Office Space - Motivation Problems

Motivation Problems
Office Space at MOVIECLIPS.com

Topic - Motivation
Movie - Office Space


Movie Summary - Office Space, at its core, is about employees who hate their jobs. Peter Gibbons is one such employee. He works at Initech, a technology company. The company wants to downsize, so they hire two consultants. In this scene he is asked by the consultants, whose job it is to figure out how to cut costs in the company, what Gibbons does every day.

Concepts - Gibbons displays a poor attitude toward working at this company. He tells them it’s a problem of motivation. He spends the majority of his time spaced out and working just enough not to get fired.

There are other companies out there just like Initech, who have employees who feel the same way Gibbons does about his job. It’s very important for companies to be mindful of their employee’s motivation and job satisfaction to get the most out of their effort. One way to do this is by looking at “job design.” (Champoux 182). Either redesigning their job or by tweaking their job responsibilities, can increase motivation and work effort. Another strategy would be to introduce incentives and increase recognition (Thompson 49-50.) The consults does suggest to him, what about if the company offers you some stock options or equity share. Gibbons is non committal but doesn’t rule it out.

Gibbons complains to the consults that he has 8 different bosses. When he makes a mistake, he has to answer to 8 different people, thus lowering his morale. One solution is by streamlining the management hierarchy. Employees should hear from their boss regularly and not only when they make a mistake ( Thompson 50). Feedback is good for employees, but there is such a thing as too much feedback and not constructive feedback. Another fix to increasing his morale is instituting positive recognition, which can range from simply giving out stationery or merchandise for a specific task, to cash rewards or celebrating successes by having party or going out to dinner (Thompson 50). This a simple task that can result in increase morale as well as increase socialization and commitment to the organization.

Slumdog Millionaire - Motivation

Topic - Motivation

Movie - Slumdog Millionaire, (2008) by Fox Pictures

Movie summary -  Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to win a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Kaun Banega Crorepati?" (Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost. Each chapter of his story reveals the key to the answer to one of the game show's questions. Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show’s seemingly impossible quiz.

Concepts - The questions were raising between the audience sand the program crews that how come like Jamal, a self confessed non-genius who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, can be doing so well on the show when others who are brighter, more educated and wealthier than him have failed. Is Jamal cheating? Is it purely luck that they have asked him the questions to which he knows the answers? Seeing Jamal's life journey to this point ultimately answers these questions. His life journey includes being orphaned at an early age; growing up with an older brother, Salim, who was both his guardian/protector and antagonist; and having a relationship since childhood with another orphaned child, a girl named Latika. His motivation for being on the show may provide the key to his success. Clearly, he got both intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. He not only wants to get the big prize of “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, but also he wants to find the answers for his life and his love life, and he’s very persistent to his goal. After observing his chapters of life, we can see all his elements of his motivation: His direction of behavior, his level of effort, and his level of persistent. It probably that his motivation and his effort to achieve the goal is one of reason why the movie got the Oscar Award for the best film in 2009.

Glengarry Glen Ross

Topic – Motivation
Movie Title- Glengarry Glen Ross

Movie Summary - This is a scene from a 1992 movie 'Glengarry Glen Ross'. Blake played by Alec Baldwin is sent by the corporate office to motivate the real estate salesmen to win in a competition where the third prize and below are fired. The team of salesmen turn on each other and themselves while scrambling to keeps their jobs. This indirectly pushes an employees to commit robbery.

Concepts - In this clip we can see that Blake played by Alec Baldwin motivates his employees by verbal abuse and threat about lose of job. Teams can be motivated both by positive and negative means. Both types of motivation can drive teams to achieve the intended target or goal. Motivating teams by threat has been used since ages. Alexander used force or threat of life to motivate his army march along with him on his conquests. Threats can result in desired effect for the company but the down turn is that it results in high dis-satisfaction and turn over rates.