The Relationship between Big Five Personality and Soft Skills among Graduate Unemployment
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61841/qacptj22Keywords:
Graduates, Unemployment, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Communication Skill, Problem Solving Skill, Resilience, Teamwork SkillAbstract
Soft skills include aspects of generic skills. Although there is no specific skill list on soft skills, most of them relate to skills acquisition such as leadership, teamwork, communication, and continuous learning. Soft skills are often associated with individual personality traits by psychologists. The purpose of this current research is to investigate the positive relationship between soft skills and Big Five personality among unemployed graduates. Purposive convenient sampling was conducted on the target population with a sample size of 293 thought peninsular of Malaysia. The result shows clearly that unemployment among graduates is due to low teamwork and communication skills and neuroticism, as their extraversion is low and high neuroticism. The future research and limitations of the study have been discussed.
Downloads
References
[1] Anwar, M., Shah, S. Z. A., & Khan, S. Z. (2018). The role of personality in SMEs internationalization:
Empirical evidence. Review of International Business and Strategy, 28(2), 258-282.
[2] Arslan, C. (2016). Interpersonal Problem Solving, Self-Compassion and Personality Traits in University
Students. Educational Research and Reviews, 11(7), 474-481.
[3] Azwar, A. S. (2018.). Kadar pengangguran menurun.
[4] Bagozzi, R. P., & Yi, Y. (1988). On the evaluation of structural equation models. Journal of the academy of
marketing science, 16(1), 74-94.
[5] Bandura, A. (2018). Albert Bandura and Social Learning Theory. Learning Theories for Early Years
Practice, 63.
[6] Bell, E., Bryman, A., & Harley, B. (2018). Business research methods. Oxford University Press.
[7] Carter, F., Bell, C., Ali, A., McKenzie, J., Boden, J. M., & Wilkinson, T. (2016). Predictors of psychological
resilience amongst medical students following major earthquakes. New Zealand Med J, 129.
[8] Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2016). Personality and individual differences. John Wiley & Sons.
[9] Chin, W. W. (1998). The partial least squares approach to structural equation modeling. Modern methods for
business research, 295(2), 295-336.
[10] De Fruyt, F., Wille, B., & John, O. P. (2015). Employability in the 21st century: Complex (interactive)
problem solving and other essential skills. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 8(2), 276-281.
[11] Deming, D. J. (2017). The value of soft skills in the labor market. NBER Reporter, (4), 7-11.
[12] Dijkstra, T. K. & Henseler, J. (2015). Consistent and asymptotically normal PLS estimators for linear
structural equations. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 81(1), 10-23.
[13] Djudiyah, M. S., Harding, D., & Sumantri, S. (2016). Gender Differences in Neuroticism on College
Students.
[14] Duncan, G. J. & Dunifon, R. (2012). "Soft skills" and long-run labor market success. In 35th Anniversary
Retrospective (pp. 313-339). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
[15] Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. J. Cha (1994),Partial Least t Squares." Advances Methods of Marketing
Research, 52-78.
[16] Fornell, C., & Larcker, D.F. (1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Models with observable Variables
and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(2), 39–50.
[17] Guay, R. P., Choi, D., Oh, I. S., Mitchell, M. S., Mount, M. K., & Shin, K. H. (2016). Why people harm the
organization and its members: Relationships among personality, organizational commitment, and workplace
deviance. Human Performance, 29(1), 1-15.
[18] Hair Jr., J. F., Hult, G. T. M., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2013). A primer on partial least squares
structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM): Sage Pubs
[19] Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a Silver Bullet. Journal of Marketing
Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139–151.
[20] Hair, Joseph F., Christian M. Ringle, and Marko Sarstedt. (2011). "PLS-SEM: Indeed a Silver Bullet."
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice 19 (2): 139-151.
[21] Henseler, J., Hubona, G., & Ray, P. A. (2016). Using PLS path modeling in new technology research:
updated guidelines. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 116(1), 2-20.
[22] Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in
variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115-135.
[23] Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2016). Testing measurement invariance of composites using
partial least squares. International Marketing Review, 33(3), 405–431.
[24] Holt, T., Burke-Smalley, L. A., & Jones, C. (2017). An Empirical Investigation of Student Career Interests
in auditing using the Big Five Model of Personality. In Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and
Curriculum Innovations (pp. 1-31). Emerald Publishing Limited.
[25] Horng, J. S., Tsai, C. Y., Yang, T. C., & Liu, C. H. (2016). Exploring the relationship between proactive
personality, work environment and employee creativity among tourism and hospitality
employees. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 54, 25-34.
[26] Hu, L. -t., & Bentler, P. M. (1998). Fit indices in covariance structure modeling: Sensitivity to
underparameterized model misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 424–453
[27] Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis:
conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55.
[28] Ilmarinen, V. J., Vainikainen, M. P., Verkasalo, M., & Lönnqvist, J. E. (2015). Why are extraverts more
popular? Oral fluency mediates the effect of extraversion on popularity in middle childhood. European
Journal of Personality, 29(2), 138-151.
[29] John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical
perspectives. Handbook of personality: Theory and research, 2(1999), 102-138.
[30] John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big-Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical
perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (Vol. 2, pp.
102–138). New York: Guilford Press.
[31] Koruklu, N. (2015). Personality and Social Problem-Solving: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, 15(2), 481-487.
[32] LeVine, R. A. (2018). Culture, behavior, and personality: An introduction to the comparative study of
psychosocial adaptation. Routledge.
[33] Lowry, P. B. & Gaskin, J. (2014). Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for
Building and Testing Behavioral Causal Theory: When to Choose It and How to Use It. IEEE Transactions
on Professional Communication, 57(2), 123-146.
[34] Mõttus, R. (2016). Towards more rigorous personality trait outcome research. European Journal of
Personality, 30(4), 292-303.
[35] Ohlsson, A., Johansen, R. B., & Larsson, G. (2017). An Exploratory Study of the Relationship Between the
Big-Five Personality Dimensions and Political Skills with Military Staff Members’ Perceived
Performance. Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2(1).
[36] Qureshi, A., Wall, H., Humphries, J., & Balani, A. B. (2016). Can personality traits modulate students?
engagement with learning and their attitude to employability?. Learning and Individual Differences, 51,
349-358.
[37] Rao, M. S. (2018). Soft skills: toward a sanctimonious discipline. On the Horizon, 26(3), 215-224.
[38] Sarstedt, M., Ringle, C. M., Smith, D., Reams, R., & Hair Jr., J. F. (2014). Partial least squares structural
Equation modeling (PLS-SEM): A useful tool for family business researchers. Journal of Family Business
Strategy, 5(1), 105-115.
[39] Sekaran, U. & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill-building approach. John Wiley &
Sons.
[40] Sjödén, B., Dimitrova, V., & Mitrovic, A. (2018, September). Using Thematic Analysis to Understand
Students’ Learning of Soft Skills from Videos. In European Conference on Technology Enhanced
Learning (pp. 656-659). Springer, Cham.
[41] Statistik Utama Tenaga Buruh Di Malaysia, Januari (2018).
[42] Stoll, G., Rieger, S., Lüdtke, O., Nagengast, B., Trautwein, U., & Roberts, B. W. (2017). Vocational
interests assessed at the end of high school predict life outcomes assessed 10 years later over and above IQ
and Big Five personality traits. Journal of personality and social psychology, 113(1), 167. [43] Yilmaz, M., O’Connor, R. V., Colomo-Palacios, R., & Clarke, P. (2017). An examination of personality
traits and how they impact software development teams. Information and Software Technology, 86, 101-
122.
[44] Yong, G. A. & Pearce, S. (2013). A Beginner’s Guide to Factor Analysis: Focusing on Exploratory Factor
Analysis. Tutorials in Quantitative Methods for Psychology, 9(2), 79-94.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Mehrunishah Begum Bathusha Hamid, Ramesh Kumar Moona Haji Mohamed, Aruna Raj Devarajoo, Rajaletchumy Mani, Che Siti Lazrina Md Lazim (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
