Psych 424
Blog #4
Shawn Campbell
Organizational Life and Teams
The Office Space (not the show or the movie)
The title is a play on common social references for anyone who has been in a large cube/office environment. Both the television show and movie are nearly universally known. If you have never experienced a workplace like either of those shows it can be very disorienting. For this blog post I intend to go over how two items from this lesson relate. The first one is French and Raven’s (1959) five bases of power while the second is the relationship roles from Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy.
In a general sense there are two levels of employees in a large office cube farm. You have the more numerous workers and the higher tier management. While there are different levels within each group most employees will fall into one or the other. For this blog post I intend to keep terminology as simple as possible.
According to the five bases of power people with positional power would most likely be management or team leaders. Because of their positions within the company, they have inherited power. Expert power comes from those employees with knowledge in their field. Often you can find some cross between positional and expert power as someone with experience moves up the chain. Referent and coercive power are similar in the sense that they don’t come from workplace knowledge but rather a person’s ability to influence. Referent people are usually well liked and that causes they to be viewed in a positive way by others. Coercive people use their ability to influence in a negative way at the expense of their fellow coworkers. This approach is often viewed as “cut throat” with no regard for others. Reward is the final power and one often overlooked. Employees who wield this power can be management or anyone with control over resources. Some title as simple as office management or a complex as accounting can use this power. (1)
At first glance one can assume that any large-scale office is a simple affair. Workers provide resources based on directions from management. However the media series I reference at the start, while satire, show a different environment. People vie for power in ways that you will not find on any organization chart. Relationships and alliances are constant. It can be a very confusing place to get caught up in and it all relates to how people interact with each other.
References:
Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. Homeland, IL. (1993).