| Résumé: | The purpose of this study is two-fold with regard to testing of soft skills acquisition
among learners or employees toward their work performance enhancement. First, is to
examine the soft skills competencies acquired from the soft skills training and their
influence on employee work performance. Second, by examining the influence of both
training methodology - ‘time space learning’ and trainer’s effectiveness on soft skills
acquisition after trainees attended the training program which will directly affect their
work performance. The study used a survey research questionnaire to study the
competencies of various Malaysian-based organizations’ employees at manager,
executive and supervisory level who had undergone the training program over a few
months using ‘time space learning’ – training methodology; that is program not run
consecutively but run with a break or ‘time space’ in between each session, in order to
investigate the ‘spacing effect’ of the learning. The findings revealed that soft skills
acquisition significantly influence employee work performance by 79%; training
methodology positively impact on soft skills acquisition by 51%; and trainer’s
effectiveness positively influences soft skills acquisition by 24%; thus, confirmed
hypothesis 1, 2, and 4. As for the indirect effect, the findings showed that soft skills
have a mediating effect between training methodology and work performance, but no
mediating effect between trainers’ effectiveness and work performance, in which
hypothesis 3 was accepted but hypothesis 5 rejected. The findings contribute to the
literature by filling the gap in terms of studies examining the training methodology in
soft skills acquisition; and make a significant contribution to learning theory,
particularly, ‘time space learning’ training methodology. The findings highlighted the
urgency of identifying the most effective training methodology to be incorporated for
soft skills training of employees in an organization, in order to get the best return on
investment.
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