Disadvantages of policy
No panacea for all problems: policies however intelligence formulates cannot provide a solution to every problem. This is so because each policy is formulated under a particular set of circumstances which may not remain the same for all times to come. This is all the more true in the modern world, where social, economic, political and technological changes are taking place at a fast pace. But this limitation can be over if the policies are constantly evaluated to test their usefulness in current circumstances.
No instant solutions to problems: policies only serve as guidelines to thinking and action by managers. They point to the limits and constraints under which managers have to make decisions to solve the problems facing them. If the manager begins to look to them for solution of every problem, he may be disappointed. But here it needs to be remembered that policies only provide the mechanism for decisions making, and they cannot possibly provide a solution to each individual problem.
No substitute for human judgement: Policies only indicate how and within what limits problems of different kinds have to be tackled. Even so they cannot blindly be applied to all problem situations. The need for the manager's own sense of judgement will remain even when he has a pre determined policy to deal with every conceivable problem. This is self evident. It is nobody's case that once a set of policies has been decided upon, the manager can take a holiday from his own sense of judgement and discrimination, which will be needed even to determine which policy is to be applied in a given situation, and to what extent.
No room for initiative: too many policies after individual initiative. Managers may get so much used to follow policies that may lose capacity to think for themselves. When spoon feeding is so easily available, why take the trouble of feeding one? There is not much substance in this point. Policies only provide the area within which managers have to make their decisions. They do not provide any decisions as such. Decision making continues to be an exclusive preserve of managers and in this they are free to exercise as much individual initiative as they like.