Organizational research into the media of

The following. quote from a manager demonstrates this: Well, the director told me that my project was at the
top of his list of priorities. After another few weeks of frustration and no action I went back to remind him. "Yes," he'said, "your project is still at the top Qf my listbut the list isn't necessarily in order."
Organizational research into the media of
communication has tended to concentrate on the merits and drawbacks of written and spoken messages~ Baker and his colleagues of.Princeton University found low reader interest' in the employee's handbook of the company they studied, and Professor Maier, in the study mentioned earlier, found that written job descriptions did not affect the degree of agreement over job details between superior-subordinate managers, and that firms without this system were rated as highly as finns with it. In general, interest in company magazines increases as the style becomes more informal. Where the company literature is stiff, precise, and full of company jargon, employees prefer to obtain their infonnation from personal contacts.

Many managers recognize these factors although it may be argued that few apply them. In one survey of 100 company presidents, 98 thought the spoken word at least as important as the written word and 40 felt that it was more important. On the other hand, Higgin and Jessop, in a study of the British building industry, pointed out some of the difficulties which resulted from the use of informal spoken communication. They found that many vital pieces of information were committed to memory or the backs of cigarette packets, and that sometimes detail became blurred. These snippets of research, taken in isolation, may seem to contradict each other. Company presidents favour