W. R. Unwin’s scientific contributions

Listening has been cynically defined as ‘what you do while awaiting your turn to talk’. Hearing is easy, but listening, like reading, is not a passive process through which the mind absorbs information as a sponge soaks up water. Listening and reading require positive effort.

By its very name participative management implies that all parties in an organisation should take an active role in the business to maximise its success. This is a contemporary style of management which seeks to increase employees’ involvement in management decision-taking, while not necessarily removing in any way management’s right to make the final decisions. It can be implemented through worker directors, union consultation, non-union staff consultative groups, a better informed work-force (through written information and regular briefings) or informal encouragement of employees to present ideas, suggestions and constructive criticisms to their immediate line managers.

Summarising exercises are very often set on business examination papers because they test our abilities to understand what we read and to express ourselves concisely — two essential work skills. Examination questions may ask for a summary, precis or abstract. Generally a summary or precis implies a condensed version of the original, while an abstract requires the extraction of selected ideas from the passage and often their rearrangement.

Effective communication is the basis of success in many tasks: effective thought, reasoning, analysis and planning are essential for successful communication.

Since the Second World War business has had to live in an increasingly difficult and hostile climate. Through increasingly tight government control it has lost much of its autonomy.

The importance of planning has been stressed throughout the chapters on written communication (see also Chapter 11) and most people would agree that it is certainly very helpful in achieving effective communication. However, because so much of our talking is casual and spontaneous, we do not easily recognise that planning and preparation can be equally applicable to this area of communication.

English has many more words than most other languages: for example, the Concise Cambridge Dictionary has 300 pages for Italian-English, but 500 for English-Italian.

Illustrations Introduction 1 Correspondence 2 Reports 3 Summarising 4 Advertising and Publcity 5 Manuals, Instructions and Form Design 6 Meetings Documentation 7 Meetings 8 Spoken Communication 9 Listening and Reading 10 Role of Audio-Visual Aids 11 Thinking and Planning 12 Language 13 Non-verbal Communication 14 Charts and Graphs 15 Analysis and Interpretation 16 External and Internal Communication 17 Management Communication 18 Information Technology Appendix 1: Answers/notes for answers Appendix 2: glossary of meetings terms Appendix 3: Grammar, punctuation and spelling Appendix 4: Examination techniques Index

Many companies use professional advertising agencies, news agencies and public relations consultants for the majority of their advertising and publicity needs. Others have public relations and/or advertising departments within their organisations.

Three further examples of written communication are considered in this chapter: the preparation of handbooks and manuals, the provision of written instructions, and the design of forms.