(1) Policies are often secret and may fall into the wrong

hands.

(2) They cannot be all-embracing, and, as times change, .

the policies can become outdated and even counter¬

productive.

(3) Over a period of time a mass of ‘red tape’ may

emerge.

(4) One circulated instruction does not. take into account

the reading ability of the individual readers.

(5) Feedback is more difficult and delayed.

By contrast the major benefits of written communication are:

(1) Authoritativeness.

(2) Accuracy-through being checkable. (3) Pennanence.

(4)

Coverage-communications can be reproduced exactly and quickly.

(5) Retention rate is high.

Before decisions are made as to which method of communication should be used in

certain circumstances, the comprehensibility of the telminology to be used should be

gauged. One such study involved 478 managers from various levels and departments of

Scottish industry. Among these executives only 9.6 per cent of the specialist words and

phrases commo:1ly used in industry were satisfactorily understood. A further 14.4 per

cent were partly understood, 34.9 per cent were wrongly understood, and 41.1 per cent

were not known. In terms of levels, senior management knew more financial and quality

control terms than other levels; middle management were marginally more

knowledgeable in the field of work measurement. Supervisory management showed the

worst all-round knowledge, being inferior to that of non-managerial specialists in various

fields.