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 “Organizational Communication for Survival” states that “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 “Office Space” and “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. While both feature a flair for the dramatic (obvious considering these are movies for entertainment not factual purposes) they both do offer a semi-realistic work place, perfect to study for this class. Both feature management styles and more in-depth styles of leadership straight out of our book. I believe both movies are a crash course in how NOT to manage your employees.
The movie “Gung-Ho” Is about a Japanese company that purchases a factory in an American town. The Japanese send their management to make the factory up to their standards. There is a severe culture clash made worse by the stereotypical American employees and the stereotypical Japanese bosses. The book states when “organizations branch into new cultures and try to make things work the way they do in their home culture. They virtually always fail.” (142) the movie offers several examples of the dangers of poor intercultural communication and organizational communication. The Japanese use a Theory X management style, in our book, McGregor’s Theory X management style is described as, “assum(ing) most people had little capacity for creativity in problem solving, most personnel needed to be closesly controlled and often coerced to achieve goals, work was inherently
ORG COMM
Paula Haug
March 27, 2011
Gung-Ho And Office Space: How NOT To Manage
Chapter 1 of James C. McCroskey’s “Organizational Communication for Survival” states that “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 “Office Space” and “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. While both feature a flair for the dramatic (obvious considering these are movies for entertainment not factual purposes) they both do offer a semi-realistic work place, perfect to study for this class. Both feature management styles and more in-depth styles of leadership straight out of our book. I believe both movies are a crash course in how NOT to manage your employees.
The movie “Gung-Ho” Is about a Japanese company that purchases a factory in an American town. The Japanese send their management to make the factory up to their standards. There is a severe culture clash made worse by the stereotypical American employees and the stereotypical Japanese bosses. The book states when “organizations branch into new cultures and try to make things work the way they do in their home culture. They virtually always fail.” (142) the movie offers several examples of the dangers of poor intercultural communication and organizational communication. The Japanese use a Theory X management style, in our book, McGregor’s Theory X management style is described as, “assum(ing) most people had little capacity for creativity in problem solving, most personnel needed to be closesly controlled and often coerced to achieve goals, work was inherently
Cited: McCroskey C., James Organizational Communication for Survival: Making Work, Work 4th ed. Richmond, Virginia: Pearson Education, 2009