Case of Aeg

The Case of AEC

The case that it is going to be analyzed is about a company named Aluminum Elements Corporation (AEC). The main persons in this case is the writer named William which is 26 years old and at that time was hired by AEC to be the manager of the customer service support. Also, John an aluminum slitter who was working for the company and the vice-president of the company named George. William starts the narration by expressing his first day observations about the company. The employees of the shop floor were very strange with him and did not talk at all. The management of the company had daily meetings where production issues were discussed but shop floor employees were never invited to them. Later he found out that the management had different washrooms and lunchrooms from the rest employees and that the management rarely spoke with the floor employees because they thought that they had nothing to learn from them. At this point, we learn about John the aluminum slitter which had a small conflict with George. The two of them were communicating with long memos. John seemed through his behavior and body language that he had problems generally with the management. More the less, all of the employees seem to have the same problems. William tries to attract them because he knows that he needs them and wants to know how AEC works. This was very difficult because the employees were used to the idea that “management only issued orders and made demands”. Although, William continues and follows floor employees almost everywhere when at a point he finally reaches a good level of communication with them. They help him improve the scheduling of jobs and that aluminum slitter named John helped him with a good idea about how to combine the most common slitting sizes and reduce waste by retaining some of the “common-sized” material for new orders. Great improvement in the customer service support group is the result of all these and then William informs George about John’s involvement. As a result, George proposes to William to send John at a “management skills seminar” as a feedback for his good work. Moreover, William finds it a great idea and George announces this idea to John. Unfortunately, the same day John gets upset into Williams’s office ready to quit saying “After all my effort and work, you guys are sending me for training seminars. So I am not good enough for you?”

The Barriers of the Effective Communication in AEC

The most important barrier to effective communication that existed in AEC was the lack of right way of communication. Very often, the members of company ( AEC ) communicated with memos or written document. This way of communication didn’t help the members of company direct to find solution for subjects that concerned in AEC. So, this way kept the members in distance. Many times the employees appeared to be concentrating on their jobs when they noticed the manager of AEC in customer service group. Also, when became the meetings of company, no one from the employees of shop floor was invited to these, unless there was a specific problem. This way was not right for the members of company, because would be supposed all the members to participate in these meetings, for the better resolution of problems of AEC. Also, most of the floor employees felt that management, although polite on the surface, believed they had nothing to learn from the floor employees. Then, beginning a number of unpleasant encounters between John and George. As a result begin an uncomfortable situation in the company than influence the rest members. Tony, who worked at the machine next to John’s, then cursed and said that the office guys only cared about schedules, but not about the people down on the floor. Then, most of the office staff were also offended by Tony’s language, but it was a truth. Another barrier of company was that Lesley, a recently hired engineer from Russia, approached to manager of customer service, and pointed out that the employees were not accustomed to management talking to them. Also, in AEC existed many different perceptions between office and floor staff. Often in the lunchroom were not found all the employees that this mean that the communication between them was not direct. Also, the behavior works from the employees was not that would be supposed. The employees very often related specific information about their workplaces that the manager felt that it went over this head. To the end, George offended John, making a question, if would be good to go John in a management skills seminar. This the way of confrontation to John, proved that no one respect all that it offered in the company.

Author’s View

The author, William Todorovic, deal the