Facilitation of team communication skill among engineers: an empirical study

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the study is to understand the team communication skill among students with engineering background.

Design/methodology/approach

Labour market offers more employment to those who have better social skills than those who fair less on these skills. It is pertinent to integrate these skills among engineers. In the study, a Qual-quant-Qual platform was created to develop social skill andragogy for engineers from India. Involving 132 engineers, the authors gathered qualitative and quantitative data to understand their perspective on communication and the emergent factors of team communication skill.

Findings

The qualitative study supports the view that despite theoretical awareness, the actions may differ. The factor analysis of the data revealed five important factors of interpersonal communication. The study offers six utilities in support of andragogy.

Originality/value

The study offers a platform to engineers to internalize and reflect differences in order for the real learning to take place, and it also offers space to faculty members to simulate and offer relevant interventions.

Citation

Mehta, N.K. and Jha, S. (2021), "Facilitation of team communication skill among engineers: an empirical study", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 435-453. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-04-2019-0055