Office Space Sociology

The observation of social actions and their effects in the work place are covered throughout sociology. Specific examples can be seen in the movie, “Office Space” directed by Mike Judge. Several theories that can be observed throughout this movie are Strain Theory, Dysfunction of Bureaucracy and the use of primary groups.

He contended that they were characterized by social conflict and he additionally presented the “thought of the working class which he saw as comprising of those occupations bunches with capabilities and aptitudes that furnished them with business points of interest. In Weber's perspective, advanced society, particularly the Western world, is developing progressively think. As the reader will see, Weber viewed organization as a definitive case of justification. Consequently, Weber can be seen as being centrally concerned with the rationalization of society all in all and, all the more particularly, its

According to Weber, rationalization refers to the process by which modern society has increasingly become concerned with efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control (Weber 2009). This leads to behaviors that are guided by reason and practicality. In the film Food, Inc. (2008), the owners of the meat companies wanted to produce their products in a rational manor. The film portrays the side of the food industry that the companies do not want the consumers to see. Although this rationalization may seem to be positive, there are many negative effects.

Working in today’s society has changed in the last few decades. The economy and technology are the main reasons for this change. The type of job and environment where one works has also changed. The fact that many people work from home via the internet has drastically changed the workforce and the environment surrounding it. With this change have come new demands, expectations, and opportunities for employers. Everyone deals with these demands differently, affecting the employee’s quality of life and job satisfaction. Though the job and office types and locations have changed over the years the need for job satisfaction has not. In today’s economy the job is not as stable as it used to be. One must be prepared for changes in the future.

Weber argued that modern societies are characterized increasingly by a process of rationalization meaning that the world is increasingly governed by rationality in which tradition and affective forms of action are replaced by predominantly rational forms. This leads to disenchantment being seen as secularization, including the progressive disposal of non-rational elements from all spheres of life.  Weber feared that this process of rationalization would drive out the warmth and humanity of social life, the very things that give meaning to human existence.

Various television shows have pushed boundaries to create positive differences in social perception of minorities, but only few have had the power and influence to make a noteworthy impact on American culture. Television Comedy has been able to cleverly impact acceptance of American Culture boundaries for years on end. From the show “Good Times” all the way to “The Office”, comedy has been an effective way of creating positive perceptions and acceptance of all different kinds of views on our society. An easily countable number of academic texts give evidence to Black-watched, Black-targeted television narratives. (Marc, 1997). Racially directed comedy television shows have, in my opinion, have been one of the most prevalent types of television

In the pilot episode of Friday Night Lights, star quarterback Jason Street suffers a career ending spinal injury. In the midst of the chaotic turn of events, Coach Eric Taylor leads his team in prayer: “We are all vulnerable, and we will all, at some point in our lives... fall. We will all fall. We must carry this in our hearts... that what we have is special. That it can be taken from us, and when it is taken from us, we will be tested. We will be tested to our very souls. We will now all be tested. It is these times, it is this pain, that allows us to look inside ourselves” (Berg). This moment is about more than football, it is about facing adversity. Although Coach Taylor’s intent is to comfort the boys during a difficult time, his words

Life Outside the Cubicle by Jen Beck Seymour was such a fantastic read for me that I just couldn’t put it down! I absolutely loved Jen’s story of her finding what truly matters in life to her and her husband Greg. Jen’s life altering change by dropping everything she’s ever known and moving abroad to Costa Rica is inspiring, uplifting, and maybe above all BRAVE!!!

It is believed by some sociologists that attempts to humanize the workplace are simply ways to manipulate workers into cooperating in their own exploitation. This belief is most aligned with the ________ perspective.

Workplace culture is often hard to describe, because it means something different in every organisation and many times employees feel it’s ‘just the way things are’. But so often it can define a company and when it’s not working well, everyone knows about it.

Max Weber used the bureaucracy to represent how the society changes over time whereas Ritzer sees fast food restaurants as a better way to describe how societies change and become more of a contemporary thought pattern. Ritzer understands McDonaldization as a process in which it is slowly taking over the world, he says it can be summarised by just one small quote “the principle of fast food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of the American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer 2008). He states that the past, present and future of McDonalization has appeared from the iron cage to fast food restaurants which shows that rationalisation is still developing, the iron cage is a way to describe it in the past and McDonaldization helps to describe it in today’s society, rationalisation will continue to progress until other contemporary sociologist find different ways to define it. Although McDonaldization offers many advantages as it gives customers quick food at low prices it also has disadvantages just like the bureaucracy they both suffer from irrationality, like fast food restaurants a bureaucracy can be a ‘dehumanising’ place to work and be served by. Many things are developed by technical devises rather than the human hand (Wynyard 1998)

Iron Cage is a sociological concept introduced by Max Weber as a system, which traps individual in a cage of calculated efficiency and rational calculations and control. Fast Food restaurants are a model of the process of rationalization rather than bureaucracy, because they have combined bureaucracy with other examples of rationalization such as assembly lines in order to reduce inefficiencies. Weber fears that this system of rationalization would grow beyond fast food restaurants and into the lives of everyday people “from rationalized educational institutions to rationalized workplaces from rationalized recreational setting to rationalized homes.” To Weber, society would be nothing but a dehumanized society living rationalized and “embodying

“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.

Max Weber's theory of rationalization is an extensively studied theory within sociology. Weber’s theory uses the model of bureaucracy to symbolize the constant shifting ways of our society. Rationalization is the process of replacing rationally consistent rules for conventional or rather illogical rules within society. According to Weber, bureaucracy is the fundamental model of rational rule. They are extremely predictable, in both the job process but also labor production. Bureaucracies are more worried with the amount of production than the value of the product itself. Weber viewed this structure as ineffective and completely flawed.

The 1998 film Antz is an excellent depiction of the industrial and organizational work force. Being that the film is a Dream Works animation, it has a simple and attention grabbing plot that is given to the viewer through the perspective of a hero, and in this context an colony ant worker named Z (Darnell et al., 1998). This peculiar, open-minded ant portrayed several topics related to industrial organizational psychology such as leadership, occupational stress, and job satisfaction. In addition to the prevalent presence of industrial psychology that can be seen in the main character, other characters and details of the plot are representative of industrial psychology as well. Elements such as organizational commitment and employee selection are intriguingly exemplified through this moralistic story of ants (Darnell et al., 1998).