The Impact of Communication Skills and Career Commitment on Career Success of Business Graduates in Pakistan

Abstract

The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan (HEC) is giving a high value to communication skills for career success of university graduates.  The young generation in Pakistan are educated and hardworking, opportunities to make advancement in professional life are not available. This mixed methods explanatory sequential (causal-comparative) research study investigated the impact of communication skills and career commitment on career success of business graduates in Pakistan.  A list of 100 chemical firms was obtained from the office of Pakistan Chemical Manufacturing Association (PCMA), Lahore, Pakistan. Of these, 72 firms operating in the Punjab Province were selected for the study. Five questionnaires were distributed at every firm to the Heads of 1) marketing, 2) sales, 3) finance, 4) procurement, and 5) human resource management (HRM) and   305 filled questionnaires were received back and response rate was 84 percent. For data analysis in the quantitative study, SPSS software (version 27) was used to compute the descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and reliability of measurement (values of Cronbach's alpha). The study computed the coefficient of determination (R²), t-statistic, F-statistic, p-values, and beta (β) in regression analysis.  A moderator guide was developed. Ten experts were chosen using the snowball sampling technique to participate in the focus group in the qualitative section. The data was transcribed, thematic analysis was performed, and both these findings were merged and useful themes were obtained. The study concluded that communication skills have a positive and significant impact on career success and the impact of career commitment on career success was insignificant and negative. The study recommends business graduates to have excellent communication skills. Effective and excellent communication skills are key component of a successful career.