Team Malfunction

The advantage of our human species compared to other creatures on the planet earth is that we know how to work as a team. However, as the personality of each individual varies, almost every team would suffer from some degree of malfunction. In the film Office space, the conflict and malfunction is somewhat exaggerated, but the root of the conflict is basically the same. The inspiration to the solution of these problem however leads to more thought on the problem of the team in Initech.

In a business world, downturn and upraise are fairly often. A smooth development of a company involves with hiring and firing process. For Initech, since they are downsizing the company, the number one thing they shouldn’t do is to create fear for the team member. Hiring two consultants are not very smart for a functioning team. When company considering about firing some employee, the number one thing they should do is to keep the information below the desk. Human are complicated and we always fight for our own benefit. When we know there’s possibility to lose the security of job, it’s obvious that we would stop contributing and thinking about the marginal benefit of leaving the job, thus, by stealing money from the company. Team member would lose motivation fast if they know there’s chance of being fired and that’s the first thing we would notice throughout the film.

For Peter Gibbons, he brought his own personal life into his work, we can tell that Mr. Gibbons is not a theft type of person and he had a really good career from him. For a leader, the best interest of him should be balanced between the company and personal interest. In a company environment like this, it’s also hard for him to not get personally involved. Work-life balance is always a hard topic for professionals but Gibbons failed to do this properly which leads to the problem at later stage.

Overall, it’s obvious that there are a lot of malfunction in the Initech Company. The film is good at addressing these problem and can leads to a lot of deeper thought further along.