It takes a great deal to become a leader. You must be able to lead a team and have them follow, have focus on a goal; gain the trust and respect from your peers! These are all traits that could not be any more south from the all-time favorite boss, Bill Lumurgh.
“Leadership has also been viewed as the power relationship that exists between leaders and followers. Leaders have power and use it to cause change in others.” (Lesson 1)
The 1999 cult comedy ‘Office Space’ is an example of what its like to work a nine to five, Monday through Friday unenthusiastic job that has the micro manager that could make one snap, literally. In this particular film, we follow around Peter in his black and white lifestyle at a software company, a pressing boss, and tedious day-to-day tasks. When it almost seems like there isn’t a way out of this broken record work life, Peter seeks help from an occupational therapist that drops dead during a hypnotherapy session. Still stuck in a trance, Peter now has a carefree attitude and ends up succeeding more from it with work, friends, and a girlfriend.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy3rjQGc6lA
The movie is geared towards the stress in Peters life that is caused from work. I bring up this film because of the lack of leadership that goes on throughout the entire 90 minutes. Don’t get me wrong, its a fantastic film, but portrays a trait-less leader and how it can drain any ounce of motivation that one may have. Having a diverse leadership style is going be the main focus that can drive a company to success. In the film, they go through with the subordinates and have them rated. This is a way in showing how organization with leadership can properly build your team, by having your workers and followers be designated to their strongest traits. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make out well with the team.
In a work setting, we are all learning from each other. The leader will lead and learn how his team flows and the team will follow, abiding to the leaders direction and initiative. ‘Office Space’ is an extreme example of terrible lead and follow ratio, but gets to the point of what would become of a team with a selfish trait-less leader.
Office Space was a great movie! When I saw the title, I suddenly felt the urge to run out the door screaming “TPS Reports!” I feel bad for anyone that is actually living through this type of manager behavior. Let’s face it, Bill Lumbergh is not going to win an award for “Manager of the Year.” He was an obvious narcissist – self-centered and over confident in his abilities with a strong sense of entitlement (PSU WC PSYCH 485 L. 2. p. 6). I remember something about a Porsche and convenient parking space. If he ever wondered why his staff disliked him, I have a few suggestions. Number 1: Treating people like office furniture – easily moved or replaced. Remember poor Milton? The guy ends up in the basement, not to mention the fact that he was fired and no one told him! And when they find out that he’s still being paid due to an accounting glitch and fix it, they don’t tell him to avoid a confrontation. That leads us to Number 2: Passive-aggressive behavior sprinkled with a few self-defeating behaviors (PSU WC PSYCH 485 L. 5. p. 9). Maybe he wouldn’t have has such a hard time telling Milton if they had a better relationship? On a side note, could Lumbergh even write programs himself? If not, no expert power there. Lastly, Number 3: Using your position power to make others miserable. I think we all remember Lumbergh telling Peter, “Yeeeeah, we’re going to need you to go ahead come in this weekend” (Office Space, 1999)
The movie really should be used as a training tool for managers. Repeatedly treating your subordinates in these manners can lead them to burn your building down. Which can actually happen; one of the employers that I worked for did have an employee literally burn their building to the ground!
Thanks for sharing! I have to go now and put a cover letter on my TPS report.
References
Office Space [Motion picture]. (1999). USA: 20th Century Fox Film Corp.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. PSYCH 485 Lesson 5: Style and Situational Approaches. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su15/psych485/001/content/05_lesson/printlesson.html
Pennsylvania State University World Campus. PSYCH 485 Lesson 2: Trait Approach. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/su15/psych485/001/content/02_lesson/printlesson.html