The Firm Essay Research Paper The Firm free essay sample

The Firm Essay, Research Paper The Firm Sydney Pollack s movie The Firm is a play based on an desire to get away from the jurisprudence house ( Berndini, Lambert, and Lock ) from which he was hired. The comparatively little but affluent house vinos and dines the ambitious Harvard Law Graduate s ( played by Tom Cruise ) with money and gifts in order to do him portion of their squad. Overwhelmed by the gracious intervention and significant offer Mitch McDeere takes the offer to be portion of the Firm. The steadfast gets them caught up in a flush life style that they neer thought they could populate. Once involved n the twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours workings of the house McDeere began to acquire elusive intimations of a corruptness with a Mafia rabble client. McDeere gets a clasp of some information that he shouldn T have had entree to that supports his intuitions. When an FBI agent confronts him with grounds of corruptness and slaying within the house, Mitch forms a program to write the spouses of the house by garnering information on overbilling of the houses clients. The houses clients files contained information that could destruct both the house and most of their rabble clients. Berndini, Lambert, and Lock had a past history of passing big amounts of money on their new attorneies so one time they got used to the good life the house would allow them in on the corruptness that when on. The house had a tight control over their spouses. They knew everything about their personal life every bit good as their work life. All their places were wired and their phones tapped. They besides had entree to information on their spouses household and friends. With such tight controls over their lives they had a power to command their every move. Temptations of flight were smothered by menaces of injury. In two instances the menaces of injury led to slayin g. A reoccurring subject of political relations and power emerged throughout the movie. For this ground it seems most logical to analyse The Firm based on chapter 12 of Stephen Robbins book Organizational Behavior. Power is defined as A capacity that A has to act upon the behaviour of B so that B does things he or she would non otherwise bash. The focal point of this paper is traveling to based on the power that the house had over its employees. In order to better understand the construct of power and where it comes from two published research workers named J.R.P. Gallic Jr. and B. Raven came up with a five-category categorization. The five classs are as follows ; coercive power, wages power, legitimate power, adept power, and referent power. The house practiced all five of these classs to derive control over their employees actions. The top spouses of the house possessed a great coercive power over their subsidiaries. Coercive power is defined as a power based on fright. The lead chara cter Mitch McDeere was in fright of his life and his household s life if he failed to follow to the houses demands. The foundation of coercive behaviour # 8230 ; remainders on the application, or the menace of application, of physical countenances such as the imposition of hurting, the coevals of defeat through limitation of motion, or the controlling by force of basic physiological or safety demands. Throughout the movie there were many deductions a negative result to certain actions that the caput spouses felt were contrary to the success of the house. Another categorization of power, wages power, is based on conformity achieved based on the ability to administer wagess that others view as valuable. As stated in the chapter coercive and wages behaviour are opposite numbers of each other. In the film they were used together. The book describes coercive power as the power to take away something of positive value or to give something of negative value. It goes farther to explicate reward power as the power to give something of positive value or to take something off of negative value. Under this position one could presume that the house took off Mitch McDeeres value of freedom. During the last few scenes of the film the FBI agent asked Mitch why he went to all the problem to make what he did. His answer was # 8230 ; now I have a life. A life of my ain, non person else s. At the same clip the house gave Mitch many things of great value such as a houses, auto, and six figure wage. Another signifier of power that emerges in The Firm is Legitimate power. Legitimate power is the power that a individual receives a s a consequence of his or her place in the formal hierarchy of an organisation. Tom Cruise did an first-class occupation of word picture his characters function in the organisation. Mitch was a fledgling to the house, but he was a really smart person and a gifted attorney. Because Mitch was such an intelligent individual with a strong educational background he exhibited an elusive intimation haughtiness. Even with this chesty attitude when confronted by the senior spouse Tom Cruise s character showed his low-level place with his organic structure linguistic communication and his usage of power tactics such as ground, friendliness assertiveness, and higher authorization. These power tactics are to the full explained on page 472 of Organizational Behavior. The senior spouse s authorization over Mitch is a good illustration of Legitimate power. Mitch McDeere besides exhibited a power referred to as adept power. This type of power is a signifier of influence based on particular accomplishments or cognition. Mitch and the remainder of the attorneies in the house had a adept power over the remainder of the people in the film. Their clients respected their sentiment. Expert power exists because certain people have educational backgrounds that enable them to give advise to others that the mean individual would non cognize. Expert knowledge merely exists on a narrow spectrum. A attorney has a adept advantage over a physician when the subject of jurisprudence is discussed. When the subject of medical specialty is discussed the tabular array is turned to the physician s advantage. The concluding class of power listed is referent power. Referent power is defined as an influence based on ownership by an person of desirable resources or personal traits. Referent power emerges as a consequence of esteem of another person. Since McDeere started of as a character with small money he got caught up in the flush lifestyle really rapidly. This was because he saw something in the other spouses that he wished that he had. He admired his colleges the nice autos, large houses and expensive suits. The fact that he suit in so rapidly was due to the fact that he was influenced by the other spouses referent power over him. Berndini, Lambert, and Lock made it a point to keep a certain image amongst their clients. This image that they tried to keep could best be explained by a procedure called feeling direction. Impression direction is defined as the procedure by which persons attempt to command the feeling others signifier of them. The house used feeling direction to act upon their clients and their new recruits. The house encouraged strong household values and close engagement with the company. There are seven techniques that the book lists to assist an single addition a positive image or feeling others position of an person. Although the book focused on single feeling direction techniques I believe that companies are frequently really concerned with their image direction. As a little house Berndini, Lambert, and Lock had a comparatively easy occupation of keeping a image of a organisation that hires merely professional, household oriented persons with strong values. As a jurisprudence house Berndini, Lambert, and Lock felt it was of import to do a strong attempt to extinguish the negative intensions that many people think of when they hire a attorney. They accomplished this by keeping the pattern of feeling direction. Power and political relations is something that will ever be around us. Equally long as there are a assortment of people in this universe with a limited degree of resources it will be as a signifier of distribution of these limited resources. Power exists in many signifiers. Some are done deliberately and some are done without even cognizing it. If used right power can assist some to progress faster in their occupations and heighten their societal position. If used falsely power can ache the people it has its influence on. A individual that is under the influence of another individuals power is at the clemency of the 1 in authorization. This raises the topic of moralss and power. How far should you travel to derive power over another person in order to heighten your place in a company, societal scene, or even a relationship? The reply to this and many more ethical inquiries lie within every persons head and Hart. So the following clip you come in contact with person who you feel has a powerful influence on your actions inquire yourself ; Do they hold my purposes in head or their ain?