Social kompetens i arbetslivet: innebörder och aktualitet

Abstract

In a society like ours, where wage labor is given significant importance, it is interesting to analyze what employers value when hiring personnel. Aside from job-related qualifications, personal suitability is also assessed, as discussed in this article through the concept of social competence. This article has two purposes. It aims to highlight the significance of social competence in relation to professions and technological advancements and discuss possible explanations for why social competence has increased in importance in today’s working life. Against this backdrop of increased significance, the article also aims to present three different perspectives on how social competence can be understood: the descriptive perspective, which examines what employers seek in job advertisements related to what is referred to as social competence; the psychological perspective, which primarily views social competence as a set of personal traits that can be psychometrically assessed; and the sociological perspective, which considers social competence mainly as a relational phenomenon, seeking to understand it primarily in terms of discourse and power.