ABSTRACT
The "communications problem" is usually considered a technical one of bringing information within the reach of the worker or of management. This lack of mutual understanding rests on the differentiation of function between the three groups. Top management sees the whole in terms of its economic performance, efficiency and productivity, and as one unit in a complex and competitive economy. Middle management and supervision see the enterprise as a complicated machine, as a collection of "departments" and technical functions, and as sufficient unto itself rather than as a unit in the economy. Either management group sees only a facet of the whole: top management sees the enterprise as an economic performer, middle management as an administrative entity, or at best as a social and political unit. A man promoted from one group into the other has to acquire the new vision and blot out the old one to be able to do his job.
