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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 3rd edition
Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright
A Guide to using NBC’s “The Office” in your HRM Classroom
Introduction
Michael Scott, manager of Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch provides the perfect opportunity to demonstrate what not to do. Specifically from an HRM perspective, the clips selected in these activities correspond with the content covered in your HRM textbook. These activities reinforce key issues and encourage applied learning of major HRM concepts.
Most episodes are 25 minutes or less, however, if time is a factor, specific clip running times are listed in each activity to illustrate relevant chapter topics. Please note that some episode content may contain offensive material and should be reviewed before using in instruction.
UPDATED! There are several options for obtaining each of these episodes: either purchase the season on DVD (there are currently 4 seasons), purchase individual episodes at Amazon.com for $1.99 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000U7O8LA/ref=atv_dp_season_select) or view episodes and specific clips at www.hulu.com (Operated by NBC Universal). The episodes from Season 4 and selected clips from Season 3 are free at this site. There are also options to embed an episode or a clip into your course website, view the clip at full screen, and many more features that will make using the site an easy way to incorporate the show into your classroom.
*Previously, episodes were available for purchase on iTunes, but they have been removed from the site. Individual episodes can now be purchased at Amazon.com.
Contents:
Chapter 2 – Trends in Human Resource Management page 2
· The Office, Season 3 – “The Merger” Episode
Chapter 3 – Providing Equal Employment Opportunity and a Safe Workplace page 4
· The Office, Season 2 – “Sexual Harassment” Episode
Chapter 4 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs page 6
· The Office, Season 2 – “Performance Review” Episode
Chapter 7 – Training Employees page 8
· The Office, Season 3 – “Traveling Salesmen” Episode
Chapter 9 – Developing Employees for Future Success page 9
· The Office, Season 3 – “The Initiation” Episode
Chapter 10 – Separating and Retaining Employees page 10
· The Office, Season 2 – “Conflict Resolution” Episode
Chapter 11 – Establishing Pay Structure page 11
· The Office, Season 3 – “The Negotiation” Episode
Chapter 13 – Providing Employee Benefits page 12
· The Office, Season 1 – “Healthcare” Episode
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 3rd edition
Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright
Chapter 2 – Trends in Human Resource Management
Relevant Topics
· Use of Strategic Human Resource Management to Achieve Organizational Goals
· Downsizing
· Mergers
· Integration of Work Cultures
The Office, Season 3 – “The Merger” Episode
Summary
Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton and Stamford offices merge – personalities clash, employees quit and Michael’s unconventional management techniques backfire.
Why would Dunder Mifflin seek to downsize or merge the Scranton and
Stamford offices?
The corporate office would most likely seek a merge to eliminate redundancy of job positions, to cut unnecessary costs and to create a cohesive organization operating under the same processes.
What are the advantages?
They are a lot of advantages to downsizing such as single source management, reducing administrative and operational costs, eliminating duplicate job positions or ineffective employees.
What are the disadvantages?
Downsizing does not always achieve organizational goals of increased productivity. Often, it leaves remaining employees feeling anxious and uncertain. When downsizing is not effective, companies are often forced to rehire new staff and training and hiring can be costly.
What role does HRM play in mergers? How could HR have handled the introduction of Stamford employees to Scranton employees? How did Michael handle it? (03:19 – 06:00; 11:19 – 13:56)
HRM is critical in successful execution of mergers. People and processes are at the heart of HRM and HR should have been in control of how the two branches were merged. In this case, Toby should have informed the Scranton employees and potentially suggested a social event to introduce the two offices. Toby, knowing that Michael uses unorthodox methods to welcome new employees, should have held a brief morning meeting for all to get to know each other and to make the employees feel more comfortable with each other. Michael further isolated the groups by excluding the Scranton office from eating the party food.
Which attempt at socializing the groups cost the company a lot more money in the long run and how could it have been avoided? (18:01 – 22:10)
When Michael asked that the two offices unite in an Integration Celebration and insisted that the Scranton office was not “above” the Stamford office, he went a bit too far by forcing Tony Gardner to climb on a table. Michael’s unconventional and inappropriate team-building activities made Stamford employees uncomfortable and unhappy. But when Tony Gardner quit because of Michael’s irregular management style, Michael, in turn, fired Tony. By firing Tony, Dunder Mifflin would now be responsible for severance for Tony Gardner.
Michael should have engaged the prescribed orientation activity as suggested by Toby and, as manager; he should have known the consequences of terminating an employee.
Optional Discussion Topics
· Dunder Mifflin seeks to compete in the office supply business by using which strategic type? (Differentiation) Describe their positioning.
· What effects does the differentiation strategic type have on Dunder Mifflin employees?
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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 3rd edition
Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright
Chapter 3 – Providing Equal Employment Opportunity and a Safe Workplace
Relevant Topics
· Types of Sexual Harassment
· Understanding of EEOC’s Definition of Sexual Harassment
· Role of HR in Educating on Sexual Harassment
The Office, Season 2 – “Sexual Harassment” Episode
Summary
Michael forwards inappropriate email jokes to the employees and publicly participates in unsuitable conversation with an old friend.
Identify the type of sexual harassment in this episode. (01:26 – 02:15)
While there is no actual sexual advancement, the environment is hostile. The jokes and insults make the employees feel uncomfortable as well as prevent them from being productive and doing their work.
Which component of the EEOC’s definition of sexual harassment has been engaged in this episode?
Michael and Todd’s conduct have created an offensive work environment that is distracting to the employees.
How should HR handle the situation of Michael and Todd’s office banter? (02:47 – 03:39)
As HR representative, Toby should step in and ask that Michael talk to him in private. He could then reference the company’s policy regarding inappropriate behavior and sexual harassment. He should ask that Michael and Todd refrain from offensive conversation in the office. He should also remind Michael of his responsibility as a manager to project a professional image to his employees. If Michael continues after verbal and written warnings or if another employee files a complaint, Toby will have to contact Corporate to proceed with disciplinary action.
How could Toby in his HRM role help to ensure that the Scranton office is a pleasant and safe place to work? (04:55 – 06:27)
Toby could hold annually or semiannually recurring sexual harassment and discrimination seminars to encourage employees to be proactive about keeping the workplace professional. Toby could enforce company policy regarding inappropriate behavior through verbal warnings, written warnings and consequential action if necessary.
What is the purpose of an HR policy to document office relationships?
(09:46 – 11:14)
HR would be able to help ensure that if an office relationship does exist, there would be no favoritism, or in the case of Quid Pro Quo, no threat of job loss or punishment.
Michael cannot delineate between a work environment and a social environment. What impact does that have on his employees?
Michael’s inappropriate behavior and jokes make the employees uncomfortable. The email forwards and office antics distract his employees and interrupt the productivity level. Many of his comments are so offensive that some employees may either quit or take legal action.
Optional Discussion Topics
· How would you have handled the inappropriate office behavior displayed at Dunder Mifflin?
· There are several instances of inappropriate behavior in this clip. Describe as many as possible and resulting consequences.
· In this case, could the “reasonable woman” standard be applied? Why
or why not?
· Do you think most companies do a good job of making sure their employees are informed about sexual harassment policies? Why or why not?
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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 3rd edition
Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright
Chapter 4 – Analyzing Work and Designing Jobs
Relevant Topics
· Dimensions of Organization Structure
· Use of Performance Appraisals
· Job Analysis
The Office, Season 2 – “Performance Review” Episode
Summary
Michael conducts performance reviews.
Is the authority at Dunder Mifflin centralized or decentralized? Describe the departmentalization of the Scranton office.
Authority is centralized with all employees directly reporting to Michael. The Scranton office has an accounting department, a sales department, a customer service department and shipping/receiving.
What is the structural configuration of Dunder Mifflin corporate? What is the structural configuration of the Scranton office?
Corporate utilizes a functional structure with high levels of centralization. The Scranton office is divisional and in line with a geographic structure. There are other sales branches of Dunder Mifflin such as Stamford.
Michael doesn’t seem to understand the job responsibilities of his employees. What impact does that have on their performance reviews? (01:47 – 02:06)
Michael’s lack of understanding and appreciation for the various roles of his office team make it very difficult to identify strengths and weaknesses as well as forecast future goals. As a manager, he disappoints his employees by not being responsive to their needs as well as being able to critically evaluate their roles in the company.
How could Michael have used HR in helping him conduct performance reviews?
Toby could provide Michael with current and/or updated job descriptions for each employee. Toby could assist Michael in organizing an efficient method for conducting the reviews as well as a formal process for paperwork.
All Scranton employees report to Michael, who is expected to do all reviews on one day. Is this an effective and realistic way to conduct performance reviews? Why or why not? (16:25 -17:55)
Michael is responsible for more than a dozen employees with extreme variances in their job responsibilities. It might be more effective if the office were run under a tiered-management approach so that Michael would not need to know the intricacies of so many different job types. It would also seem that in order to conduct a substantial and fair performance review for each employee, Michael should allow a sufficient amount of time for each person, unlike the situation with Angela and Dwight, whom he quickly dismisses.
Optional Discussion Topics
· What type of job design approach would work best for analyzing most of the job types in the Scranton office?
· Would you use a different approach for analyzing the job types in the warehouse? If so, which one?
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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 3rd edition
Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart and Wright
Chapter 7 – Training Employees
Relevant Topics
· Training Plans
· On-the-Job Training
· Socialization and Orientation
The Office, Season 3 – “Traveling Salesmen” Episode
Summary
Andy Bernard suggests the sales people pair up to exchange best practices.
Michael’s sales team training is lacking a systematic and clear approach. What are the consequences? (04:30 – 05:20)
Michael is not clear about the objectives of this training activity. Most of the people feel resentful at being forced to participate in team sales calls. There is no structure to this training activity. He is putting the success of this training activity as well as the potential for increasing actual sales at risk.
What might be the disadvantages of training and mentoring a sales team using the team training approach? (11:45 – 12:19)
The people involved in group training need to be committed to it. For example, Stanley had no interest in participating in working with Ryan. He made it difficult for the training experience to be successful. The employees should feel there is a need for the training as well as be open to the experience of learning something. Additionally, they need to coordinate each other’s skills to complete successful sales calls.
What type of training method are the salespeople using? (12:19 – 13:43)
In the big picture, these team sales calls are considered On-the-Job Training because it takes place during an actual work scenario. Specifically, the activity is team training where team members coordinate and exchange their skills to meet their sales goal.
The remaining Stamford employees are in the process of organizational socialization with the Scranton office. Which of the three phases of socialization is demonstrated here? Explain. (02:03 – 02:19; 19: 06 – 19:25, 20:30 – 20:52)
Andy and Karen are most likely coming out of the encounter phase, where things still surprise them, and moving into the settling-in phase where they are beginning to feel more comfortable in their environment and are capable of carrying out their job responsibilities.
Optional Discussion Topics
· Suggest some examples of other training methods that would be effective in developing successful sales teams.
· How would you evaluate the training outcomes of this activity? Explain.
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