A neo-Aristotelian criticism of the president's messages in Southern Railway Company's annual reports, 1970-1975

Traditionally corporate annual reports have been solely a channel of communication between a corporation and its stockholders. During the last fifteen years, however, companies have designed their annual reports to appeal to larger and more diverse audiences, including employees, prospective employees, business schools, and customers. Available research indicates that the most frequently read section of a report is the president's message. Because of the high readership rate of the president's message, and the fact that the annual report is often the only communication between a corporation and the public during any given year, many corporations view the president's message as a significant opportunity to communicate with individuals interested in their operations. Since little is known about the function of the president's message or the vast audience it is now designed to appeal to, the purpose of this thesis was to study this important section of the corporate annual report.

Employing a neo-Aristotelian methodology, the study sought to discover, describe, and explain, the constituents and persuasive rhetorical elements of a president's message. Southern Railway Company's annual reports from 1970 to 1975 were selected for study since the president's message in each of these reports was presented by the same individual and each message reflected a consistent pattern of development the Securities and Exchange Commission. A personal interview with the Senior Editor of Southern Railway's annual report provided additional insight into the development and function of a president's message.

The findings of the research indicate that a significant number of corporations are unaware of the nature and characteristics of the audience receiving their annual reports. The problem has been compounded since companies now try to reach more diverse audiences. Feedback from annual report readers would aid in the identification of the characteristics of report audiences, but unfortunately, and like Southern Railway, many corporations fail to assess the impact that their annual reports have on readers. The result is that millions of annual reports are mailed to readers each year, yet few attempts are made to evaluate the effectiveness of these reports. Concerning the writing of the president's message, research indicates that it is a common practice for the department responsible for producing a corporation's annual report to compose the president's message. Southern participated in this practice, but unlike some corporation presidents, Southern's president did spend time editing the final drafts of a message.

If corporations continue to employ annual reports as a primary channel of communication to reach the public, then additional research is in order to identify and describe the actual audiences they want to reach. Once audiences are identified, methods of evaluation need to be developed to determine if the president's message and the annual report itself is designed for, and reaching its intended audiences.