COMMUNICATING WITH EMPLOYEES.

By Robert P. Cort '26. Englewood Cliffs,N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963. 148 pp.

During the last fifteen years business managers have shown as much interest in problems of employee communications as they have in the more obvious problems of marketing, finance, production, public relations, and research. The reasons are clear, but the "how-to-do-it" leaves something to be desired. Robert Cort, a civilian training director with a unit of the Navy, saw the need to collect systematically information on employee-communication programs in many companies. More than 50 were canvassed, including many of the best.

Among the chapter titles are the "Process of Communication," "Preparing the Way for Change," "Talking the Economics of the Company," and others. The author makes short shrift of the naive notion that employee communications is just a matter of "telling" or "selling." Unless employees have an opportunity to make their own desires known, and unless management listens, no effort to communicate downward is likely to be effective.

Generalities are avoided by reference to concrete programs in specific companies. Little attempt, is made to assess the effectiveness of programs as perceived by employees. The union, as the employees' "instrument" of communication, is not examined in Cort's study. These are not serious criticisms, inasmuch as the author had other purposes in mind. For the manager who wants a quick and highly readable overview of what and how to communicate with employees this book is recommended.