January 16, 2008

Workplace Oracy and Literacy: Relationships of Listening and Reading Skills
to Job Performance

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Numerous reports by business, industry, vocational, government and other
organizations have indicated that adults’ oracy (listening and speaking)
and literacy (reading and writing) skills are related to productivity on
the job and hence to a nation’s productivity in the global economy. But
there is little empirical evidence that directly examines the relationships
of oracy and literacy skills to the actual performance of important tasks in
various jobs. Here I discuss research on listening and reading skills in
relation to the performance of actual job tasks in four jobs.

Listening, Reading, and Job Performance. In the most extensive research of
its kind, Sticht and colleagues (Sticht, 1972) examined the relationships
of listening and reading skills of Army personnel in four jobs (Armor
Crewman, Cook, Automotive Repairman, Supply Clerk) to measures of job
performance and job knowledge. The hands-on, job performance measures
included actual job tasks determined by job and task analysis. For
instance, Cooks cooked scrambled eggs, made jelly roles, set-up field
kitchens, and other tasks. Automobile mechanics repaired broken vehicles.
Supply Clerks worked in a mock-up office and completed various requisition
and accountability forms. Armor Crewman performed driving in response to
hand-and-arm signals, preparing a tank for battle and so forth.

The job knowledge measures were multiple choice knowledge questions derived
from on-the-job interviews with personnel in which they were asked what job
incumbents genuinely had to know to be able to perform their jobs
effectively. This information was then used to construct job knowledge,
paper-and-pencil tests.

In each of the jobs some 400 personnel were examined using a maze test as a
measure of non-verbal reasoning, a listening test, and a reading test and
these tests were correlated with performance on the job performance and
knowledge tests. Numerous statistical analyses of the data have been
reported elsewhere (Sticht, 1972; 1975). Here only the correlations of the
cognitive tests (maze, listening, reading) with the job performance and
knowledge measures averaged across the four jobs are presented.

For the hands-on, job task performance measures, the correlations with the
maze, listening, and reading tests were +.18, +.34, and +.33 respectively.
Thus, listening was as highly correlated with hands-on job performance as
was reading. But for the paper-and-pencil,  job knowledge tests, the
correlations for the maze, listening and reading measures were +. 20, +.42,
and +.49 respectively (Sticht, 1972, p. 291). These data suggest that
because the knowledge tests directly involved the use of reading, as did
the reading test, the correlation of the reading test with the knowledge
test was greater than for listening and the knowledge test. Generally this
represents the fact that when two tests include more similar features they
tend to correlate more highly.

While in no case were the correlations of the cognitive tests and job
performance or knowledge very high, they are statistically reliable and
indicate that as both listening and reading increase, job productivity as
measured by the performance of actual job tasks increases. This reinforces
the typical assertion that both listening and reading are important for
both job productivity and, by extension, for the nation’s global
competitiveness. For this reason adult basic skills educators need to focus
attention on improving adult's oracy skills as well as their literacy skills
to enhance their employability and work performance.

References

Sticht, T. (1975). Reading for Working: A Functional Literacy Anthology.
Alexandria, VA: Human Resources Research Organization. Retrieved May 05,
2006, from http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/rfw/cover.htm

Sticht, T. (1972).  Learning by listening. In: R. Freedle and J. Carroll
(Eds.) Language Comprehension and the Acquisition of Knowledge. Washington
D.C.: V.H. Winston & Sons.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net