The Internship: Significance of Group Communication and Working Relationships
The Internship is a film that follows two retired salesmen as they attempt to prove that they are not obsolete by talking their way into one of Google's coveted internships. The film examines the significance of group communication, how individuals should conduct themselves at an interview, and working relationships.
Communication Strategies and Processes in An Interview
An interview, as employed by Nick and Billy in the film, involves a variety of communication strategies and processes. To begin, it is to respond directly to queries. In most cases, the questions that most candidates find somewhat odd cause them to stop in their responses. However, when dealing with Elite candidates, they are usually not taken aback and go directly to the point. For instance, the interviewers asked them “You are shrunken down to the size of nickels and dropped to the bottom of the blender. What do you do? (Vaugh & Levy, n.p). However, the two candidates do not hesitate to answer and give equally off-beat responses that involve a submarine. Their answers tend to show that they are creative thinkers as well as enthusiasts and humorous. Secondly, interviewees should cite relevant experience while answering their questions. For instance, when the interviewer made it clear that “Once this blender is on, it's on forever” (Vaugh & Levy, n.p), Nick decided to cite a life experience that would end up getting him out of the blender. He answered this particular question by claiming that him and his partners sold blenders, hence even the best model would run for approximately 10 or 11 hours only. This means that in the end, they would still get out. He said “We sold blenders and even the best model in the world is gonna run maybe 10 or 11 hours. So we’re getting out…” (Vaugh & Levy, n.p). Thirdly, one should refine the various conditions of a hypothetical situation. In some cases, the interviewers tend to make one speculate on answers. However, Nick and Bill demonstrate how they would get out of the blender and eventually save lives. Through their answers, Nick and Bill demonstrated their attitudes for changing the entire world as well as their abilities to be great talkers.
The Importance of Diversity in Group Projects
Normally, appropriately structured group projects tend to reinforce different skills that are usually relevant to both individual and group work. This is because teams tend to bring about diverse groups of individuals who incorporate a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, personalities, and ideas. Group diversity may also be based on the various informational differences that reflect on an individual’s education, experience, as well as values and goals. Diversity in groups ensures better performance when it comes to creative tasks. For instance, in this particular case, Nick and Billy are grouped with college interns to compete as a team against other interns on a number of tasks. However, their team members tend to have special qualities that set them apart from the rest. Stuart is normally engrossed on his mobile phone, Yoyo is a Filipino-America with an Asian mother who is stereotypically overbearing, Neha is an Indian-American who is obsessed with nerd-related Kink, and Lyle the team leader who hides his insecurities by acting fashionable. Graham is another individual who tends to bully members of this team. On one of the tasks given to them, Neha tends to see Nick and Billy as useless on a specific task that was focused on debugging. This made them lose the task as a result of a lack of teamwork and cooperation. However, in the end, Billy tends to rally the team to a comeback that unifies them as one. They are able to show one of the local pizzeria owners ways in which Google can assist him to interact with clients while expanding his business and maintaining his professional values. This shows that organizations have diverse and unique individuals with different abilities, and when they work together, there is nothing they cannot achieve.
The Impact of Workplace Relationships
Workplace relationships are considered unique interpersonal relationships with important implications for the persons in those relationships, as well as for the organizations in which the relationships exist and develop. These relationships usually affect an employee’s ability to succeed. In this particular case, Nick and Dana tend to have a relationship that has both positive and negative effects. This is because Nick tends to flirt with Dana, who is an executive at Google, with very little success. As a result, he starts to attend clinical presentations with the aim of impressing her. Through this, he ends up developing a special interest in the material. In the end, Dana agrees to Nick’s demand and they plan to go out on a date. The negative implication is that most organizations forbid one from getting into an intimate relationship or going out on a date with a co-worker. In this particular case, we see that Nick is directing most of his energy into impressing Dana the manager instead of dedicating his time to the success of his team. Teamwork requires the dedication of all the members, and lack of cooperation from one of them can lead to failures. In this case, Billy was working hard to motivate the team members to complete the tasks while Nick was away trying to impress Dana. As a result, the team lost, which made Billy quit the job. The positive implication of the relationship between Dana and Nick is that it motivated Nick to take part in clinical presentations, which he eventually got interested in. However, relationships between subordinates and supervisors can create potential problems because other individuals would claim that one received preferential treatment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is evident that teamwork is a crucial part of the organization because it brings individuals from diverse backgrounds together, leading to improved performance. Additionally, workplace relationships can have both positive and negative implications depending on the bond between the individuals.
Work Cited
Vaugh Vince & Levy Shawn. The Internship. (2013)
