“Being Good with People Trumps Everything”: A Qualitative Study of the Ideal Skill Set for MPs

Contemporary MPs grapple with a range of demanding tasks on a day-to-day basis: They communicate with the media, sit on parliamentary committees, draft legislation, liaise with government officials, hold surgeries for constituents, administer employees, and speak in the Chamber. The diversity of the role requires a broad skill set, which to date is yet to be defined clearly. This paper contributes to the conceptual literature on parliamentary skills by inductively analyzing nearly 60 semi-structured interviews with current and former MPs in the UK and Norway, which specifically asked about the skills and competencies required to be an effective MP. On the basis of a qualitative content analysis of the interview material, three categories of skills stand out as crucial for the execution of the MP role – according to the MPs themselves: Personal (social skills, politeness), political (knowledge of policy issues, writing skills, digesting text), and organizational (ability to run an office, hire employees, prioritize tasks). Interestingly, a large majority of the interviewees – in both Norway and the UK - highlighted the personal skills as the most paramount for the MP role. This finding nuances existing studies which usually focus on how previous political experience, such as that enjoyed by career politicians, or policy specific knowledge, normally associated with the skill set of those MPs having had an alternative career path prior to becoming an MP, are decisive for being an effective MP.