Supervisors In Michael Scott's The Office

If you have ever watched the television series The Office then you probably can relate to the fact that this show demonstrates how not to be supervisor well. Michael Scott is a supervisor in the show for several seasons and has demonstrated his capability to establish a unique corporate environment and that he genuinely cares about each of his employees. On the other hand, he demonstrates poor qualities as well. When analyzing his techniques you gain a deeper understanding of supervising and the importance it has within a company. Digging deeper into the techniques of supervising you can determine that there are several factors that affect performance such as the stress level of the work environment which will affect how a supervisor will encourage …show more content…
Good supervisors play a vital role in any organization because they ensure that their employees are motivated and encouraged to accomplish the company’s objectives. While our textbook provides a great foundation for new supervisors, it is important to understand that it’s not the only answer available to any given situation. By looking into the actions of other supervisors you can better analyze and gain examples of how to be and not be a good supervisor. Specifically looking at Michael Scott from the television series The Office we can understand both his positive and negative qualities as a supervisor and then relate those qualities to high and low-stress environments and their relation to textbook …show more content…
Throughout the series, Michael demonstrates a complete lack of respect and appreciation for Toby who is the office’s human resource representative. In Carell and Kwapis’s (2006) episode Michael Scott is providing Toby with “constructive criticism” in front of all of the employees in the office; where he tells him that he “hates so much about the things that he chooses to be.” Obviously, Michael was not trying to be constructive as opposed to hateful, but the situation is a good example of how not to handle that type of situation. According to Woodbury, Cohen, and Zayszly (2001), a counselling session should “identify the problem, ask for the employee’s view, seek the employee’s ideas on improvement with your input, agree on a plan and write it down, and follow up and review the results (pg. 30). Clearly, Michael made an inappropriate remark to Toby in front of everyone, but it really was not even a counseling session. Toby is destined to fail in any interaction with Michael because he voices his objection to Michael in a logical way that makes Michael feel that he is threatening to change his office culture. Another example of Michael Scott’s poor supervisory skills is demonstrated in Lieberstein and Daniels’s (2006) episode where Dwight attempts to steal Michael’s job by speaking with Jan (Michael’s boss) behind his back after lying to him about getting an emergency crown put in. Jan