How an organization communicates influences its ultimate success. An organization's communicators, however, are guided by many kinds of rules, of which written corporate policy on communicating is only one kind. This study establishes from the literature a number of areas where written corporate policy on communicating might be expected, then presents results of a Delphi survey asking a panel of corporate communication executives whether such policy is appropriate in those areas. The panel said corporate policy should be formulated in six of the areas but not in seven others. In addition, these panelists generated the most likely costs and drawbacks of corporate policy on communicating and weighted them with respect to seriousness and to difficulty of control; and they generated the most likely benefits of corporate policy on communicating and weighted them with respect to desirability and to likelihood of obtaining them.
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