Transcript Movie Analysis Project By Andrea Hansen

BS311

I will be discussing The Firm motion picture’s portrayal and
impact of…
 Organizational structure
 Organizational goals
 Systems theory
 Hidden agendas

I will then summarize and
analyze the areas mentioned.

The Organizational Structure of Bendini, Lambert, and Locke…
 Small, Memphis law firm
 41 Lawyers
 Divides its labor
into distinct tasks
 Differentiation exists,
but integration is
lacking.
▪ (Anthony, Gales, & Hodge,
2003).

Formal structure
 Oliver Lambert & Executives are top authority
 The rest of the firm employees are pawns that the Executives use
as they see fit to maintain their shady existence.
 Avery is a mentor to Mitch
▪ Evolved into a more informal
relationship
▪ Different dynamic than the
rest of the characters

Stability and maintaining an upstanding appearance
 “Mitch, I hope you don't think us intrusive, but stability in the family
has a special importance for us.”
▪ Oliver Lambert (Pollack, 1993)

Control of clients and employees
 “I won my life back. You don't run me.
And they don't run me!”
▪ Mitch Alderman (Pollack, 1993)

Do what is necessary, whatever it takes.
 “I get paid to be suspicious when I've got nothing to be suspicious
about.”
▪ William Devasher (Pollack, 1993).

Satisfy clients (especially the Mob)
 They flew to Cayman Islands to
secure a client

Make M-O-N-E-Y

It conveys the idea that organizations are made up of
parts and that the parts interact with each other to
accomplish the organization’s goals (Anthony, Gales, &
Hodge, 2003).

The firm represented is a closed, self-perpetuating system
that receives no outside energy or resources (Anthony,
Gales, & Hodge, 2003).

They have made sure the firm is private because of their
shady dealings with the Mob.

Bendini, Lambert, and Locke’s parts include Executives,
lawyers, criminals, and investigators.

The Executives appoint lawyers on cases, the lawyers
follow the orders, the investigators locate threats, and the
criminals clean up the mess.

All of these parts interact with each other to maintain the
organization’s goal of making money, while appearing
ethical.

Mitch McDeere is an up-and-coming young lawyer with a promising
career coming from little money.
 Agenda: to make something of himself; to become rich; goes
from idealist to realist

Avery Tolar
 Agenda: to survive, but to
have fun and make a little
waves in the process; to be
a philanderer

Oliver Lambert & Company
 Agenda: to control and continue to prosper aiding the
Mob in money laundering; to do anything necessary to
keep up appearances
 “We know you'll do whatever’s necessary to protect the
firm… wont’cha Mitch?”
▪ Oliver Lambert (Pollack, 1993).

Bendini, Lambert, and Locke uses a formal organizational structure.
 However, there are employees not on the proverbial
organizational chart.

Organizational goals for the firm revolve around making money,
whatever the cost.

The firm is a closed system, which enables their secrets to remain
unknown.

There are three main agendas present at the firm.

Mitch McDeere was left in the dark on the business dealings of his
new firm. This shows…
 The absence of coordination between McDeere and the rest of
the firm
 The reluctance and severity of letting their secret out
 There were hidden agendas that McDeere had to find out on his
own.
 The system was closed rather
than open because they used
resources without venturing
outside to get them.

The organizational goals of the firm do not match the strategic
goals and actions.

I believe that the goals for this firm are contradictory because in
order to satisfy clients you must make helping them your main goal.
 Bendini, Lambert, and Locke are incapable
of putting clients first.

The firm’s standards were set high
in outward appearance but
internally set very low.

As the book states, “Organizations are purposeful, goal-oriented
entities,” but when I think of the purpose and goals of the firm in the
movie, they seem to be the same; to make money.
 (Anthony, Gales, & Hodge, 2003).

You would think that the purpose of a law firm would be to help
people, but this law firm was as crooked as it gets.

Social responsibility and ethical
behavior guidelines are nonexistent.
 Without these components,
the firm will lose clients and
eventually fail.

This movie depicted an overall very ineffective organizational
structure, as well as a very unethical firm.

The concepts from our book helped me to judge the firm’s actions
without bias, but with fact.

The organizational goals were not disclosed in the movie outright,
but were decipherable by their actions.

I learned that all of the concepts in
our book are important, but some
are more important than others.

Anthony, W. P., Gales, L. M., & Hodge, B. J. (2003). Organization Theory: A
Strategic Approach (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education,
Inc.

Pollack, S. (Producer and Director). (1993). The Firm [Motion picture].
[With T. Cruise]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Cover Image: The Firm
http://tf.org/images/covers/TheFirmTomCruiseGeneHackman1993-tf.orgfree-2010-movie.jpg

Avery and Mitch Image
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-greenberg-traurig-john-grishams-the-firm2009-10

Avery Tolar Image
http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/993TFM_Gene_Hackman_016.html

Desk Image
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1800191019/photo/538040

Eye
http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u15/Blue_eye.jpg

Oliver Lambert Image
http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/993TFM_Tom_Cruise_010.html

Running Image
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/10question
s/0,30255,1706278_1522782,00.html

The Firm Image
http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/993TFM_Gene_Hackman_009.html

William Devasher Image
http://www.hotflick.net/pictures/993TFM_Wilford_Brimley_003.hml