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CHAPTER 9: LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION 287
3. How would you have handled the communication if you were the principal of
Earsworth Elementary School? Why?

Imperial Metal Products
Imperial Metal Products, a mid-sized manufacturing company located in the southeast,
makes wheel rims for automobiles. With 42 furnaces on the production floor, the tem-
perature often reaches well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Even employees who work in the
lab complain of the heat, because they have to venture onto the production floor numer-
ous times a day to take metal samples from the furnaces.
A year ago, the top executive team recommended to the board that the employee
lounge, located at the far end of the production floor near the plant manager’s office,
be air-conditioned. Company profits had been good, and the managers wanted to do
something to show appreciation for employees’ good work. The board enthusiastically
approved the proposal and the work was completed within a month.
At the end of the fiscal year, the top management team met to review the company’s
operations for the past year. Profits were higher than ever, and productivity for the past
year had been excellent. The team unanimously agreed that the employees deserved addi-
tional recognition for their work, and they considered ways to show management’s appre-
ciation. Robb Vaughn suggested that it might be interesting to see what workers thought
about the action managers took last year to have the lounge air-conditioned. Everyone
agreed, and the human resources director, Amy Simpkins, was instructed to send a ques-
tionnaire to a sample of employees to get their reaction to the air-conditioned lounge. The
team agreed to meet in six weeks and review the results.
Simpkins mailed a simple form to 100 randomly selected employees with the following
request: “Please state your feelings about the recently air-conditioned employee lounge.” The
response rate was excellent, with 96 forms being returned. Simpkins classified the responses
into the following categories and presented her report to the top management team:
1. I thought only managers could use the lounge. 25
2. I didn’t know it was air-conditioned. 21
3. If management can spend that kind of money, they should pay us more. 21
4. The whole plant should be air-conditioned. 10
5. I never use the lounge anyway. 8
6. OK 8
7. Miscellaneous comments 3
Top managers were shocked by the responses. They had expected a majority of the
employees to be grateful for the air conditioning. One of the managers suggested that it
was useless to do anything else for employees, because it wouldn’t be appreciated anyway.
Another argued, however, that top managers just needed to communicate better with
plant workers. She suggested posting flyers on the bulletin boards announcing that the
lounge was now air-conditioned, and perhaps putting a memo in with employees’ next
paycheck. “They slave away eight or nine hours a day in that heat; at least we need to let
them know they have a cool place to take a break or eat lunch!” she pointed out. “And
if we plan to do another ‘employee appreciation’ project this year, maybe we should send
out another questionnaire and ask people what they want.”
Source: Based on “The Air Conditioned Cafeteria,” in John M. Champion and John H. James, Critical Incidents in
Management: Decision and Policy Issues, 6th ed. (Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1989), pp. 280–281.

QUESTIONS
1. How would you rate the communication climate at Imperial Metal Products?
2. What channels do you think top managers should use to improve communications
and both keep employees informed as well as learn about what they are thinking?
3. If you were a top manager at Imperial, what is the first step you would take? Why?