DOCUMENT RESUME ED 319 979 CE 054 963 AUTHOR Carnevale, Anthony P.; And Others TITLE Workplace Basics: The Essential Skills Employers Want. ASTD Best Practices Series: Training for a Changing Work Force. First Edition. INSTITUTION American Society for Training and Development, Alexandria, VA. SPONS AGENCY Employment and Training Administration (DOL), Washington, D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-1-55542-202-0 PUB DATE 90 GRANT 99-6-0705-75-079-02 NOTE 494p.; Part of the Jossey-Bass Management Series. For related documents, see ED 299 462 and CE 054 961-96/1. AVAILABLE FROM Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104 ($34.95). PUB TYPE Books (010) -- Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055) EDRS PRICE MF02 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Adult Education; Adults; *Basic Skills; Career Development; Creative Thinking; Employees; *Employer Attitudes; *Employment Potential; *Employment Qualifications; Goal Orientation; Interpersonal Competence; *Learning Strategies; Motivation; Problem Solving; Self Esteem; Speech Skills; Teamwork IDENTIFIERS *Workplace Literacy ABSTRACT This book is designed to provide readers with an in-depth understanding of the 16 skills that employers believeare workplace basics. Part One centers on the economic importance of the 16 skills and provides a theoretical basis for why these skillsare important. Part Two discusses the foundation skill, learning to learn, on which all other skills are based. Part Three explores reading, writing, and computation, the skills on which technical competence is built. Part Four deals with oral communication and listening, the skills that enable people to communicateeffectively on the job. Part Five covers problem solving and creative thinking, the adaptability skills that enable workers to be flexible in the workplace. Part Six discusses self-esteam, motivation and goal setting, and employability and career development, the developmental skills that enable people to keep and hold jobs and tomove up the career ladder. Part Seven examines interpersonal skills, teamwork, and negotiation, the group effectiveness skills that enablepeople to work together productively. Part Eight considers organizational effectiveness and leadership, the influencing skills that enable people to bring a task to completion. Part Nine presents theapplied approach, including a model for establishing a workplace basics program. k 40-page list of references and suggested readings is includeC, as well as a name index and a subject index. (CML) Anthony P Carnevale Leila I Gainer Ann S. Meltzer WORKPLACE BASICS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Otte or Echx.shcoal Research and Improvement MATERIAL IN MICROFICHE ONLY EC RONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) HAS BEEN GRANTED BY This document has oeen reproduced as rece,ved from Me person or organinhon % /4/ a.) coonatrnp st. 0 Aiwa: coanges hive been made to ulIP(Ove r yfflynri reproduchOo cluaIdy. P0.11 Of YAW ceopmccts stated in Um ECCtr TO THE ED CATIONAL RESOURCES ment do not necessarily represent Whoa! OERI polutron or pacy INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." The Essential Skills Employers Want 0 4.1 Li el BEST COPY AVAILABLE AM) Best Practices Series: Training for a Changing Work Force Workplace Basics The Essential Skills Employers Want jossey-Bass Publishers San Francisco Oxford 1990 WORKPLACE BASICS The Essential Skills Employers Want by Anthony P. Carnevale, Leila J. Gainer, and Ann S. Meltzer Copyright © 1990 by: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers 350 Sansome Street San Francisco, California 94104 Jossey-Bass Limited Headington Hill Hall Oxford OX3 OBW American Society for Training and Development 1630 Duke Street, Box 1443 Alexandria, Virginia 22313 Copyright under International, Pan American, and Universal Copyright Conventions. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any formexcept for brief quotation (not to exceed 1,000 words) in a review or professional workwithout permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging -in- Publication Data Carnevale, Anthony Patrick. Workplace basics: the essential skills employers want / Anthony P. Carnevale, Leila J. Gainer, Ann S. Meltzer. 1st -xi. p. cm. (The Jossey-Bass management ser:. :) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 1-55542-202-0 1. EmployeesTraining ofUnited States. 2. Employer supported education United States. I. Gainer, Leila J. II. Meltzer, Ann S. HI. Title. IV. Series. HF5549.5.T7C2985 1990 658.3'124dc20 89-48804 CIP Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guideline!! for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. JACKET DESIGN BY WILLI BAUM FIRST EDITION Code 9010 4 The Jossey-Bass ManagementSeries ASTD Best Practices Series: Training for a Changing Work Force e 0r"" [ Th; material in this project was prepared under Grat.t No. 99-6-070:, 75-079-02 from the Employment and Trammg Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, under the authority of Title IV, part D, of the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982. Grantees undertaking such proi.xts under government sponsorship are en- couraged to express freely thur professional judgment. Therefore, points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent the official posi- tioi. or policy of the Department of Labor. Contents =Pt Preface The Authors xix Workplace Basics Advisory Panel and Skills Network Part One: Settirig Standards for Competency at Work 1 1. The Economic Impact of Basic Skills 5 2.The Skills Employers Want 17 Part Two: The Foundation: Learning How to Learn 37 3.Learning to Learn: Strategies for Acquiring Skills ,a90 Part Three: Basic Competency Skills: Reading, Writing, and Computation 67 4. Reading for the New Workplace 69 5. Writing with Impact 92 6.Computation in a TechnologicalWorkplace 108 ix 7 x Contents Part Four: Communication Skills: Speaking and Listening Effectively 125 7. Oral Communication 127 8. Principles of Good Listening 146 Part Five: Adaptability Skills: Solving Problems and Thinking Creatively 163 9. Resourcefulness 165 10.Creative Thinking: New Ideas for Old Problems 191 Part Six: Developmental Skills: Managing Personal and Professional Growth 2 1 11. Self-Esteem: Confidence Leads to Competence 215 12.Motivation and Goal Setting: Developing a Personal Game Plan 233 13. Career Development: Planning for Today and Tomorrow 254 Part Seven: Group Effectiveness Skills: Working with Others 287 14.Interpersonal Skills 289 15.Teamwork 309 16.Negotiation 330 Contents xi Part Eight: Influencing Skills: Making a Difference 351 17.Understanding Organizational Culture 353 18.Sharing Leadership 377 Part Nine: A Blueprint for Success 399 19.Guidelines for Establishing an Effective Workplace Basics Program 401 References and Suggested Readings 425 Name Index 465 Subject Index 471 Preface W.,._..M Increasingly, employers have been discoveringthat their work forces need skills that seem to be in short supply,skills over and above the basic academic triumvirate of reading,writing, and computation. The skills that employersare looking for include problem solving, personalmanagement, and interpersonal skills as well as the abilities to conceptualize, organize, and verbalize thoughts; to resolve conflicts; andto work in teams all of these skills are critical but often lacking. Basic workplace skills are of interest because rapidtech- nological change, participativemanagement, just-in-time pro- duction, and other workplace innovations havecreated a demand for more flexibility, adaptability, anda higher "base" level of skills from all workers, including thoseat ,iie nonsupervisory level. While it is recognized thata percentage of America's workers have always done well in the workplacedespite skills deficiencies, it is increasinglyapparent that such success in the future will be illusory formany workers if they continue to be ill-equipped in a broadspectrum of basic workplace skills. The American Society for Training andDevelopment (ASTD), a nonprofit professional associationrepresenting ap- proximately 50,000 practitioners,managers, administrators, educators, and researchers in the field of humanresource de- velopment, through a grant underwritten by theU.S. Depart- ment of Labor (DOL) de'.'ed to explore the ramifications of this problem. ASTD tooka look at the sixteen skills that em- ployers say are basic to success in the workplaceand developed suggestions on how training programscan be established to pro- vide these skills to workers. xiv Preface What we uncovered was the fact that these challenges to an effective work force are being compounded by demographic trends that project a shrinking entry-level work force (sixteen- to twenty-four-year-olds), and we realized that an increasing number of entry-level workers will be coming fromgroups where, historically, human resource investments have been deficient. It became apparent to us that America'snew demographic reality is on a collision course with the notion that employees must be able to understand and acquire new and different skills quickly. Some of the key findings of this part of the project reveal that in addition to reading, writing, and computation, the thir- teen other skills that employers have identified as "basic" to suc- cess in the workplace range from learning to learn to shared leadership. We have also confirmed that there is an undeniable link between work force basics and the competitive life cycle of any new strategy,