Office Space Reflection

Organizations that are serious about making improvements are going to have to deal with the issue of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction can be best described as the positive feeling that an individual has about their job resulting from an evaluation of the job’s characteristics (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p.31). It would seem natural to think that job satisfaction would have a positive correlation with successful organizations. What impact does job satisfaction have on an organization? Research will show that there are not only internal effects from performance related issues, but also external effects that impact customer satisfaction.

Financial Advisor (2007) reported that one of the major reasons employees left their jobs was because of job dissatisfaction. Kreitner and Kinicki (2010) defined job satisfaction as “an affective or emotional

Similar to many movies presented, where employees are incarcerated in a small desk, making phone calls and working nonstop. The film Office Space featuring the main character, Peter Gibbons and several employees working for a software company called Initech. The company represents the work experience and the discontent feeling towards their job. Peter Gibbons, after attempting to find help from a hypnotherapist to help him put an end to his stressful and horrible life at work and his absence of motive for Initech, ended in a tragic way. The hypnotherapist dies from a heart attack before he could end the hypnotic state that Peter Gibbons was in. The following day Peter wakes up a whole new person. He is lacking interest toward his job

Robbins and Judge define "attitudes" as “evaluative statements or judgments concerning objects, people, or events.” Jessica’s attitudes towards her job switched from favorable to unfavorable after a change in policy. Henceforth, she was less productive in her job and expressed signs of low job satisfaction. After leaving her Mental Health Technician position for a job in Counseling, she was able to return to her normal, happy and productive self. This case study illuminates the direct correlation between job performance, job satisfaction, and attitude.

I have had jobs where I have very little job satisfaction and can personally relate to the effects that it had on my daily work. By being in a job where I feel committed and satisfied I can tell that my work is more thorough, my attitude is more positive, and I enjoy what I am doing more. Having a more positive attitude about the job I am doing makes me more apt to go above and beyond the expectations that are set for me. On the other side, I have also had jobs where I dreaded getting up and leaving in the morning. I made excuses for being late, rationalized why my work wasn’t 100%, and was often in a bad mood. I have also had co-workers who act like they don’t care about their jobs, turn in lazy work, and can be unpleasant in the office. It not only affects their personal work but the work of others around them. A negative attitude in the workplace creates an atmosphere of distrust among employees and causes employees to attempt to achieve success at the expense of each other.

The Value Percept Theory argues that job satisfaction depends on whether a job supplies the things an individual value most. Overall satisfactions derive form combined levels of satisfaction from various elements of an individual’s job, whether it’s: pay, promotion, supervision, coworkers, or the work itself. Job satisfaction is based on cognitive and affective components, which is evaluated by what an individual thinks about the job, and how they feel. Cognition evaluation is based on experiences, weighing different aspects of a job; as affect is a reaction of the job, which can fluctuate based on moods and emotions. Level of dissatisfaction is measured by the difference between what one has and what one wants, and the level of importance of that facet to the individual. Statistics have proven, that supplying individuals with what they value, will increase the chance of better performance, which has a high correlation with an individual’s affective commitment with the organization.

Job dissatisfaction can come from “inadequate remuneration, increased workload, lack of career advancement, professional recognition, work policies, and the job insecurity” (Basak, S. K., 2014). For this discussion board post I chose deviant workplace behavior as well as affective and behavioral components. While they may be different, they both equally affect dissatisfaction.

Office Space is a comedy movie about a man name Peter Gibbons who hates his job at Initech. The movie title is a pun about Milton who constantly states in throughout the movie that if he is moved that he will eventually set the office on fire freeing up space in the office. In the beginning of the movie, Peter has reached his breaking point at his current job and vows that one day he will not go to work or do anything with his life. Peter then decides to take a hypnotherapy session with his girlfriend to try to improve their relationship. He asked the hypnotherapist to take the worries and stress that his job brings away from him and he did. From that point on Peter did not care about his job, he decided when he wanted to go to work and how he spend the rest of his free days.

1. Gather the Facts The premise of the movie Office Space is about a group of workers, Peter, Michael, Samir, Tom, and Milton, work at Initech who are fed up with their jobs. The movie starts with Peter, the protagonist, going through his typical day of work at Initech. Various annoyances have been accumulating and Peter views his days at work as a waste of time and has no motivation to do anything productive.

“Office Space” is a comedy movie of a man who desperately hates his job and his boss. The movie begins with Peter Gibbon’s daily life story at Initech. At work, Peter has to deal with his indifferent boss, Bill Lumbergh, who doesn’t want to listen to his employee’s feedbacks. Lumbergh seems to be an ignorant and arrogant man who dictates his employee and doesn’t want to be blamed at all. Moreover, Lumbergh asks his employee to come to work on weekend. The atmosphere in the office is getting more intense after Lumbergh announced that Initech is bringing in consultants to increase the efficiency of the company. Peter was very frustrated with everything in the office and he felt that his life even more miserable with each passing day at work.

Many may argue that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are the same, but they are actually different.

A few researchers characterized job satisfaction or employment fulfillment as a general state of mind of the specialists constituted by their methodology towards the wages, working environment, organize, advancement relate to

Organizational commitment is critical to organizations due to the desire to retain a strong workforce. Organizations want to know why employees stay or leave their organizations so if correction is needed they have some tools to proceed with the correction. High turnover of employees in an organization can determine if an organization is successful or not. While turnover is related to all three areas of commitment researchers have determined that Affective commitment is one most associated with absenteeism and organizational citizenship (Williams J. 2004).

To understand the concept of job satisfaction the research has identified two aspects of it, they are, the facets satisfaction and overall satisfaction (Cherrington,1994; Fields, 2002). Individuals can be satisfied or dissatisfied with their overall job (Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, & Paul, 1989) and with specific job facets, such as the level of pay, promotion opportunities, co-workers, working conditions and supervision, contingent rewards, benefits, nature of work, or communication (Spector, 1997; Locke, 1976; Smith, Kendall & Hulin, 1969). The evidence shows that distinctive job facets such as pay satisfaction, opportunities for promotion, relationships with co-workers and supervisors have significant effects on job satisfaction (Ting, 1997; Ellickson & Logsdon, 2002; Pohlmann; 1999). The overall satisfaction is considered in terms of good salary, compassionate supervisors and co-operative co-workers. Conversely, the job dissatisfaction derives for instance form low pay or incompetent supervisors. Therefore, the feeling of overall satisfaction or dissatisfaction depends on the intensity and frequency of positive and negative experiences with job (Cherrington, 1994; Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, & Paul,

Dissatisfied and satisfied employees in the workplace can affect their productive and job performance. The work place, promotions, advancements, and supervisors are things that can cause an employee to be satisfied or dissatisfied at work. In my workplace some of my supervisors have driven my attitude. Robbins (2007) states, “attitudes are evaluative statements-either favorable or unfavorable-about objects, people or events.” (Robbins and Judge, 2007, p. 75) When I was first promoted to Sergeant and transferred to supervisor the Criminal Investigations Unit, I was excited about the new opportunity and the knowledge I would learn and give. My attitude towards the workplace and towards my employees was high and willing to help or produce a positive work environment. As a Christian in a non-Christian workplace, a great attitude towards job satisfaction can be found in the Bible. In Ecclesiastes 5:18 (New Living Translation), it says, “I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good. It is good for people to eat, drink, and enjoy their work under the sun and during the short life God has given them.” The workplace can be stressful but when you have good leadership they can effectively change the attitude of the people they serve.