Office Space
... Also, I’ve seen Office Space dozens of times, but only watched Dr. Strangelove and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest once, so there will be more comment on Office Space than on the other two movies. ... Office Space The organizational structure at Initech (the true-to-life company featured in the movie) is almost a textbook example of a mechanistic organization, as outlined in Chapter 2 of Rainey’s Images of Organization book. ... He’s able to come in late, take breaks, space out during the day, and generally only do approximately 15 minutes worth of work in a given week (his words to the consultants during his initial job performance review), yet still achieve his expected quota of work. ... A second characteristic of “organizations as machines” in Office Space is the predetermined actions of employees -- Initech employees were expected to behave in a predetermined way. ... Milton’s cubicle was treated as storage space (he was even stored in the basement himself for a while) and when Bill Lumberg walked away from Milton towards the end of the movie, he turned the lights out in the office, leaving Milton sitting in the dark, as if he was a non-entity. ... Although the organizational dynamic in Office Space was soul stifling, it was a better organization to work in than either of the other two movies.