Subject: Communication Breakdowns in Burgess Trucking Case Study
There were many things that went wrong with communication in this case study. The
following sections highlight the main person or main people that were at fault for
communication errors.
Johns
To start, the maintenance supervisor sent memos to Johns about space issues in the warehouse.
Johns ignored these memos for a year. Johns also should have communicated with the
supervisor before signing o” on the purchase of new rigs that would further decrease the
space.
A$er Johns was put in charge of the new warehouse operations, he received reports from BDI
that showed speci’cations were not being met and neither were completion dates. Johns down
played these problems as he did with other situations, allowing the board to believe everything
was under control.
Yet another lack of communication from Johns led to even more strife. A$er BDI evaluated
what was going on, they submitted a list of suggestions that would possibly help ‘x some of the
heating problems. Johns only passed on bits of the list to maintenance, summarizing what he
thought was important as opposed to sending the whole list.
Lastly, when Johns neglected to share that OSHA would be visiting, he put the company at risk
