Organizational Behaviour: the Devil Wears Prada

Movies often depict a glimpse into the inner workings of organizations which are complex and fascinating entities that consist of a group of people, who work together. Analyzing how the characters, as individuals and groups, interact with one another allows for an understanding of “how people think, feel and act” within an organization, also referred to as the study of organizational behaviour. The movie The Devil Wears Prada, set at Runway fashion magazine in New York City, is the story of Andrea "Andy" Sachs, an aspiring journalist who gets the job that “a million girls would kill for”. She is hired as the second assistant to Miranda Priestly, the powerful and ruthless executive of the magazine. The job is her stepping stone into the world of publishing and if she lasts a year in the often unreasonably demanding position, it will open up the realms to the journalistic position she desires. Andrea works in collaboration with the first assistant, Emily Charlton, to quickly learn Miranda’s behaviours and preferences, so that she can try to meet expectations. This includes being at Miranda’s beck and call 24/7 and completing nearly impossible tasks with constant trepidation of the editor’s wrath. Along the way, Andrea changes her attitude and behaviour along with her simple and plain style in order to gain acceptance, and adapt to the organization. In this paper, we will examine the organizational behaviour concepts of perception, impression management, and organizational commitment behaviours as they apply to Andrea, Miranda and Emily at Runway fashion magazine.
Perception in an organizational behaviour context refers to the way in which individuals understand their environment and the processes used to come to an understanding such as interpretation of sensory impressions. Interpretation of sensory impressions is based on a combination of social setting and actions of others as well as the attitudes, experiences and personality of the individual (Robbins &