Advantages of policy
Guide to thinking and action: policies provide the framework within which managers have to make their decisions. Without them, managers will only grope in the dark not knowing how to tackle the various issues facing them. Thus policies serve as an essential guide to the decision making.
Consistency: policies establish the limits within which managers at various levels have to make their decisions. This lead to predictability and consistency in managerial functioning. As such, managers are enabled to act in concert for the accomplishment of the enterprise objectives.
Broader applicability: policies are shaped after weighting and evaluating a number of factors. As such, these can be applied with equal effect to problems of all types and dimensions.
Confidence building: with well formulated policies providing ready answers to all possible questions, managers can confidently face any possible situation. Besides, if managers strictly adhere to policies, they may have nothing to fear even when some of their decisions do not produce the desired results because, in the event, they can conveniently shift the blame to inadequacy of policies.