Human Resources and Functional Illiteracy Public Administration Human Resources Research Study Design

Public Sector Human Resource Policy and Functional Illiteracy

Public Sector Human Resource Policy and Functional Illiteracy

Anderson and Ricks (1993) examined the role of illiteracy in determining worker status within the public sector, in part because it had not been done before. They were interested in understanding how worker stratification was determined, after scholars had raised the possibility of a worker caste system within government agencies. This issue is still relevant today, given the increasingly diverse workforce both ethnically and linguistically. This report will analyze the research methods used by Anderson and Ricks (1993) and summarize their findings

Methods

The sample studied by Anderson and Ricks (1993) were human resource professionals currently engaged in managing employees in the public sector. A 41-item questionnaire was used to determine the 'functional literacy' that these managers were noticing on the job, with functional literacy being defined as having the basic English reading, writing, and comprehension skills necessary to function in a specific job position. The survey respondents were also queried for information about problems caused in the workplace due to illiteracy and whether remedial actions were being taken to correct deficiencies. The survey instruments were mailed to a random sample of 1215 local government offices, representing 922 cities, 263 counties, and 30 special districts.

Results

The response rate to the surveys was 44%, much higher than expected (Anderson and Ricks, 1993). A total of 398 cities, 122 counties, and 13 special districts returned the completed surveys. Based on the demographic information included in the surveys, close to 48% of all employees represented by the survey respondents were members of a collective bargaining organization. In addition, a comparison between surveys...

The percent union employees represented by survey respondents and the lack of a demographic difference between early and late respondents, were interpreted by Anderson and Ricks as indicating no obvious bias in the survey sample.
Of the 533 agencies responding to the survey, 24% knowingly hire basic-skills deficient (BSD) workers (Anderson and Ricks, 1993). Another 37% do not hire BSD workers, but are aware that such employees were hired before their deficiencies were discovered. Approximately 16% do not hire BSD workers, but will contract with companies that hire such workers.

To determine whether the prevalence of BSD workers is influenced by geographic location, Anderson and Ricks (1993) used chi-square to test for significant differences. Their findings revealed that the Southeast and northern Midwest regions of the U.S. were more likely to employ BSD workers (p < 0.01). Also examined were jurisdiction (p > 0.10), local unemployment conditions (p > 0.40), and agency size (p > 0.05) and no significant differences were found, although agency size may be trending towards significance. The authors also compared unionized, partially unionized, and non-unionized agencies and found no significant difference (p > 0.05), unless they grouped unionized and partially-unionized together for the comparison (p < 0.01).

Overall, agencies that hired BSD workers were more likely to be non-union (p < 0.01), from areas with high unemployment (p < 0.001), and located in the Southeast and northern Midwest (p < 0.001). By comparison, agency size and jurisdiction did not determine prevalence of BSD workers.

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to look for significant interactions between agencies intentionally hiring BSD workers for low-level positions and suspected dependent variables (Anderson and Ricks, 1993). This agency group experienced more problems with BSD workers (p < 0.001), in part because…