Illiteracy has become an increasingly significant problem in the workplace. American Demographics (Illiteracy at work..., 1996) reported that illiteracy costs American businesses about $225 billion per year in lost productivity, and that many Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are beginning to ôgo publicö with their concerns about this formerly ôhiddenö issue. In general, it is argued that illiteracy results in lower productivity, injuries, employee mistakes, absenteeism and even employee turnover. A survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation revealed that about 22 percent of participating organizations have an illiteracy remediation program in place. More significantly, some 77 percent of the respondents (drawn from a representative sampling of Fortune 1000 and 500 companies) admit that illiteracy has an effect on their businesses (Illiteracy at work..., 1996).
There is a pressing need for literacy training for American employees. While on-the-job written materials are primarily prepared for individuals who can read from the ninth grade to the college levels, only 35 percent of the total American workforce is identified as reading at the ninth grade level 9SMith, 1995). Where once the definition of illiteracy was the ability to read and write at no more than a fourth grade level, today this has been changed to the ability to read and write at the ninth grade level (Smith, 1995). This reflects, in part, the increasingly sophisticated and technologically rich environment that Americans workers must function within - even when jobs are classified as unskilled or as service-oriented. About 65 percent of the total American workforce is believed to read below the ninth grade level, indicating the extent and the potential severity of the problem (Smith, 1995).
The problem to be addressed in this qualitative, narrative research study is the identification of the effects, negative and otherwise, of illiteracy in the contemp...