Strange English 12:16 May 16, 2011
On the face of it, this EN seems rather odd:
either 1) there is something missing before 'associates alike', since in this kind of construction, 'alike' usually goes with a pair of nouns, for example 'managers and associates alike' (or of course, the misisng text might be after associates: 'associates and managers alike')
or 2) The text has been edited down, but the 'alike' left in by mistake
or 3) Perhaps the second noun appears in the previous sentence, although it would be very dubious style in EN to split an 'alike' across 2 sentences in that way.
This use of 'alike' is an emphatic way of saying 'both A and B'
As Libroediting has subsequently suggested, there is a fourth possibility:
4) If this is non-native EN (German writer, perhaps?), it might be an error intended to mean 'both [the following items]'; non-native speakers often misuse 'alike' in this kind of situation, just as they do 'respectively', for example. | 
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
