Interpersonal Skills: Clarifying a Proliferated Construct Space and Proposing a Theoretical Framework (Research Topic Areas: 2.II.a. and 2.II.c.)
Abstract
Although a vast amount of research on interpersonal skills has been conducted over the last 100 years, the literature that has emerged is disjointed, siloed, and chaotic. The literature is not moving forward in a systematic way and few recommendations for implementing that research can be made. Two key problems underlie this literature. First, dozens of constructs have been proposed and investigated, with little attempt to ensure that they are distinct. Thus, construct redundancy almost certainly exists in this research domain. Second, there is no theoretically-grounded framework to organize and integrate these constructs and research findings. These limitations prevent the literature from moving forward and hamper application to organizational issues, such as leadership and team functioning. Our research has two objectives: (1) address the issue of construct proliferation/redundancy, and (2) establish a framework into which the key constructs can be structured. We propose four studies to meet these objectives: a qualitative study to take an inductive view of the interpersonal skills domain, a text analysis study to assess redundancy in the definitions of interpersonal skills constructs, a text analysis of items of interpersonal skills measures to move us toward the development of a new measure, and a comprehensive meta-analysis to empirically evaluate the relationships between the large set of interpersonal skills constructs. This research will establish a foundation for linking interpersonal skills to processes important for the Army, including leadership emergence and effectiveness and the quality of team functioning.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 04, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910068
Entities
People
- Eric Heggestad
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- United States Army
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill