NUR ASHIQEEN BT MOHD SULTAN (2014324301) (LWB04A)

Movie title: Horrible Bosses (2011)

Introduction
Synopsis of the movie:
This is an entertaining American comedy movie which revolves around three friends, Nick,
Dale and Kurt and their abusive, psychopathic, crazy bosses. After working for 8 years, Nick
is finally in line to become the next Sales Vice President if not for his sadistic boss who
blackmails him all the time. Dale hates his boss because she kept making sexual advances to
him when he is about to get married. Kurt enjoys his job, but after his boss died, his cocaineaddicted son, Bobby, takes over, and everything started going down the drain. In such poor
economic condition, quitting is not an option for them. Instead, they find themselves
conspiring to get rid of their bosses.
Synopsis of the video excerpt:
The scene chosen portrays a sadistic, oppressive boss, Dave Harken, who implies the
possibility of a promotion to his employer, Nick Hendriks only to award it to himself. Nick is
expected to work from before sunrise to after sunset. Harken calls him out for being a minute
late and blackmails him so he cannot quit.
Body
Critical incident 1: Inappropriate remarks in confrontation
The incident occurred when the Dave mention that Nick was indeed a punctual person and it
was the internal security clock that was problematic. The truth is that Dave is being sarcastic
towards the Nicks punctuality. Dave did not care to let Nick reasoned out his cause of being
late rather, he focuses too much on the two minutes delay.
Dave should have been upfront about the delay rather than rat out sarcastic remarks to the
Nicks two minute delay. Although Nick was not punctual, however, it was just a matter of
two minutes in which Dave should have given consideration to. A warning is suffice to solve
the problem instead of making a big fuss about it.
The better solution is for Dave to give the Nick the opportunity to reason out before making
his judgement by sarcasm. Dave should have just given a warning to Nick on the situation.

Critical incident 2: Personality and conflict

There are three instances in the video excerpt where we could find personality conflicts
incidences involving the employer and employee.
The first conflict is manipulative conduct which was done by Nick in which he manipulated
the fact that he was a minute late when he was actually two minutes late. However, his
manipulation was driven by Daves immense pressure. Daves form of pressure can be seen
when he gestured to call the security department just to make Nick confess on the specific
detail of the two minutes delay.
The best solution is that instead of trying to beat around the bush, Dave should have just
make a direct communication to Nick on his lateness.
The second manipulative conduct was done by Dave in which he offer Nick a glass of liquor.
The fact that it was 8a.m. in the morning made Nick hesitant to accept the drink. However,
Dave persuaded Nick to have a sip since he indicated that he was also going to have it.
Surprisingly, Dave was actually manipulating into drinking when he actually have no
intention on drinking himself. Dave did so just to accused Nick of being an alcoholic.
The analysis is that Dave as an employer, should not have brought liquor drinking in the
situation as it is a workplace environment in which liquor drinking is inappropriate as it
would cloud your judgement and deteriorate work performance.
Critical incident 3: Work Matters
Dave brought up his wifes behaviour during the conversation with Nick. He expresses his
complains on his wife and equate it to Nicks action.
Dave as an employer should not have brought up personal matters in regards to his marriage
life as it shows unprofessionalism. Dave should have set a good example to the employee by
separating emotions from matters related to work.
Conclusion:
in this excerpt, there are various negative communiactions that takes place which should lack
of understanding between employer employee relationship. In order to have an effective
communication in workplace, certain strategies should be adopted like turn taking strategies
in discussion, politeness in confrontation and being professional in conduct. These are some
of the elements that should be adopted to have a professional communication at work.