The high cost of bureaucratic written communications

Abstract

Executives writing in a readable style could save their companies millions of dollars in time. T n both manufacI turing and service industries, U.S. companies are carrying out dramatic cost-cutting programs to make their operations more efficient. Companies are not only closing factories and service centers or relocating their manufacturing operations to less costly overseas locations; they also are eliminating management levels in an attempt to flatten their organizational structures so they can be more responsive to quick market changes. This perceived need to cut to the bone is largely in response to increasing global competition, burgeoning corporate debt (partially caused by the takeover mania of the 1980s), and a longanticipated economic turndown. In all likelihood, this cost-cutting consciousness will continue throughout the 1990s. The emerging European Community will force American companies to view streamlining their operations as an ongoing process. Given this pervasive cost-cutting mentality, it is surprising that companies have overlooked an activity that consumes a significant amount of their staffs' and managers ' time and their companies' dollars: time spent reading. Although studies have been done on the cost of producing a onepage letter (the cost ranges between $10-$12 per page), company cost cutters have overlooked the reading and rereading time differences between well-written documents and those written in a hard-to-read, bureaucratic style (Locker, 1989). In fact, CEOs and upper management infrequently realize the impact their organization's written communication habits have on their employees ' ability to quickly and economically process informarion. The way a document is written, organized, and formatted can s ave -o r was te t ime and dollars. This study provides empirically supported information about written communication efficiency and cost associated with two writing styles: a style and the traditional bureaucratic style still prevalent in many companies.1 Although the study focuses on U.S. naval officers, these professionals, like their private sector counterparts, work in environments awash in paper, requiring that they spend a significant amount of time reading and rereading documents. Because of this similarity in work environments, we believe the study's results can be generalized to any large or medium-sized organization. The research results answer the following questions: 1. Do respondents spend less time reading a document written in the plain style rather than the bureaucratic style? What are the financial implications of this difference if there is one? 2. Do respondents perceive that they have comprehended more information in the plain style than the bureaucratic style and thus believe they don't need to reread the document? Again, what are the financial implications of this difference? 3. Do respondents actually better comprehend information presented in the plain style or the bureaucratic style? What are the costs associated with any differences?