Journal of Management Policies and Practices

Preliminary Exploration of Significance of Soft Skills in Groups with Specific Reference to Peer-Assessment
Neetima Agarwal, Vandana Ahuja

Abstract
With time when IT sector is witnessing a high growth, people with varied backgrounds, cultures, experiences, etc. are coming together to work in a team or a group to achieve a common target, because of which few of the issues on the “Need of Soft skills in Engineers” or “Peer Assessment of the Soft Skills” have arisen.. Lack of soft skills like communication skills, analytical skills, interpersonal skills, negotiation skills etc. are becoming the issues of greater concern in this rapidly growing industry. This paper aims to explore the importance of soft skills required to work in the diverse group of people. The whole scenario of teaching has evolved from “sage to stage”, especially this remarkable change is observed in the highereducation. Group projects are promoted to sharpen the communication, interpersonal, conflict-management, and team-working skills in the IT graduates. IT graduates from different geographies of the world are seen working in cross-cultural environments, often interacting using audio and visual aids, thus, eliminating the need of physical interactions. The free-rider problem which is most evident here is that the individual efforts are not rewarded over the cumulative results of the team. Many studies suggest peer-evaluation can help to minimize this problem. Through this study a preliminary exploration is done on the importance and effectiveness of peer-evaluation of soft skills.

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