Free Essay Example - The Devil Wears Prada

The movie “The Devil Wears Prada,' presents Andrea Sachs, who is known as Andy. The girl aims to make a career in the sector of journalism. She was lucky to get a job at a Runway fashion magazine, which many girls of her age could have dreamt of working. While at work, Andy went through a personal transformation to cope with the Company's many demands and her boss Miranda. Miranda Priestly is the kind of boss who dictates to her employees and cares only about her work. She does not respect any of the employees in the Company, and she is very selfish. All that matters to her is business, and she wants her employees to be working all the time with no rest. Miranda ensures that her employee's energy and time are fully committed to her work. It means that the workers in the Runway Company were working like modern slaves. The employees had no private lives, and their interests were interfered with by their boss Miranda.

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Andy had planned to tolerate Miranda's humiliations for only one year and later turn to her journalism career. Andy was very responsible in her work after harsh compliments from her boss on her dress; she started dressing elegantly to fit in her position. Andy remained loyal to her boss by complying with all her demands and expectations to win her trust in the Company. In the Company, Andy is determined to do all sorts of work that would impress her boss. For example, she promised her boss Miranda to get a book by Harry Potter, which was not yet published for Miranda's twins. Andy gets favor from her boss after rescuing her from being discomfited at a party, which makes Miranda take Andy on a trip to Paris. In Paris, Andy learned that Madam Miranda was about to replace her as editor of Runway. She also learned that Miranda was about to divorce her husband, but she was concerned with her twins and how it would affect them. Andy later realized that she would no longer fit in the Runway Company and decided to walk away. Runway Company was very challenging, with its organizational structure very competitive. Neoclassical organization theory has been outlined in the film The Devil Wears Prada.

Theoretical Background

Neoclassical theory affirms that the organization is the communal system whose enactment us affected by the activities of the human. George Elton Mayo is the founder of the theory. He headed the team that steered Hawthorne experiments at the Western Electric Company in the USA in 1927 up to 1932. The theory emphasizes a physiological and mechanical variable that determines an organization's efficiency (Ripsman et al., 2016). The approach is meant to check the behavior of the workers at work in every organization. It tends to look at the reasons the workers behave in a certain manner in the organization. The theory depicts that any organization is made up of formal and informal organizations. The informal structure of the society was formed for the sake of the social interaction between the employees who can get affected by the formal arrangement organization. In the organizations, conflicts between individuals exist hence arises the necessity to incorporate neoclassical theory for social cohesion in the organization. The theory affirms that people are diversely motivated to fulfill certain needs. In this case, communication is a very important tool that ensures efficiency information is sent from one level of organization to the other. Team works ensure the organization performs its duties as expected, which is mainly achieved through the look of behavior approach as depicted through neoclassical theory (Ripsman et al., 2016). It concerns how people interact with each other and how they respond to the matters that concern day-to-day lives. The neoclassical theory stems from human resource and behavioral movements. Human relations is concerned with the relationship by accessing the conditions at work and how people interact within an organization. The movement is designed to find means to increase worker productivity. Behavior movement checks on how people are relating to each other in organizations. It recognizes the differences between people in terms of their beliefs, values, goals, and what they perceive. It aims at addressing conflicts among individuals and the organization for the sake of performing in an effective manner.

Application of the Theory

The neoclassical approach's main objective is to understand the employees and look at how to benefit from their skills and potentials. After that, the theory should help at motivating the worker for more products in the organization. People in the organization should be responsible for arranging and maintaining rules in organizations. The human factor can be responsible for destroying an organization. For example, Runway Company can be easily destroyed by the workers if not well treated (Xie et al., .2017). In the film "The Devil Wears Prada," Miranda is unable to understand her employees, which could have helped the company hike at a better level because employees would increase their efficiency. If only Miranda could have treated Andy better, she could not have resigned from her Company's position. Having been in the Company for a year, Andy was more experienced, taking the Company to a high level. However, Miranda threatened to fire her, which contributed to Andy leaving the Job. In this case, Miranda does not value the human factor, which is the major backbone. The Runway Company is only paying attention to the environmental factors and does not pay attention to the workers. The eternal factors are pushing Miranda, the runway company's boss, to make decisions that do not favor any of the workers. For example, she reschedules the meetings at the last minute and changing promotions without consulting the employees. The best way to organize Runway Company depended on the nature of the environment, which keeps changing.

Miranda needs to work with her workers in a manner that would bring profit to her Company. However, she only criticizes them and mistreats them by increasing the working hours. The workers in the Runway Company have no time to relax, and some like Andy are working extra work, which is not in their schedule. For example, she prepares tea for her boss instead of focusing on editing important matters pertains to the Company (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006). Miranda is rude to Andy by telling her that all workers should be overdressed and be fashionable to be presentable and appear to please her. The threat led to Andy dressing in a style and appearance that transformed her, ultimately hoping to get favors from Miranda. What Andy gets in return is the destruction of her personality that would slow down the growth of the Company because Andy is the social factor that can contribute to getting better or putting the Company at risk. Andy was led to self-alienation that could easily bring the destruction of the people she believes. To benefit from Andy, Miranda needs to set her free to appreciate any kind of good job that she would do. It can be achieved through better communication that would motivate her to perform better for the organization's sake.

Development of the theory

In the film “The Devil Wears Prada," Neoclassic theory does not fit the context because the employer had not brought cohesion to the Company. There had been no harmony in the organization. The organizational ethics had been violated whereby in the film, Miranda does not value the privacy of her workers. The boss also keeps on frustrating her workers and giving them fake promises. For example, in the movie, Mirada had promised Emily to visit Paris for a fashion week but later changed her mind. She decided to take Andy after she rescued her from an embarrassing situation. Even though Andy says that it would be unfair for Emily, Miranda comments that it does not matter as it will be '"THE Devil Wears Prada."

Miranda has failed to observe the neoclassical theory by violating the leadership in organizational behavior that looks at the person as a leader. There is no good leadership that should be emulated by the workers to reach the goals of the organization. Miranda does not have the qualities for good leaders who would bring harmony to the factors that would lead to the success of the Company. For an organization to succeed, the leader should focus on achieving goals that would make the Company grow. In this case, Miranda has lost the qualities of a great leader because she cannot inspire her followers to work effectively. Instead, the workers are working under the pressure of Miranda's demand (Ratri & Ardi, 2019). Her secretaries have not proven her leadership because they have all witness her failure in the Company. Emily was first demoted though she knew her work better than the new secretary. More so, after promoting Andy, she was about to be demoted when she realized and left the work. It means that Miranda is not concerned with the roles and responsibilities of each person in the Company. In this case, the Company may collapse at any time, especially if it lost its major workers who have been the pillar to the Company.

Andy was unable to motivate her employees, knowing that motivation makes them embrace a certain behavior. Maslow's theory of hierarchy is about the motivation that motivates people to do a different kind of work to satisfy their needs such as physiological needs, security, belongingness, esteem, and finally self-actualization. In this case, Andy had already satisfied her physiological needs, safety, and belongingness before taking her job in Runway Company. Andy had a great relationship with her father. Moreover, she lived peacefully with her boyfriend before seeking a job that was meant to pave the way for her journalism career. After Andy started working with Miranda, she realized that her boss Miranda and Co-workers threatened her self-esteem. Therefore, she started working to effectively fulfill her duties to win her boss's loyalty (Ratri & Ardi, 2019). She started dressing elegantly to get approval from her co-workers and her boss. However, her boss continues to mistreat her and to pile her with a lot of activities that are not related to her duties.

There has been a violation of the neoclassic theory in the film, which does not motivate employees to work at peace but threaten them to work under pressure. Andy was working hard to win her boss's trust, and she was motivated by the desire to substantiate her self-esteem. Taking Andy with her to Paris gave her an assured that Miranda trusted her, and she did not lose focus that the job was only a stepping stone to her journalism career. After she got a job in her professional career, Andy was determined to reach the next level of self-actualization, hence fulfilling her dream. The neoclassic theory is not well-fitting to this film because all that Miranda is causing is her company's problems. It shows that she has no quality of leadership and what she is undermining her employees. There is no health dialogue between her and her employees (Ratri & Ardi, 2019). She believed that production could be increased in the Company by forcing the workers to work through her rules and norms. Miranda believes that her work problems should not affect the performance of her Company. She does not bother with decision-making, which is the basic tool that coordinates organizations. According to her, the individual problems of her workers are not linked to the efficiency of the Company. Whenever she decides, her decision is final, and she is not supposed to be questioned. For example, she gives instructions directly and needs her employees to obey without questioning. According to her, details are not significant to her workers.