Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism

Performance appraisal plays a crucial mediating role in the complex interaction between soft skills and career development. This practice provides a comprehensive view of workers’ competencies and directly influences their professional trajectories. This investigation checked the significance of the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rosa Rodrigues, Andreia Dias
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: LLC "CPC "Business Perspectives" 2024-10-01
Series:Problems and Perspectives in Management
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/20828/PPM_2024_04_Rodrigues.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849712664482152448
author Rosa Rodrigues
Andreia Dias
author_facet Rosa Rodrigues
Andreia Dias
author_sort Rosa Rodrigues
collection DOAJ
description Performance appraisal plays a crucial mediating role in the complex interaction between soft skills and career development. This practice provides a comprehensive view of workers’ competencies and directly influences their professional trajectories. This investigation checked the significance of these competencies in career development, employing performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism. The sample comprised 262 employees in Portugal. Data were collected from a convenience sample using the snowball sampling method, in which participants were asked to invite their contacts to participate in the study. The questionnaire included the short skills inventory, the career growth scale, and the performance management scale. The more developed the soft skills, the greater the tendency for employees to progress in their careers. Performance appraisal has a significant influence on employees’ career trajectories, as the possibility of career advancement largely depends on their performance. The data further revealed that by mediating the relationship between soft skills and career progression, performance appraisal helps guide and support the organization’s strategic decisions. However, when the mediating variable is introduced into the model, the influence of soft skills on career development is no longer significant, indicating a full mediation effect. The results suggest that 26.8% of the possibility of progressing in the career is explained by the performance appraisal results. These results act as a critical link between soft skills and career development. Soft skills exert a significant influence on career development, and performance appraisal emerges as a valuable means to recognize and promote these competencies.
format Article
id doaj-art-c418106e8ab3465ca5b7bf80ed30c7a3
institution DOAJ
issn 1727-7051
1810-5467
language English
publishDate 2024-10-01
publisher LLC "CPC "Business Perspectives"
record_format Article
series Problems and Perspectives in Management
spelling doaj-art-c418106e8ab3465ca5b7bf80ed30c7a32025-08-20T03:14:12ZengLLC "CPC "Business Perspectives"Problems and Perspectives in Management1727-70511810-54672024-10-01224142410.21511/ppm.22(4).2024.0220828Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanismRosa Rodrigues0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6548-418XAndreia Dias1https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1315-7326Ph.D., Professor, Department of Human Resources Management, Instituto Superior de Gestao [Business & Economics School], PortugalMaster, Department of Human Resources Management, Instituto Superior de Gestao [Business & Economics School], PortugalPerformance appraisal plays a crucial mediating role in the complex interaction between soft skills and career development. This practice provides a comprehensive view of workers’ competencies and directly influences their professional trajectories. This investigation checked the significance of these competencies in career development, employing performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism. The sample comprised 262 employees in Portugal. Data were collected from a convenience sample using the snowball sampling method, in which participants were asked to invite their contacts to participate in the study. The questionnaire included the short skills inventory, the career growth scale, and the performance management scale. The more developed the soft skills, the greater the tendency for employees to progress in their careers. Performance appraisal has a significant influence on employees’ career trajectories, as the possibility of career advancement largely depends on their performance. The data further revealed that by mediating the relationship between soft skills and career progression, performance appraisal helps guide and support the organization’s strategic decisions. However, when the mediating variable is introduced into the model, the influence of soft skills on career development is no longer significant, indicating a full mediation effect. The results suggest that 26.8% of the possibility of progressing in the career is explained by the performance appraisal results. These results act as a critical link between soft skills and career development. Soft skills exert a significant influence on career development, and performance appraisal emerges as a valuable means to recognize and promote these competencies.https://www.businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/20828/PPM_2024_04_Rodrigues.pdfcareer developmentmediation modelperformance appraisalsoft skillsworkplace context
spellingShingle Rosa Rodrigues
Andreia Dias
Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
Problems and Perspectives in Management
career development
mediation model
performance appraisal
soft skills
workplace context
title Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
title_full Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
title_fullStr Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
title_full_unstemmed Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
title_short Influence of soft skills on career development: Exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
title_sort influence of soft skills on career development exploring performance appraisal as a mediating mechanism
topic career development
mediation model
performance appraisal
soft skills
workplace context
url https://www.businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/20828/PPM_2024_04_Rodrigues.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT rosarodrigues influenceofsoftskillsoncareerdevelopmentexploringperformanceappraisalasamediatingmechanism
AT andreiadias influenceofsoftskillsoncareerdevelopmentexploringperformanceappraisalasamediatingmechanism