I’m studying and need help with a Management question to help me learn.

Out of the choices of the movies, I have only seen “The Devil Wears Prada,” starting Anne Hathaway. The movie presents a young and ambitious woman starting a new dream job with a popular magazine. After starting work, she notices the dysfunctional culture of the workplace. For example, all employees being fearful of the boss, played by Meryl Streep, who is straight forward, demanding, and created a no-nonsense culture at work. As an OD practitioner, I would focus on the positives of the organization to have a successful outcome, as the employees already feel negative with the boss’s approach, as evidenced by the employees’ constant insecurities and fear of being fired.

As OD practitioner, how would you use appreciative inquiry to address the issues observed in the film?

As an OD practitioner, I would use appreciative inquiry, which focuses on what is going well in an organization and addressed the views of everyone within that organization, to assess the movie. According to Rothwell (2015) focus should be on the strengths of employees, management and organization. In addition, acknowledge the valuable qualities of hard-working individuals within the organization and inquire about new ideas. Kelm (2011) recommends the use to 4 D’s: discover, dream, design and destiny. The discover stage inquires about what is working well within the organization, like the strengths. The dream stage questions the employees as to what their ideal approach within the organization. In the design stage, in collaboration with the employees generate a plan and later implement in the destiny stage.

How would you assess the emotional intelligence of the key characters?

Cote (2014) states that emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, analyze, and control one’s emotions, it is being self-aware and learning to self-regulate. Also, it is important to identify other feelings around you and communicate feelings clearly. To avoid any miscommunication, it is better not assuming and leave room for assumptions. For the case of the boss, Ms. Priestly, she shows negative emotions throughout the movie until the end for a moment when she appeared to care. As for the character Andy, she was sensitive towards the beginning of joining her position but overtime she followed Ms. Priestly’s demands and not being self-aware, which resulted in a breakup with her boyfriend. One assessment method is the performance-based assessment, which maximizes performance over time by giving the respondent a score in the different areas of emotional intelligence so performance plans can be built around specific skill sets that can be enhanced and measured (Cote, 2014). The benefit of understanding each other’s emotions allows for a safe and respectful working environment, which is result in high productivity.

How might you use Killman’s conflict management style to mitigate the conflict in the film you viewed?

According to Trippe and Baumoel (2015) the Kilmann’s conflict management style model examines what happens when the interests of two individuals separate and has 5 styles. The 5 styles consist of competitive, avoidant, accommodating, compromising, or collaborative. As in this movie, Andy had an accommodating style, trying to accommodate in her relationship as to what her boyfriend wants and in work, literally running around and serving her boss. As for Ms. Preistly, she is fully in the competitive style and mindset, she only cares to represent the best of the best magazine.

References

Fox 2000 Pictures. (Producer). (2006). The devil wears Prada. [DVD].

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0458352/?ref_=rvi_tt

Kelm, J. (2011). What is appreciative inquiry.mov [Video file]. Retrieved from

Rothwell, W. J. (2015). Organization development fundamentals: Managing strategic change.

Alexandria, VA: ATD Press.

Trippe, B., & Baumoel, D. (2015). Beyond the Thomas–Kilmann model: Into extreme

conflict. Negotiation Journal, 31(2), 89–103. https://doi.org/10.1111/nejo.12084