Psychology

Executive summary
The focus of this study is to explore the perception of IT companies towards soft skill. Soft skills just like the technical skills, is very important in the IT sector and the IT enabled businesses.  This paper explores the importance of soft skills in the IT sector and the IT enabled businesses for instance the Business Outsourcing process (BOP) segment. The paper also looks at different elements of soft skills, which are vital in the IT and other business sector. The paper further discusses significant areas of the information technology that soft skill has played a major role in their development for instance clients and consumer management. On the other hand, the paper touches on the training of company employees on soft skill. The study investigates the training methods used by the companies and different policies governing the training sessions. The study also explores different views of employees working in the IT sector specifically in the Pune city of India, on use of soft skill in the IT sector. Soft skill is vital for interaction between the IT companies employees and their global customers. In information technology, acquisition of soft skills also signifies a degree of cultural sensitization. Cultural sensitization simply means appreciating and having enough information of different cultures and their artefacts. Lastly, companies must find prudent ways of training their workforce on soft skills. Company, which has skilled and advanced workforce, enjoys a greater competitive advantage than the rival in the same industry does.

Chapter 1 Introduction
Background Information.
Many literatures have different definition relating to soft skill. Some refer to soft skills as the process skills, social skills, while others as generic skills. Regardless of the many definitions used, it appears that a common ground exits on the term to include things like communication skills, creative thinking skills, working as a team and the capability to adjust to dynamic environment (Ziegler 2007).

 Subramanian (2005) defines soft skills as a package of personal characters, social elegance, lingual skills, hospitality and hopefulness that make each and every person different from one another. Soft skills are very vital especially in companies where employees interact with stakeholders and customers from different countries abroad each with different customs, culture and perceptions.   Many college students are always unprepared than expected by the employers because of lack of vital soft skills essential in the work place.

It has been established that skilled workers contribute to increased production and enhanced economic development (Ziegler 2007). Lack of these skills hence can result to decreased economic performance of any organisation. Therefore, lack of necessary soft skills could lead to redundant workforce in any organization or a country as a whole (Powers 2004). Powers (2004) continues to lament that an important aspect of competition in any organization is the dynamic progression of soft-skill in the whole workforce. An organisation that has workers that are more skilled has a competitive advantage over the others.

Lavine (2007) confirms that many institutions offering MBA have been paying a lot of concentration to issues such as teamwork, leadership and more so on communication, essential elements of soft-skill. Lavine (2007) found it more ridiculous that instead of this institutions putting more emphasis in very crucial subjects like strategic planning, accounting among others, are concentrating on very simple and obvious topics like soft-skills. These institutions are only trying to respond to the requirements of many organizations who want their new recruit to have soft-skill.

Apart from the above-mentioned soft-skills, the most sought after in our contemporary society is the computer skills. Many people nowadays are very much accessed to the instruments of technology (Wallace and Clariana 2005).In reality many experiences their first contact with the computer in the baby class and this has made many college administrators and tutors to assume that incoming students have adequate computer skills. This supposition has led to many institutions scrapping out computer literacy courses.

Technical knowledge is very important and its significance cannot be disapproved, as it forms the general foundation for most of the operations. However, technical know-how alone cannot differentiate the best scholar from the mass of other sholars.Soft-skills balances technical skills and are very beneficial to any body in search for employment. This makes the current and the future professionals to become socially accountable and able to integrate with the dynamic surroundings where new skills are needed due to technological development (Powers 2004).

For many students, it is very significant to acquire adequate soft-skills especially the communication skill that will earn them more chance for job in addition to the other technical skills (Ziegler 2007).This has posed a challenge to most of the curriculum in the institutions of high learning to nature life long academicians and also to fill the gap between the dynamic business environment and employers outlook. The study tries to explore the perception on the concept of soft-skill in an effort to establish its significance to the world of information technology.

In any labour intensive organization, every employee is a significant resource to that company (Subramanian 2005).Therefore the success of any firm demands that a lot of consideration is put  on recruitment and development of skilled personnel who are not only proficient in technological skills but also in the soft skills.

For the past ten and half years India has come up to be a very powerful supplier of IT enabled services (Information Technology enabled services) to America, Europe, and Asian organisations.  Western nations started implementation Information Technology outsourcing and majority of the contracts are directed to India (Subramanian 2005).For this reasons the Indian Information Technology sector has been experiencing an exponential growth up to date. The proceeds of outsourcing Information Technology are approximated to be over 80 billion. Indian business process outsourcing firms in the mean time offers several information technology enabled services which consist of customer care, payments service, financial, management, Human Resource Management, and substantial developments in sectors such as banking, insurance, governments among others.

For the past few years, Indian Information Technology enabled business sector has grown into an extremely competent sector. Most of the Information Technology enabled businesses offers a wide range of services form the small rank call centre service to a soaring level knowledge-processing, consultancy, Information Technology blueprints among other services. According to most Indian researchers, over 800 firms located situated in Indian cities have been providing an extensive range of software services mostly to the markets abroad. Some company, which started from Information Technology sector, has spread their wings to other professional fields such as medicine, law, and finance just to mention but a few (Lavine 2007).

1.2. Problem statement
The main problem in this study is to explore the perception of Information Technology companies towards soft skill. The study outcome will help a great deal the Indian policy makers in understanding the current requirements from the Indian populace in terms of soft-skill, and make necessary adjustments in the institutions of high learning and the companies training facilities to match up with the current trends. This study also tries to find out the relevance of the soft-skills in the field of information technology and information technology enabled businesses.

The study also will seek to establish the type of soft skills required and the curriculum imposed by these IT companies for soft skill training among its workers. The research will also dig out the methodologies and technologies used to implement training. Apart from the advantages accruing from integration of soft-skill and the information technology and information technology enabled businesses in India, the researcher also, want to find out the challenges facing the industry.

Last but not least, the study will also try to establish the role of the soft skill in the development and the prosperity of the information technology and the information technology enabled businesses. Therefore, this study will touch on the nitty-gritty of the soft-skills on the employees fraternity as a whole plus the role-played by the soft-skill trainers.

1.3. Research objective
The general objective of this study is to investigate the perception of the Information Technology companies toward soft skills. The specific objectives of the study are as follows
To investigate the most important elements of soft-skill in information technology and information technology enabled businesses.
To investigate the relationship between the soft-skills and the information technology industry.
To find out how the workers are trained and which curriculum they are using for soft skill training
To explore the perception of IT workers towards the soft skills.

1.4. Research hypothesis
Research hypothesis is unverified facts about an occurrenceincident, assessed by the results from the facts collected on the ground and writtenpublished literature to validate or discredit its legitimacy. Therefore, the research hypothesis under discussion is as follows
Communication skill is one of the most important elements of soft skills in the information technology sector.
Soft-skills and information technology are complements of one another and none can do without the other successfully.
Soft skill training methods varies from companies to companies.
Many IT workers do not fancy soft skill improvement programmes.

Chapter 2 Literature review
2.1 Soft skill relevance and development
The most important issue for any business entity is the persistent development of the soft skills among its employees. The company, which has more skilled and advanced workforce, enjoys a greater competitive advantage than the rivals within the industry (Powers 2004) do. Just as rationalization of the companys employees is an important economic factor, absolute call for reduction in the cost of handling customer grievances while maintaining high revenues is equally important. Improvement of workers skills especially the soft skills has proven to be a very challenging task for many organizations and very many cases of unsuccessful attempts have been reported .Strategic philosophies encompassing the traditional aspects of education have also proven futile, thus the need for radical changes.

Over the past few years, India has developed its information technology enabled business (Information Technology enabled services) at  a very  faster  rat e  into an  able vertically  integrated business  process outsourcing(BPO)  player in  the industry (Subramanian 2005).The BPO service which  started off from  the Information Technology segment  has currently  spread  to  other professional  disciplines of  the economy and the growth  are estimated  to  be over 200 billion  presently. Given the above trend, it is no wonder many studies in lately have been on the Indias Information Technology sector. The major thing left behind in this studies is how each BPO companies has been adjusting themselves  to meet the challenges  as a result  of  their expansion and  the action the companies take  to meet organizations demand. The major factor in ensuring companies capability enhancement is the training of its workforce on the precarious business dynamic demands and that is where soft skills come in.

It is argued that most learning institutions do not equip students with necessary skills required in the industry (Ziegler 2007). Many students debates that what is required in the school is not the same as the industries requirement. Therefore, this has led to a huge gap between the institutions of higher learning and the business sector. This huge gap has been recognised as one of the major skill gap between industries and colleges. Information Technology sector is labour intensive and thus every employee in these companies is a very important resource for the organisation (Subramanian 2005). For this reason, the success of any Information Technology company lies in undivided attention given to acquirement and enhancement  of  the skilled workforce who are not only endowed with technical skills but also adept  in soft skills.

(Subramanian 2005) also affirms that, in addition to the technical skills, workers in the Information Technology sectors require soft skills to interact directly with the clients on personal basis or through other information technology gadgets. Thus soft skills are very important for the Information Technology employee to who typically interacts with customers on the global scale and each of these customers have different cultures, behavioural traits and perceptions.

In actuality most workers in different organizations, not necessarily in Information Technology sector do not express a lot of enthusiasm on progressive enhancement of their soft skills (Powers 2004).Many reasons have been given for there attitude among them being dispiriting pressure of formal educational practices, misguided perceptions that the general workers are never the cause of business shortcomings and thus their skill development will not add any value to the organization, an  increasing mistrust and opposition between  the administration and the workers and the common suspicion  of exploitation of workers by the management. All of these has led to the misguide attitude of most workers towards development of personal skills thus plummeting advancement.

Based on several researches, many organizations are faced with very unique employee composition comprising of three differentiated groups resulting in the foundation of attitude towards work (Powers 2004). The initial category is the maximisers who are about 15 of the total employees and represents the most ideal workers who are looking forward to improving their profession, are loyal and shows dedication to quality and efficiency. The second category is the maintainers who comprises of about 55 of the total employees and represent workers who only do their task under instruction. The last and the third group are the minimisers who comprises of   30 of the workforce representing those who resist the challenges.

The most question most of the upcoming professionals ask themselves when going for an interview is whether they have the much needed qualification and experience (Marc 2007). Majority of the companies do not really know what they wish for in their workers. Marc 2007 goes ahead and comments that, just by use of paper credentials it is very difficult to differentiate every individual who have applied for job from another. This is the main reason why most companies usually pile up lists of job qualifiers who have experience that surpass the job positions requirements. The main objective is to get rid of the inexperienced lot and giving more space for the very top contenders. A consequence for this is the shutting out of the young but very able talents.

Earlier research studies have shown that in Information Technology, job skills have frequently resulted to contradictory views on the significance of the technical skills versus the soft skills (Subramanian 2005). Some researchers have shown that technical skills are more significant for Information Technology professionals but others have also powerfully illustrated the importance of soft skills in Information Technology enabled services. Therefore, apart from having adequate technical skills, an Information Technology employee must have sufficient soft skills to facilitate management of clients and customers who probably are globally based. Further, for an Information Technology employee, acquisition of soft skills also signifies a degree of cultural sensitisation.

Cultural sensitisation simply means appreciating and having enough information of different culture and their artefacts such as sports, accent, tinge, state and individual personality, history and insight. It is supposed that all of the above characteristics are part and parcel of the clients and customers of these Information Technology companies (Subramanian 2005). Therefore, soft skills and cultural awareness are very much important in making sure that the transactions between the Information Technology companies and the clients become very successful.

Marc (2007) provides the following 15 traits that can counterbalance job experience and qualifications necessities. Confidence as it is very easy for the employers to have faith in you if you believe in yourself, enthusiasm which is very transmittable and makes persons around you feel better about you, upbeat attitude, and able personality, awareness of the industry, imaginative leadership, well educated, stability in your way of life, personal grooming, having an open mind and being flexible, quicker thinker and decision maker, having a lot of determination, polite manners and legitimate sincerity and honesty.
Reliable sources suggest that anticipation of deep and wider actual enhancement of the workers skills must take into consideration the three distinctive groups mentioned earlier (Powers 2004). Given the mixture of unenthusiastic outlook towards improvements and job in addition to the mankind opposition to behavioural change and ways of thinking, it is in order only to expect partly improvement inside each group. For instance, an improvement plan with 100 workers will only be a big success if it produced an encouraging improvement in 35 of the total participators.

Under normal circumstance, most improvement programs do not even come close to the 35 success rate. Return on the money and time used in improving the workers skills with a success rate of 35 and below is totally intolerable. This is where the company needs to find other ways of achieving success in improving their workers productivity.

Powers (2004) recommends that workers should be offered easily synthesized high quality information that they can understand, maintain and relate to than an overload of information. This demonstrates the worldwide teaching practice known as chunking that makes good common sense and a high-quality commercial sense. Most colleges in US have integrated the chunking practice into their curriculum and most degree is being awarded on the basis of student participation, which is 40. To ensure maximum productive learning, companys top management must ensure that the size of chunk of improvement within their plan is in line with the difficulty of the subject area giving time considerations and relevance opportunity manacles of working life.

It is also advised that small chunks of information should be conveyed in a systematic manner spread over a period giving workers ample space for learning, digesting, and retention and making use of the knowledge practically (Powers 2004). Powers (2004) suggests that when an employee is to be taught how to operate a machine, it is better for the training to be done in a machine shop next to the machine than in a seminar room. Thus in order for the top management to maximise on the training programmes, they need to create an opportunity of improvement engagement right within the working environment systematically and spread over a period.

Last but not the least, Powers (2004) recommends engaging workers in an enthusiastic manner during the training process and this will enhance the workers comprehension of the task, preservation and application. Training processes should minimise the use of negative motivators like grading of workers and adopt more positive motivators that will see distinctive increase knowledge and skills of the workers. Therefore, the top management must ensure that they modernise their strategy in supporting workers improvement of knowledge and skills.

Soft skill training in the Indian BPO sector comprises of several modules or components (Subramanian 2005). Each of the components consists of the classroom sessions directed by trainers, preceded by language based skill activities, which entails speaking, reading and discussions.

Training methods used in BPO include listening comprehension module which engages strictly exercise in listening, role play where the trained worker put himselfherself in the clients or the customers shoe and this is only achieved by enough knowledge from the customers data base. Another method used is the real time coaching, which entails soft skills training, pre-process, process and product training. Performance monitoring and assessment is also used to track the newly employed workers progress systematically and in any case a problem arises he his entitled to coaching on a personal basis.

 Last but not the least, BPO companies also applies remediation coaching where the human resource departmental section dealing with the soft skill training keep track  of  the workers and  identifies  the low performers (Subramanian 2005). During remediation method, particular problems that require immediate attention are identified, reported to the Human Resource department and necessary steps involving training partaken.                                
                                                       
2.2. Soft skills in information Technology enabled services
Soft skill application in the Information Technology enabled services in collaboration with other business sector has led to the evolution of the domestic industry policy in India towards a global based model in the manufacturing and service industries. The service industry has led to the economic development of India. Utilisation of information and communication technology incorporated software and hardware technologies into provided services, India will export globally through Information Technology Enabled Services (Information Technology enabled services), and promoted new service era with enormous potential (Subramanian 2005).

Soft skill application in information technology has led to development of Web 2.0. The web has driven numerous creative ideas and practices presented via software or online. The innovative services are not limited to the internet but combines with the strength of India in hardware manufacturing. Along with the continued development of Information Technology, the investigation analyses emergency of innovation services and their applications from the perspective of innovation in network devices. The rapid expansion of mobile devices and the development of wireless connection environment, the study detailed the trends of next emerging web services that developed towards the Local-based Service (LBS), Cross-applications Integration and Mobile Social Networks (White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology 2009).

Location based services such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Automated Global Positioning Systems (A-GPS) has existed for so many years and has delivered new business model involving emerging web services, and provided a method for online data collection that has affected soft skill usage in IT companies.

Mobile communication service integrated mobile internet and local based service in conferences. This has stepped up opportunities for interaction between customers and employees. Cross-applications Integration enables rapid accumulation for new services through combination of mature technology to match the online behaviour of present consumers in much the same way that Screen Surveillance combined e shopping and communication applications. This enabled backend system has learned consumer shopping habits and provided enhanced search assistance (Subramanian 2005).

Many vendors focused on multi-applications integration across desktop applications and internet applications like Outlook contact management, desktop multimedia editing tool, and Internet sharing application. This has led to high demand of soft-skills from the employees in the Indian Information Technology companies where the consumers are more advanced and uses the computer and credit cards to purchase products. Thus, the user who in this case is the company and the customers are both utilising the powerful computing ability of the desktop applications and the convenience of the internet applications. For example, users could easily edit a multimedia file and share with a friend in the Outlook contact list through usage of a single widget rather than running several desktop applications and visiting several webs Information Technology enabled services.

Google and Apple computer both provided Android and iPhone SDK that supplied an open platform environment for 3rd party developers to pursue a course of integration between technology and soft skill application. For example, cross-communities contact list integration, website information integration, and so on (White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology 2009).

Dynamic business environment dictates use of soft skills in mobile social networks to meet the demand from users who required interactions with friends without constraints of time or place, assisted webs Information Technology enabled services to improve stickiness between users and internet communities. The internet community service moved to mobile internet, making omnipresent network access an essential foundation. This development implied that numerous internet users delivers and shares information via internet communities as a basic behaviour model (White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology 2009).

The Information Communication Technology (ICT) industry and the comprehensive national infrastructures supporting ICT applications had been the main drivers of the global economic competitiveness of India. As Information Technology (IT) rapidly evolves so do the soft-skills and gross profit margins for original manufacturer (OEM) or original design manufacturer (ODM) business gradually declined, sharp analysis was necessary for recognition of emerging trends that met future market demand. Implementation of innovative services has increased the core value of ICT products that boost the development of Indias ICT industry and contributes to new business models for service industry (Subramanian 2005).

Integration of soft skill services with Information Communication Technology products could prolong product life cycles and fostered long term and stable profits. In addition, both Information Communication Technology and service industries drive the proliferation of new channels for the global innovative service market. Hence, the development of Service Oriented Devices (SODs) is leverage to the existing strengths of India and helps India to maintain a leading position in the Information Communication Technology industry during the next few decades. Soft-skills have led to service oriented devices due to consumer adapting to information technology (White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology 2009).

The development of service-oriented devices is being driven by either hardware manufacturers or the service industry. Soft skills drive advancement of service business. Hardware products embedded with software systems designed to provide various value-added services nurture the development of strategic service industries. Service industries lead to innovations in Service oriented devices.
Demand for new service model drives the design and production of new hardware devices. This encourages joint development of projects between information communication technology manufacturers and service industries. This has increased competitiveness of hardware manufacturers and promoted the growth of service industry thus enhancing the training in soft-skills among the employees of the companies within the Information Technology sector.  (White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology, 2009).

Customers dictates service design methodology that integrates customer needs into innovation service designs to create a successful service model. Customised devices are more adaptable. User Interfaces of hardware devices that are being modified or improved before soft skill edition. Service operating platform was established as a portal of providing mechanisms such as online posting, billing and security. The platform also comprises of an infrastructure that links customers and service providers to fulfil customer needs (White Paper on Taiwan Industrial Technology 2009).

Ever changing global market has led total Service solution through soft-skill training and has enabled a single dominant operator to link the stakeholders in the service flow. The output of the total solution accelerates the service party implementation and duplication functions. Innovation services integrate innovation services into hardware devices to satisfy customer demands and increases profits. Living lab establishes experimental platforms designed for working with local inhabitants and community groups to test innovative service application and promote open innovation activities (Wallace and Clariana 2005).

In the near future, the collaboration between manufacturing and service industries will drive new economic growth and endless creative and business opportunities. This is because of the change in information technology and the embracement of soft-skills in service delivery. This has led to attraction of global investors, enabling India to be the global centre of innovation for information technology devices and information technology enabled businesses.

Shifting workplace setting demands different competencies than in the past. Good jobs depend on people who can put knowledge to work. Information technology companies require new workers to be creative, problem solvers, adaptive, team players and responsibleresponsive learners. Competencies effective workers can use resources, interpersonal skills, information, systems and technology. The foundation competence requires soft skills in basic skills, thinking skills and personal qualities. Resources require soft skills in allocating money, materials, and staff. Interpersonal skills need other soft skills like working in teams, teaching, serving customers, leading and negotiating. Information requires soft skills such as acquiring and evaluating data, organising and maintaining files, interpreting and communicating (Trocki, 2003).

Information technology companies systems require soft skills such as understanding social, organisational, and technological systems, monitoring and correcting performance, designing and improving systems. Further more, technology requires information technology companies, workers to have soft skills in selecting equipment and tools, applying technology to specific tasks. Information technology employees who have basic skills are capable of reading, writing, arithmetic, mathematics, speaking and listening. Thinking skills involves innovation, making decisions, solving problems and having knowledge on how to learn. Information technology employees, who have personal qualities, have soft skills such as individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management and integrity (Trocki 2003).

Soft skills that are relevant to information technology enabled services are punctuality, telephone skills, customer service attitude, basic mathematics, communication skills, writing skills, ready to work attitude, Legible handwriting, time management, ability to work independently, get along with others and work as a team member. Certificate holders in soft skills are given preference in hiring and higher wages. Finer aspects of information technology trade like interpersonal communication, business ethics, effective presentations, e-mail etiquette, self-awareness, persistence, confidence, self-motivation, trustworthiness, adaptability and talent for collaboration now count and can no longer be ignored. Companies have now started linking soft skills to their employees appraisals and compensation packages and are considered as important factors during recruitment (Arora, 2003).

There are no independent research figures available on the growth in demand for soft skills, but companies on average estimate around 30 to 40 percent growth. The requirements not withstanding, training for soft skills remains debatable whether the training should be in-house or outsourced. While information technology training houses have already jumped onto the bandwagon to meet the growing training requirements, information technology training houses have not found the takers. Most corporations still sense that building up soft skills is a domain that is taken care of internally by the human resource department, rather than outsourcing to a third party. However, with the rapidly increasing training needs and the growing complexity of indispensable soft skills, the state of affairs is likely to change, leading many companies to seek professional soft skills training from outside (Arora 2003).

Soft skills gain prominence as information technology businesses go global. Software developers need to interact with people, making it necessary to develop skills to interact both inside and outside the organisation. Further, Indian information technology companies are now involved in bigger projects where customer interface has become a necessity. Soft skills are high in the list of requirements for global business. Doing business with clients from across the world demands not just a high degree of technical skills but greater sensitivity and awareness of culture specific behaviours, variety of business situation vis--vis the geography specific issues that may arise. The need to appreciate the customer, not only in terms of the project delivery but also with orientation to the attitude to be able to relate to them is very high (Stewart  Knowles 2001).

Soft skills training is no longer considered just a matter of self-development skills since companies are beginning to understand its value in doing business. Information technology organisations now insist on a mix of technical and soft skills training for their employees. Companies such as Mastek, Polaris, vMoksha, Sun Microsystems, Sapient, CSC, Tavant and Infinite have incorporated soft skills into their training agenda. For example, Mastek provides at least 12 days of just soft skills training for its staff members every year, in addition to various technologies, functional and process related learning. Mastek also has a competency based assessment programme. vMoksha has designed a tailored Personal Effectiveness unit that encompasses all necessary non-technical skills. Approximately 25 percent of the mandatory training requirement for every employee is focussed on the soft skills area, while 75 percent is allocated for technical skills training (Nicholson and Cushman 2000).

Sun Company has specialised programmes for specific needs. At Sapient Company, the company ensures that people who are involved in solution design at client site have taken soft skills training like facilitation training and time management. CSC, on the other hand, has a clear-cut process of role-based training. All the employees in the organisation go through training according to their career progression. At Infinite Computer Solutions, normally 30 percent of the total training to be imparted to an employee is focussed developing hisher soft skills. Many information technology companies are now outsourcing their requirements to training houses, though the common perception persists that an in-house team can handle the task better (Collins et al. 2004).

 Soft skills training programmes are more appropriate and contextual when they are delivered in-house. The soft skills training does not have to strictly be shouldered by the Human Resource department, even others within the company who are looked up for certain soft skills make excellent trainers. Soft skills training is a myth that is fast changing, as outsourced companies now execute objective analysis and proper training needs analysis before they start training. Customised solutions are offered for different batches and groups. The New Horizons Company also expected a surge in demand. The company conducted 14,581 days of soft skills training worldwide in 2003 against a planned target of 8,999 days (General Service Administration 2002).

 Training houses do offer certain advantages. Soft skills training is too important to be designed without specialist, given the fact that Information Technology companies run thin on resources in Human Resources and training. Professional training outfits bring in fresh perspective and are able to look at things differently. The professional trainings are not biased in any way, which is a big benefit to the information technology companies. Outsourcing can bring in the best practices in soft skills training. In addition, employees are less reluctant to ask all sorts of questions in front of an internal faculty. The advantages of an external training outfit are that they bring to the table their experience and perspectives which can be blended with individual organisational needs. To make this modus operandi successful, external consultants should be able to understand the business well, know the requirement effectively and should have strong diagnosis ability (Grantham 2000).

Graduate information technology employers seek a range of transferable skills and qualities that students need to be able to demonstrate in selection processes. The fact that employers expect students to demonstrate these skills implies that they are valued in some way. The value of transferable skills and qualities, however, is not solely pertinent to employers. The Government and students all appear to recognise that transferable skills and qualities play an important role in the context of a managed career. There is large number of graduates looking for jobs and employers, as we have seen, no longer recruit simply on the basis of degree status. A degree might be necessary or desirable but employers are looking for a range of other attributes when employing and retaining graduates (Collins et al. 2004).

The most common perceived graduate qualities are an ability to learn, intelligence, ideas and imagination, and good communication skills. Definitions of the term competence vary between emphasising proficiency in technical skills alone, to a statement relating solely to personal traits and behavioural skills. A definition of competence, which encompasses the kind of the job as well as the personal skills of the person doing the job, is now more widely accepted. Aspects of the job at which the person is competent and aspects of the person that enables him to be competent. The majority of information technology employers are not concerned with academic excellence but with soft skills such as communication skills, organizational skills, team skills, leadership skills (Suleiman et al. 2006).

Evidence from Quality in Higher Education (QHE) shows that information technology employers generally express little interest in cognitive skills instead they seek someone who can make an early impression on the organisation. Industry is currently occupying a high profile as a stakeholder of higher education, and much current research has been undertaken to examine the levels and nature of satisfaction within the employment relationship, in order to ensure a better match between the needs of information technology industry and its educational suppliers. It is very important that the need of the industries be ascertained in terms of skills they expected of university graduates. This is due to the fact that many information technology organisations in exercising their recruitment process and internal appraisal systems are taking into account the abilities of the new recruits in terms of these generic or common skills (Maistre and Pare 2004).

Clients are tending to individuals who are capable of presenting the pre-sale solution right through to closing the deal. Communicating effectively and influencing others are never taught in universities (Yelland 2002). Managers of information technology companies need to do the following. Create strategic advantage, promote a global perspective, use sound judgement, use financial acumen, manage and improve processes, lead change, coach and develop people, and inspire trust. Most companies or leaders do not fail because of lack of technical skills. Usually is due to lack of a critical soft capability (McCarthy 2008). Information technology companies involve work groups in some real life projects that provide them with the opportunity to put the skills into practice, to keep learning and perhaps to make mistakes. The real projects provide a great tangible way to measure success.

Transferable skills are generic capabilities, which allow people to succeed in a wide range of different tasks and jobs. Employability is defined as a set of achievements skills, understandings and personal attributes that make graduates more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, which benefits them, the workforce, the community and the economy. Gallivan et al. (2004) study has reported that although companies strongly demand soft skills beside technical skills, job advertisements rather focus on hard skills. For soft skills, communication and interpersonal skills are most often mentioned. Up to now, numerous studies have addressed competence requirements for universities graduates as perceived by graduates themselves and their employers. According to Yorke (2006, p. 5) undergraduate programs should foster abstraction, system thinking, experimentation and collaboration.

Project Based Learning (PBL) is one of the most attractive instructional strategies to be applied, especially in the area of practical learning. The student-centred strategy applied in Project Based Learning, fosters student initiative and other skills such as time planning, resources management, assumption of responsibilities, negotiation and social abilities. Information technology graduates need a solid foundation in technical skills from both the engineering and informatics cultures and the techniques need to be used in real life situations. This is particularly important to emphasize the connections between different aspects, to encourage a broad systems view and to illustrate the practical, technological and human constraints of solving real-world problems (Career Space Consortium 2005).

The acquisition of soft skills is fundamental in the graduate curricula. In the project based learning laboratory, emphasis is given on acquisition of the main soft skills. In order to foster the students to acquire these skills, it is necessary to demonstrate them that instructors can measure and evaluate the performance in each skill. With these measurements, the instructors can supervise and feed back the students along the course, and these skills can be included (in an objective way) in the grading process (Gwen 2003).

In the laboratory assignment, document universities also include a tentative planning to help the students on how to organise the different laboratory sessions in order to achieve the objectives in a professional-like environment. The planning is organised according to the achievement of given milestones, related to the fulfilment of different system requirements, but with loosely defined timing restrictions. This way, the students are faced to a typical scenario in a real-world project, while they are the ones to decide on the amount of time to devote to each milestone (Markkanen et al. 2001).
In both cases, the students must develop their communication skills, both in written and oral forms. Apart from the technical aspects, we evaluate the capacity of each student to explain the obtained results, in order to determine hisher degree of participation. Additionally, universities also consider the technical writing quality, the skills for oral communication, teamwork capabilities, etc. All these factors are carefully recorded in one detailed evaluation sheet per student team. This soft skills acquired are applied in information technology companies when the students are recruited (Ponta, 2002).

2.3. Application of soft skills to the new innovations in information technology
Soft skill development has enabled the internet technologies to give companies radical new ways to harvest the talents of innovators working outside corporate boundaries. Today, in the high technology, consumer products and automated sector, among others, companies routinely involve consumers, suppliers, small special businesses and independent contractors in the creation of new products.
The use of soft skills in information technology in India drives companies to outsource innovation to business partners that work together in networks. Distribution of innovation through the value chain, companies reduce their costs and usher new products to market faster by eliminating the bottlenecks that come with total control. Advancement in open standards based computing has made it easier to co-create physical goods for more complex value chains in competitive markets (Manyika, Roberts and Sprague 2007).

Application of soft-skills in the Information Technology enabled services has enabled consumers to co-create with companies such as the online search engines, could be viewed as a service or product created by the distributed customers. The differences the way companies co-create with partners, on one hand, and with customers on the other hand are so marked that the consumer side is a separate trend. These differences include the nature and range of interactions, the economic of making them work and the management challenges associated with them. Consumers increasingly want to engage online with one another and with organizations of all kinds (Manyika, Roberts and Sprague 2007).
Embracing excellent communication between the organization and the consumers, companies can tap this new mood of customer engagement for their economic benefit. Companies that involve customers in design, testing and marketing, and the after sell process get better insights into customer needs and behaviour and may be cut the cost of acquiring customers, engender greater loyalty, and speed up development cycles. Consumers of Information systems in India engage companies during the development life cycle (Tuller and Oblinger 1999). Soft skills in information technology evolved towards excellent engagement between the companies and the stakeholders.
 
As work, that is more sophisticated takes place interactively online and new collaboration and communications tools emerge, companies outsource increasingly specialised aspects of their work.  By doing so, they still maintain coherence. Decentralization of innovation through Local or Wide Area networks or customers enabled them to section out more work to specialists. The best people for the task are involved to ensure that the customer is satisfied. Customers give the specification of the software they want and offer prizes to the developers who do the best job. As companies move in this direction, they will need to understand the value of their human capital more fully and manage different classes of contributors for that reason (Manyika, Roberts and Sprague 2007). A soft skill evolves as information technology advances.

Soft skills are critical to all facets of the venture. Soft skills can provide great energy and cohesion for the members of the enterprise. The companys success is more secure with an experienced management team at the top. One does not want to gamble on the abilities of the company and its cofounders to grow the company at optimal rates through all the different stages of the enterprise. Finally, the companys human resource management system allows the company to harvest the creativity of its talent. People leave or lose motivation at different times. Without the proper system, you can keep making the same mistakes. When appropriate attention is paid to all the three corners, you begin to maximise and grow the human capital because you build capacity in the system (Kaipa  Milus, 2003, p.2).

Figure 1 Approach to maximise human capital

Source Kaipa  Milus, 2003, p.2
When the enterprise is optimised around the three corners, each corner multiplies the value of other two. Of course, when the enterprise is sub-optimised, then each corner operates at a fraction of its capacity and hence the net result is much less than what you are capable of. Entrepreneurial venture is art of creating balance between convergence and divergence. People have clear idea and common focus about a particular product, particular results, or particular customer or market. They can work together with common values when all they have to work with in the beginning is creativity. The convergence and focus on product or customer or market should not kill the creativity (Kaipa  Milus, 2003, p.2).

Classical organisational learning skills would be very useful here. Conversational skills would need to be good for building good entrepreneurial teams in the beginning. Very few people are good in dealing with conflict. Conflict, when dealt with appropriately, could be very generative but many people end up just having fights in the name of conflict management. They do not really harness the creative potential. Very few executives are good in dealing with conflict in teams. Basic inquiry skills, the ability to distinguish interpretations from data, the ability to pose questions that really help people learn more from the situations in which they find themselves. Conflict management is developing shared appreciation of the reality in which they are working and conflict management is hard work (Manyika, Roberts and Sprague 2007).

Without an explicit and coherent theory, a Company does not sustain for long. Mental models tools help to make that explicit but how the information technology company inter relate different images and mental models the executive team has into a coherent picture. What is the companys theory, where is the company at, how do companies generate value, key sources of distinctiveness. The information technology company should strive to create a culture of teamwork and commitment coupled with high quality execution, which will allow the company to reach the destination safely and successfully. Maximising human capital requires the right balance between the executive team and development of appropriate skill-sets with proper talent management systems and culture (Lee  Lee, 2006).

Most project failures can be attributed to breakdowns in communication between executives and the talent, teams, and project managers. When the talent management system, including executive teams and skill sets such as technical, professional and soft skills are not balanced and optimised, then financial capital and human capital do not pay the returns for which one hopes. Many entrepreneurial ventures fail even though they have great ideas and great talent because they lack the appropriate structures and processes to move forward. In addition, when the focus is too much on hard technical skills, the dynamics in the workplace become difficult to manage and many companies never see their first anniversary because they lack soft skills (Maistre and Pare 2004).

When the right team is not in place at the top of the hierarchy, decision-making suffers. When information technology companies do not make right decisions at the right time, markets can change and competition grows in ways unexpected. When the Human Resource systems are not optimized, people may not get paid. Without soft skills poor decisions are made, negotiations go poorly, communication lacks passion, and leadership withers away quickly (Noll  Wilkins, 2002).

Soft skills are the roots to success. People might be surprised at how many managers and CEOs do not consider soft-skills as necessary to making a critical difference in a companys success. Soft skills contribute to leading people in an effective manner. The term people include the managers as well as their teams. Leadership involves managing conflicts, interviewing and selecting prospective team members, delegating responsibility and authority, coaching, networking, and developing others. As leaders, they are also required to manage activities like production quality, workplace safety, customer care, and fund raising. A leader is also responsible for managing resources like people and finances and information in the form of decision-making, problem solving, meeting management, and persuasion. Many of these require presentation skills. In other words, good leadership presupposes refined soft skills (Verive, 2003).

The biggest risk in the venture business is whether the team will gel or not. Effective management teams are rarely found intact. This process contains integration, adjustment of roles and agendas, and assimilation of various resources as the business evolves. New thinking about management begins with creation of value-generating relationships and cohesive understanding between entrepreneursfounders, investorsVCs, and executive management. Selecting team members, establishing value-generating relationships that eventually gel into a functional team and innovation ecosystem requires the competent application of the Soft Skills (Bailey and Stefaniak 2001).

In the conceptual and development stages of the company, the information technology personnel should balance humility with self-confidence not arrogance. The information technology workers should listen to criticisms of their ideas and plan with openness but they should not lose their confidence. The personnel of information Technology Company should not show-off or have an attitude of holier than thou or smarter than others because that puts prospective partners who could be customers, VCs, collaborators, employees off. To partner with others, who have different set of skills than the company does, and to hire and manage people better than the company, the company needs to have a healthy sense of confidence in itself. The managers must find the right balance between inner-strength and outward humility combined with a genuine sense of leading a whole team and not advancing ones isolated, personal gains (Giant Leap Consulting, 2006).

Self-awareness begins with knowing the role that the employees are expected to play, their strengths and weaknesses, the companys style of communication and management effectiveness of self awareness and how others perceive self awareness, the context in which employees assert themselves and the context in which they listen and their own intentions and expectations of themselves and others (stated and unstated). Self-control has to do with the following. Learning how to present oneself when to focus on ones strengths and assert ones point of view, when one has to be quiet and listen even if one is right when one has to pull people up (just focusing on their tasks and making sure that employees respect who they are), and when to let go allowing others to make their own mistakes. That is developing their leadership capabilities. Self-control means having a priority in terms of what needs to be done and when (Collins, 2001).

The employees of information Technology Company must learn about controlling their passion as well as anger, outbursts and frustrations in public. The employees must remember what makes them passionate in order to enable them not to frustrate others by practicing self-control. The company employees should focus on the team accomplishments and capabilities instead of their own, particularly if employees want to build a successful company that keeps growing long after they leave. Employees should be generous and timely in rewarding others and acknowledging their contribution. Employees should acknowledge and appreciate people in public and criticize and identify their mistakes in private. Employees should spread the credit around for successes of their company and should not hog the credit. Employees should not look for others to acknowledge them because they may be busy looking for appreciation from you. Regardless of their status within the company, employees should learn to lead by setting an example of humility and cooperation. Employees of information technology company should focus on influencing others through modelling and practicing what they preach. Particularly in start-ups, people do what one does instead of what one say. Because of the natural insecurity inherent in a start-up arena, words spread quickly among the company for lapses in ones commitments. Workers should focus on relationships instead of specific issues that they disagree with (Sammueson, 2009).

As an individual within the whole organisation, focus should be put on strengths and definition of personal role based on those strengths. The concept of core incompetence describes that aspect in an individual that interferes with accomplishing goals. A Company is never the work of a single individual. As the company grows, an employee will give away additional responsibilities to appropriate people and focus on making a contribution in terms of hisher core strength. As the company grows, what worked before might not work any longer. An appropriate CEO in the start-up phase might not be the right person to lead the company when it is ready to go IPO. As the environment changes one might have to search for new ways to use hisher strengths (Collins, 2001).

One should get a mentor, consultant, or coach and work to assist in this process. An employee should identify the core competencies of hisher company and focus on strengthening them. Employees should pick one that the employees are strong in and build the company based on that strength first. The company should let them help an employee to gain a perspective on a regular basis. One should also use hisher coach to help himher see how hisher core incompetence is at work in hisher venture. Understanding what energises an employee and taps into his or her passion can provide fuel for hisher journey. Clearly seeing hisher core incompetence will free an employee to move toward hisher goals. Losing sight of an employees passion might require that him to take a break for reflection (Gorgone, et al. 2002).

Employees should be aware of their capabilities and should be honest with themselves about them. The companys workers should be cognisant of their knowing-doing gap. This does not mean that they do not practice what they know in rigid way. The knowing-doing gap means that their performance level is not matching their words in a consistent and coherent manner. Words should reflect the actions. Leaders need to model the attitudes and behaviours they expect others to display. Speaking and acting consistently allow others to learn from the manager example. There is a difference between empty, rhetorical motivational drivers and strategic motivation primers, which lead to concrete execution. At some point, however, processes and agreements with people, who can deliver on managers promises, will be essential (Hesketh, 2000).

Making promises might be an efficient way to get passed an immediate sticking point, promises move things along. However, promises might not be an effective strategy in the long run. When one make promises, or when hisher company makes promises, the promises should be kept. Therefore, employees should limit promises to ones that can be reasonably met. If they are inappropriate, then whatever potential efficiencies they might have offered at one time are outweighed by the loss of effectiveness. Contracts can be effective and efficient mechanisms for codifying relationships. Regardless of the legal ramifications of a contract, the contract is only as good as the parties involved. Assumptions about integrity, rules, regulations, outcomes, and others can lead to problems when it comes to putting things into action. The contract creates a place to come together when interpreting what was said and what is being done. Despite the language of the contract, observations of leadership behaviour will have a strong influence on the perception of integrity within the enterprise and the real meaning of the contract (Bennett et al. 2000).

There is time for daring and time for caution. The wise entrepreneur knows the difference. Leading people is different than managing people. Encouraging risk taking is different than exploring possibilities. Knowing the difference in styles of communication and the context in which employees can present them can make the difference between success and failure. Considering another perspective on context sensitivity and timing, remember that one may find prospective employees, investors and directors from hisher social circle in the initial days of hisher company. What needs to be discussed in the boardroom should not be discussed in the hallways and vice versa. Appropriateness in terms of content, confidentiality and courtesy are critical to success. Honesty and transparency do not mean that one should tell everything to everybody. Confidentiality in Human Resource, business leadership, and partnership matters is critical. Knowledge and awareness of context, culture and custom can fill your sails on the voyage to success (Geogone et al. 2002).

Perception is reality in that people generally act upon their perceptions. That action is very real. If an employee does not learn to manage how others will perceive himher, hisher future can be seriously limited. When an employee is one of the founders, people watch what an employee does more than what an employee say. Employees must make their public speech consistent with their private behavior in their home, with friends, and in social circles. Lack of awareness of gaps between these two can lead to major conflicts. Losing the confidence of others can mean losing everything. There are a number of roles for people within the team or organization. Each role has a function. Failing to consider a persons role can create a faulty perception about his or her behavior, which can then be amplified by hisher, misguided response to hisher perception. Successful leaders must be sensitive to their own judgments and comments about others. They should be aware of the consequences of their words as much as their actions. Even if individual perceptual errors do not cause great harm, over time their presence in the overall system of company perceptions weave a complex and difficult organizational reality in the workplace (Collins, 2001).

Managers should give credit where credit is due. Many traditional managers as well as entrepreneurs forget this and that lands them in trouble. Appreciating what others have contributed will enhance their loyalty and increase the chances of continuing to do the work that brought the appreciation to begin with. Giving and receiving appreciation is especially important when one is under high stress or when that is under deadline pressure even though is the last thing on the mind for many of us. Managers should not wait to appreciate till they find some worthwhile contribution. It is important to boost morale by recognizing small things that others contributed and appreciating what it took to make those contributions. The culture of managers company will begin to reflect hisher approach if the manager is diligent about catching people doing something right (Goleman et al. 2002).

2.4. Transformation of Consumer behaviour through application of soft skills in information technology enabled business.
Application of soft skills in Information technology has changed consumer behaviour by changing the operation of institutions, businesses and individuals in different ways. There have been shifts in computing such as host centred, clientserver and network cantered. Currently, a distributed clientserver models dominates that has led to distributed enterprise with different behaviour patterns. Consumers are able to access all the information they require from their computer network (Tuller and Oblinger 1999).

Development of soft skills in information technology has influenced consumer behaviour through usage of high-resolution displays, three dimension graphics and animation, handwriting and speech input and natural language understanding. These have improved end user interface, to facilitate personal interaction and customisation with computers. For example intuitive task tailored interfaces, virtual reality environments, mobile hand free and eyes free use, intelligent agents that isolates users from the details of the infrastructure but carries tasks tailored by users and easier searching techniques. Information is being digitised and consumers have become influential where by they move with stable technology that costs less (Tuller and Oblinger 1999).

Soft skill usage in information technology is changing consumer behaviour because it is helping to drive consumer choice, satisfaction, awareness and power. The impact on business is tremendous since the business services have to be geared towards the demands of the consumer. Companies focus has shifted towards quality, service and professionalism to meet customers needs. As the technology advances, Indian market is becoming more dynamic and complex, products acceptability on the market is an issue due to disconnection of many businesses that lack behind in information technology. Technical and economic networking is on the rise since people are more connected than ever before in their clusters (Cies IT conference 2009).

The Indian market provides lucrative opportunity for multinational marketers, even though per capita gross national income of Indian population is relatively low. Soft skill development has enhanced market opening of emerging information technology services, software products, and information technology enabled services, and e-businesses are on the raise (Bandyopadhyay  Bandyopadhyay 2009).

Globalization that is driven by information technology is blurring traditional national cultural differences since people of different clusters use the same technology. Effort expectancy through use of soft skill in information technology is influencing consumer behaviour in India (Bandyopadhyay  Bandyopadhyay 2009). Technology is being employed to replace personal interaction in service provision. This is due to technology enabled service innovations that limit personal contacts (Walker and Johnson 2004).

Commoditisation of the personal computer is enabling new enterprise architecture. Consumer power has been driven by the technology and is forcing businesses to become more agile and to update their legacy systems. The trend in soft skills in information technology is pushing businesses towards tera-architectures that combine with virtualization technology to establish highly distributed systems from many low cost components. This has allowed greater utilization levels, delivering improved efficiency and greater flexibility (Gartner 2006).

Commoditisation and consumerisation come not only with revolutionary changes in enterprise information technology but also with life altering changes to way people interact with the wider world. The life style in the home changes as people in India are exposed to the outside world through the internet. New communities operating on the free sharing of information are emerging on expense of conventional advertising and broadcast media. Soft skills has led to network marketing, giving information on products and services back to prospective purchasers has been the basis of the move from transactions towards participation and interaction enabled (Gartner 2006).

Environmentalism and ethical behaviour are slowly growing issues in business over the last decades. The growing scope and power of activist communities and their ability to publicise their discoveries means that consumer pressure and the threat of financial damage through disclosure. This has become a powerful influence than formalised regulation and government intervention. Adhering to law is no longer enough and market behaviour judges historical actions by contemporary ethical standards. As customers behaviour is geared towards information technology, critical success factor is accelerating the move towards usage of soft skills in information technology (Gartner 2006).

Market behaviour towards information technology in India is being studied by many companies to predict future trends. Data analytics is a common feature with companies.  Optimised tools and machine learning algorithms such as neural networks and generic algorithms are being used to perform advanced data analysis. Risk score is the benchmark for credit decision process. In India, it is common for major banks and financial service companies to use data analytics to manage their credit card, housing, personal and auto loan and insurance portfolios. All the above processes and strategies back stops in the soft skill usage (Hemrajani, 2004).

Hemrajani, (2004) argues that on the market side, data analytics is used in the form of reference models that is helping companies to design and execute cross sell, up sell, deep sell and retention strategies. As time goes by, creative use of past customer data through soft skills is helping companies in building a powerful and effective analytical customer relationship management (CRM). This is because soft skills in information technology in India have promoted interaction of the consumer and the companies.

Market behaviour in information technology in India is leading companies to establish the right information technology infrastructure. This is accomplishing the rigorous planning process with minimum disruption of the business process and limited impact on the organizations resources. The information systems that integrate with companys workflow and account receivable systems to implement the risk and marketing strategies are now available. Data mining and analytical software have been developed (Hemrajani 2004).

Market changes have led to changes in the organization structure. At the operation level, diversity is needed and at strategic level, the ability to manage diversity that include ambiguity. Therefore, soft skill in decision-making and support systems are being designed in information technology systems. Security codes that needed stripe cards were developed for security doors and login systems (Stuart 2008). Integrated systems were being developed to harmonize the operation of companies.

With liberalization of the Indian economy, has increased trans-border data that has influenced soft skill usage in Indian companies. As information communication technology advances, businesses are becoming borderless. Many companies outsource their information technology services to remain relevant and competitive on the market. Offshore software outsourcing has led to constant communication, having in place-structured process driven approach, doing appropriate resource allocations, and managing outsourcing projects expectations

2.5 Perception of IT companies toward soft skills
Soft skills are skills that are not taught in a particular course or tested on a standardised examination or professional certification. They are developed throughout school, learnt from parents and friends and independently customised through unique experiences. Group work, perceptions and other non-tested parts of the schoolwork help develop these skills (Andrew, 2009). Employability skills require academic and soft skills. Most employers anticipate their employees to be able to read and write, speak and listen, and solve simple mathematics problems. In addition to any specific knowledge a position might need, employees should be able to reason through a predicament, make decisions and be able to learn new skills and information. Finally, soft skills are based on personality qualities such as self-management and individual responsibility, integrity and being sociable (Cappel, 2001-2002).

On this basis, are built several portions that employees are expected to be able to use. In the first place is the management of resources such as time, money, materials and workspace. In second place is the ability to work with others, whether in a team or communicating with customers. Being able to work with information is also very significant, especially obtaining and evaluating information whether the information is numerical data, information research or verbally communicating with others. Another is the ability to work with the social, organisational or technological systems within the business (Lee et al., 2001).

Soft skills are recognised as necessary for IT companies. Though schools recognise the need to teach these skills, they do not receive a similar focus as do academic work. The individuals have to assess their own strengths and weaknesses and focus on what they can do to improve their employability (Andrew, 2009). Information Technology (IT) professionals constitute one of the greatest cadres of knowledge workers in modern organisations today. Knowledge workers make up over a half of the Indias workforce in the IT industry (Laudon  Laudon, 2004).

Lee et al. (2001) reported that technical skills are more important during the earliest part of an information technology carrier, soft skills becomes increasingly more important as careers develop. Soft skills are more important than technical skills for less experienced personnel (Fang et al., 2005 Kovacs et al., 2005). For example, Cappel (20012002, p.81) found information technology professionals rated soft skills as more important than technical skills for new hires and suggested that there was greatest room for improvement in new information systems graduates in the area of non-technical skills. Gorgone et al., (2002) suggested that entry-level personnel should have skills in business fundamentals, interpersonal, communications, and team skills, analytical and critical thinking skills, and technology skills.

The fact that soft skills dominated the employment ranking by Information Technology Companies, the importance placed on individual traits and characteristics by potential employers. Abilities such as problem solving, critical thinking, and communication skills allow new personnel to integrate technical skills on the job. In addition, non-technical skills tend to apply to all Information Technology jobs even though the job specifications for such posts tend to be position-specific (Kovacs et al., 2005).

The seven common skills identified and prescribed were  managing and developing self, working with and relating to others, communicating, managing tasks and solving problems, applying numeric, applying technology and applying design and creativity. The role of common skills could make a difference when potential employers interview candidates with either the same or similar qualifications. For example, communication skills and Information Technology skills could give the impression of such added capability or an extra edge for a candidate over the others (Lee  Lee, 2006).

Information Technology companies in India focus on transferable skills and qualities. One of these is motivation, which is a drive and determination to achieve results and the tenacity and perseverance to attain goals in difficult circumstances. Initiative is another skill, which is the ability to see difficulties and act upon them. Willingness to make things happen and to take an independent stance when necessary. More over there is creativity, which is the ability to generate ideas and options to initiate new ideas when necessary. Information Technology Companies also looks at organisational ability, which is the ability to establish appropriate course of action, to achieve goals, anticipate needs and set priorities. In addition, there are communication skills, which are abilities to communicate clearly and persuasively, both verbally and in writing. Teamwork is another soft skill, which is willing ness to work as an effective member of a team, involving others to forward your own ideas and solve problems, utilising the skills of team members and being open to ideas and suggestions of others (Noll  Wilkins, 2002).

InterpersonalSocial skills, which are the capacity to establish good working relationships with customers, clients and colleagues is important for most, work roles. Problem solving is another soft skill that enables an individual to identify problems, recognise important data and make logical decisions. Finally, there is leadership, which is the ability to have self-confidence, impact, the ability to influence others, willingness to take an independent line and the ability to earn respect of others (McMurtrey, et al., 2002).

Information Technology employers expect students to demonstrate soft skills and qualities. These skills are deemed important by Information Technology industry. Other stakeholders such as higher education institutions, government, as well as student themselves regard soft skills and qualities as important in order for graduates to be more marketable (Suleiman et al., 2006). Information Technology companies are demanding in the soft skill they require of their employees. This is because the content of Information Technology jobs are changing and different combinations of skills and abilities are required. Yen et al. (2001) suggested that up-skilling and re-skilling is more wide spread than any reduction in the level of skill required.

Majority of information technology companies are not concerned with academic excellence but with communication skills, organisation skills, team skills and leadership skills (Steward  Knowles, 2003). The most important skills for Information Technology staffers are 37 interpersonal skills, 20 written and verbal communication, 17 ability to work under pressure, 11 overall business acumen, 7 professional demeanour. Information technology companies require that an employee must interact with the clients, customers and co-workers. Further more with the advent of global and highly dispersed project teams, soft skills have become required for success (Giant Leap Consulting, 2006).
Information Technology companies required employees to have leadership development by having leadership effectiveness, influencing others, leading teams, team building, meeting effectiveness and coaching employees. Information Technology Companies also required employees to have skills in customer service. These skills are the ability to handle complaints, telephone skills, networking and relationship building. The information technology companies need people who can think and continue to learn throughout their lives. The companies further need people who can demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours, responsibility and adaptability. Information technology companies require people who can work with others (Dest Report, 2002).

Employability is the mix of skills that the employers expect to find in new recruits. Information Technology companies require its personnel to have transferable skills, personal competencies, core skills and soft skills. Personal attributes encompass loyalty, commitment, honesty and integrity, enthusiasm, reliability, personal presentation, common sense, positive self-esteem, sense of humour, balance to work and home life, ability to deal with pressure, motivation and adaptability (McQuaid and Lindsay, 2005).  Information Technology Companies in India needed graduates in ICT who possessed soft skills geared towards learning skills particularly from experienced people, communication, teamwork and problem solving skills (New Straits Times, 2004).

Bailey and Stefaniak (2001) identified knowledge, skills and abilities to be most important attributes needed by computer programmer and, found that the shortage of computer personnel comes from lack of adequate skills. The study identified 85 skills that were important to computer programmers. These were subdivided into technical skills (53), soft skills (20) and business concepts (12). The three highest rated soft skills were listening skills, problem-solving process and teamwork skills. Aken and Michalisin (2007) determined the skills that were lacking in recent Information Systems graduates. Owen-Smith, (2004) investigated the deficiency of Management in an Information Systems (MIS) programme from the employers perspective. The results were consistent in their conclusion that Management of Information Systems (MIS) graduates were generally lacking in the quality of the skills that were of the most interest to Information Technology Companies.

Customer satisfaction plays a vital role not just in keeping customers but also in attracting new customers through positive word-of-mouth referrals. This invokes solving issues quickly and efficiently. Information technology companies spend millions of dollars on technical and soft skills training annually. Information Technology Companies also face challenges in recruiting and retaining high-quality staff in highly competitive field. Information Technology Companies initiates call centres in their structures since call centres are primary channels for customer service activities. Customer service representatives require soft skills to handle customer issues effectively. Many Information Technology Companies in India have identified the critical role played by soft skills and investing heavily in them (Goetzmann and Moumtzidis, 2006).

Customer satisfaction through effective problem resolution would result in a 3 to 6 percent in annual revenue and that is significant for companies with millions of dollars in revenue. Conflict literacy is a key element of effective conflict management. To manage conflict effectively, an effectively, an organisation needs to develop a common language that helps people think effectively and communicate clearly about conflict and how to manage the conflict. The foundation of this language is useful definition of conflict and a set of alternative ways of dealing with the conflict by application of soft skills. These soft skills are competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating (Thomas-kilmann, 2007).

Information Technology Companies that rely on face-to-face and telephone interaction to address customer concerns take steps to ensure that their customer service representatives have the right balance of technical skills and soft skills. Soft skills have been lacking in Information Technology organisations, but will critical as Information Technology inevitably brings together several different units. Even as the infrastructure and in some cases entire applications, move into the Information Technology, somebody still needs to manage and integrate these services on behalf of the business. That person may not look like an enterprise Information Technology person that is known today. Instead, they will probably be much more business-centric Information Technology persons. The process of governing Information Technology services via various policies engines are still needed to be done (All, 2010).

The information Technology companies valued the experience of their older employees, but regarded older workers in general as inflexible, fussy and unwilling to adapt to new technology and changing work condition. This is because mature aged employees lacked soft skills that are seen as an asset to the information technology industry (Ranzijn et al., 2002). Technical skills have little value if an employee has poor soft skills. Soft skills bring in the information Technology companies behavioural change in the way the employees communicate with their colleagues, management, clients and their employer. Soft skills cultivate opportunities for the information technology organisations if well utilised.

To bring value to the organisation and clients, Information Technology personnel are involved in many non-technical activities to out their information technology tasks. The interpersonal skills are top notch to deliver results with other employees and people in non-Information Technology areas the Information Technology personnel must work with. Soft skills are useful for creating and taking advantage of opportunities. This is because there are challenges and competition (Gibbons-Wood and Lange 2000). In such a competitive environment, perception often reigns supreme. Information technology companies are ever searching for expertise who can sell what they have. Clients needs to be convinced that their problems can be solved and still get value from the delivered products (Maistre and Pare 2004).

Interestingly, the acquisition of soft skills also empowers employees by allowing them to build flexibility into their future information technology career plans. Most soft skills are regarded as transferable skills, which are needed in all aspect of life. Information technology companies have recognised that technical skills are important but the abilities have no guarantee of future career fulfilment. Once the job is done, information technology personnel need to impact and influence other personnel in the information technology organisations. Soft skills enable the information technology employees to grow in their career (Nicholson and Cushman 2000).

Information Technology organisations view soft skills as important skills to the growth of their employees. The need their employees to develop skills in leadership and motivation. The companies require their employees who grow beyond money motivation and can motivate everyone around them. Information technology companies employ personnel who have no negative conduct whether deliberate, due to ignorance, or because of unsupportive environment. No matter the environment, information technology personnel cannot afford to be ignorant, insensitive or unprofessional simply because they feel they are technical guru. Information technology companies expect their personnel to develop their technical skills while actively cultivate their soft skills (Stewart and Knowles 2000).

Information technology companies have realised that soft skills enable them to succeed in there area of business. This is because as the business grows, their professionals also grow as persons. While the information communication graduates needs to demonstrate academic ability, the modern information communication graduates operate in a changing business environment. Information communication technology graduates work in tandem with non-technical groups. Therefore, the information technology companies require their information communication technology employees develop skills in business awareness and a more holistic understanding of the interchange of relationships that need to occur within the organisations. This helps to ensure success of information communication ideas in the market place. The needs of the information communication technology students can be grouped as follows. These are practical experience, flexibilityinnovation skills, management skills, information technology skills and generic skills (Expert Group on Future Skills Need, 2004)

Education courses need to foster adaptability, flexibility, and innovation skills, which must become integral to the education system at all levels if the needs of a changing workforce are to be met. For example, the introduction and expansion of project-based learning will help to provide these skills. By moving in this direction, there is significant scope to improve both the quality of learning and the development of soft skills relevant to the workplace without compromising the intellectual content of courses.

Management skills to include decision-making, risk taking, managing change and people management have become increasingly important to national economic development. Therefore, information technology companies need to ensure that students are well equipped in these necessary management skills. In particular, when they focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, the need to ensure technology transfer from the research lab into the commercial arena requires specialised management expertise such as the management of technology transfer and intellectual property (Gallen 2005).

The greater prominence of high-technical information technology, internationally traded services and research and development activities in Indias economy require high standards of generic skills, to complement academic or vocational ones. Generic skills include basic skills such as literacy and numeric, and key skills such as communication, team working, planning, problem solving, and customer service handling. Information technology companies embrace these soft skills. Information technology industry requires an Information Communication Technology graduate who is not just trained as a subject matter expert from a theoretical perspective. There is a definite need for graduates to have skills, which are based on the ability to approach work from a flexible, creative and innovative viewpoint. It is necessary that graduates are able to perform as a member of a team and have important people management skills (Forfas 2004).

DeFaoite et al. (2003) found that entrepreneurship education provided for the integration of a variety of business subjects, the promotion of improved decision-making skills and an increase in technology transfer between universities and the market place. Galloway and Brown (2002) also suggested that a cross-disciplinary approach to enterprise education could influence a range of industry sectors including the arts, science and technology disciplines. In Information Communication Technology, entrepreneurship education there is a need to incorporate both discrete quantifiable objectives and less specific but more individual behavioural related objectives. Using the framework, the resulting course provides students with a theoretical and practical foundation in the concepts and principles of effective management practices as they apply to the small firm. Furthermore, the course enables students to build on their practical experience and develop the skills and competencies to apply where applicable the principles of management.

Graduates from Information Communication Technology entrepreneurship education need to have soft skills such as communication, presentation and writing skills. As entrepreneurs, they need to be able to present themselves effectively with the business community around them, while also being capable of marketing the information technology companies product potentialservice to customers. The teaching process should focus on active learning, problem-based learning and discovery teaching. Active learning places greater emphasis on the student exploring their own skill, competencies and general self-awareness. In a problem-based learning environment, either on their own or in teams, students assume responsibility for solving problems. Discovery teaching provides students with a learning environment, which will equip them with the ability to continue educating themselves throughout their career. Essentially the combination of these approaches provides students with personal and career development (Global Enterprise Monitor 2005).

Information technology companies need to ensure that their employees are not only equipped with the current Information Communication Technology knowledge base, but furthermore, are equipped with the skills to update their knowledge as required. The incorporation of action learning, problem-based learning and discovery teaching allows them to develop their knowledge and skills. The process focus should combine both formal and informal teaching methods, encouraging topics such as problem solving and career planning in an interactive action based learning environment (Robertson et al. 2003).

Information technology companies demand their employees should have both hard skills and soft skills. Information technology companies evaluate personal values, critical thinking tools and character traits that their employees need to succeed in their specific career. Some may be inborn abilities while other soft skills are cultivated and refined throughout lifetime. Information technology companies require their personnel to assess their own strengths and weaknesses. These companies go for employees who are able to listen attentively, speak precisely, read fast and write well. Employees are required to manage multiple tasks, adjust to changing work conditions, set priorities, coordinate team efforts and target a shifting set of goals (McQuarrie, 2009).

Information technology companies search for employees, who can relate with people, resolve conflicts, encourage, motivate and lead others. Companies of every kind benefit from having relationship builders who can achieve consensus and deal with abrasive personalities in a firm but sensitive manner. Graduates who are not able to impress employers during interviews due to lack of soft skills like presentation and communication skills do not get jobs (Phang 2006).

Information Technology companies are struggling with their inability to find and retain top talent. Visionary companies have discovered that their talent is their valuable resource. A focussed productive team gives an organisation the needed advantage over organisations that may have the same cutting edge technologies, and much more capital. Therefore, forward thinking information technology companies have used soft skills to attract and retain viable workers and made it to be their top priority. Soft skills are used in choosing vision and core ideology that shapes the information technology companies culture and is a stimulus for all decisions made regarding culture and workforce (Owen-Smith 2004).

A well-defined portrait of who the personnel is, where the organisation is going, who will get the organisation there and how the portrait will be accomplished serves as an important guide in such important functions as personnel training and leadership. This determines what kind of employees the company is seeking not only in terms of hard skills, but in terms of soft or people skills.  Consider the fact that candidates are often hired because of their technological prowess or credentials. Their inability to fit into the organisations culture that causes their departure.  Therefore, a growing number of organisations have discovered the need to take a more serious look at a candidates ability to integrate into its culture. Many information technology companies have invested in tools adapted to their particular organisation that will help to determine whether a prospective candidate is a potentially good match. Finding talent that is well suited to your organization and goals to begin with is an important first step in retaining them, once they are on board (Lairio and Pettinen 2005).

A company that has a clear, concise picture of who the employee is, what information technology company wants to accomplish and who will get the company there is in a good position. However, the company must next assess its current workforce to identify skill gaps. This will help the organisation to determine what hard skills are needed from its future workforce. However, the soft skills of new talent may play an even larger role in their ability to adapt to the organizations culture and support its mission. While todays markets demands ever increasing technological savvy, many employers have discovered that an applicant who is a good fit can easily be taught these skills. Conversely, an organization that hires talent with the right technical skills, but a complete inability to mesh with the organization or its core ideology is often vastly disappointed (Hannon 2005).

An information technology organisation will be strengthened when the company purposely seeks potential talent that balances its current strengths and weaknesses in both hard and soft skills and has a strong inclination toward the vision and values that have already been established. Soft skills enable the company to build a reputation as an employer of choice, which is an important step in attracting the talent that the organisation seeks. Generous compensation and benefits are usually the first factors that come to mind when pondering how a company can attract top talent. While these issues certainly play a role in drawing talent, they are not enough to attract and retain the type of talent needed to attain your organizations long-term goals (Kirby 2002).

Todays workforce is seeking more than just monetary rewards. A growing number of top performers do not prescribe to the idea of sacrificing their personal lives and families for the fast track or huge salaries. Instead, they want meaningful work in an environment where they feel appreciated and respected a philosophy that they can subscribe to and a chance to grow in their professional and personal lives. Therefore, IT companies appreciate soft skills by using them encourage open dialogue and honesty among the employees without withholding honest observations (Hynes and Richardson 2007).

Information technology companies have positive perception towards soft skills. Information technology companies use them to communicate their goals, mission and values to their employees. Information technology companies give their talents opportunities to do meaningful and purposeful work while giving them opportunities to continue to learn and grow. The companies use soft skills to address the employees concerns and consider their opinions as they make decisions that impact them. In addition to that, information technology companies use soft skills to appreciate and adequately reward their hard work and commitment (Loverde 2003).

Employees in information technology companies perceive that their companies are truly embracing result-oriented performance management, where meeting goals, producing high quality work, and ensuring customer satisfaction are more important than how many hours they work. Employee empowerment is becoming a reality. Technology has revolutionised the workplace. Workers can work anywhere at anytime due to advances in hardware, software, and internet access. Training e-workforce in soft skills is an all-inclusive endeavour. There is specific knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by e-workers, and specific audiences that should be trained on all, or a subset, of these knowledge and skills, to ensure maximum performance and success of the remote work evaluations (Positively Broadband 2002).

Training the e-workforce for high performance requires knowledge, skills, and abilities in four main categories. These are Management Practices, Technical Skills, Soft Skills, and E-Work Information. Training audiences include managers of remote workers, remote workers, non-remote co-workers, and family members of remote workers. Some Knowledge, Skills, Abilities are relevant to all audiences for example communication skills, and some Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities are relevant to specific targets (for example management practices for managers). Each of these essential Knowledge, Skills and Ability arenas will be discussed in general and in relation to the needs of specific audiences (Davis and Polonko 2001).

Figure 2.1 Best practices framework for E-work Training
Source Verive, 2003, p.4
Information technology companies found that the number one barrier to implementing remote work programs was managerial concerns about maintaining performance and productivity (United States Office of Personnel Management, 2002). Further, Richman, Noble, and Johnson (2002) found that only one in eight mangers receive training on how to manage remote workers. This lack of training has a direct impact on the implementation, success, and sustainability of the companies. Remote work programs, as noted by additional findings that managers who do receive such training are more likely to see remote work programs as a retention tool, less likely to show a preference for managing on-site employees, and feel that employees locations do not correlate with the amount of effort the companies take to manage them. In short, managers who receive training on managing from a distance are more supportive of the e-work program, more in alignment with company goals, and more confident in their managerial abilities (Verive, 2003).

According to Grantham (2000), the new workplace is one where people voluntarily come together to find each other as workmates based on a common personal philosophy, social attitudes, and shared behaviours. In this collaborative workspace, decision-making is based on what is needed to keep the organization healthy, where the conditions necessary for organizational health are the same as those that are good for the individual employee. In this kind of environment, management becomes more about mentoring and developing employees than supervising work. To move managers towards this more collaborative style, much interpersonal training is needed to improve or change attitudes, perceptions, and managerial style (Richman, Noble,  Johnson, 2002).

Managerial trust of employees is related to organizational decisions to implement remote work programs and which employees are permitted to work remotely. This is problematic, however, given the large number of employees who would like to tele-work more often (42 of current tele-workers) and research that shows higher productivity for all types of employees who tele-work, not just star performers (Loverde, Ayman,  DeLay, 2003). Effective management in the 21st century will be done by those who can trust and mentor their employees. Clearly, managers of remote and mobile workers are the key audience for training in e-work management practices. However, some informational awareness training regarding how management practices are changing andor being rewarded may be useful for remote workers and non-remote co-workers.

Distant work relies more heavily on technology to enable collaboration and communication as face-to-face meetings become rare or non-existent. Thus, the ability to use a variety of collaboration tools, especially web-based ones, is vital to performance. E-Workers need to learn how to use online team workspaces, white boards, instant messaging tools, document-sharing software, web-based presentation tools, knowledge management systems, and others. Additionally, employees need to understand how these tools can be used to get their work done more effectively, and how the tools are integrated into the overall mix of resources available to them (Joice 2001).

Applied experience shows that few companies offer soft skills training to their e-workers. Even companies with noted formal telework programs fail to give more than a nod to communication and staying connected skills. The most common anecdotal explanation offered by consultants and companies alike is that many workers do not think they need to learn how to work remotely. They assume that the same knowledge, skills and abilities that make them productive in the main office are those that will keep them productive in the remote workplace. Unfortunately, this is true, but not the whole truth. Knowledge, skills, and abilities related to managing ones tasks, relationships, and time are essential to effective performance when working remotely (Dziak, 2001). Sometimes, these essential soft skills are already a part of a workers repertoire before they begin working remotely. However, once work and interaction is fully remote, that is 100 virtual, whether for one day or 5 days per week, these soft skills become more important and thus require a higher level of mastery. A star employee may well be a good communicator, but when working remotely, the employee needs to be an excellent virtual communicator as well (Verive, 2003).

In fact, the main concerns non-teleworking persons have about teleworking is that they will not have enough contact with their co-workers, that they would not be able to separate their home environment form their work environment, and that they will be out of the information loop (Positively Broadband, 2002). These concerns all reflect the lack of confidence in soft skills, that is, their ability to communicate effectively, set boundaries, and stay connected. Experienced telework consultants know that employees who do decide to telework, as well, have similar concerns. Some might see this as a selection issue, deciding to allow those with telework-supportive personality traits or existing soft skills to work remotely. In sum, anyone interested in working effectively in todays work environment must possess basic soft skills related to working, communicating, and interacting in the virtual workplace (Richman, Noble, Johnson, 2002).

There are fine remote work soft skills arenas that are considered by information technology companies in any training targeted at e-workers. These are adaptation to virtual work, self-leadership, interaction with others, effective communication and main office engagement. This is about self-management of ones tasks, time, and impression. Included here are skills related to planning, self-reliant decision-making, facilitating virtual meetings on phone and web meetings, and asking for feedback. Here, the emphasis in on being prepared and proactive, taking the initiative, and making sure that everyone knows what one is accomplishing. When interactions are increasingly becoming virtual, knowing how to be seen requires a slightly different skill set (Verive, 2003).

In the virtual workplace, interacting with others requires two key skill sets. These are being able to set boundaries with people with whom one shares hisher workspace, and being able to resolve conflict using virtual tools. Boundary setting skills must be sharpened because, in many remote workspaces, there are no compartments to provide a clear definition of ones space versus anothers space. Some soft skills, such as goal setting, do not generally elicit personal reactions from trainees. However, boundary setting is different. There are individual differences on this skill, with some people feeling more at ease setting and enforcing boundaries, and others finding it very difficult to do. Additionally, setting boundaries can affect a reaction in the people who are being asked to respect the boundaries. Thus, training around this soft skill should include knowledge of different types of boundary-setting strategies, along with interpersonal skill development (DeLay  Loverde, 2003).

Dealing with conflict in non-face-to-face situations is a critical e-worker soft skill given that, when working remotely, 100 of interaction is virtual. Information technology companies view that the common knowledge, skills, and abilities taught in the average conflict resolution course are still applicable to the virtual workplace. Where training that is more specific is needed, is in shifting e-workers awareness of the importance of this skill and learning how to monitor others reactions more closely and more frequently. When disagreements can only be discussed and resolved via email or on the phone, well honed listening, empathy, and negotiation skills are of particular importance. Further, there is some research that suggests that people behave differently when negotiating virtually, being more apt to deceive or lie. Thus, e-workers need to both polish their conflict resolution skills, and understand how they may be used differently in the virtual workplace (GWR, 2003).

When working remotely, communicating effectively involves mastery of remote communication mediums such as email, voicemail, instant messaging, use of e-groups and discussion threads, and web-based collaboration tools. Soft skills in this arena are closely tied with technical knowledge. Communication skills have moved beyond writing memos and being able to express an idea clearly virtual communication requires the abilities to express emotion, display empathy, and describe concisely, without the benefit of body language, vocal tone, or facial expressions. This is a challenge for many people, one many fail given the numerous tips and guidelines for virtual good manners found in business magazines. Communicating effectively is also one of the main concerns non-teleworkers have about working remotely (Positively Broadband, 2002). Thus, it is essential to train e-workers on how to communicate succinctly, thoroughly, and appropriately via technology-related mediums such as voicemail, email, and relevant collaboration tools.

Information Technology Companies training on this soft skill should address individual differences in perceptions and attitudes related to feeling isolated, as well as provide specific behaviours for maintaining relationships. Informational training on company related opportunities for mentoring, socializing, and other supportive activities would also help e-workers understand how to stay connected to the people and happenings back at the main office. Several current studies have found that e-workers are more satisfied with their lives, better able to balance work and family obligations, and feel more committed to their organizations than employees who do not work remotely (David  Polonko, 2001 DeLay  Loverde, 2003 GWR, 2003 Richman, Noble,  Johnson, 2002).

The five soft skills arenas should be taught to all remote workers and their managers. Remote workers will need at least to acknowledge and strengthen the soft skills they do have, if not learn new skills. Managers of remote workers will need to use many of the same skills to manage their e-workers, and will likely have to provide coaching and mentoring to their employees as they develop these skills. Because they must interact with remote workers, non-remote co-workers would benefit from training on a subset of these skills, specifically those related to setting expectations, setting boundaries, communicating effectively, and staying connected. To ease the transition to at-home remote work, family members of e-workers might welcome training on setting expectations and setting boundaries (Richman, Noble,  Johnson, 2002 United States Office of Personnel Management, 2002). All in all, soft skills are among the most important knowledge, skills, and abilities for e-workers because they are directly related to performance.

A quality business plan is the roadmap to success. Information technology companies focus on hiring the right people with the right skill-set. The companies strive to create culture of teamwork and commitment coupled with high quality execution, which would allow information technology companies to reach the destination safely and successfully. Information Technology companies integrate soft skills like leadership, decision making, conflict resolution, negotiation, communication, creativity and presentation skills in their workforce (United States Office of Personnel Management, 2002).

Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Preamble
This chapter details the research methodologies employed in this study. In so doing, the research question is presented and the research objectives are discussed. In order to investigate the perception of Information Technology companies towards soft skill, the study will have to carry out a survey of Information Technology enabled services Company in the city of Pune. The research methods used both primary and secondary are described in detail, and selection and use of these methods are justified. Data collection techniques, as well as sample selection and data analysis are discussed. In addition, pertinent issues and considerations (including limitations) relating to this specific research are presented and discussed.

The research methodology is set out clearly in this chapter so that the same approach can be adopted by other researchers in the future. Therefore, this study will proceed from the description of research study area, research design, data collection approaches and verifications of the outcomes. The research theory has attempted to establish various applications of soft skill in information technology and information technology enabled business.

3.1.1 Research philosophy
This research philosophy proposed various ways in which data are collected and analysed, given that this study falls under science of information technology. A clearer understanding of the study subject commences from Information Technology companies views and the opinions on the use of soft skills as a means of employee improvement. The epistemology of this study dwells on the wide knowledge that soft skills attracts and increases the usage of information technology and information technology products. Therefore, the epistemology of this study is to establish if the social nature of soft skill can be studied as a social science using validity, accuracy, sensitivity and reliability approaches (Saunders et al. 2007, p. 108). The epistemology of this study guides the methodology to predict the insight of Information Technology companies perception of soft skills.

The research positivism entails the use of data collection to support the general trends on the usage of soft skills in the Information Technology sector. Thus, the survey technique is preferred. The survey is used to test the hypothesis of this study. The positivist approach is most applicable to capture the wider view for fair deduction. The application of deduction implies that the literature review has preceded the survey in a truthful and verifiable manner (Saunders et al. 2007, p. 108). This study also adopts critical realism that faces the research. This position is supported by the possibility that soft skills could improve the information technology enabled businesses whether there is empirical evidence or not. The real power of the soft skill is appreciated.

3.1.2. Research approach
The study adopts both the primary and secondary research methods. Secondary research describes secondary sources of all the published and unpublished written materials containing information on the subject matter and helped the researcher during the study. In chapter 2, this study reviewed literature about the subject under study with the guidance of the study objectives. The use of the literature review at the exploration stage is justified because it gives the researcher the theoretical view of the already published works regarding the subject (Saunders et al. 2007). Literature review is also important because the researcher can access the other examples regarding the use of soft skills and its impact in the information technology enabled businesses.

Primary research is carried out to tackle the main research problem (Saunders et al. 2007 ).The primary research carried out in the study is directed by the information gathered from the secondary sources. Following thorough analysis of various options in research methods, the researcher decided to approach the primary research with a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques. The case study will offer contemporary evidence on the topic under study. The research adhered to ethical concern in research such as confidentiality and honesty among other key issues.

3.2. Primary Research
3.2.1 Research Process
This study adopted a multi-method approach in data collection. Whereas there was plenty of literature information within the scope of this study, the survey and examples data was equally useful for the sake of current findings. Interviews and survey were the preferred for collecting information with the researcher getting a first hand opportunity to test the variables in the study questions (Saunders et al. 2007). The following is the process in the questionnaire development.

Source (Saunders et al. 2007).
The following diagram represents the process of data collection in this study.
Source (Saunders et al. 2007).
The use of the questionnaire to gather data posits that the inductive approach takes higher preference to the deductive approach (Saunders et al. 2007).

3.2.2 Qualitative Research
Qualitative research is a vast and complex activity that identifies a researcher globally. Qualitative research comprises of a bunch of deductive elemental undertakings that make the globe noticeable. This study embraces two major qualitative research paradigms.  These are empirical cycle and the design cycles. The first refers to the universal stages of this research aims and objectives, study design, primary and secondary data collection, data analysis and presentation (Saunders et al, 2007). The second refers to the universal stages of study goals, limits and delimits applications of various methods, choice of various designs and presentation. Thus, this qualitative study hypothesis will follow a diagnostic, constructive and application approach as show below.

3.2.3. Questionnaire and examples methods
The application of detailed questionnaires and illustrations was considered by the researcher to be the best way of encasing both sides, allowing every respondent a secure, and enough space in which to give views and opinions. From this general view, it is apparent that these qualitative study cycles are developing from one process to the next. While in the process of exploring the study theories, new variables emerged (Saunders et al. 2007). These outcomes test the study and guide the development of the questionnaire from the literature outcomes from a non-biased angle. The outcome of the theory of the cycles forms the background to assess the role played by soft skills in the Information Technology enabled services. This study scope is nevertheless, delimited by time and resources to cover in-depth impact of the soft skills in Information Technology enabled businesses in terms of actual sales and profits.

3.2.4 Sample Selection
A survey of the major Information Technology Companies in the city of Pune located in the state of Maharashtra in India is carried out. The study uses questionnaires to collect data from the chosen respondents.  The targeted study respondents are the employees of the selected Information Technology companies.

3.2.5 Analysis and Interpretations
As drawn earlier, the main purpose of this study is to examine the perception of Information Technology companies in the soft skills. For that reason, this process is anticipated to illustrate Information Technology enabled services companies and their developments of soft skills in the company operations. To a greater view, this technique should allow the investigator to come up with the companys rationale for adopting soft skill usage.

The first approach of this study is the action research. As per this study, both the theory claim and expansion are acceptable, since the influence of the soft skills to restore good public relation is a  societal affair whose impact are precious (Saunders et al.2007).On the issue of  theory expansion ,the study  disintegrates the development of soft skills  in relation to the Information Technology enabled businesses. Action research will also demand the researcher to give their comments as well as more flesh because of their experience. Nonetheless, this has some bias.

Consequently, approach of action research does not take priority in this study.  When testing the hypothesis, the feedbacks from the questionnaires come in handy to validate the empirical nature of the study (Saunders et al. 2007). . Much as the research would like to authenticate given conjectural positions, the results will nonetheless be sensitive to likely propositions to be implemented by the players in the Information Technology business.

3.2.6 The Research Onion Design
Saunders et al (2007) came up with the research methodology called research onion as elaborated below.

As shown above, the research philosophy layer is composed of the following approaches positivism, interpretive, realism, objectivism, subjectivism, pragmatism, and functionalism, radical humanist and radical structuralism. The Research approaches layer is composed of both the inductive and deductive methods. The research strategies layer of this study is composed of the experiments, case studies, grounded theory, surveys, ethnography and actions. The time zone horizons are composed of the cross-sectional and longitudinal methods. The research choices compose of single methods, mixed methods and multiple methods. Finally, the data collection methods are composed of the sampling case study, secondary data, and interviews (Saunders et al. 2007). Since not all these approaches were applicable, this study adopts a top to down peel of the onion while justifying every approach and decisions.

3.2.7 Limitations of the research
The two major aspects of time horizons that impact on this study are the cross-sectional and horizontal horizons (Saunders et al. 2007). The horizontal horizon is quite challenging because most of the employees in the company where the case study is carried out are unlikely to offer some information they deem confidential and unsafe in the hands of their competitors. Therefore, the cross-sectional horizon is the most appropriate because the various studies are viewed from the secondary sources.

The importance of the testing stage is to validate whether the above-mentioned study approach is effective in highlighting the issues of the subject study. The testing stage will also form a future grounded theory to be adopted by the stakeholders in the Information Technology enabled services industry. The most applicable strategies in this subject are the action research, surveys, and the case study (Saunders et al. 2007).

This study gained reliability of the examples and literature sources because the perception of Information Technology companies on soft skills are recorded in various peer reviewed academic databases that are accessible to the researcher and other interested verifiers. (Saunders et al. 2007).The literature was from peer-reviewed journals and articles, therefore, this study gained considerable reliability. Use of a  multi-faceted methods during  the research, gained construct validity because of the application of the examples, literature review, case study and interviews as the foundation of the multiple sources to cover for the limitations of each source.

Internal validity is achieved by matching the soft skill explanations in the literature review and the tested outcomes from the case study concerning the same. However, the internal validity of this study guards against perception errors. The outcomes from this study require external validity. Since most of the excessive use of soft skills in the Information Technology enabled services  take place in most first world nations, the outcomes will be externally valid when they show similar trends to other nations. Therefore, the gaps arising in the external validity filled by the case studies in the literatures highlighted in the research.

The researcher had an obligation for trustfulness and confidential purposes with the respondents. The researcher had the ethical obligation of truthfulness, by informing the respondents of the actual purpose of the research and reporting the outcome as accurate as possible. The respondents had the ethical obligations of reporting as truthfully as possible to the researcher without withholding information in most cases. The researcher had an ethical obligation of observing and interpreting the outcomes in a valid manner. The researcher has an ethical obligation of avoiding personal bias to influence the outcome of the study. The researchers role is thus exclusive to observing the research occurrences without unnecessary outcomes (Saunders et al. 2007).

This chapter has outlined the research process, strategy and design. Since there are many soft skill theories as established by the literature review, the study adopted an exploratory and explanatory approach. This study also adopted a positivist approach to explore the literature review and surveys for an interpretivistic view. Overall, this study was more inclined to inductive than deductive approach because of the availability of various literatures in the field. There are potential limitations of this study in the area of reliability and validity. However, these are reduced by use of appropriate research strategies and processes. Ethical issues affecting this study process are highlighted with proper mitigation in place whenever a breakdown occurs.

Chapter 4 Results and Analysis.
The researcher conducted a survey on different Information Technology companies in the city of Pune and used questionnaires to collect information from the employees of those companies. The study had a sample target of 400 respondents and only got 350 responses. This represents 87.5 response rate, which is a good feedback rate for the elevation of the research.

4.1. Survey results
This study, in seeking to establish the frequency in which the IT companies located in the city of Pune carry out their soft skill training, established that most companies do carry out these training often. A slightly high number do the training always while others occasionally. The results of the study are shown in figure1 below.

Table 1 The frequency of soft skill training in IT sector of India
FrequencyCorrespondenceAlways104Fairly often133Occasionally72Seldom33Never18
Figure 1

The study sought feedback on how the soft skills have improved the productivity of the workers in the Information Technology sector. Majority of the respondents who were the workers agreed that indeed soft skill has improved their productivity with a comparatively high number strongly agreeing with the statement. Minority disagreed. Figure 2 shows the response from the study.
Table 2 Soft skills has improved productivity of workers in IT sector
ConcurrencyCorrespondenceStrongly Agree102Agree162Disagree63Strongly disagree23
Figure 2

The study also sought the opinion of the respondents whether soft skills were also an essential requirement for employment in the Information Technology sector. The results in figure 3 explain that definitely soft skill is an essential requirement in the IT job market with only a few number disagreeing.
Table 3 Soft skill is an employment requirement in IT sector
ConcurrencyCorrespondenceVery True122True145Not really63Not True20
Figure3.

In the quest to establish from the study the methods used in soft skill training, a large number pointed out that most Information Technology companies use their own in-built curriculum to train their workers. A good number also suggested the use of workshop and vocational training while the minority confirmed that the companies do offer study leave to its employees to further their education but on a rare basis. The findings are illustrated in figure 4.
Table 4 Methods of soft skills training
MethodsCorrespondenceWork shop and seminars111In-build curriculum162Vocational training56Allowing study for employees21
Figure 4

The study also attempted to find out if it is true that some workers soft skill improvement program as suggested by the literature review. Most workers disagreed stating that it was a misguided perception about the employees but some of them agreed. This is shown in figure5.
Table 5 Response of workers antagonism on soft skill improvement programme
ResponseCorrespondenceStrongly agree37Agree80Disagree155Strongly disagree78
Figure5

The study sought the opinion of the workers on the importance of soft skills in the Information Technology sector. A very good number of the respondents agreed that indeed soft skill is a very important component in the Information Technology sectors only a few disputing this. The results are as shown below.
Table 6 Response on importance of soft skills in IT sector
ResponseCorrespondenceStrongly agree105Agree172Disagree45Strongly disagree32
Figure 6.

From the study, the researcher found out that majority of the Information Technology workers contrary to perception are very much okay with integration of soft skill into the Information Technology sector as illustrated in the following figure 7 below.
Table 7 Perception of IT employees toward soft skills
PerceptionCorrespondenceVery satisfied162Somewhat satisfied104Undecided62Very undecided22
Figure 7.

From the carried out, the female gender, applied soft skills more frequently than the male gender. This is because women are more sociable and communicates a lot than men in any given set up. This is shown in figure 8 below.
Table 8 The gender that applies soft skills more frequently
GenderCorrespondenceMale102Female248
Figure 8

From the research carried out, 21-40 years age group is the one that learns soft skills much faster. This is because the age group actively interacts with the clients at the workplace. This is demonstrated on figure 9 below.
Table 9 The age group that learns soft skills much faster
Age group (Years)Correspondence0-209621-4016541-607861-8011
Figure 9

From the research carried out, the female gender was more willing to learn soft skills than male gender. This is because women communicate a lot than their men counterparts. This is illustrated on figure 10 shown below.
Table 10 The gender that is willing to learn soft skills
GenderCorrespondenceMale149Female201
Figure 10

4.2. Analysis of the results.
Analysis of the hypothesis in relation to the literature review
From the literature review in the study of business process outsourcing (BPO), it is established that communication skills is the most important aspect of the soft skill (Subramanian 2005). This element of soft skill is required to interact directly with the clients on the personal basis or through other Information Technology gadgets. Most Information Technology companies interact with their customers on the global scale and each of these customers has different cultures, behavioural traits and perception. Therefore, communication skills facilitate the management of clients and customers. Furthermore, this aspect of the soft skill also signifies a degree of cultural sensitisation. Cultural sensitisation simple means appreciating and having enough information of different cultures and its artefacts. This proves hypothesis H1.
 
According to Subramanian (2005), soft skill and the technical skill complement each other. Soft skill is very much important in making sure that the transaction between the Information Technology companies and the clients becomes very successful. Ziegler (2007) affirms that workers who have both the technical and soft skills contribute a lot to increased production and enhanced economic development of any organisation. Therefore, lack of soft skill can lead to redundant workforce in any organization. Technical know-how alone cannot differentiate the best worker from the rest (Powers 2004). Soft skill balances technical skills and is very beneficial for any worker and the organization at large. This proves that hypothesis H3 is right.

Subramanian (2005) and Powers (2004) offer different approaches on how companies should train their workers on soft skill. (Subramanian (2005) shows BPO companies varied approaches in tackling different soft skill problem while Powers (2004) suggests practical and easily synthesized training procedures. Both of the two authors are not very clear on the methods used thus hypothesis H3 will be proven or disapproved in the results analysis.

According to Powers (2004), there are 3 different categories of workers namely, maximisers, maintainers, and the minimisers. The latter group comprises of the workforce who resist challenges and innovations. This group usually represents 30 of the workforce and is those who probably will not fancy soft skill improvement programmes. This proves hypothesis H4.

Survey Analysis
According to the survey, soft skill is a very important component in the Information Technology sector. Majority of the respondent who are also workers in the Information Technology sector concurred that soft skill is very significant in their sector and only a few number disagreed. The importance of soft skill in the Information Technology sector is further illustrated in a number of responses from the questions asked in the study. For instance majority of the respondents confirmed that soft skill is a vital requirement when seeking for a job in the Information Technology sector besides the required technical skills.

In addition, the study also established from the respondents that soft skill has played a very big role in improving the productivity of the human resources in the Information Technology sector. Because of the significance of the soft skills, the survey results show that Information Technology companies fairly often train their workforce in soft skill with a slightly high number of  the respondents confirming that some companies do the training always. The study reveals that most IT organizations have their own curriculum for training the workforce on the soft skills and those without the in build curriculum usually hold workshops and vocational training and giving academic leaves to their employees.

This presents the methods used to train the workforce on soft skills among Indian Information Technology sector, majority using their own systems in training. Majority of the respondents disagreed with the notion that many workers opposes soft skill improvement programme thus disapproving the hypothesis H4. The results show that there is some form of resistance but only on a small portion of the workers as illustrated in the literature review. The study also shows that many employees in the Information Technology sector are satisfied with the use of soft skills in the Information Technology sector contrary to the researchers expectation.

Chapter 5 Conclusion and Recommendation.
The study successfully explored the perception of Information Technology companies toward soft skills. The established that soft skill is a very important in the Information Technology sector besides technical skills. It is very difficult for any fresh graduates to secure a job in the Information Technology sector without soft skill training. Apart from that, companies have now embarked on rigorous training to improve the skills of their workforce with the majority carrying out the training often. A soft skill helps to facilitate management of clients and customers who are globally based in the Information Technology sector. Soft skill application in the Information Technology sector in collaboration with other business sectors has led to evolution of the domestic industry policy in India towards a global based model in the manufacturing and service industries.

Information technology companies have positive perception towards soft skills. Information technology companies are recruiting their employees based on both soft skills and hard skills. Soft skills are given more emphasis than hard skills. Soft skills are the ones that enable an employee to grow within the organisation. Companies with soft skills internal training have a competitive advantage over those companies that do have. Employees with soft skills entrenched in them impress the clients of the companies since they have problem solving techniques and have excellent communication skills with ability to listen to details. Managers who have soft skills are better leaders since they give appreciation to employees when due. Managers motivate their employees by mentoring them.

With the increased significance of soft skills in the Information Technology sector, majority of the employees now welcomes it and the companies in the Information Technology sector have devised their own methods of training their employees on soft skills. Soft skills training both within the companies and institutions of high learning should embraced a system of learning that is easily synthesized, understood, maintained and simple to relate to. This should entail systematic and practical procedures in the work place or in any location where one can internalize practical skills.

Soft skill training should also be done on a periodic basis and systems of evaluation should be set up to check on the progress of the workers. This will ensure consistent worker improvement and worker productivity, which will develop into a norm rather than the rarity. Company, which has skilled and advanced workforce, enjoys a greater competitive advantage than the rival in the same industry.

Chapter 6 Future implications
The results and the finding of this study will be very helpful in future research as a ground theory for the subject of perception of Information Technology companies towards soft skill. This position is taken by this study because the study has reviewed several literatures from accredited academic sources that are current in dates of content. Therefore, the future scholars in this subject will get first hand inspiration since the information gaps have been narrowed significantly. Even though this study established some gaps in the literature review, there is sufficient reliable and valid content in this study. The few gaps should be filled in future by studies of case studies, which should be able to predict the strategic trends of the Information Technology companies in their perception towards soft skills.

One of the most significant gaps in this study is the case study of the impact of the soft skills on the socio-economic development of the Information Technology sector. The other gap in this study should be considered by the future studies is the degree of usage of soft skills in information technology sector in India.