Both are stories of young women trying to get ahead. Interesting Power and Politics themes

MGT 5003 – Group Project

“Devil Wears Prada” vs. “Working Girl”

•John McClenny•Lisa Settle•Cheryl Smith•Josephine Todd•Christian Villarreal

Why these two movies?

• Both are stories of young women trying to get ahead.

• Interesting Power and Politics themes.

Working Girl

Tess (Melanie Griffith) – protagonistKatharine (Sigourney Weaver) – bossJack (Harrison Ford) – key partnerOren Trask (Philip Bosco) – primary power and decision maker

Devil Wears Prada

Andrea “Andy” ( Anne Hathaway) – protagonistMiranda ( Meryl Streep) – bossNigel (Stanley Tucci) - key peerIrv – Chairman of the Board

“Working Girl” Plot Summary

• Do we need a plot summary?

“Devil Wears Prada” Plot Summary

• Do we need a plot summary?

Human Resource Frame

• HR frame is built on 4 core assumptions:

• Organizations exist to serve human needs.

• People & organizations need each other.

• Organizations need ideas, energy, & talent.

• People need careers, salaries, & opportunities.

• When the fit between individual & organization is poor, one or both are subject to exploitation and victimization.

• When the fit is good, individuals find meaningful, satisfying work and organizations have the talent and energy they need to succeed.

• Hire the right people and keep them. How do we do that?

• Invest in them.

• Money• Promote from within• Protect jobs• Education• Growth opportunities

• Empower them.

• Information – Keep people in the loop.

• Encourage autonomy &• self-

management• Promote employee

participation

• Promote diversity

The Right Fit Who would you work for??

• Katharine Parker• Wealthy family• Not too bright• Unethical• Weak• Survives by sexual

insinuation & stealing other people’s ideas

• Miranda Priestly• Tireless worker• Fashion genius• Unethical• Quietly aggressive –

Ruthlessly determined

• Survives by doing whatever it takes

The Right Fit Who would you hire??

• Tess McGill• Recent college graduate• Professional goal –

Business Mergers & Acquisitions

• Business - Petty Marsh• Plan A -Work Hard• Plan B – You make it

happen…Opportunity meets Preparation

• Results – Success!

• Andrea Sachs• Recent graduate

Northwestern University• Professional goal –

Journalism• Business – Runway

Magazine• Plan A – I gotta be me!• Plan B – I gotta be them!• Results – Flight!

Symbolic Frame

Dominant Culture:

-Magazine focused on beauty and appearance

-Makes fashion decisions for the season

-Very vanity based

Subcultures:

- Models

- Fashion Designers

- Employees

Dominant Culture:– Hard work to get ahead– Being aggressive to get

what is deserved or desired

– Working from the bottom up

Subcultures:– Board of Directors– Head of departments– Secretaries

Symbolic Frame – External Adaptation

Working Girl Devil Wears Prada

Strategy To acquire different companies.

To lead the fashion industry

Goals To provide clients with successful mergers

Influence the fashion world and everyday population

Means to Accomplish Goals Research, socialization Publication of the magazine and subscriptions

Criteria for Meeting Group’s Success

Successful, profitable, larger mergers

The successful expansion globally

Repair Strategies New management Large events

Comparing Movies

Symbolic Frame – External Adaptation

Working Girl – Tess versus Katharine

Working Girl Tess Katharine

Strategy Work hard to get ahead through research and trust

Do whatever it takes to get ahead

Goals To move up in the company, to have Katharine’s job (or


Means to Accomplish Goals

Research, education, hard work Whatever it takes to get ahead, date someone high up


Everybody wins mentality As long as she successes

Repair Strategies Promotion Demoted- Fired

External Adaptation in “Working Girl”

Working Girl – Tess versus KatharineWorking Girl Tess Katharine


Do whatever it takes to get ahead

Goals To move up in the company, to have Katharine’s job

Move up the company ladder


Research, education, hard work Whatever it takes to get ahead, date someone high up


Everybody wins mentality As long as she succeeds

Repair Strategies Promotion Demoted- Fired

External Adaptation in “Devil Wears Prada”

Devil Wears Prada – Andy versus Miranda

Devil Wears Prada Andy Miranda


Worked her way up for her respect

Goals To write for a magazine, but not Fashion



Hard work, working with one of the best Editors

Whatever it takes to get ahead, and expect others to help her


As long as Miranda is happy, everyone is happy

As long as the magazine has successes

Repair Strategies Quitting She fires anyone that gets in her way

Symbolic Frame – Internal Adaptation

Comparing Movies


Common Language To acquire different companies.

To lead the fashion industry

Group boundaries The clients and board of directors have the final say

Miranda has the final say

Allocation of power and status

Hierarchy Miranda

Allocation of rewards and punishment

Board of directors and clients Miranda

Ideology To create successful mergers and acquisitions

To create a successful magazine

Symbolic Frame


Name of the MovieNew York City

Name of the MovieNew York City

Tess ended up in Mergers and Acquisitions after three other jobs

Andy started working in fashion to get ahead in her writing career

Change in appearance- Tess cut her hair so she would be “taken seriously”, borrowed Katharine’s $3,000 dress

Change in appearance- Complete makeover to fit in with the industry

Personal Relationship- First relationship suffered because he was unfaithful, and too much time spend away, second relationship is with Jack.

Personal Relationship- suffered because she was becoming someone else. Always at Miranda’s beck and call

Katharine was very misleading and demanding

Miranda was very demanding and self involved

Appearance and age Appearance, age, weight, and eating

“Working Girl” Structure

Petty Marsh is a large financial institution including brokerage and M&A functions. Our primary view is of a midlevel M&A deal involving the acquisition of Metro Radio by Trask Industries.

“Devil Wears Prada” Structure

Irv runs Elias Clarke Publications, a large media company encompassing a range of high end magazines. The movie primarily deals with the small subset of the org shown in blue below.

Structural Frame

• Placeholder

Political Frame

Political Themes Katharine Miranda

Sources of Power Positional – Associate PartnerAccess and Control of Agenda – Keeping Tess’s ideas as her own

Information & expertise ReputationAlliances & NetworksMany famous designers, etc. owe her for their careers

Conflict Between Katharine and Tess Between Miranda and Andy, Miranda and Irv

Distribution of Power Underbounded - weak authority, open conflict and power struggles

Overbounded - strong, top-down control, conflict is tightly-regulated

Getting Ahead Steals ideas from others and does not work hard to advance her career

Manipulative but personally powerful with her network of connections

Political Map – The Devil Wears Prada

P owe r

I n t e r e s t s

Pro Change Opposed to Change

Low

High

Nigel (Stanley Tucci)

Miranda Priestley (Meryl Steep)

Emily Chalton(Emily Blunt)

Andrea Sachs(Anne Hathaway)

Irv Ravitz

Overall Internal Political Map showing long term interests

Political Map – Working Girl

I n t e r e s t s

Pro Change Opposed to Change

Low

High

Oren Trask (Phillip Bosco)

Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver)

Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford)

Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith)

P owe r

Overall Political Map showing short term interests in closing deal

Conclusion

• In both movies, coalition building outside of the organization was key to the survival of Miranda and the promotion of Tess.

• For both Tess and Andy, knowing/learning what they wanted was key to getting there.

Documents

Both are stories of young women trying to get ahead. Interesting Power and Politics themes