ABSTRACT
This study was undertaken to examine the reading habits and interests of urban working professionals, executives and managers in the Klang Valley. With an overall insight into the reading behaviour of this group, it is greatly hoped that there will be a greater awareness among corporate individuals and organizations as regards the importance of reading in knowledge acquisition and knowledge management. Reading is a vital behavioural factor in a knowledge-based society and an emerging knowledge economy.
A total of 299 responses were collected in this study. Generally, the reading attitude is very encouraging and a wide variety of materials was read, ranging from local newspapers, magazines, journals and books to foreign publications. There are also significant relationships between the gender, race and level of management of respondents and their reading pattern.
The results of this study indicated that seniority plays quite a major role in influencing the reading pattern. It was also revealed that there is a strong possibility of the presence of five major categories of readers based on the attitudes and intensity of their reading activities.
INTRODUCTION
Reading is an aspect associated with literacy. However, the reading process is not simple in its nature. It does not merely involve recognizing a single character and pronouncing it correctly or to recognize and pronounce a few characters that are arranged in a particular manner, but more importantly it is the ability to understand the meaning of these arrangements. According to Bullock (1975), reading is more than a reconstruction of the authors' meanings; it is the perception of those meanings within the total context of the relevant experiences of the reader that is a much more active and demanding process. Here, the reader is required to engage in critical and creative thinking in order to relate what he reads to what he already knows.
The civilization of mankind today demands that one should not only know how to read and be literate but also be functionally literate. Functional literacy is acquired as Gray (1956:p.24) puts it when a person has acquired the knowledge and skills in reading and writing which will enable him to engage effectively in all those activities in which literacy is normally assumed in his culture or groups. In short, reading is a complex process that requires the mental capacity, perception and experience of an individual who is conditioned by his or her own distinct cultural environment.
Importance of reading
Reading has come to hold the most significant place in education as a means of communication in a highly literate society. Mann, in his study (1971), stressed that the book is still very much part of people's lives in our modern society and in spite of the invention of the latest audio-visual materials, the book in its ordinary conventional form is still the most important means of communication ever invented. Mann further stressed that reading is important for acquiring knowledge and information. The enrichment in knowledge would, in turn, enable one to present oneself more confidently.
According to Dato' Dr Salleh Mohd Nor in his paper, "Reading in the Context of Management", which was presented during the National Seminar on the Promotion of Reading Habits in Malaysia held from 20-21 June 1994, there is no substitute for reading
when it comes to gathering information or keeping abreast of development. Information may appear in different media but the point is that one still has to read. The great advantage of reading is that there is much more material written in all forms than that on tape and video that one would listen to, and the perception of the ear to respond to critical information is not as effective as that to the eye.
Reading contributes not only to an individual's well-being, self-development and progress but also to the whole nation and the world. Gordon (1976) stated that the thirst for reading and a wider dissemination of books is a sign of progress in the world.
As for now, reading helps to develop workplace literacy where personnel need to have the ability to read and write workplace materials. Jorie W Philippi (1993) stressed that there is a shift toward self-directed teamwork and emphasis on quality production. This shift is necessary for competing in a global economy. It has created job tasks that employ applications of job-specific literacy tasks whereby one of the tasks is that workers must be able to use job-reading processes for locating information. They need to be able to identify job needs and efficiently use basic skill application or workplace literacy (i.e. reading, writing, speaking, listening, computation and problem solving) to complete job tasks. Thus, with these skills, they will have a sense of competence and confidence, independence and better control over problems and issues in their workplace.
Reading problems
However, reading as a practice and art has tended to diminish
(Hewett, 1960). In the opinion of Asheim (1956), reading as a
habitual activity is normally confined to a relatively small
section of the literate population, and continued serious
reading is limited to an even smaller segment within this group
of readers.
On the local scene, the habit of reading does not appear to be a
prominent feature in the lives of most Malaysians. This
situation was validated when Prof. Atan Long conducted a study
on reading habits and interests of Malaysians in 1982. In his
study, Atan Long found that Malaysians had poor reading habits
and did not like reading. He warned that the apathy towards
reading, if allowed to carry on, would create wide rifts in the
socioeconomic and intellectual development of segments of the
population.
More recently, Dato' Dr Salleh (1994) reminded the public,
especially individuals involved in management, such as the
executives and managers of the corporate society, to emphasize
reading. Furthermore, with the Information Super Highway and the
Multimedia Super Corridor under construction, these
professionals would be engrossed heavily in networking and
managing information. Dr Salleh warned too that if they were not
capable of reading the appropriate information in a timely
manner intelligently, they would not be able to go side by side
with development.
This situation would have to be looked into seriously as we
enter the 21st century because reading for knowledge and
information will become a critical source for competitive
advantage besides development (Yeoh, 1995).
Objective of the study
Many studies have been done on the subject of reading habits and
they involved different categories of individuals. With this
interest in mind, a similar study is carried out to investigate
the reading habits in the business environment involving urban
working professionals, executives and managers.
This study aimed to gather and analyse relevant data that will
provide the necessary information so that a description of the
reading activity of professionals, executives and managers can
be obtained and inferences on the relationship between variables
concerning the habit of reading can be made.
In brief, the study hoped to answer the following questions:
a. How regularly do executives and managers read books,
magazines/journals and newspapers? What are the types of reading
materials used?
b. What are their reading preferences and interests with regard
to the reading subject matter?
c. What are their purposes and motivations for reading? Do they
read to acquire new skill and knowledge or to improve their present
ones?
d. What are their opinions and attitudes towards reading
as a pastime activity?
Thus, this survey hopes to elicit the reading habits of the
respondents, their objectives of reading, their attitude towards
reading and their reading preferences. It is greatly hoped that
the findings of this study will create a better understanding
and further insight into the pattern of the reading behaviour of
executives and managers. Thus, this will help to heighten
awareness on the current situation faced and generate more
commitment from business corporations to encourage reading among
their personnel.
Significance of the study
It is an undeniable fact that reading is important. In Malaysia,
during the early 1970s, the reading habit was stressed because
reading has socioeconomic impact.
As Malaysia ventures into a new era of a fully developed nation
by the year 2020, she needs individuals who are progressive in
striving for self-development. To ensure progress, a good
reading habit is important. Literacy development has gone beyond
the survival stage to levels of empowerment and human
development.
Professionals, executives and managers are individuals who play
the key role in enabling the nation to achieve her vision. They
may have been exposed to various management courses and
leadership training, but they must not overlook the impact of
reading.
According to Yeoh (1995), many managers are not avid readers
although they should actively seek new knowledge and acquire
more information through the habit of reading. When they have a
broader outlook and greater knowledge inculcated through
reading, they will have better perspectives to make vital
business and investment decisions. He further added, "Managers
need to read a greater variety of books. They should be able to
term themselves as 'renaissance managers' who are not only
well-versed in corporate strategy, information technology or
business economics but are also equally adept at other fields
like international geopolitics, sociology, etc. Such readings
would then enable the busy corporate manager to be a critical
manager" (p. 48-49).
Thus, a culture of continual lifelong learning and continuous
improvement needs to be cultivated. Our companies must become
learning organizations. We need to develop our capabilities and
knowledge quickly if we want to stay ahead and advance to the
next stage of industrialization. According to Stan Davis, author
of the best-selling book, 2020 Vision, information and knowledge
are vital success factors to have in any business (Yeoh, 1995).
Therefore, the quest for knowledge should never end.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Research on reading
Reading is one aspect that has received increasing attention in
research studies in recent years. Reading studies that were
summarized and reviewed in the Journal of Educational Research
(1962, 1965 to 1967) and in the Encyclopedia of Educational
Research (1969) cover various aspects of reading including,
sociological, psychological, physiological and pedagogical.
One of the earliest comprehensive studies on the reading habit
was the one done by Jenkinson (1940). This classic survey noted
that there was a difference in reading interests and tastes
between the genders. Other studies carried out on gender
preferences were by Fendrick (1941), Wall (1948), Pafford (1959)
and Yarlott and Harpin (1971).
Sharon (1974) did a study on non-book reading habits and found
that the most common non-book material read among adults in the
United States was the newspaper. Sharon stated that an average
of 35 minutes was spent on looking at a newspaper on a typical
day. On the other hand, 25 per cent of the American population
read magazines and each individual spent four to six minutes
reading the magazines on a typical day (Cole and Gold, 1978). On
book-reading habits, Mann (1971) reported a study done by the
European Research Consultants Ltd. in 1965 on book reading among
2300 adults. Sixty-nine per cent of them did not read a book for
the past three months. Later in 1975, a study by The Gallup
Organization reported that six per cent of the Americans read
less than six books in a six-month period. The Poll further
added that the book readers in America were largely young,
college educated workers with high income and involved in
white-collar jobs. According to Lau (1981), readers of higher
socioeconomic status read more than those of lower status, and
book reading decreases when readers get older (Sharon, 1974).
As for studies done on the purpose and motivation of reading and
the attitude towards reading, various dominating motives were
given. For example, information-getting, recreational, aesthetic
and critical understanding of the book (Butler, 1940) and the
desire to know, to be curious, to be well informed and to
understand rather than to be ignorant (Gates and Jennings, 1961)
were some of the motives.
Shri Nath Sahai (1971) studied the reading purposes. It was
found that some read to further their education and knowledge,
some to meet the practical demands of the vocation and to
improve upon their occupational status, some to meet their
intellectual curiosity and others to satisfy their recreational
interest and pass their leisure.
Studies on reading attitudes have not featured very prominently
in reading research literature and this could be an important
area of research in the sociology of reading. One study by
Englander (1960) stressed the importance of attitude as an
important factor in encouraging reading and he found that an
improved attitude in conjunction with improved reading skill
would make an individual a more effective reader.
The local research findings
Prof. Atan Long (1984) gave a similar analysis on the reading
habits and interests of Malaysians. His study found that
ethnicity and the language used influence the patterns of
newspaper, magazine and book readership. The effect of education
is clearly seen whereby, in general, readership of newspapers
and magazines was much lower for people who received only
primary education. The attitude of the people towards reading
was quite positive. About one-fifth of the subjects ranked
reading as their first choice activity, second only to the more
popular activity of TV watching. Newspapers were most read
(97%), followed by magazines (67%) and books (42%). The data
also indicated that those who read most frequently (heavy
readers) were from the high socioeconomic status, middle-aged
and had an English educational background. Other local studies
include those carried out by Rita Vias (1988) and Lim (1974).
Hypotheses
Generally, the research findings in the above review implied
that reading is accepted as an important activity practised for
different reasons by individuals from various backgrounds. There
were specific reading preferences, patterns of reading and
attitudes towards reading among the individuals and these were
found related to certain aspects such as gender, race and
educational background.
The following hypotheses have been formulated with the aim of