engleski

Managerial Literacy for the Third Millenium

The present paper explores the role of literacy in contemporary society, specifically in the context of professional discourse and power management in society. It sets out by asking what exactly constitutes professional literacy, and what and how much educational institutions and societies should provide to individuals in order for them to achieve the level of literacy sufficient to make them competent. It is pointed out that what is actually recognized as literacy is a highly complex and contextualized skill that can be defined in a number of ways, depending on social and cultural environment, as well as on the purpose. The shift from agri-industrial society dominated by more personal face-to-face communication to a post-industrial/service society characterized by impersonal communication means that the concept of literacy also takes on new forms. Whereas at the very basic school level literacy can be virtually equated with the knowledge of reading and writing, at adult level literacy is nowadays defined in terms of functional competences, most importantly as the ability to perform specific literacy-related tasks in the context of real life situations. Professional literacy comprising, among other things, the knowledge of a particular subject, is seen as the main vehicle of learning, critical thinking, innovation, reinvention and diversification, essential to effective participation in social processes. Literacy is therefore closely related to social power, an essential ingredient of management. In light of this, fostering corporate management literacy has to include an understanding of the role of power in organisation. Because power ultimately has to be exercised by consent, an essential element of literacy is the skill of generating consent. But professional literacy also has wider implications because power i sin most organisations used to control knowledge. One of the tasks of professional literacy is to enable corporate management to define knowledge and, alternatively, to understand how others define knowledge.

literacy, professional discourse, managerial power, functional competence, corporate management

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