Organizational Behavior in "The Office: S01E01"
Theory 1: Leadership Fundamentals
Leadership occurs “when one group member modifies the motivation or competencies of others in the group (p.313).” In The Office, Michael Scott believes that he is loved by his employees for being a great mentor and leader, which motivates them to work for him. However, it quickly becomes obvious that the employees are still at Dunder Mifflin more out of a need for steady jobs rather than out of love for Michael. Figure 11.1 provides a framework for studying leadership
Trait Theories of Leadership show that there are some traits that are often associated with leadership effectiveness - many of these traits appear to be missing in Michael. For example in terms of personality, he lacks emotional maturity, integrity, and stress tolerance. He at times has excessive, undeserved self-confidence, as well as extreme energy levels. In terms of motivation, his strong need to have people like him holds him back at times, and the fact that he doesn’t have a strong need for professional achievement is a drawback (He says that he’s a friend first and a boss second). Finally, he lacks the actual abilities that would make him a good leader; he doesn’t seem to have strong cognitive skills or interpersonal skills.
Behaviors of Effective Leaders
An employee-centered leader focuses on satisfying the basic needs of his employees and taking care of their personal advancement and growth. Michael constantly stresses the importance of his employees’ happiness and comfort in the workplace. He often fails however to keep them comfortable by making awkward and inappropriate jokes
A job-centered leader uses close supervision to ensure that jobs are done. Leaders usually rely on coercion, reward, and legitimate power to influence behavior, which makes it difficult for Michael seeing as he usually doesn’t try to enforce his leadership.
Theory 2: Job Satisfaction
Job Satisfaction is the attitude that a person has towards their jobs. Factors influencing their levels of satisfaction:
Pay: though it isn’t stated how much workers in the office actually earn per month, it’s probably safe to assume that the average salary is low and doesn’t provide the employees with many fringe benefits, reducing their satisfaction with the job.
Job: the extent to which job tasks are interesting and provide opportunities for advancement influences levels of job satisfaction. Workers in the office obviously are uninterested in learning about paper and all of its intricacies.
Promotion Opportunities: It appears that the employees in the show all hold either identical or very similar positions in terms of pay and prestige. Furthermore, it appears as though Michael refuses to allow promotions, preferring to remain in charge of most processes himself. This reduces morale while ensuring that employees wont try to do better seeing as they probably wont be promoted.
Supervisor: supervisors that appear to be more interested in their own well being and happiness rather than in their employees fail at providing interest and concern for their subordinates.
Co-workers: the extent to which co-workers are friendly, competent and supportive influences behavior at the office. In this first episode of the show, we begin to get a feel for the different politics and powers that are at play in the office. There are cliques and groups among employees that at times provide the right teams to speed up work, or may at times diminish workflow as conflict arises.
Analysis by Samiha Kamel