Gung Ho and Office Space Organizational Communication

Trevor Jones ORG COMM Paula Haug March 27, 2011 Gung-Ho And Office Space: How NOT To Manage Chapter 1 of James C. McCroskey’s â€Å"Organizational Communication for Survival† states that â€Å"some people believe ‘competent communication’ is ‘competent communication’ no matter where it is practiced†. (1) I believe this to be entirely untrue. Subordinate to subordinate communication differs greatly from subordinate to supervisor communication. As is true for different cultures communicating. In the movies â€Å"Office Space† and â€Å"Gung-Ho† we see two different work places with different management styles, different office culture, different everything. They both are similar in the way that they feature a clash between management and the employees.†¦show more content†¦The Movie â€Å"Office Space† features a typical cubicle style office environment. There is no culture clash, just classic examples of bad management. Peter and Joanna are two people in different environments who both suffer from d issatisfaction. Peter works at a company similar to Intel or IBM, Joanna at a restaurant similar to TGI Friday’s. The office environment is exactly how our book says it should not be, which leads to many comical scenes. Communication comes from the top-down only, in the form of impersonal memos. There are 8 bosses that Peter all must answer to. This is described as a â€Å"Tall† structure of business in our book, like IBM. â€Å"At IBM there are many units, with many supervisors, and fewer employees per supervisor† (53). Power is very centralized at Peter’s job; his main boss is named Bill Lumbergh. Bill is a greedy, overbearing authoritarian and abuses his power in many ways – he has his own reserved parking spot right in front of the building, he forces Peter to come in to work on the weekends, and he is very condescending to his employees. The multiple bosses just create a more negative work environment. For example, when Peter forgets to put co versheets on his TBS reports, Lumbergh and a couple of his other bosses talk to him like he is stupid, asking if he â€Å"got the memo.† The memo represents the formal, written mode of communication that classical organizations use. As stated, Communication comes from the top-down, and anyShow MoreRelatedCase Study16130 Words   |  65 Pages Drivers for change 6 Leadership 8 No shotgun wedding 9 The transition period – one year on 11 Project management 12 Organizational development 13 Developing management and leadership capacity and capability 14 Case study questions: Aster Group 17 Individual change 17 Team change 17 Organizational change 18 Leading change 18 Case study 2: The Institute of Public Health in Ireland 19 Case study text: The Institute of Public Health in IrelandRead MoreInternational Management67196 Words   |  269 Pageseditions have been the market-leading international management text. Specifically, v vi Preface this edition has the following chapter distribution: environment (three chapters), culture (four chapters), strategy (four chapters), and organizational behavior/human resource management (three chapters). Because international management is such a dramatically changing field, all the chapters have been updated and improved. New real-world examples and research results are integrated throughoutRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 Pagesmonumental mistakes to some firms and resounding successes for others? Through such evaluations and studies of contrasts, we may learn to improve batting averages in the intriguing, ever-challenging art of decision making. We will encounter organizational life cycles, with an organization growing and prospering, then failing (just as humans do), but occasionally resurging. Success rarely lasts forever, but even the most serious mistakes can be (but are not always) overcome. As in previous editions