film analysis for Office Space
Film Analysis of “Office Space” the movie from 1999 (6-8 pages) Guidelines I.Purpose 1.To sharpen students diagnostic, problem solving, and decision-making skills in resolving realistic organizational and behavioral dilemmas/problems through film analysis. 2.To enhance students knowledge about organizational issues through additional independent research. II.Assignment Description This assignment focuses on the analysis of the film Office Space. In this film, two consultants by the names of Bob and Bob have been hired by a high-tech company to evaluate its operations. For this assignment, I want you to pretend you are an internal organizational consultant, working independently from the Bobs and judging organizational issues in an unbiased/independent way. You need to address at least three to four issues occurring in this organization, applying knowledge learned from any of the frames in your textbook and using organizational/behavioral theories/conceptual models to explain issues in a six to eight-page paper. Rent the film, Office Space, and watch it. Pretend you are an internal organizational consultant, working separately from the Bobs, and tasked with analyzing at least three to four organizational and/or behavioral issues in this organization, utilizing any or all of the frames covered in class as well as consult articles for potential recommendations. The paper should include the following sections: (a) an overview of organization, (b) issues identification and diagnosis of the causes, and (c) solutions/recommendations. III.Procedures 1.Rent the film, Office Space, and watch it. 2.Conduct additional research related to the issues that you selected to enhance your recommendations. At least 4-5 research sources should be consulted. 3.Follow format requirements: Use 12 standard font, Times New Roman, double-spaced. Number your pages. Use headings to organize your paper better (e.g., using frames headings). Use a title page with your name. Cite references in APA style in text and reference list. IV.Structure of the Paper 1.An Overview of the Organization Provide an overview of the organization. What is the organizations purpose? What type of organization is it (private, public, nonprofit)? What is its relationship of this organization to the external environment? What do you think is its mission, values, vision? 2.Issues Identification and Diagnosis of the Causes Provide a clear description of at least three to four issues you observe in this organization. This something that is very observable, i.e., the symptoms of the problem (e.g., people feel unhappy, stressed out, dont get along, communication is difficult, conflicts, etc.). Provide specific examples to support your observations. Diagnose the issues. Try to seek an explanation of the symptoms/issues that you see; what might be causing those to be strikingly visible. Use some theories/conceptual models covered in class to help explain what is going on (is something wrong with/are issues caused by social structure, leadership, physical structure, culture, leadership, human resources, technology, organizational politics, etc.). To organize better your writing you may use subheadings in this section (e.g., The Issue of Motivation and Its Causes, The Issue of Employee Burnout and Its Causes, The Issue of Micromanagement and Its Causes, etc., etc.) 3.Solutions/Recommendations Propose solutions for each of the issues that you identified and diagnosed. Make sure to focus on correcting the causes rather than the symptoms. You may find some potential solutions in research articles and textbook. Also, speculate on the resisting forces to your proposed solutions. In other words, how successful your proposed solutions can be. At the end of the paper, you may also comment on Bobs consulting and how good it was. Additional Suggestions: 1.This assignment must demonstrate your ability to describe, diagnose, and propose solutions to organizational/behavioral issues similar to the ones you find in any work environment. Your professor will look whether students have applied relevant organizational/behavior theories/models in their analysis. 2.Students who provide as many descriptive examples/facts from the film as possible (e.g., describe employee reactions, commentaries, actions) and consult additional resources (textbook, articles) will be better able to defend their arguments for causes as well as recommendations for solutions. 3.You may diagnose the issues at different levels of analysis (remember the organizational, group, and individual issues are interconnected; they affect and are being affected); referring to the PowerPoint slide about different levels of analysis can also facilitate students thinking. 4.You may use the fishbone diagram to facilitate your root cause analysis or create your own conceptual model that shows the causes/predictors that lead to the specific issues you observed. You may enclose your diagram as an attachment. The text book used for the class is: Bolman, L. & Deal, T. (2017). Artistry, choice and leadership (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: A John Wiley and Sons, Inc imprint.
