Balancing relationship between academia and business community in terms of soft skills supply and demand in the labour market

Abstract

The interplay between the different logics and possibility of their balancing is of great interest and these issues have been extensively studied. Such actors as academia and the business community follow different institutional logics in the labour market. However, the changes and new trends in the labour market and other modern global challenges can influence their relationships. The institutional logics approach was chosen as dominant for solving a problem of balancing interests of academia and business community in a labour market in terms of soft skills supply and demand. Despite previous research, the question remains whether academia meets the labour market's need for social skills and how to reach a compromise between main actors. Hence, additional studies on the correlation between demand on the soft skills by the business community and supply of them by the academia in the labour market as well as correcting the behavior of the academia and business community in accordance with a shift in the labour market demand in soft skills are needed. This study is focused on finding the way to balance dominant interests of academia and the business community in the labour market in terms of soft skills supply and demand through the lens of institutional logics . This study was based on the single case study that includes analysis of the secondary data and 16 qualitative interviews conducted with representatives from different departments of the School of Business, Economics and Law and HR managers from the partner companies of the School of Business, Economics and Law. The study showed a possibility and ways to balance dominant interests of academia and the business community in the labour market in terms of context, values and time framing. This study contributed to the two types of theoretical research. Firstly, it contributed to the institutional logics, particularly in balancing different types of institutional logics. Secondly, it contributes to the management and organizational field, in particular managing markets studies. Along with the study of theoretical matters, the research contains practical recommendations that might contribute to the development of the relationships between the academia and its business community in terms of fulfilling the needs of the modern labour market requirements and finding compromising decisions.