IMPACT OF SOFT SKILLS ON ENGINEER’S TASK PERFORMANCE IN MANUFATURING INDUSTRIES OF PAKISTAN

Abstract

It is universally accepted that soft skills are equally significant as hard skills for professional development, however the manufacturing industries in Pakistan is still unaware of the different soft skills that could influence engineer’s performance. There is a need to identify such soft skills which have more effect on the task performance of the engineer. The aim of this study is to address soft skills issues faced by the engineers and the impact of those soft skills issues on the performance of an engineer. Questionnaire survey was used, and the targeted population was engineers of Pakistan. Cluster sampling and Stratified sampling technique was used is this study. Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore were taken as clusters and electronics industry was taken as strata. Total 450 questionnaires were floated among the respondents and 145 responses were used for the analysis of this study. Results shows a positive influence of soft skills on the task performance of the engineers and the most important soft skill found was conflict management skill in electronics industries of Pakistan. This study intends to prove that soft skills are equally important, and they play a very major role on the task performance of an engineer. Through this the organizations will come to know about the advantages of training their engineers about the soft skills. Also, the organization’s success rate will change positively.