Developing Soft Skills in Students: A Case Study of the 'Organizational Behavior: Team and Personal Performance' Course

HSE is widely known outside the Institute for the fundamental knowledge and practical skills that students receive here. However, the dictates of time and the expectations of companies in relation to HSE graduates are that they possess developed "soft skills" right from the university bench. They need to come to employers to a large extent with formed managerial and leadership skills. In order to meet these needs, this year the first-year masters have been introduced to the course "Organizational Behavior: Team and Personal Performance".

The course, although it takes relatively few hours, covers the main topics of organizational behavior: communication at different company’s levels, leadership (focus on inclusive leadership) and change management.

The author of the course, Natalia Volkova, has seen this program from the very beginning as the most practical – concentrated theory in lectures and maximum development of skills in seminars. For this purpose, an active business trainer from an international pharmaceutical company was involved in conducting seminars. Thus, the seminars were supplemented with some exercises and games from the modern practice of business learning.

How is the program structured? First, the entire stream listens to an interactive lecture using modern digital tools, then splits into 3 groups with 3 instructors in order to discuss the topic in more depth and train the necessary skills in smaller audiences. The time between classes is also not in vain! For each seminar session, students in small groups prepare team presentations on the assigned articles, videos and practical cases. Thus, students immersed themselves more deeply into the subject and trained their public speaking skills. At the end of the course, students, again in small groups, need to defend their final projects. To make this last step as useful and enriching as possible, the final defenses were held in a large audience for the entire stream. To consolidate individual findings and insights during the course, students keep their individual Learning Journals, which will allow them to come back to the most significant moments of the course easily.

Finally, such elements of this course as STAR feedback and active listening were rewarded by the Fund for Educational Innovation.

Alexsandra Roslova,

Business trainer