Alvarez (a)

Abstract

Five years short of retirement, Alvarez is an experienced but uneducated mechanic working for a Venezuelan manufacturer of aluminum building products. In the A case, new North American management is concerned about Alvarez's grumbling and egocentric behavior and is pondering the impact of firing him. In the B case (UVA-OB-0661), management decides to fire Alvarez at a high cost. In the C case (UVA-OB-0662), Alvarez dies of a heart attack soon after being fired, adding poignancy to the decision to fire him. This case series provides an excellent opportunity to explore self-concepts, methods of personal mastery, cross-cultural management, and issues of managing personal change. Excerpt UVA-OB-0660 ALVAREZ (A) Assistant Plant Manager Jose Pinto arrived earlier than usual on Monday morning. Last Friday, Pinto, along with plant manager (Mario Chavez), personnel manager (Mario Caesar), maintenance engineer (Mike Stone), and the majority owner, Roberto Bellini, had met to decide what to do about a situation that Jorge Alvarez was creating in the plant. They discussed Alvarez's career, his past contributions to the company, and the plant's policies, but they had not reached a conclusion. In the end, they decided that whatever was to be done, Pinto had to decide. CANALVEN Canalven was originally a subsidiary of Canadian Aluminum Company (CANAL), but nationalization plans in Venezuela had required all companies to have 51% Venezuelan capital. At that time the Bellini family acquired the required 51% from CANAL, and the company became Canalven, which produced standard and customized window rails, frames, and a line of roofs. At the time of this case, Canalven was facing difficult foreign exchange rate differentials and stiffening international competition. The company was also expanding its foundry facilities to cope with the shortage of some raw materials and increase production. Canalven was also adding a finished line of products to its existing semifinished aluminum product lines. The new finished products were either painted or anodized (a process that polishes the previously extruded aluminum ingots). For these operations, two new process lines had been added to the existing production lines. Part of the new machinery for the foundry had to be ordered from foreign companies to be built on site by Canalven personnel, but some of the minor machinery (such as a crushing machine for the silicon that was added to the aluminum alloy) was built and designed at Canalven. Mike Stone supervised the construction of all these new production lines and the assembly of the imported machines. Maria Cerruti was in charge of the quality-control department and supervised all the finished products. She and Stone worked together closely in the design and improvement of many technical aspects of the factory. Because the Bellinis were cattle owners and did not have any experience in the aluminum business, they delegated all responsibility and plant-related decisions to plant manager, Chavez. He, in turn, delegated all responsibility for the new processes to Stone and Cerruti. . . .