ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with that step in the management process by which a manager gives instructions to his subordinates - Step 3, ‘give instructions’. Any manager who uses communication in this way in the 1970s will, however, be heading for trouble; for he must not ignore Trend M, the growing revolt against authority, especially against the needless or inept or officious use of authority. On the one hand improved communications and quantification are placing the power of almost continuous detailed supervision of subordinates into the hands of the manager; on the other, the insistent desire of subordinates to use their initiative and their growing freedom from the effects of either penalty or reward. A manager is always entitled to state the total resources available for a task but he is not always entitled to set them out in detail - if he does he may constrict the number of alternative ways in which the subordinate may tackle the task.
