Part of coping has to do with how we use words. In terms of language, the things that appeal to managers also are things that allow us to make use of codes.  Codes are items that, in theory at least, have a one-to-one mapping with something in a hypothetical lookup table. If one was omniscient and could write the lookup table that encompassed the entire world and thus knew everything, in theory, there should be a code that would match every item and could be looked up. We do not believe that such a codebook exists.  

But, we observe there are plenty of people, especially managers, who when they speak seem to believe in that codebook.  Such people speak as if they are speaking in code, and as if everyone listening has a copy of the codebook.  When they use a word, they believe that all of their listeners know exactly what was meant because, in theory, this codebook is out there.  With that belief, the manager is free to speak in code.  Indeed, if the world were fixed and stable or only slowly evolving, there is even a reasonable possibility that the codebook could work. Codes can be looked at as an ascribed label.  One can assign a label to something, and it’ll match the codebook.