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Contact InformationIrish Management InstituteSandyford RoadDublin 16Ireland.john.cullen@imi.ie353 (0) 1 207 8512353 (0) 1 295 9479 - fax

Meaning From MediaThe Silence of the Lambs:Organizational Culture andPolitics

John Cullen

John Cullen is Senior ManagementResearcher at the Centre for ManagementResearch, Irish Management Institute,Dublin, Ireland. He has held managementpositions in academic and statutoryorganizations in Ireland. He has extensiveresearch experience and has published inscholarly and professional journals.

This learning support uses an extract from theAcademy Award winning Silence of the Lambs toboth exemplify an integrated organizational culture and,conversely, organizational obstacles toward goalattainment from political maneuvering by organizationalactors.

PurposeTo facilitate the development of understandingorganizational identity and organizational politics in aclassroom or learning group-based scenario.

ObjectiveEach member of the class or learning group is able toidentify elements of an idealized, integratedorganizational culture, to recognize micro-politicaltactics, and to understand how these tactics are used toobscure or enhance initiative in organizations.

Set-upThis learning design can be utilized when teachingconcepts of organizational culture and identification toundergraduate students or newly appointed managers.It uses a well-known modern classic, JonathanDemmes’ version of Thomas Harris’ best-selling novelThe Silence of the Lambs. The thriller is well known,and its utilization in a learning environment provideswelcome opportunities for organizational newcomers, orundergraduate students, who may not previously havebeen exposed to cultural or political issues inorganizations, to consider these subjects.

ContextThe opening sequence of the film shows a youngtrainee agent, Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster,running the assault course at the FBI Academy. She issummonsed from the course to the office of theDirector of Behavioral Science, Jack Crawford. Thecamera follows her through the corridors of theAcademy until she reaches his office. This sequence ofthe film portrays the culture of the FBI academy asintegrated, physically active, hierarchical, intellectuallyreflective, and professional.

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FFFFForororororum um um um um ArArArArArticticticticticlesleslesleslesFrom this short sequence, a number of culturalclues about the identity of the organization and theexpected behaviors of its members emerges.

ParallelThe class or group should be encouraged to distilthe following elements of the organizationalculture from the sequence.

• Values• Roles• Norms• Behaviors• Environment• Gender relationships• Power distance and relationships

DebriefNote participants’ feedback under above headings(or other ones that they might supply themselves)on flipcharts.

• Ask, “Based on this sequence, how would youdescribe the culture of the FBI?”

• Ask, “How do these compare to organizationsin which you have worked, or know of?”

DevelopmentThroughout the movie, the FBI is portrayed aspossessing an integrated professional bureaucracyculture that utilizes knowledge resources from awide range of knowledge repositories, includingtraditional media libraries and both internal andexternal experts. There are, however, a number ofincidences, where micro-political tactics are usedby individual organizational actors to enact variousgains in pursuing their relations. Two of theseinclude:

• Crawford misleads Starling about his motiva-tions regarding her initial interview withHannibal Lecter. He utilizes Starling’s lack ofknowledge about his motivations to enact anintroduction to this key, but problematic,source of specialized knowledge

• Crawford creates a diversion on the groundsof Starling’s gender to distract a local police

force with the aim of garnering furtherinformation.

ExperienceIt can prove difficult to find examples fromcinema that are both well known and offeropportunities for exploring complex, andsometimes nebulous, concepts such asorganizational culture and politics.Inexperienced actors’ experiences of theseare often widely dispersed. The utilization of awell-known and highly regarded popularthriller offers a common ground to participantsfor reference that enables a clear discussionof this concept which are often hampered byvagueness and varying definitions.

Participants find the utilization of the Silenceof the Lambs interesting in that they areencouraged to look at a film that is an old-favorite of many, in a new light. Studies andreviews of the film usually focus on the qualityof script, direction, and characterization. Thisapproaches advocates seeking out the strongrole that the character of the FBI plays in themovie.

There are two important caveats to beobserved in using the sequences mentionedabove.

1. The film is quite gruesome in parts.Towards the end of the introductorysequence, Starling is faced with a wall ofgraphic pictures of murder victims. It isimportant that this is not shown as it hasthe potential to upset individuals based ontheir culture, personal histories, etc.

2. It is also important to anchor the discus-sion around the issues of micro-politicsand culture in organizational settings, andnot let it descend into a discussion of themovie in general.

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FFFFForororororum um um um um ArArArArArticticticticticlesleslesleslesMeaning from MediaSubmissionsPlease submit what you have experienced as animpactful learning design using media toreinforce group-shared meaning. Send it aswith other Forum articles to the Forum Editorat forum@odjournal.org. The submissionguidelines follow:

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