Doing Annotated Bibliography Paper

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Clark Atlanta University

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Public Administration

Muhannad Alfawtawa

[email protected]

Employees don’t meet with language competency

PAD 502: Organizational Theory and Behavior

Master of Public Administration Program

Dr.Rhonda L. Franklin

Problem statement

Communication barrier that results from varied language competency among employees in the public sector is a challenge to the effective discharge of duty by the employees.

Background

Attaining competency in whatever field that a worker is in is very important. There are a number of things that contribute toward this competency and all of these also contribute to the productivity of the worker. In multilingual societies, it may be important to understand the effect that language competency among public workers has on their levels of productivity. While a lot of literature is in the public domain as concerns language proficiency and how it affects the labor market dynamics there is a gap as far as the effects on productivity for public sector workers who do not meet the language competency levels that are needed for them to discharge their duties effectively. A greater focus of this study is intended to highlight the inadequacies that are experienced particular within the health care sectors where the providers have not attained the language competency levels necessary for them to discharge their duties effectively. According to Davila, Bohara, & Saenz (1993) accent that is directly related to language competency has remained a vital factor in determining the worker’s earnings. This has been particularly the case with the earning rate among American Mexicans. Since language competency affects worker productivity it is possible to note that decreased productivity will affect the worker earnings.

In yet another study by Cooney & Ortiz (1983) English language proficiency is noted as a very important factor to successful integration into the work force particularly among the Hispanic females. Apparently at this point it can be inferred that employees who do not meet language competency levels as expected within the labour market are disadvantaged whereby apart from earning less because of limited productivity, some of them hardly make it into the labor market.

While focusing on the service delivery within the health care sector Pillay (2011) asserts that among a collection of skills that were considered important in helping nurses to discharge their management role in the public health sector, language competency ranked highly. Since all other management roles rely on effective communication it was possible to determine lack of language competency was likely to adversely affect the nurses’ ability to take on a public management role.

According to Barrera & Corso (2002) the areas of social work particularly in a society that is multicultural has its own challenges particularly for the social worker who must overcome the language barrier to communicate and effectively discharge his or her duties. Most notable within such settings there are challenges posed by cultural linguistic diversity particularly for workers who don’t have the desired language competency levels. As a result social workers with inadequate language competency are likely to experience challenges when they serve children and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

Parthab Taylor, Nicolle & Maguire (2013) also affirm that employees who don’t have language competency in the health care sector are likely to encounter cross cultural communication barriers that are detrimental to their productivity in the health care sector. Whereas workers within this sector are expected to be proactive in rendering their services, it is always impossible to meet these levels of expectation particularly when the workers are dealing with the poor and those who are limited in language proficiency. Therefore this situation is made worse where the health care provider’s language competency is inadequate implying that the communication barrier will adversely affect the discharge of services to such patients.

The role played by language competency as a skill among public sector workers is very crucial. When considering the public health care sector, so important is the need to accomplish this competency that a number of tools have been developed to try and address this issue.

Accordingly Davies & Milligan (2013) emphasize the importance of using a language identification tool as revealed during a study to achieve service improvement by overcoming the communication barrier that affects service delivery. Since communication barrier can be linked to lack of language competency the introduction of a language identification tool was intended to improve language competency of the health worker thereby improving his or her service delivery.

The US has seen unprecedented levels of immigrant influx in the last decade and as these immigrants finally settle some of them eventually get absorbed into the human resource capital of the economy. Since the field is very competitive, the employer is always looking for a collection of skills that will ensure that the employee is most productive. Since workplace communication is mandatory the basics that these employers look out for is what the employee brings into the organization. Being able to adapt and work in a cross cultural environment is considered as an important requirement. However in order for one to effectively communicate in such an environment he or she must demonstrate the desired language competency among other skills.

The negative effect associated with employees who don’t meet the language competency levels is thus a very serious consideration particularly for those employees who find their way into public sector. While amplifying the effects of such incompetency particularly in the public health care sector August, Nguyen, Ngo-Metzger & Sorkin (2011) opine that language-related communication barriers between minority patients and their physicians may contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in mental health care. In this case language competency appears to have a negative effect on the physician as well as the patient. However the physician is likely to be unproductive and ineffective if this communication barrier remains in place. The fact the physician wants to discharge his or her duty more effectively calls for the need to redefine his or her language competency status.

Apparently the use of interpreters particularly within the public sector to mitigate the effects of language barrier is not only a costly affair but introduces a lot of inconsistencies. Schenker, Smith, Arnold & Fernandez (2012) concur with this fact and particularly when a social worker is handling critically ill patients whose families speak little English.

Significance

Communication remains a very important aspect in any administration process and particularly so within the public sphere. As such there is a need to have a deeper understanding of what effective communication entails and this involves the use of an appropriate language. Language competency levels therefore become very significant in ensuring that a public administrator is able to effectively articulate his or her ideas without being misunderstood. Since the audience can be of varied background, competency is very critical to ensuring that the public officer communicates effectively. To some extend this study has revealed the importance of language competency within various fields. While focusing on the public sector and most particularly the health care sector, it is notable that language competency is at the heart of service delivery within this sector and the effects of low levels of competency negatively affects the discharge of services within this sector. Therefore basing on the findings from the research it is evident that language competency is important particularly in the public administration for effective service delivery.

Conclusion

Certainly there is a need for employees, especially in the public sector to attain a desirable level of language competency in order to remain effective in discharging their duties. Hence employees who don’t meet the desirable language competency levels will continue to face challenges in their work environment and will be limited in discharging certain duties. By establishing a relationship between the language competency, communication barrier and public employee productivity it becomes pertinent to discuss some of the ways to address this concern. Therefore addressing the effects of the communication barriers that arise from employees who don’t meet the language competency levels is an important area of study.

References

August, K. J., Nguyen, H., Ngo-Metzger, Q., & Sorkin, D. H. (2011). Language Concordance and Patient-Physician Communication Regarding Mental Health Needs. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 59(12), 2356-2362. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2011.03717.x

Barrera, I., & Corso, R. M. (2002). Cultural Competency as Skilled Dialogue. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 22(2), 103.

Cooney, R., & Ortiz, V. (1983). Nativity, National Origin, And Hispanic Female Participation In The Labor Force. Social Science Quarterly (University Of Texas Press), 64(3), 510-523.

Davies, C., & Milligan, F. (2013). Development of a language identification tool. Nursing Standard, 27(35), 35-39.

Davila, A., & Mora, M. T. (2000). The English-Skill Acquisition of Hispanic Americans during the 1980s. Social Science Quarterly (University Of Texas Press), 81(1), 261-275.

Parthab Taylor, S., Nicolle, C., & Maguire, M. (2013). Cross-cultural communication barriers in health care. Nursing Standard, 27(31), 35-43.

Pillay, R. (2011). The Skills Gap in Nursing Management in the South African Public Health Sector. Public Health Nursing, 28(2), 176-185. doi:10.1111/j.1525-1446.2010.00910.x

Schenker, Y., Smith, A. K., Arnold, R. M., & Fernandez, A. (2012). 'Her Husband Doesn't Speak Much English': Conducting a Family Meeting with an Interpreter. Journal Of Palliative Medicine, 15(4), 494-498. doi:10.1089/jpm.2011.0169

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