G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/73

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1 Textile Executive Perception towards Interpersonal Skill requirements for entry level Textile graduates in India G.Krishnaraj#,. Renukadevi# # Department of Education, NITTTR, Chennai 1 mgkrishnaraj@gmail.com Abstract: Interpersonal skill is essential in textile business as it involves large number of manpower from raw material to final product conversion. The success of business depends upon the success of individuals which is mainly influenced not only by technical knowledge but also interaction between various levels of employees in the organization. For the effective interaction and social communications in the organization, Interpersonal skill is essential for an employee and plays a pivotal role in success of the organization and individuals. Interpersonal Skill comprises of team work, communication, etiquette manners, leadership skills, trust building, ethics and values etc. This study is conducted to identify the priority of various Interpersonal Skill requirements for the textile graduates from the Textile Expert. In addition, it also investigates whether profession of Textile expert influences the perception of interpersonal skills. In this paper, the data was collected from a sample (N = 110) of Textile expert from the organizations of industry and academic institutions to understand their priority through inferential statistics and descriptive analysis. Findings of the study reveal that the communication skill, leadership skill and team work are prioritized by the executive as first three skills. The benefit of this study has useful pedagogical implications for teaching various interpersonal skills in textile education in order to enhance textile graduates employability. Keywords- Interpersonal Skill, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, employability skills 1. INTRODUCTION According to National Skill Development Corporation, Indian Textile and clothing industry (2012) is one of the largest sectors in contributing 4 percentage of the country s GDP and 11 percentages to the country s exports earning. After agriculture, Textile and clothing industry provides highest direct and indirect employment in the country. According to Ministry of Textile of India, the Direct and Indirect employment in the Textile and clothing sector would increase about 100 percentage in 2022 from the existing value of 33 to 35 million. The value chain of the Textile and clothing sector comprises of fibre, yarn, fabric and garment manufacturing process. Even though composite sector growth is declined due to higher investment and administration of man power, fast expansion of small scale manufacturing segment in weaving, processing and garment industries are influencing the success and growth of the Indian textile and clothing industry. Most of the spinning, weaving, dyeing, printing, home furnishing and apparel sectors are proprietorship or partnership concerns. In order to meet the technical manpower for this dynamic industrial sector, colleges have been increased to offer textile education to produce competent manpower and curriculum is also updated according to the employer expectations from time to time. Still there is a lack of Interpersonal skills needed by employers (Azami Zaharam, 2008). The prime objective of curriculum is to prepare the students not only to prepare the students to understand the subject but also to perform the job within the engineering profession or beyond it. Even though, the present Textile Technology curriculum contains various Interpersonal skills as an objective parameter or criteria in the various courses, all courses are evaluated based on theoretical knowledge and practical skill parameter (Anna University, 2012). Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the requirement of various Interpersonal Skills required for the textile graduate to posses at the time of employment. Because it is not only improve the interview performance but also during the profession. In order to understand the priority of various Interpersonal skills, data was collected G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/73

2 randomly from Textile expert from the academic and industry sectors in India and also investigate the profession influence on priority. This ultimately will help the students to understand the skills and will help the students to enhance the abilities and personal qualities during the course. II. LITERATURE REVIEW The Textile and Clothing sector value chain comprises of raw material to finished products process which involves the various activities such as planning, sourcing, scheduling, manufacturing, monitoring, examining, evaluation, despatching etc., As the nature of the sector is man power oriented, interpersonal skill is essential to understand the needs of higher level management and coordinate with floor level management for good performance in addition to the technical knowledge. Interpersonal Skill is used often in business contexts that the ability of a person to operate within business organizations through social communications and interactions (Seema Miglani, 2010). Apart from the profession, interpersonal skills enable a person to understand the others position and grasp the situation easily. The textile graduate is employed in any of the textile activity and employed in the middle or lower level management in the textile and clothing sector, is shown in the following figure.1. ` Higher level Mangement Managing Director / General Manager Middle level Management Manager - Production Manager Planning & Maintenance Lower Level Management Supervisor Department / Unit Incharge Executive supervisor - Planning Executive - Technical Fig.1. Different Management level in Textile Industry It is also noted in the job outlook survey by National Association of Colleges and Employers that the ability to get along with others is the most important characteristics on the job. In the textile business, it is imperative for the technical person to know and realize the importance of key elements that satisfy the need of customers. Employability skills are enhanced by emphasizing the nontechnical skills along with the technical skills in the engineering education (Azami et al., 2008). ABET also mentioned the teamwork, communication, social and ethical responsibility in Engineering Criteria 2000 as program outcome (Monica et al., 2012). Communication skill is the one by which ideas can be presented to the community at large with confident. It is also stated that one who has effective communication skills is bound to succeed in their respective field (Gargi.C et al., 2010). In the corporate world, managing our emotions is a vital skill because it is required to persuade others at various stages of career. Emotional Intelligence is a term used to describe the ability to understand and manage one s emotions, empathize with others, overcome challenges and difficulties. It is also expressed as a communication between the rational and emotional centers of the brain. In order to improve our emotional management Positive G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/74

3 attitude, Confidence, Courage and enthusiasm needs to be improved (Seema Miglani, 2010). Etiquette is an unwritten code of behaviour regarding the interactions among the persons in a business (Etiquette, 2014). The business activity is influenced by s, phone calls, and business meetings, etiquette can be applied to all these areas. As textile business is revolved between face-to-face business either inside or outside the value chain of manufacturer to consumer, the etiquette manner is playing a vital role in the success of business. By showing proper etiquette, it will give a competitive edge over others during the employment or business opportunities. In the business, Etiquette is not only act as a key to conceal the poor communication and misunderstanding but also improve the working relationship and trust level. Engineering is a profession where engineers are expected to deliver highest standards of honesty and moral principles (Code of Ethics for Engineers, 2007). The scope of engineering ethics is expected to perform under a standard of professional behaviour that requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct (Ethics for Engineers, 2014). Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require impartiality, fairness, equity and adhere the fundamental principles of decent human conduct. Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. As society placing greater demands on business, employers are expecting the employees to act more ethically and improve their standards of behaviour (Williams et.al., 2012). Overcome pride and master over sense of maturity is essential for improving the ethics. Team work is explained as the ability of an individual to function effectively as a team member or team leader (Azami et al., 2008). Teamwork is a highly valued skill in the environment where a group of people with complementary skills are committed to achieve a common goal and approach regardless of conflict between individuals (Seema Miglani,2010). If the person feels comfortable around someone and vice versa, better communication and mutual trust will develop. Leadership skill equips the individual to manage effectively with change in systems or organization (Monica et al., 2012). Leaders are really capable of taking the lead and who see opportunity in every difficulty. In order to impart the various interpersonal skill for the textile graduate to succeed in the professional career, Textile Technology curriculum is also focussed on various interpersonal skill in the various courses like Employability Skills, Industry Training, and Total Quality Management in the Textile Technology curriculum(anna University, 2012). III. METHODOLOGY To identify the priority of various Interpersonal Skill required for textile industry, Questionnaires were given randomly to 110 textile experts in India. Among them, 57 respondents belong to academic institution and 53 respondents belong to various textile industry. These experts were diverse in gender, position, years of experience. However the sample is limited to textile educational institution and textile activity based organisation. In this study, various interpersonal skills such as communication skills, Team work, Leadership skill, Emotional Intelligence, Etiquette manners, Ethics and values and Trust building are considered based on the curriculum objectives and nature of textile business as mentioned in the literature. The questionnaire content validity was done with three experts in the field. The survey sought to study the preference of the above skills by the Textile Expert from the industry and academic institution. The respondents were asked to indicate their ranking based on their expectations. Finally the collected data was analysed quantitatively using Chi square test and descriptive analysis. IV. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The research was carried out for the following research objectives: To determine whether academic and industry textile executive priority differences on various Interpersonal Skills. To identify priority of various Interpersonal Skills required for the Textile graduates. V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/75

4 The questionnaires were given to Textile Executives to understand their priority of various Interpersonal Skills required for the Textile graduates. Profession differences among Textile Executives on Interpersonal Skills: In order to assess the ranking priority association between the Industry and academic textile expert, The ranking values are converted into class interval of 1-3 and 4-7. The Hypothesis states There is no significant association between the profession and ranking towards various Interpersonal Skills. Table.1. Chi square for association between the profession and ranking towards various Interpersonal Skills. Interpersonal Skills Class Interval Category of Textile Executive Academic Industry Chi square Value P value Communication (50%) [80.7%] (61.1%) [19.3%] Teamwork (51.1%) [78.9%] (54.5%) [21.1%] 46 (50%) [86.8%] 7 (38.9%) [13.2%] 43 (48.9%) [81.1%] 10 (45.5%) [18.9%] Emotional Intelligence (47.1%) 27 (52.9%) [42.1%] [50.9%] (55.9%) (44.1%) [57.9%] [49.1%] Leadership (50%) [64.9%] (55.6%) [35.1%] Trust building (46%) 37 (50%) [69.8%] 16 (44.4%) [30.2%] 27 (54%) G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/76

5 [40.4%] [50.9%] (56.7%) [59.6%] Etiquette Manners (40.5%) [29.8%] (58.8%) [70.2%] Ethics and Values (47.5%) [49.1%] (56.9%) 26 (43.3%) [49.1%] 25 (59.5%) [47.2%] 28 (41.2%) [52.8%] 31 (52.5%) [58.5%] 22 (43.1%) [50.9%] [41.5%] Note : 1. The value within ( ) denotes row percentage 2. The value within[ ] denotes column percentage Since P value is greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis is accepted at 5% level of significance with regard to the association between the profession and ranking towards various Interpersonal Skills. Hence there is no significant association between the rankings of Various Interpersonal skills by Textile executive from Academic and Industry. It is also observed that Textile Expert from Industry and Academic institution preferred the communication skill as the most prioritised i.e more than 80% of expert given priority in the range of 1 to 3. It is also noted from frequency percentage distribution for emotional intelligence, trust building, etiquette manners, ethics and values, maximum expert from industry given priority in the range of 1 to 3. Similarly academic experts gave the maximum priority for teamwork in comparison to industry expert. Interpersonal Skills priority of Textile Academician and Textile Industry executives: Textile experts were asked to give priority of ranking for all the seven skill. It is necessary to understand the first rank priority of various Interpersonal Skills by Textile Academician and Textile Industry executives to know their priority. It was analysed from the rank 1 preference data and the data was represented in the following figure. G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/77

6 Figure 1 First rank priority of various Interpersonal Skills by Textile Academician and Textile Industry executives in percentage From the figure 1, it is observed that 31.6% academic respondent and 29.6% Textile Industry executive preferred communication skill as the most important Interpersonal skill. The reason may be attributes of this skill. i.e it is mainly influencing the exchange of information and knowledge with others. In the academic category, 24.6% respondents preferred Leadership as an important Interpersonal skill but only 13.6% of industry executive preferred the Leadership skill as a first priority. As the textile industry in India manly comprises of small scale sector, more opportunities are available for a textile graduates to lead the team as an executive or becoming entrepreneurship. This might be caused by the academic respondents to prefer this skill. It is observed from the bar chart that after communication skills, maximum Textile Industry executives were preferred the Teamwork skill as a first priority at 18.2%. The nature of textile manufacturing activity is planning, organising and coordinating with various level of manpower. This caused the Textile Industry executives to prefer the Teamwork skill. Leadership and Ethics and Values was preferred equally as a first priority by Textile Industry executives at 13.6% respondents and ranked as third. But 14.0% academic respondents preferred Ethics and Values as first priority which is higher percentage preference than team work skill at 12.3%. Trust building, Emotional Intelligence and Etiquette Manners were prioritized as first by the industry executive respondents of 11.4%, 9.1%, and 4.5% respectively. Trust building was preferred by 7% respondents as a first priority and which is higher than Emotional Intelligence and Etiquette Manners. It was interesting to note that Emotional Intelligence and Etiquette Manners were prioritized equally at 5.3%. Among the least preference skills, highest percentage of Industry executives prefers the Emotional Intelligence than etiquette manners as a first priority. This is also confirmed by Spearman's rho Rank Correlation coefficient between academic and industry executives for the various Interpersonal Skills and shown in the following table no.2. G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/78

7 Table 2. Spearman's rho Correlation coefficient towards various Interpersonal Skills Communication skills Emotional Intelligence Teamwork Etiquette Manners Trust building Leadership Ethics and Values Communication ** **.038 Emotional Intelligence **.344 **.535 ** 386 **.468 ** Teamwork *.346 **.277 **.159 Etiquette Manners **.404 **.520 ** Trust building **.466 ** Leadership * Ethics and Values **. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed);*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). The table 2 shows Spearman's rho Correlation coefficient between various Interpersonal Skills and observed that all the skills are positively correlated. Rank Correlation coefficient between Emotional Intelligence and Trust building is as well as between Etiquette manners and Ethics and values is Because of the similarity of these skills, ranking position is very closer and shown in figure.1. Correlation coefficient between other skills is very less. Table.3. Descriptive Statistics for various Interpersonal Skills Percentiles (N =101) Interpersonal Skill 25th 50th (Median) 75th Communication Emotional Intelligence Teamwork Etiquette Manners Trust building Leadership Ethics and Values It is interesting to found out from the table 3 that team work median value is higher than communication and less than leadership skill as well as Team work third quartile value is less than communication and leadership. But in the final combined ranking communication and leadership skills are in first and second rank position respectively. This could be due to academic respondent s priority for these two skills. Even though team work skill is in fourth position in the academic executive preference, Team work skill is in third position in the combined ranking. This is due to the Industry executive preference of team work skill. Ethics and value skill is in fourth ranking in the combined ranking. It is observed from the median value of Ethics and Value is same as leadership but third quartile value is higher than leadership. This is due to priority given to leadership by academic respondents and teamwork by industry executive respondents. G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/79

8 V.CONCLUSIONS It can be concluded that there is no significant association between academic and industry textile executive towards ranking of interpersonal skills. But leadership skills and team work skills are influenced their ranking by academic and industry executives. Interpersonal are prioritized by the textile executives are in the order of communication skills, leadership, teamwork, ethics and value, trust building, emotional intelligence and etiquette manners. The study attempts to investigate the priority of various interpersonal skills and represents a useful source of information for textile students to find a job and guidance for incorporating the Interpersonal Skill into the curriculum to produce high skilled graduate. It is also evident from the curriculum that these skills are least considered and taught directly. So it is suggested to incorporate team work, leadership skills indirectly to the suitable courses in the curriculum. Redesigning the curriculum and evaluation is the need of an hour to assess the acquisition of these interpersonal skills by the graduates REFERENCES [1]. Azami.Z., Yuzainee.M.Y., Azad.M., Morhamdi.M., (2008). Employers Perceptions and Expectations toward Engineering Graduates: A Study Case, Proceedings of the 6 th WSEAS International Conference on Engineering Education. [2]. Code of Ethics for Engineers,(2007).In National Society of Professional Engineers, Retrieved January 16, 2014, from sites/default/files/reso urces/ pdfs/ethics /Codeof Ethics/Code-2007-July.pdf. [3]. Ethics for Engineers (n.d). Retrieved January 16, 2014, from ethicsfore ngi neersmaterials.pdf [4]. Etiquette.(n.d). Retrieved January 16, 2014, from /etiquettepacket.pdf [5]. Gargi.C and Patiraj.K (2010), Communication Skills In Vikas Arora (Ed.), Key to Professional Excellence,(pp 19-30),New Delhi. [6]. Human Resource and Skill Requirements in the Textile Industry (2012), retrieved from accessed on [7]. Is etiquette dead? Mind employees' manners. (2012). HR Specialist, 10(5), 1-4. [8]. Monica F. Cox, Osman cekic, Benjamin ahnndjiabinzhu (2012).Expectations of Undergraduate Engineering Students,Leadership 60 and Management in Engineering, [9]. Seema Miglani,(2010), Enhancing Soft Skills : Enhancing Employability from Soft Skills. In Vikas Arora (Ed.), Key to Professional Excellence,(pp ),New Delhi. [10]. Anna University Textile Technology curriculum R2012 retrieved from /academic_courses/ ud/ug/r2012/docs/textile.pdf, accessed on [11]. Williams, J. D., McCarthy, R., Kent, T., &Kester, J. (2012). Some businesses have been asking: where are the personal development skills set taught in higher education? Your authors may have the answer. Review of Management Innovation & Creativity, 5(17), G.Krishnaraj and Renukadevi ijesird, Vol. II (I) July 2015/80