Business Portfolio

Business Portfolio

Mike Judge’s “Office Space “is a classic example of a comic cry of rage against the difficulty of contemporary life and culture in the office. Peter Gibbons, a leading character in the movie, works as a programmer for  Initech. He  is living in misery due to the draining nature of the job. He later on agrees to visit a hypnotherapist with the girlfriend and the session does not go as planned, as the therapist gets a heart attack and dies while Peter is in hypnosis. Such alternatively changes Peter’s life where he is stuck in the new found state of mind having a different perspective of his life and work. Peter decides to skip work more often and often finds excuses for his absenteeism, this forces his girlfriend to leave him and later makes his moves on a waitress that he liked called Joanne. Meanwhile at work, there is a new twist when Peter with his new found trance and straight forwardness gets him recognized with the upper management and therefore receives a promotion while his two friend are relieved from their position. As a result, Peter and his two friends plot to rob their firm buy hacking the systems to divert the company’s’ funds to their personal accounts. On Monday Peter wakes to find a couple of hundreds of thousands in his account that was set by him, Samir and Michael. This does not go well with his conscience as he decides confess to his girlfriend Joanne, he later decides to confess and writes a letter to his superiors for his action accompanied with a check of the stolen money, this does not go well with his accomplices. Luck runs on him as Milton one of his colleagues decides to burn the building due to frustration, the three friends decide to remain with the secret.

Question 1 and 2

In the movie, Gary Cole acts as Bill Lumbergh, the leader at Initech Company where Peter works. Throughout the film, Bill demonstrates his acute lack of passion for his role as a leader and his lack of empathy and relation with the staff. Lumbergh style of leadership is likely unfavorable with the office staff as it demoralizes their working morale and cooperativeness. Such unavoidably results to a rebellion among his junior and the alleged downfall of the Initiech Company that was razed to the ground by Milton.

Question 3 and 4

Bill Lumbergh lacks visionary abilities in the organization this is displayed with his nature of not concentrating on critical organization issues .Bill is rather petty with insignificant matters like a report cover sheet, deviating attention from bigger organization responsibilities.

Question 5 and 6

Bill Lumberg ideally displays micro-managing approach. His form of leadership involves on implementing specific instructions to his juniours and strictly overseeing the performance on his employees regardless on the employee’s capacity. Such an approach tends to use a one- sided communication with the perception that most of the employees are incapable of perfoming the task handed over to them.

Bureaucratic leadership .Initech has set an inflexible structure considering the employees are grouped together based on the job specification , such makes them answerable to a chain management already arranged .Peter answers to seven other superiors that makes it impossibe for his efforts and performance  to be recognized .

Absolute critic to his employees. Bill Lumberg constantly focusing on trivial issues such as report cover sheets, he is seen to be spending more time on minor issues than putting his attention on larger and more important organization priorities.

Additionally Bill displays his lack of trust for his employees, such is evident with his deliberate supervision and monitoring of the employees as they are performing their task. Such a trait is self fufiling since it does not allow the staff to be independent thinkers as they will not try to outperform their superiors

Question 7 and 8

Bill Lumberg is not a charismatic leader. Bill is seen to be annoying to his junior employees he seems to pester and do regular checkups on the staff without giving them the freedom they require.

Question 9 and 10

Passion and commitment.

A visible unfavorable trait demonstrated by Lumbergh and Bob they were seen as selfish in making decisions that were reckless and demeaning of the organization employees. A good lesion to learn from the same is deliberating and implementing office policies that are favourable with the office staff to boost their morale. Having passion and commitment steers organization leaders to employ best practices and also steer what is of best interest for the organization.

Accountability

Effective and responsible organization leaders tend to be liable for their actions. Not a single human is perfect in their deeds therefore sometimes leaders must accept their shortcomings instead of putting their ego on a pedestal above the employees. Such traits will motivate the employees to work even harder for the companies achievement.This is displayed by Peter when he decides to accept and confess for his actions.

Question 11 and 12

Democratic

Peter Gibbons displays a neutral and a positive form of leadership when he displays a democratic approach of leadership. Peter displays this by deliberating and consulting with his two colleagues on the best approach to conduct their heist.

Confident

A visible likeable trait that Peter displays is confidence .In his new found state Peter displays courage when stating his mind although for the wrong apparent reasons like skipping work. Peter Gibbons is seen as confident by his superiors this provides his an opportunity for a promotion in his work place.

Determined

In the business world, determination plays key for an organization success. Such is demonstrated by Peter Gibsson with his quest to steal from Initech Company. Although his conscience haunt him his effort together with his friends made their quest a success.

Article Analysis

https://www.game-learn.com/7-leadership-lessons-from-darth-vader/

The highlighted article examines leadership qualities that can be emulated from Darth Vader in Star Wars film. As much as the character is seen as a harsh and dictatorial ruler, Darth Vader displays leadership traits that can help business leaders maximize their team full talents and professional capacities. The article breaks down the leadership trait that are more likely favourable to use. The first trait is demand, it is expected leaders to require the best from the employees so as to reap maximum result this will help improve on the standard performance of the employees. In addition to that, leaders are expected to efficiently plan for the organization to remain afloat in any unforeseen dilemma that the organization may be facing. More so, in a closer connection to planning the employer is expected to wisely recruit and have in board a smarter and a more talented team this will help in strategically positioning the company in the business world. Additionally, great leaders normally and ideally get involved in with theorganization operations, Darth Varder personally got involved to get things done right way such will result to admiration and emulation from the staff. Similarly, great leaders learn and gain great inspiration from getting a greater insight and knowledge from experienced persons. Personality and traits play a critical role in organization performance, however how dark a personality is the trait and characteristics eventually determine organization performance and culture in a business. Emulated from the star wars icon Darth Varder his employs various strategies that help him rule his troops and becomes a feared personality in the imaginary intergalactic universe. Business leaders should adopt the highlighted traits as they may tend to be of benefit for the organization performance.

Cartoon Analysis

Figure 1

The above cartoon reflects on the modern society plights. Looking from a society angle the media and the police force tend to just look and act unjustified without being tied and be responsible to their actions. In a system where there is police brutality and racial profiling for the people of colour, the media is expected to step up on its role in helping to stop the decay .However, the media has taken a relaxed role of doing absolutely nothing to discourage the action that has already taken shape in the system.

Figure 2

The cartoon has a rather political interpretation basing from the stand point of the American dollar holding a sword type bayonet while it’s stepping over the world economies. The interpretation ideally implies the Americans will do the impossible even go to war to ensure their economy remains superior compared to other world economies. Such is evident from the cold war between the US, Russia and China, the US is hypothetically seen to push or even bully some of its trading partners to ensure that the have an upper hand in the trade deals or agreements. The dollar is seen to stomp and emerge superior in the war, therefore signifying victory and superiority of the country’s economy and trading currency.

Markham Leisure center SWOT analysis.

1. The strength will be a three considering the location from the local Go-train station which obviously has a large number of people using the train compared to people using the bus. Therefore the centre will have small number of people visiting the centre as compared to if it was located near the Go-train station.
2. The strength will be a 1 basing there is no wave machines and whirlpool equipment. Since the standard already set for swimming competitions, the situation at the pool will likely reduce its client’s considerability for the swimming pool.
3. The location near a Markam shopping Centre will likely increase the inflow of visitors to the centres. Therefore ranging the situation with 7.
4. Since it’s an old centre its likely to receive visitors who have a preference for archeology site therefore putting a seven on the strengths.
5. Due to the increase of disposable income in the area the locals are likely to increase in their spending expenses hence likely increase their visit to the leisure centre thus rating a seven on strength considering the spending nature of the area.
6. The rating will be one considering the sustainability of the leisure centre .A drop in the birth rate will likely affect the number of visitors in the near future.
7. Due to the longer life expectation for the residents the population is likely to stay afloat thus the number of individuals expected to visit the leisure centre is likely to be more .Therefore basing on the situation the rating is 7.
8. The strength will range on a 7 since the situation will provide an opportunity for the centre to increase the number of visitors.
9. The strength will likely range on a seven since the factor will likely improve on the efficiency and management of the leisure centre . re
10. The Strength is expected to fall on a seven considering individual’s level of consciousness the residents are lively to visit the area since they are ascertained of their safety and standard when using the centre facility.
11. Strength will likely range one since there is minimal staff motivation and optimism. More the staff joke likely paints the performance of the leisure centre cafeteria.
12. Strengths likely to range on a seven since the involvement and hosting the sport will more likely increase the number of visitors in the leisure centre.
13. Strengths will be a seven since the disable individual are eventually sidelined in most cases as there is a deficiency in leisure centres that provide leisure facility for the disabled. The opportunity will provide a stream of income from individuals linked with the disabled.
14. The strength will likely range on a seven as many clients would prefer on service perfection and experience hence likely the position will increase the visitor stream in the centre.