Assessment of future managers’ “soft skills” through psycho-diagnostic and graphology methods
Purpose. To evaluate future managers’ soft skills using psychological methods and graphology. Design. Future managers’ soft skills evaluation (determination, communicability, critical thinking, creativity, flexibility of thinking) took place in three stages. In the first stage, soft skills development was evaluated by methods of psychological diagnostics. In the second stage, soft skills assessment was carried out using graphological expertise. In the third phase, a comparative analysis of the results was carried out. 390 students from the department of Management at National Research University Higher School of Economics in Nizhny Novgorod took part in the study. Results. Diagnostics of the level of future managers’ soft skills development, carried out by psychological methods, showed a high level of development of “communicability” in 86% of students and a high level of development of “critical thinking” in 89.23% of respondents. 95.9% of students were characterized by a low level of development of “purpose.” About half of students had low rates for “flexibility of thinking” (41.03%) and “creativity” (54.87%), all the other students had average levels of development of these soft skills (58.97% and 45.13% respectively). The results of future managers’ soft skills assessment on the basis of graphological examination to a small extent confirmed the results obtained by methods of psychological diagnostics. Differences in the interpretation of the results by graphologists themselves were revealed, what indicated the subjectivity and unreliable of graphological analysis as a method of soft skills evaluation. Value of results. Such soft skills as determination, communicability, creativity, critical thinking, flexibility of thinking can not be assessed with the help of graphological expertise. To assess them, more reliable and valid methods of assessment should be used.