to examine the teamwork skill
of the individuals. The result revealed a significant positive correlation between teamwork
skills and employment among university students. Therefore, the study hypothesised that
teamwork skills would positively affect employment among graduates.
According to Majid, Liming, Tong, and Raihana (2012), there was a correlation between
students’ perception of the importance of soft skills towards employment. This research
was conducted in Singapore and used the quantitative method to collect data from four
universities in Singapore. The survey focused on teamwork skills among the four
universities on 188 students from several courses. The findings revealed a positive
correlation for the importance of soft skills in teamwork skills towards employability.
Therefore, the study hypothesised that teamwork skills would positively affect
employment among graduates. Riebe, Roepen, Santarelli, and Marchioro (2010) identified
the effectiveness of university programmes in teaching students about teamwork skills and
future employment. This research was conducted in Australia using quantitative
approaches which are questionnaires and two online surveys. The research revealed the
positive correlation for the effectiveness of university programmes towards employability.
Therefore, the study hypothesised that teamwork skills will positively affect the
employment among graduates.
Nusrat and Sultana (2019) identified the most desired soft skills sought by recruiters for
business graduates in employment and potential candidates. The study was done in
Bangladesh using a quantitative approach that focuses on university-level business
education institutes and recruiters of entry-level business graduates. The result showed a
positive correlation between all the soft skills to sustain employment among business
graduates. Therefore, the study hypothesises the following:
H2: Teamwork skills will positively affect employment among graduates.
2.3 Communication Skills
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Communication is defined as a process to understand the environment and themselves
from the characteristic that happens in levels non-conscious, semi-conscious and conscious
(Salleh, Sulaiman, Mohamad & Sern, 2017). Oussii and Klibi (2017) stated that there is a
correlation between communication skills and employment. This research was conducted
in Australia on 180 students. The students were divided into two groups. First, different
profiles of students were classified based on their average grade. Second, the classification
was made based on the different students’ socio-economic profiles. The study found that
there was a significant association between communication skills and employment
profession after graduating. Therefore, the study hypothesised that communication skills
would positively affect employment among graduates.
Salleh et al. (2017) mentioned that there is a correlation among the soft skills like
collaboration skills, communication skills, and entrepreneurship towards employment. This
study was conducted in Malaysia using the quantitative approach. The respondents were
selected based on the predetermined criteria, including the respondents should be students
or lecturers from the five different institutions. The questionnaires were distributed online
and obtained 534 responses. The study used a cross-sectional design to collect data from
the respondents. The findings reveal high mean score values in communication skills
which explains the importance of communication skills towards employment after
graduating. Therefore, the study hypothesised that communication skills would positively
affect employment among graduates.
Third, Hassall, Arquero, Joyce, and Gonzalez (2013) show further evidence of a positive
relationship between communication skills and employment among students. This result
was obtained from questionnaires answered by students in the United Kingdom (UK).
There had two questionnaires: 1) the first is about oral communication; and 2) the second
is the questionnaire used to measure written and oral communication. The findings
revealed that there is a strong relationship between communication skills and employment
among the students. The study hypothesised that communication skills would positively
affect employment among graduates. According to San-Valero et al. (2018), there is a
relationship between communication skills and employment in an engineering course.
They utilised a qualitative approach by selecting a sample from students who are pursuing
Master’s degree in engineering programme in the United States of America (USA). The
training focused on verbal, non-verbal, written, and graphical communication. The
students were asked randomly in an open session in which they have to make a short video
that supports the documentation. The lecturers also assisted the students for the responses.
Therefore, the study hypothesised the following:
H3: Communication skills will positively affect employment among graduates.
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2.4 Employability
Employability is a set of skills, knowledge, and personal attributes that contribute to the
individuals’ security and successfulness to be selected in their chosen career for the benefit
of themselves, the workforce, the community, and the economy (O’Leary, 2013).
According to O’Leary (2013), there is a positive soft skill collaboration on the opportunity
to get employed among the graduates. This research was conducted in London using both
qualitative and quantitative methods with primary research that added some material for
debate and secondary research that obtained previous works. The sample was 104
graduates from different universities. The findings revealed a positive correlation between
soft skill indication and employment needed by university students.
Stewart, Wall, and Marciniec (2016) stated that soft skills are considered the most valuable
for preparing graduates for employment. The research was conducted in the UK using the
qualitative approach. The sample was 214 college students from four universities in which
45.8% of the respondents were seniors, 52.8% of them were juniors, and the remaining
respondents were random students. The findings revealed a positive correlation for the soft
skills in preparing students for employment after graduating.
Camps and Rodríguez (2011) found a correlation between individuals’ performance and
their transformational leadership behaviour towards employment. The employability is
considered as an individual’s phenomenon that is mediated by organisational learning
capability. The sample was 795 students in Spain which were analysed using the
quantitative method. The findings revealed a positive correlation between worker-
perceived organisational, employability perceptions, leadership, perception, and
performance that have a significant influence on employment.
3. Methodology of the Study
The study utilised the quantitative research design to examine the causal effects on a set of
predictors towards the outcome variable. The target population of the study is graduates
from bachelor in the business programme, University Malaysia Kelantan (UMK). The
population has four cohorts of graduates from year 2015 until 2018 with a total of 590
students as follows: 81 students in 2015, 111 students in 2016, 218 students in 2017, and
180 students in 2018. The survey was distributed to them with 20% response rate or 140
responses.
4. Findings and Discussion
The findings are presented according to the research objectives to measure the influence of
communication skills, leadership skills, and team skills on job opportunities among
graduates. This study had 140 respondents and obtained the consistency reliability or the
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Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the three independent and dependent variables
as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Reliability Test
Cronbach’s Alpha
N of Items
Leadership Skills
.752
9
Teamwork Skills
.806
12
Communication Skills
.873
9
The results reveal that the Cronbach’s alpha values for the following: 1) 0.752 for the
nine items of leadership skills; 2) 0.806 for the twelve items of teamwork skills; and 3)
0.873 for the nine items of communication skills. The internal consistency reliability of
the measure used in this study can be considered as good. The result means that the
questionnaire regarding leadership skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills is
acceptable.
Table 2: Descriptive Statistics
Variables
Employment
Leadership
Skills
Teamwork
Skills
Communication
Skills
Mean
4.5929
4.3000
4.4071
4.2714
Median
4.5000
4.5000
4.5000
4.000
Std. Deviation
.39139
.48280
.46297
.54102
The mean values for employment among UMK graduates (DV) are 4.5929. The result
means that most of the respondents agreed with the employment among UMK graduates.
The standard deviation for the dependent variable (employment) is 0.39139 and the mean
value for leadership skills is 4.3000. The result reveals that the respondents agreed that
leadership skills influence employment among UMK graduates. The standard deviation
for leadership skills is 0.48280 and the mean value for the teamwork skills is 4.4071. The
respondents agreed that perceived usefulness has positively contributed to employment
among UMK graduates. The standard deviation for leadership skills is 0.46297 and the
mean value for communication skills is 4.2714. The result means that most of the
respondents agreed that communication skills influence employment among UMK
graduates with the standard deviation of 0.54102. The normality for this study is not
normal because the result is lower than 0.05. This issue might be due to the focus on
students from UMK only. This normality is referred from Shapiro-Wilk. The assumption
for normality data is violated due to the sufficiently large sample size that reduces the
effects of non-normality. According to Joseph F Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, and
Tatham (1998), larger sample sizes reduce the detrimental effects of non-normality.
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Table 3: Coefficients
Variable
Coefficients
t-statistics
p-value
VIF
Constant
19.253
4.463
.000
Leadership skills
.509
4.690
.000
1.589
Teamwork skills
.219
2.400
.018
1.634
Communication
skills
.252
2.930
.004
1.608
a. Dependent Variable: Employability
Regression Model:
Employment = 19.253 + 0.509Leadership + 0.219Teamwork + 0.252Communication + ε
Research Model:
Note: * coefficients are significant at p < 0.05
** coefficients are significant at p < 0.01
The results from the multiple linear regression analysis show that there is a significant
linear positive relationship between leadership skills and employment; thus, supporting
H1. For every increase in the unit of leadership, the employment will increase by 0.509
(adjusted b=0.51, 95%, CI 0.29, 0.72, p˂0.001) and this result shows that teamwork
skills and communication skills are constant. Next, there is a significant linear positive
relationship between teamwork skills and employment; hence, supporting H2. For every
increase in the unit of teamwork, the employment will increase by 0.219 (adjusted
b=0.22, 95%, CI 0.04, 0.39, p˂0.001). This result shows that leadership skills and
communication skills are constant. There is a significant linear positive relationship
between communication skills and employment; thus, supporting H3. For every increase
Leadership skills
Teamwork skills
Communication skills
Employability
0.509**
0.219*
0.252**
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in the unit of communication, the employment will increase by 0.252 (adjusted b=0.25,
95%, CI 0.08, 0.42, p˂0.001). This result shows that leadership skills and teamwork
skills are constant. Furthermore, 45.5% of the variation in employment is explained by
leadership skills, communication skills, and teamwork skills according to the multiple
linear regression model (R²=0.455).
Lastly, the VIF value of leadership skills is 1.59, teamwork skills is 1.63, and
communication skills is 1.61. There are argument about the VIF that accepted <10, but
some papers mention that the limit of VIF is only 5. Joseph F. Hair (2018) stated that the
maximum level for VIF is 10, whereas Ecke, Bergman, and Lagerkvist (1998) agreed
that the maximum level for VIF is 5. This result is acceptable based on the argument by
Hair (2018) and Ecke et al. (1998). The VIF for all independent variables are less than 10
and less than 5. Hence, they are unbiased or free from any multicollinearity issue.
5. Conclusion and Implications
This study investigated the effects of possessing the three basic soft skills (i.e., leadership
skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills) among graduates on employability. The
findings suggested that all the independent variables are crucial factors to enhance the
employability of UMK students. The four objectives in Chapter 1 reveal that employability
has a relationship with all the independent variables on employment among graduates.
The first objective shows that the soft skills that have the most influence on graduates
employment are leadership skills. The second objective, which is leadership skills, can
affect employment among graduates. For the third and fourth objectives, which are
teamwork and communication skills, they have an impact on employment among
graduates. Good soft skills are very important for employment among graduates.
The outcome of the study revealed that all the independent variables affect employability
among graduates. Overall, the first objective identified leadership skills as the skills that
have the most effect on employability. The second, third, and fourth objectives revealed
that the relationship between leadership skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills
affect the employability among graduates. According to the previous research, it can be
concluded that soft skills are important in ensuring the employability and marketability of
the students. Therefore, they must focus on improving their soft skills, particularly
leadership skills, teamwork skills, and communication skills to enhance the employability
of graduates.
This research can be used for business schools such as universities and colleges to
improve their education module so that graduates can secure their jobs after completing
their studies. The acquired knowledge and the skills from the university will help them in
seeking jobs. Universities can ensure the development of roles and projects that allow
students to challenge themselves besides providing training programmes that offer on-
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the-job opportunities for growth. Engaging students at all levels with strategic direction
and decision-making will also encourage them to pursue the leadership roles. Graduates
have a strong desire for clarity in their career development. Furthermore, another task-
based method for improving student communication skills can be done through critical
thinking exercises. This method can be done verbally or written form so that the students
can answer the questions using their words and expressions. Lastly, all members need to
contribute to the project with their assigned task for teamwork.
Furthermore, this study can be used for study purposes. The findings will be valuable to
university or college students who want to research on the importance of soft skills towards
students. All the collected and analysed data are valid. The independent variable shows a
positive relationship with the dependent variables. It is believed that more factors need to
be included in the research model besides leadership skills, teamwork skills, and
communication skills in affecting employability among graduates. Lastly, future
researchers should explore other factors that may interact with soft skills.
6. Limitation and Suggestions for Future Research
The study is limited to the graduates in a business programme in Malaysia. Therefore,
future studies should consider expanding the study area and collecting information from
both business and non-business students. This strategy will provide comparative results
and produce interesting insights.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
No funding was involved in this research.
Acknowledgement
N/A
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