Formats and Formulas
First of all, large companies that have been in existence for some time, tend to be on the conservative side of the cultural spectrum. They also frequently have evolved very specific formats and channels for communication. In these companies, it's important to find out what format is expected and who to address on particular issues. A fairly extreme example of the consequences of violating expectations in traditional organizations comes from the near-disaster at the Three-mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania in the 1970s. After the incident in which the plant came close meltdown, a government investigation looked into the causes and why preventative measures were not taken. One engineer had, in fact, filed a report in which he detailed the circumstances under which such a problem could arise. When the recipients of the report were asked why they hadn't acted on it, one said that the report form the engineer had used was supposed to go to a different office, so he didn't read it, but just forwarded it on. When the head of the second office was questioned, he said that the report came in on the right form, but wasn't the kind of problem his office dealt with - it was the jurisdiction of the first office. So he had just filed the report and forgotten it! The use of the wrong form had made the engineer's report completely ineffective. In traditional organizations, it is always a good idea to find out what forms have been adopted for specific kinds of communications and use them.
