The Devil Wears Prada
RUNWAY MAGAZINE
Peters & Waterman
The Runway Magazine Organization in the Devil Wears Prada represents Peters and Watermans Themes for Excellent Organizations. In the movie, all of the employees at Runway have to be productive and would sacrifice anything including family, friends, or their career, for their boss (Miranda) or the magazine itself. For example, Andy gets this job at Runway and sacrifices her relationship with her boyfriend Nate. They end up breaking up because she has changed who she is for the job. Peters and Waterman would define this as a hands-on, value driven theme for excellent organizations. These excellent organizations have employees and managers who share the same core value of productivity and performance. (Excellent Org Themes, 85)
In the Devil Wears Prada, employees invent new clothing ideas and present them to Miranda. (boss) She is very opinionated and blunt so the employees are taking a risk by showing her their ideas-nervous that she might not like them. Andy also thinks of her as mean and harsh. This is an example of autonomy and entrepreneurship. This theme of excellent organizations enourages employees to take risks in the development of new ideas within the organization. (Excellent Org Themes, 85)
Schein defines culture as a pattern of basic assumptions, suggesting that the beliefs that make up culture are relatively enduring and difficult to change. (Pattern of Basic Assumptions, 90) Individuals of the organization may not even be aware of the cultural assumptions they hold. However, Schein believes that the core of culture is its basic assumptions and that values and behaviors are better seen as reflections of that culture. For example, when Andy started working at Runway she needed to make the assumption that she needed to act a certain way and dress a certain way to be more successful at her job. She turned into a reflection of the culture at Runway.
Peters and Waterman would agree that this organizational culture is complicated. An organizations culture is revealed through its rites, and they differentiate among rites of passage, rites of degradatiion, rites of enhancement, rites of renewel, rites of conflict reduction, and rites of integration. This concept focuses on the roles of values and belief systems. (Org Culture, 86) The Runway magazine did not stray from tradition mostly because Miranda is older and the organization has been practicing the same rituals for years. However, at the end of the movie Miranda is being replaced with a new, younger designer named Jacquline. She wants to change the face of Runway and change the traditions.
Peters and Waterman would also agree that this organization symbolizes Schein's model of culture. The most visible level of culture in Schein's model consists of the physical and social environment that organizational members have created. (Artifacts, 90) Artifacts are things that are displayed by organizational members and the overt behavior of organizational members. In the Devil Wears Prada, you can witness many artifacts such as dress, communications patterns, decision-making styles, use of technologies, and the extent to which work takes place in dispersed physical locations. For example, when Andy comes in for an interview at Runway she is dressed for her usual business interview. However, Miranda is very particular about dress code and you must look high fashion. This leads Nigel to take her to the style room to get her dressed properly. She is conforming to the jobs requirements. Also, Andy and Emily had to behave in a certain way. Emily would tell Andy not to talk around Miranda because she might screw somehting up. If Miranda needed them they would stop whatever they were doing and address Miranda's needs before their own. This relates to Maslow's Hierarchy Needs in the Organizational Context. Miranda violates all of the employee's affiliation needs. (Maslow, 41) Emily also violates her own physiological needs by starving herself so she will look good in her dresses when she goes to Paris. All for a job that she gets treated poorly in.
The term ethnography means the "writing of culture," and ethnographic methods differ dramatically from traditional social scince techniques. (Ethnography, 95) I am an ethnographer and I studied the culture of this organization. Through this observation of the cultural group, I have developed an understanding of the values and assumptions at work. I have observed the organizational behaviors and artifacts, discussed the organizational values, and developed ideas about the assumptions that drive organizational member and how all three levels of culture interrelate.