EMMANUEL ALOIS TURUKA
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
Summary of the
movie
Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a
computer programmer working for Initech in Houston. Every day, he and his
friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton, suffer endless indignities and
humiliations in their soulless workspace from their soulless boss, Bill
Lumbergh (Gary Cole). For Peter, every
day is worse than the one before it -- so every day is the worst of his life.
To cap it off, Initech has hired a pair of "efficiency experts" to
downsize the company. One Friday night, Peter's soon to be ex-girlfriend Anne
(Alexandra Wentworth) forces him to go to an occupational hypnotherapist to
relieve work stress. While Peter is under hypnosis, the therapist keels over
and dies. As he never snaps out of his hypnotic state, Peter has a new outlook
on life. If something annoys him, he just ignores it or walks away from it. He
is completely relaxed and enjoying life for the first time in a long time. On
Monday, Peter skips work and sleeps in. He gets up for lunch and drives down to
a restaurant next to his office and asks the waitress he's had a crush on,
Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), on a date. When Peter stops into the office to pick
up his organizer, he's called in to talk to the efficiency experts. Relaxed and
friendly, Peter charms them as he describes everything wrong with the office,
including his boss. Even as Peter now appears at work only as the mood strikes
him, the experts decide he's management material and give him a promotion even
as they lay off the hardworking Samir and Michael. Office Space originated from
writer/director Mike Judge's.
MOVIE DISCUSSION
Office Space
movie postulates the general life of people who are working in the office and
how they satisfied their needs according
Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs. According to (Mosley 2005) people try to satisfy different needs through
work, and have basic needs to be fulfilled. As a result of these needs people
direct their energy towards satisfying them. If a lower level is satisfied the
drive is to achieve that need is reduced and or eliminated and is replaced by a
drive off to achieve the higher one, the only place to satisfy all these is
through working.
The movie shows
that human life’s is a life of interaction and interdependency at work place.
The movie shows that one element of good performance is a clear mind which will
help employees to take up responsibility very well. It should bear in our mind
that the organizations in which people work affect their thoughts, feelings and
actions within the organization and outside the organization.
Office Space movie
is a classic movie, which shows how working
environment and weak leadership can
cause failures in making decisions.
The the lesson
from Peter’s decision to change lane due to slow moving traffic is summarized by Mosley (2005) argued that
Poor planning results in disorganized and uncoordinated activities, thus wasting
time. General Mosley (2005) analysis is that, planning involves an advance
vision of possible problem(s) or change(s) that might arise and we need to set
aside solutions available to deal with them smoothly when they do arise.
The main actor Peter
is computer programmer at Initech Company. He was given a work about preparing
the T.P.S cover sheets, Peter failed to
accomplish this responsibility on time as the result he was harassed by
numerous bosses.
Mosley (2005)
defines management as the process of working with and through people to achieve
objectives by means of effective decision making and coordination of available
resources. We have seen Mr. William Lumpergh as a supervisor failed to
coordinate effectively the role individuals in Initech. Peter has eighty
different bosses who correspond direct to him this of course will bring
confusion and inefficiency in the organization and, when an employee fails to
take up his/her role effectively it is difficult to put in task an employee,
Mosley (2005) insists that the organization must have what is called the span
of management which is the number of immediate employees a manager/supervisor
can supervise effectively. In showing the importance of this Mosley (2005)
advise supervisors to use the unity of command states that everyone in the
organization should report to and be accountable to only one boss for the
performance of a given activity. This supervisor should be responsible for
evaluating performance, passing down orders and information and developing
employees to become better employees in the organization, why because:
q It
prevents duplication and conflicts when orders and instructions are passed
down.
q It
decreases confusion and “passing the buck” because everyone including managers
is accountable to only one person for a given assignment
q It
provides a basis whereby a supervisor and his or her employees can develop
knowledge of each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
q It
provides an opportunity for a supervisor and employees to develop supportive
relationships and to realize their individual and group potential in achieving
organizational objectives.
q It
promotes higher morale than is generally found in organizations that do not
follow the unity of command.
But if the
supervisor has failed to accomplish this command; Weiss (2004) argued that the
supervisor who is cold, unfriendly and demanding often creates fear or
resentment in people. Nobody works willingly for someone he fears. When subordinates
respect their supervisors, they plan and discuss problems with them. Ramsey R.D
(2002) also argued that it is hard to believe, but there are still supervisors
who think they can get more out of employees through bullying, threats and
scare tactics. And obsolete supervisors who insist on browbeating their workers
and attempting to force performance to run the risk of becoming ineffective, or
worse, irrelevant. When we examine the role played by supervisor Mintzberg in
this situation highlight that supervisor in this particular situation must
function in all three major roles that is interpersonal Roles, Informational
role and the decision making role And the issue was not solved, and sets up a
climate of bad supervisors, who failed to use theories of delegation,
motivation and how to manage a team.
Ramsey D.R (2005) concluded by arguing that the best
leaders strive to create a culture that empowers individual self-actualization
and promotes optimum, creative collaboration at the same time. If you build
that kind of workplace, they (workers) will come. They will stay. They will
produce. And you will have made your workplace better. That’s what supervisors
do. You don’t want to do any less. Mintzberg in such kind of situation advises
supervisor to Disturbance handler who can be responding to crises/ problems
that arise.
The organization
is organized in order to accomplish the set up the objective. An employee must
respect the order and if he or she fails to accomplish there must be a reason,
which is acceptable according to the rules Mosley (2005) in such kind of
situation supervisor’s job is much like that of a coach.
As Mosley (2005)
an important fact to remember is that accountability cannot be delegated.
Accountability is essential to maintain effective control over the results.
Therefore a person who delegates an assignment should not be able to escape
accountability for poor results. In order an organization to be accountable
what is required to work as a collective team for more success as Weiss W.H
(2004) argued that to be an effective leader you must know how to foster trust
with your subordinates. An excellent way to establish a trusting relationship
is through intelligent, consistent, delegation. When you delegate effectively,
your subordinates will gain experience and confidence in their abilities. Both
of these qualities will enable them to be more productive and advance in the
company
As Mosley (2005) emphasized that
we should avoid a crisis decision, with careful and adequate planning. Peter and
his friend if they could think very carefully, in avoiding long term crisis in
their mind they could not involve themselves in such kind of plot. It is
unnecessary and wastage of time. They could as well asked themselves the
following question as Mosley (2005) puts it; Is this legal? Will I be violating
either civil law or company policy? How will it make me feel about myself?
Would I feel good if my decision were published in the newspaper? Would I feel
good if my family knew about my decision? As Stanley T.L (2002) argued that the
gratifying mode is driven by an overwhelming quest to feel good about the
decision. Operating in this mode, within reason, should lower individual stress
levels. Peter is restless because of the decision he has decided to do if he
could follow what Stanley has outlined above he could as well lowered the
stress which he face now.
The set up of fire is the result
of anger of one employee who felt that he was discriminated. Anger is a
personality, which drives individual to self-defeating, self-destructive, and
it does not solve problems, it only creates them or makes them worse and has no
redeeming values. As Ramsey R.D. (2004) explains that anger is a dictator that
can control lives and drive behavior. It blots out reason and blurs good
judgment. Worst of all, it can lead to dangerous outbursts of violence or other
destructive behaviors. Obviously, anger has no legitimate place in any
business, office, shop, or factory. When it occurs, someone has to see that it
does not take root or take over the workplace. Good supervisors know how to
diffuse employee anger.
Conclusion
My general analysis of this movie
vs Mosley textbook it is a funny because
all tips on being a good supervisor have been very well highlighted and emphasized.
In short. Successful leaders have a broad knowledge of good management ideas
and when they develop successful relationships with employees, amazing things
can happen, remind us of the IBM case study.
We have learned also that
synergistic approach is very important this can be through Management by
Objective this emphasizes the importance of a supervisor and employees working
together in order to achieve organizational goals. The advantage of this the
employee feels being part and parcel of the organization and will respond more
favorably to change and loyalty to the supervisor and the organization profit
or service will increase. The role of the supervisor is to bring people
together given that organization is a social setting by;
q The
supervisor must identify goals that measure organizational performance
q The
supervisor must be precise in linking individual goals and standards
performance
q The
supervisor must monitor employee progress toward agreed upon goals
q The
supervisor and employee must meet on a regular basis to evaluate measurable
performance. If needed corrections are made to bring about employee
improvements toward individual goals. Or changes are made that are more
workable. (The Case of Mike Odom)
q Delegation
is very important because the logic suggests that when more than one supervisor
conveys the same trivial information, their job overlaps, and brings confusion
to the employee.
q The
supervisor must know how to diffuse employee anger, to avoid destructive
behavior and stress to employees.
q The
supervisor must know how to create the condition that provides employees with a
heightened sense of self-esteem.
q The
supervisor must know the culture of working place, which is the personality of
the organization
As we have seen in the case of
Peter the essence of the problem is lack of delegation and lack of
A positive attitude from leaders. A supervisor must lead by
showing examples. Through a
Good communication which includes
careful listening, and understanding what is meant for others (seven habits) is
very important; It is the role of the supervisor to take responsibility to
carry out a popular action that can hurt the morale of other employees,
supervisors must take time to explain the reason why the organization is doing
so. It's believed that supervisor’s explanation could take away the bad concept
in one’s mind, and get him to move without resistance. Employees have a strong need to know what is
going on and they can handle bad news more positive. One can refer the issue of
downsizing (layoff) in Initech how it is handled, is more negatively
A good supervisor is consistent
in demonstrating a good standard of work for employee by rewarding a good
performance and correct poor performance quickly. When you are so close to
employee it is easy to realize and implement this, Mr. Lumperghl failed because
he was not close to employees.
Team building is very important
in a supervisory role because working together toward a common goal can
accomplish much more than any individual employee can do on his/her own.
(Synergy). The most powerful words to say to an employee who has done well is
‘Thank You’ but when you use these words timely and genuine touch one service
and he/ she appreciated for recognition
Reference:
Mosley,D.C., Megginson,L.C.,
Pietri, P.H. (2005). Supervisory management: The art of empowering and
developing people (6th ed.). Cincinnati: South Western.
Dmytrenko, A.L. (1998). The seven
habits of highly effective people. Records Management Quarterly, 32, 85
–86.
Ramsey, R.D. (2004). Understanding
the culture of your workplace. Supervision. 65 (8), 3-5.
Weiss, W.H. (2003). Leadership. Supervision, 64
(11), 17-20.
Ramsey, R.D. (2004). Managing workplace anger: Your
employees’, your customers’ and your own, Supervision, 65 (2), 8-10.
