Soft Skills to Enhance Team Performance: A Systematic Review of Diverse Teamwork

Authors

  • Saman Abbaszadeh Baghali University of West London, London, UK
  • Nasrullah Khilji University of West London, London, UK
  • Konstantin Nikolic University of West London, London, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34190/ecmlg.21.1.4089

Keywords:

Soft Skills, Globalisation, Team Dynamics, Multicultural Team, Team Performance

Abstract

In today’s world, when reviewing business trends and key themes alongside the latest academic studies in the field of team dynamics, two significant trends overshadow all others. On the one hand, soft skills are increasingly recognised as essential drivers of both employees’ personal growth and organisations’ success by both business leaders and academic scholars. On the other hand, due to globalisation, team structures have shifted from being more homogeneous to more diverse, leading to the formation of multicultural teams. However, reviewing the existing literature reveals there is a lack of studies on the role of soft skills in culturally diverse work environments. Indeed, most research in the context of soft skills mainly examined the role of these skills in academic settings among students or within homogenous workplace settings. This paper addresses the research question: “How do soft skills influence team performance and help address challenges within multicultural teams?” using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Initially, we extracted approximately 1100 papers which have been published since 2014 from valid databases such as Web of Science and Scopus. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 19 papers were found relevant and selected for this review. Then, a thematic analysis approach was used to synthesise findings from the selected papers. This enabled us to identify key soft skill categories, their definitions, and reported impacts on multicultural team dynamics. Through this study, a broad range of soft skills explicitly or implicitly discussed in the literature were identified, with particular emphasis on four core soft skills, communication, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, and adaptability, as essential for enhancing effectiveness in multicultural teams. The identified soft skills were found to improve team interaction, collaboration and trust as well as reduce conflicts within culturally diverse work environments.

Author Biographies

Saman Abbaszadeh Baghali, University of West London, London, UK

Saman Abbaszadeh Baghali is a PhD scholar at the School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London. His research explores cross-cultural team management, team dynamics, and the development of soft skills. He is engaged in advancing understanding of effective collaboration in diverse teams through academic research and knowledge exchange.

Nasrullah Khilji, University of West London, London, UK

Dr. Nasrullah Khilji is Associate Professor in Applied Project Management at the School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London. He leads academic partnerships, directs the Higher Degree Apprenticeship and MSc in Digital Technology Solutions Specialists, and chairs the Information Systems and Knowledge Management (ISKM) research group.

Konstantin Nikolic, University of West London, London, UK

Konstantin Nikolic is Professor in Computing Science: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Management at the School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London.

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Published

2025-11-04

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1 (2025): The Proceedings of the 21st European Conference on Management Leadership and Governance, ECMLG 2025

Section

PhD Papers