Proceedings of the 6th Global Conference on Education and Teaching
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Impact of 5 Power Skills in Organizations Sustainability
Filipa Lemos Cristina
ABSTRACT:
This work presents an analysis of five key human skills (empathy, collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking) within the organizational context in Portugal, exploring variations across different age groups and genders. The study, conducted through PowerUP, analysed 115 responses from a specific questionnaire scale within diverse organizations and diverse age ranges. The analysis reveals several notable trends across various age groups. Overall, there is a consistent pattern of high scores across age groups for empathy, communication, critical thinking, and collaboration. Women tend to show higher values of empathy and collaboration, meaning that organizations benefit from diverse ecosystems within their organizations even in leadership teams and roles. Notably, older individuals tend to exhibit slightly higher levels of empathy and collaboration compared to younger cohorts, suggesting a potential accumulation of these skills over time. Even without specific training this would suggest that a multigenerational organization would bring social and economic impact, for instance in more effective onboarding processes with a buddy system.Additionally, while there is a slight increase in creativity scores with age, critical thinking skills show comparable levels between the 30-49 and 50-65 age groups. Overall, communication and creativity skills are the lowest when compared to collaboration, empathy and critical thinking. This observation has been seen by other authors and it could be cultural or educational related. All these findings suggest a general continuity in the importance and development of power skills across different stages of life, with nuanced variations among age groups. Understanding and prioritizing the development of these power skills are crucial for promoting diversity, inclusion, equity (DEI), and social sustainability within companies. By cultivating empathy, communication, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration, organizations foster a culture of innovation, adaptability, and inclusivity, ultimately driving enhanced teamwork, problem-solving, and overall organizational performance and sustainability. Implementing a standardized scale to measure these power skills provides organizations with valuable insights into the strengths and areas for improvement of their workforce, enabling targeted training and development initiatives to enhance employee performance, promote diversity and inclusion, and ultimately contribute to the long-term sustainability and success of the organization. Investing in the development of these skills is essential for creating inclusive, equitable, and socially sustainable workplaces that attract and retain top talent and drive positive impact both internally and externally.
keywords: human skills, people, power skills, scale, sustainability