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Master List of Ideas for Video clips depicting "Emotions at Work"

  • 1.  Master List of Ideas for Video clips depicting "Emotions at Work"

    Posted 11-14-2007 15:18

    Thanks again to you all for sharing some a variety of great ideas and resources.  As promised, I've compiled the info provided in the scads of emails I received and provide them to you here. I will be sending the attachments identified below as separate emails (when I tried to send this all as one package it got kicked back, for being "too big" of a message).  Thanks....and enjoy!

    Movies (and themes):
    • Great french film depicting emotions in the workplace:  Human Resources, directed by Laurent Cantet.
    • For a great couple of moments where Michael Caine, as a big-shot manager totally loses his temper talking to his employees, see On deadly Ground (1994) w Steven Segal http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110725/
    • For great depictions of boredom at work, see Clockwatchers (1997), http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118866/
    • Several good war films have, obviously good emotion depictions in a particular (and maybe not very generalizable) work-setting, e.g., Apocalypse Now, Deer Hunter.
    • What about 'As Good As It Gets' in which the waitress has to deal with an extremely difficult client or Analyze This' which offers some nice examples of the burdens of the mafioso?
    • Apollo 13 for material on emotions under extreme conditions, and Twelve Angry Men, for varying emotions at different stages of team development . "What Women Want" might also offer some interesting examples
    • The waitress played by Jennifer Aniston in 'Office Space' is a good example of the effect of emotional labour and the "printer smashing" incident illustrates negative emotional effects
    • Albeit somewhat unorthodox, Monster, Inc. also shows emotional labour and emotional dissonance of the monster employees.  You can also use the opening scenes, training scene and the closing scene (using laughter as opposed to scaring the kids) to illustrate these concepts.
    • Old School and Hoffa have some great examples although not in the "traditional" office setting; they deal with ethics, belonging, conformity, bullying, survival, and equity theory among others
    • Working Girl with Melanie Griffith, and In Good Company might have some good scenes for both emotions and age diversity issues.
    • Meet the Parents (2000), where Greg Focker is very rude to an air hostess - relevant to emotional labour
    • Dead Poets Society, Patch Adams, and North Country
    • Erin Brockovich, and Outbreak
    • Anchorman has several scenes where emotions fly at work (esp when Steve Carell, who has no idea why everyone is angry simply shouts "WHY IS EVERYONE SHOUTING! LOUD NOISES!") and while not a workplace film, Dodgeball has a few great displays of anger, frustration, as well as positive emotions (joy, pride, etc).
    • Clerks II is plain freaky, but full of great examples. Fierce Creatures with John Cleese and Jamie Curtis is a corporate version of Fish Called Wanda when a conglomerate acquires a zoo and what they do to keep from having it divested. Many emotions about their jobs, identification with the organization, etc. Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is super. As an early talkie, Chaplin is masterful at emotional display.
    • the angry nose-to-nose confrontation between Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in Crimson Tide when Denzel attempts to relieve Hackman of his command
    • Jennifer Lopez in Enough , particularly the final scenes, where she takes delight in fighting back (literally) against her abusive husband.  Her character is strong, whereas in Sleeping with the Enemy, another spousal abuse film, Julia Roberts' character is weak.  One could easily argue that JLo's character experienced an internal locus of control ( e.g., I'm going to get this guy!), whereas Julia Roberts' character experienced an external locus of control (e.g., What can I do?)
    • Whale Rider-great because emotions are strong, a different culture is the focus, the real leader in the family is the 13-year old girl, though most would think the leader is the grandfather.  Many wonderful, rich examples of stuck emotions based on tradition.
    • Monsoon Wedding-Events around a wedding in India generate a wide array of emotions from intoxicating love to betrayal to conflict between traditional and modern ways
    • The Apostle-Robert Duvall is inspirational as an evangelical minister.  A more recent and better version of  Burt Lancaster's Elmer Gantry
    • Boiler Room-Emotions run from arrogance and power to fear and shock.
    •  Rosewood-Based on the true story of how a prosperous black town becomes the focus of mob white violence.  Emotions from comfort and graciousness to terror and violence.
    •  Shattered Glass-journalism rising star plummets in credibility when he is revealed to have plagiarized.  Panic, deception, smugness-many emotions are illustrated.
    •  American History X-Harsh but vividly informative inside look at the white supremacy movement and a leader who sees the light while in prison.  Edward Norton is the change-coat.  It's brilliant.
    •  Silkwood and Pay It Forward are both good (and while some movies are very intense, they reap rich discussions.  Students seems to appreciate that controversial subjects are worthy of class time)
    •  13 Days, We Were Soldiers, The Contender, Pursuit of Happyness, 9 to 5, The Devil Wears Prada, Glengarry Glen Ross (strong language content), Jerry Maguire
    • Tere are some great (though slightly crass) scenes in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where Chevy Chase has some work-related emotions.  There is a scene towards the end when he goes on a tirade after receiving a membership in the jelly-of-the-month club instead of the annual bonus.
    • the "there's no crying in baseball" scene from A League of their Own is great for depicting an emotional hijacking.  
    • Two scenes from The Incredibles: 1)  Where Bob tries to help the old lady, and 2) when Bob's boss chews him out (and ends up getting thrown through the wall (actually, walls)).
    • Network has the great "I'm mad as hell" scene
    • Swimming with Sharks (1994, with Kevin Spacey) offers examples of abusive supervision

    Television shows (and themes)
    • Star Trek (New Generation) episode in which Data, an android, receives an "emotion chip."  In one scene, Data is cowering behind a desk as he and his fellow Enterprise crew members are being fired upon by Klingons (or some similar group).  Data was feeling the emotion of "fear" for the first time and it immobilized him.  Normally, he would have fought back, the logical and rational thing to do, but in this case he did nothing because of the effects of the emotion chip.  The scene shows the dark side of emotion, that while it is natural to feel emotions, there is a difference between the emotion itself and allowing emotions to control our behavior.
      Other Star Trek episodes:  Darmok (cross-cultural communication to overcome suspicion, fear); The City on the Edge of Forever; The Inner Light
    • The US version of The Office usually has something I can tie back to my management courses (others also advocated the use of the original British version of the series)
    • WKRP in Cincinnatti has some great examples of emotions at work
    • I Love Lucy on the candy conveyor is also pretty powerful for the display of frustration.

    And don't forget about the POSITIVE emotions (such as joy, passion for work, satisfaction, appreciation, etc).  (Here is a list of feelings from Nonviolent Communication - Marshall Rosenberg  http://cnvc.org/feelings.htm#satisf)    All of these "positive" emotions are equally, if not more important, to be teaching and showing the impact these emotions can have on the workplace as well.   Consider Miss Congeniality, when Sandra Bullock receives the Miss Congeniality reward-- her appreciation/acceptance speech.  And the passion for her project, that Jody Foster demonstrates in Contact.  I can't come up with others right now, Sally Field in Norma Rae when she inspires her co-workers.

    Micheal T. Stratton from Hood College graciously provided us with a teaching note (please see attached in forthcoming email) from his presentation at the Org Behavior Teaching Conference (OBTC) in Malibu this past summer. He's working with colleagues, Paul Rotenberry and Darrin Kass, on a manuscript for JME on this very topic.

    "Reflection " Classroom Activities that incorporate movies :  (please see attached - forthcoming email) .   Ronda Smith from UNL provided this activity she uses in her OB classes.  It helped students apply the material especially during the summer sessions, as it got them "into the book" much faster.  She says you could easily modify this assignment to focus on any aspect of OB - or to generate your own list of relevant and current clips that would relate to your current student audience.

    Rochelle Mucha (practitioner and adjunct faculty) has created Aesthetic Intelligence™. It is very emergent, and she said she's begun to develop learning opportunities for business leaders and students, especially those in MBA programs( a brief description is included in the BAPA Workshop file). Please see attached (in forthcoming email) a copy of an article on the subject which is currently being reviewed for publication, and is the topic of a book proposal that is also being reviewed at this time. This is all very emergent and  Rochelle said she is always looking for folks that might resonate with this discipline.  She also invites all to visit her website which is loaded with more stuff: htttp://businessasperformanceart.com/default.aspx

    Also, this topic has been canvassed on the Emonet (Emotions at Work) ListServ.  For more information, check out http://www.uq.edu.au/emonet/.

    Other great resources (thanks to Joe Champoux):
    See available film-based teaching materials from Thomson South-Western: http://champoux.swlearning.com
    View research papers on teaching with film:
    http://mgtclass.mgt.unm.edu/Champoux/FilmResearch/



     
     



    ====================
    Susan M. Jensen, Ph.D.
    Department of Management
    College of Business & Technology
    University of Nebraska at Kearney
    West Center 255W
    Kearney NE 68849
    (308) 865-8189