Lindsay Magerle and Dylan Murtha

Lindsay Magerle and Dylan Murtha

Case Study Project

Chapter 6: Critical Approaches

It’s Thanksgiving; and brother and sister Brandon and Gabriella Houston, are both home from college. Brandon is a senior, Gabriella a sophomore, both are home for the first time since the school year had began.

Even though Brandon and Gabriella’s parents pay the majority of both of their children’s college expenses, both Brandon and Gabriella hold part time jobs while attending school in order to help pay for their housing fee, since both live on their each respective campus’ as well as any other expenses they both might have.

Brandon works for the Baxter Company, which is a small manufacturing firm that assembles corrugated boxes. Brandon works about twenty hours per week and gets paid slightly higher than the minimum wage. Personal greetings is the company that Gabriella works for. Personal greetings specializes in personalized party greetings as well as “strip-o-grams”. Gabriella works about eight to ten parties per week, each party lasting about an hour, earning her twenty five dollars per party plus tips. To say the least her brother Brandon was horrified to find out what she was doing to earn money. When questioned by her brother, Gabriella’s stated that her parents tend to be very liberal about these types of things and that the money is good, she can earn up four hundred dollars a week by only working about ten hours per week.

According to Brandon, how much money Gabriella is making is not the point nor is their parents beliefs on being liberal or conservative. Brandon believes that Gabriella is being exploited, the Personal Greetings is making a lot more than four hundred dollars a week and the point Brandon is trying to make to her is that they are making it off of her body. He also states that what Gabriella is doing to earn money is the exact thing that feminists have been fighting against for years.

As for Gabriella’s side of the argument, she seems to think that the feminist view of what she does to make money maybe wrong. Gabriella believes that everyone benefits from the situation; she can make good money without the help of her parents or brother yet she is still getting her education in order to better herself and move on from Personal Greetings. According to Gabriella; Personal Greetings is indeed a successful company so they can afford to pay her an above minimum wage salary and it is also a company that keeps their customers happy. Her closing statement in this argument with Brandon is that he is the one being exploited, not her, and that he is no better than she because he works twice as many hours that she does but is only making minimum wage and that the Baxter Company is making money off of him and stripping him of his own dignity. Gabriella calls Brandon’s way of work the “American way”, meaning how many throw themselves into their work making the minimum amount of money, never having any fun or free time, where the company itself is making the most amount of money.(Miller, 2012)

Discussion Questions:

1. How would you evaluate the argument between Brandon and Gabriella? Are either or both of them being exploited? If so, how?

The argument between Brandon and Gabriella was much more than a typical brother/sister argument. Brandon was concerned with how Gabriella was making money often putting in his opinion and as very many older brothers do somewhat insulting to Gabriella. However both made very good points during the argument. Brandon and Gabriella both feel as though the other is being exploited and both would be right. Gabriella is the obvious; taking off ones clothes for money is often seen as the most in your face way of a company, in this case Personal Greetings, takes advantage of their employees. Because the money is so good for Gabriella it will be hard for her to leave which shows how Personal Greetings will have a strong hold on her. However, Brandon is also being exploited. Brandon gets paid just above the minimum wage and all of his hard work is not shown in his paycheck. All of the money that he probably should be making working twenty hours a week is going straight to the Baxter Company bosses. One could say that both of these companies are taking advantage of two college students desperate to make their own money.

1. How does this discussion illustrate concepts of power, ideology, and hegemony?

This discussion illustrates the concept of power by showing the concept of power

through how both of Brandon’s and Gabriella’s company’s treat them and also by how Brandon treats Gabriella during this discussion. The concept of power is defined as control and domination. Gabriella’s company shows this concept the best because the money is so good shows that Personal Greetings will have some form of control over her because it will be hard for her to leave a four hundred dollar a week paycheck. Power is also shown during the discussion with Brandon trying to control and tell Gabriella what to do and that her way of making money is wrong.

The ideology concept is shown in this discussion when Gabriella mentions how her mother will have liberal views on what she does to earn money in which Gabriella uses this excuse to justify her actions.

The hegemony concept is seen when Gabriella calls Brandon’s way of working as the American way, meaning the dominant group trying to get the less dominant group to conform.

1. What oppressive structures of organization and communication are in evidence in the jobs held by Brandon and Gabriella? Do either Gabriella or Brandon participate in a system of “concertive control”?

The companies are both exploiting Brandon and Gabriella by their power to control them. The company has control over their decision and have authority over Brandon and Gabriella.
Brandon and Gabriella do participate in a system of concertive control since they have rules and norms that manage their behavior. This helps them construct their day to day actions.

1. Does a feminist approach serve to shed any additional light on the job held by Gabriella? Would different types of feminist theory reach different conclusions about the nature of her job?

Gabriella is not being forced to strip. Since she is grown up and on her own, she is old enough to make her own decisions. She can choose where she wants to work and how she presents herself.
Standpoint feminists: work to enhance the opportunity for a variety of marginalized voices to be heard within societal dialogue. This type of feminist relates to Gabriella because it helps draw a conclusion to the nature of her job.

1. (Strain, 2012)How would a critical theorist work to achieve emancipation for Brandon and Gabriella? Would either of them want to be emancipated? How could either Brandon or Gabriella exercise resistance in their work?

A critical theorist would work to get both Brandon and Gabriella out of their work situations. Brandon to find a job that both is rewarding as well a beneficial salary for the amount of work that he puts in. As for Gabriella, the theorist would have to find a way to get her to realize that even though the money is good now, does she really get any sort of satisfaction other than the money in the end? Neither Brandon or Gabriella would want to be emancipated because both feel that their way of working is right. Brandon could exercise resistance in his work by telling his boss that he should get a raise with that the demand for more money could get him fired because there are more people in demand and waiting for his job.

Control in Organizations: Individual Adjustment and Organizational Performance is a scholarly article written by Arnold S. Tannenbaum, who is the program Director, Surevey Research Center, Institution for Social Research at the University of Michigan, for the Administrative Science Quarterly, Volume 7, Number 2 pages 236-257, in September of 1962. The article focused on the aspect of control in an organization and describes an organization as individual interactions with others where control is key in communication. Tannenbaum then stated that control and/or influence upon others is not constant in an organization. (Tannenbaum, 1962)

This article relates to the case study because the aspect of control is seen throughout the discussion between Brandon and Gabriella. Gabriella believes that the Baxter company has control and influence over Brandon. Because Brandon works twice as many hours as Gabriella the company pays him minimum wage because he believes that it is the right way to earn money. Where Gabriella is concerned; Brandon believes that the company that she works for, Personal Greetings, has control over her because she makes four hundred dollars a week, and is basically getting paid twenty five dollars an hour, way above the minimum wage. Because of this the company does have some form of control due to the fact that she is making good money.

Ideology, conflict, and leadership in groups and organizations is a scholarly article written by Otto F. Kernberg for the Yale University Press, in New Haven Connecticut in 1998. This article focus’ on the nature of human interactions and how this can help resolve conflicts in group and institution situations. Understanding the nature of human interactions provides a basic model for achieving change at the intuitional level. (Kernberg, 1998)

This article relates to our case study because throughout the case study we see human interaction between Brandon and Gabriella by simply having a conversation with each other. However; because of the nature of the conversation it quickly escalated into a conflict between to two. The nature of the conversation was about their jobs and how they each earn money because each have their own ideas and opinions how exactly to earn said money causes the two to clash.

Many students, both in secondary school and college students, today are often seen having some form of part time job before heading out into their selected field of study. The article 20 ways not to teach your kids about money written by Jeffery Strain for savingsadvice.com relates to the case study because even though both Brandon and Gabriella have very different jobs both are somewhat financially independent. (Strain, 2012)

Works Cited

Kernberg, O. F. (1998). Ideology, conflict, and leadership in groups and organizations. Yale University Press , 321.

Miller, K. (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. Boston, Mass.: Wadsworth.

Strain, J. (2012, February 20). 20 Ways NOT To Teach Your Kids About Money. Savingadvice.com.

Tannenbaum, A. S. (1962, September). Control in Organization: Individual Adjustment and Organizational Performance. Administrative Science Quarterly , pp. 236-257.