Aida's Appeal for Lateral Transfer ( 25 marks) Aida has worked for six years in various semi-skilled positions in the factory. In general, her supervisors have a positive view of her and consider her to be dependable, careful and alert. She contributed suggestions for work improvements and learnt new tasks quickly. Supervisors liked her and she clearly liked them. Then, Aida was assigned to an inspection group under Wang, who is one of the factory's most experienced female supervisors. Aida had not done inspection work before and was not sure if she would like the job. However, since she had no experience in that area, she felt she should not object to the assignment. She assumed that if she did not like the work after she had tried it for a while, she could transfer to some other position. As it turned out, Aida did not like inspection work. So she went to the HR department to ask for a lateral transfer. The inspection job required working from 5.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m., after other employees had clocked off for the day at 5.30 p.m., so that the inspection team could inspect the machines and work done by factory workers. A huge portion of the payment scheme for inspection staff depended on working during 5.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. Therefore, if Aida did not work over these hours, her pay would be lower than what she earned when she worked in the factory. Aida did not like her new position for several reasons: there was little opportunity to socialize, she did not like the payment scheme, she did not enjoy inspection work, and she felt that Wang was too tough and unfeeling to team members. She complained that Wang did not give her sufficient time to be trained in the new job and was impatient when Aida asked questions about the job. Although Aida was new to inspection work, Wang treated her just like the other inspectors who had more years of experience and expected Aida to perform as well as them. What made Aida feel was most unfair was that she had been promised that she could transfer to another job with the same pay if she was unhappy doing inspection work. 'Even if there was no such promise, the company owes it to a long-serving employee to grant the request', she said. 'This is a terrible injustice. People should not be forced to work at a job they hate, with a heartless supervisor, and among co-workers are unhelpful and unfriendly.' This conversation was repeated over the next two months, with Aida becoming more emotionally stressed at every occasion. Aida desperately wanted a transfer out of inspection but the company had an unwritten policy against granting such requests. Aida viewed such a policy as totally unfair and inconsiderate of employees' feelings. Aida began making errors, and in inspection work, this was viewed seriously. Wang felt that Aida had never reached a satisfactory level of performance. Wang explained, 'The basic problem with Aida is that she doesn't seem to care about doing her inspection tasks properly. As her manager, I feel that it is important that I be open and confront employees with the shortcomings in their work. I have often told Aida that she needs to be committed to her work and to be more "thick skinned" when dealing with her colleagues.' The result was that Aida's work continued to decline and she grew unhappy at work. Wang's approach, which had worked well with other staff for many years, did not seem to be working with Aida. Aida simply continued complaining that the company was unfair to her and was not treating staff well, while Wang continued in her belief that Aida needed to improve on her work performance and was complaining so she could be transferred out. Clearly, things were getting steadily worse and something needed to be done. 3. Discuss the communication problems that you see in this case. How did the problems arise? (9 marks)