Abstract:
Within the contemporary professional landscape, power skills, including communication, collaboration,
and leadership, are deemed critical for career success. However, their acquisition
and recognition are often mediated by structural inequalities that remain underexplored. This
study investigates the barriers related to power skill development and evaluation in professional
contexts, specifically through a socioeconomic and linguistic lens. Using a qualitative research
design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 early to mid-career professionals
from the corporate business sector, purposively selected for their diverse socioeconomic and
linguistic backgrounds. Thematic analysis was employed to interpret the rich qualitative data.
Findings reveal that individuals from underprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds frequently
experienced restricted access to antecedent developmental opportunities like mentorship and
formal training. Concurrently, linguistic factors such as accent, dialect, and language-based
anxiety emerged as critical barriers, influencing communicative confidence and participatory
behaviours. Furthermore, the perception and appraisal of power skills were significantly shaped
by implicit biases rooted in dominant linguistic paradigms and class-specific behaviours, often
marginalising individuals whose expressions deviated from unspoken professional expectations.
These insights underscore that power skills are not acquired or assessed in isolation
but are socially constructed within structurally conditioned frameworks. The study concludes
by advocating for a critical reassessment of power skill pedagogy and assessment, urging the
implementation of inclusive skill development strategies, revised evaluative frameworks, and
fostering awareness around communicative equity to address these systemic barriers in professional
domains.
