Análise da legibilidade do relatório da administração publicado por companhias brasileiras de capital aberto

Abstract

This work has the objective of analyzing the readability of a kind of publication named Management Report, published by Brazilian companies with stock on the market. Written at the discretion of the management, it is very flexible regarding style and structure, involving the presentation of clear and relevant information. This should help investors and creditors, current and potential, as well as other users, in evaluating the probable amount of capital gain and dividends, sales, and the timely receiving of certificates and loans. To offer high quality reports is essential to satisfy the investor's needs for information, so they can make decisions, based on clear and reliable facts. Writing them down clearly, however, is no easy task. Readability is one of the clarity attributes a text, allowing for a fast and easy communication. It calls for short words and sentences. There are more than 35 formulas to estimate text readability in English. The Flesch Readability Formula, developed by Flesch (1948) is most commonly used for English texts, and is considered by Jones (1948) to be the preferred method. It takes into account the average length of words (in syllables per word) and sentences (words per sentence) in a text, resulting in a score of 0 to 100. Because words in English have 1.8 syllables on average, while in Portuguese, words have 2.2 syllables, the Flesch Formula had to be adapted to Portuguese texts. Martins et al (1996) made a direct comparison study applying the Flesch formula to English texts and to their translations into Portuguese, revealing a readability score averaging 42 points less for Portuguese texts. Hence, they advise adding up this figure to the formula's result to get the adapted score. We have applied the adapted Flesch formula to a sample of 22 Management Reports published by Brazilian companies with stock on the market. The results have indicated 32.83% of results on the very difficult level, while the remainder 68.18% was on the a little difficult level. This means that none of the reports had scores corresponding to an easy and pleasant reading. These results indicate that the management of companies is not taking the opportunity to improve the communication with this kind of report. This could be done, considering the readability, text attribute that advocates a language of easy assimilation, allowing a faster comprehension by the reader.