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Allison Valvo
5/4/15
Organizational Communication
Final Application Paper
Communication Concepts Connecting to Scandal
Throughout the length of this class weve learned concepts that can relate to many
aspects of not only work life but to relationships with everyone, and even the things we see on
television and other such aspects of life. Looking more in depth to television shows we can relate
many of the concepts to the show, Scandal. Scandal is based in Washington DC, where Kerry
Washington plays the part of Olivia Pope, the high stakes lawyer who makes the problems go
away for a living (Scandal, 2015). Her law-firm is really a crisis management firm which
serves for clients whos crisis could ruin their lives. Olivia Pope is well known in the upper class,
serving to fix people at their lowest moments, and fighting to save these peoples reputations
(Scandal, 2015). While being the fixers that they are, they also demonstrate a multitude of
organizational communication concepts that are also found and explained throughout our
textbook, Organizational Communication Foundations, Challenges and Miscommunications.
While reading the textbook, its fair to assume that Olivia and her team are the current
members and in many cases the mangers, and any new clients or associates to them are the
employees- seeing as they are coming into the firm as interested clients. The clients are coming
to them with their problems, just as future employees come the businesses with job requests. The
concepts are seen intensively in this sense and can be applied appropriately in this aspect.
Olivias primary and constant clients are those in the government. She is the first call for
the President of the United States, to everyone in the held positions below, and is known highly

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for her ability to make their problems go away. Her team is comprised of an outspoken
investigator, a covert operative who is a specialized hacker and spy, and a lawyer, each of which
have their own little secrets (Scandal, 2015). Having a multitude of strings to be able to pull and
having close relations with very important people is what they rely on to be able to operate.
Olivia Pope and Associates is compromised of a highly capable group of people all from
different backgrounds and job statuses to form this organizational team. In Chapter 11, in
Organizational Communication Foundations, Challenges and Miscommunications it discusses
organizational teams. In the powerful, high-stakes world that they work in, its important to
understand how to work together as a team and in Scandal they portray the concept in an
exceptional way. Working together the team must look into the client, work to protect them, as
well as simultaneously working to get to the bottom of the crisis. This show is a great example of
how to work well in a team, because despite all their differences, they each know that they must
work together and do their part to reach the goal. Work teams are units that are responsible for
providing services (Modaff, Butler, DeWine, 2012). And that is exactly what Olivia Pope and
Associates does. She was able to connect her team with the environment creating a strong,
effective, and productive work strategy. She knows how to speak to the media, how to respond to
requests, and demonstrates how to do so to her clients. Another connection she has to the
environment is connections to attorneys, and government officials which insures that shes able
to get the results needed.
To be an effective team there must be several criteria that must be met to ensure the
success of a team. These steps include a clear and engaging direction, basic work designed to be
done by a team, rewards associated with team effort, physical resources that are readily available,

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the team (not just the leader) has authority to make decisions over basic work strategies, the team
can articulate clear goals that fit within a specific time, and the team must establish norms that
will promote strategic thinking (Modaff, Butler, DeWine, 2012). While keeping these steps in
mind we can think about the team that Olivia Pope has, in every case that they take on they
follow these steps to ensure success. Each episode portrays an image of an effective team,
because its always known what jobs need to be done and that one person cant do everything, so
a team is necessary. Theres a lot of trust put into the team to make the right decisions to aid in
the success of each case. Communication and collaboration is key in working in a successful
team, each team member must know how to do their job effectively and is expected to do such
while making appropriate judgement calls along the way (Heathfield, n.d). Theres always
physical resources that are available, as mentioned earlier with all the connections and
relationships that are had. They know what needs to be done and how to do it within the
specified time lot because everything has a time limit especially when the government and media
are involved.
Along with effective teams come co-worker communication, you cant have an effective
team without the participation of co-workers who are working towards the goal together. In
Chapter 10 of Organizational Communication Foundations, Challenges and
Miscommunications, we see concepts such as relationships in the work place, both romantic and
not, and the development of them. As stated in the book, and seen in the show it is important to
not put a boundary on relationships that take place in the work place because they are hard to
stop from happening. Relationships can happen both friendly and romantic, so easily in the work
place because of the close proximity all the time. There are examples of both type in Scandal.

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The closeness of Olivia Pope and Associates is stronger than most other firms which means
along with closeness comes the development of relationships. Being the type of crisis
management firm that they are they dont have set hours, they are always on the clock ready to
help whenever called, so being close comes with the job but they cant let it get in the way of
their job. In the show, there are many friendly relationships that happen, but thats not where the
problems lie. Romantic relationships are the problem area where they can and have gotten in the
way of the work (both in the team, and in clients work). This has become nothing but a norm
now, however, seeing that about 85% of 18-29 year old workers have a romantic relationship
with a co-worker (Rampenthal, 2012). Theres many ways to deal with these relationships within
the work, and its explored within the context of Organizational Communication Foundations,
Challenges and Miscommunications, but as stated earlier its hard to keep relationships from
happening which is proven with the statistic.
Being the crisis management firm that they are they have to use a bunch of different
tactics to gain information to any newcomer who comes into contact with the group. These
concepts are seen in Chapter 8 as well as demonstrated thought the show. The one that is used
most often is overt questioning, this is when the information is being asked in a direct, straight
forward manner. This is usually the job of Olivia, she talks directly to the clients and gets down
to the root of the problem by asking her clients directly to tell her everything relating to the
subject. Her team usually uses techniques such as third-party questioning to dig up dirt on the
client, as well as observation and surveillance where you watch and reflect on conversations and
behaviors made by the client and those related to the case. Using all these tactics to get to the

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bottom of the problem and gather as much information as they can is the way of seeking
information on the newcomer and being able to trust them to ultimately fix them.
It is stated that new employees should collect as must information about the organization
as possible, and employers must consider each new employee and determine what approach will
work best for them (Modaff, Butler, DeWine, 2012, pg. 170). This is exactly how Olivia deals
with her clients, the clients come to her because they all know that she is the best of the best and
she is the fixer, the one who can make problems go away. She considers each client on a base by
base process where she listens to the problems and finds a way to reach the desired conclusion.
The way that Olivia treats the people that she works with is very important. If looking at
Olivia as the Superior and, in this case, the subordinates being the others who work on her team,
we can see the relationship effectively portrayed. This superior-subordinate relationship is
explained in chapter 9 of our text and the guidelines for an effective relationship as well as the
reasoning behind why one is important is stated, as well as seen in Scandal. Theres many
reasons why maintaining acceptable relationships are important: first, the subordinate serves as
an important channel of informal communication to the supervisor, secondly the subordinates
satisfaction with the relationship may have a direct impact on the supervisors satisfaction and
the subordinates overall job satisfaction, and lastly the supervisors performance is dependent on
the performance of the subordinate. (Modaff, Butler, DeWine, 2012, pg. 175). This is shown in
the relationships Olivia hold with others in her firm, she has a relationship with all her
subordinates to ensure they can communicate in any way needed to ensure positive results,
whether it be about their personal lives or about the task they are able to communicate easily.
Both Olivia and her co-workers must be satisfied in their relationship or their team will not work

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efficiently because effective communication is needed to ensure satisfaction in all parties
involved. Lastly, if Olivias team doesnt do their jobs during each case then Olivia wouldnt get
the positive results that is needed to fix the situation. Working together and having that effective
relationship goes a long way in ensuring the success of everyone involved.
In Chapter 9 it covers Gender and Emotion in the workplace. This relates heavily to the
show because Olivia Pope, the one in charge, is a women. There are a lot of negative outlooks to
a women being in charge and its said that its not found in many organizations but the show
ensures and demonstrates that a women can be in charge and be just as productive as a man.
Olivia beats the stereotypes and shows that women are capable of running a highly successful
firm, as proven by her extraordinary client list and top notch profession. Being a women she is
expected to be more emotional and caring then her male counterparts, but she puts this
assumption to rest quickly. She is in a very high powered position and knows how to stick it to
someone when need be, she knows how to communicate effectively with her clients and workers,
and knows how to get the job done. Being a women doesnt mean that they can lead, they do
have a different leadership style which allows them to be well-rounded people, they invest in
themselves and become knowledge seekers who arent afraid to express themselves (Llopis,
2014). She strives for success and excellence just as any other leader would do, no matter the
gender the same goal is always pursued (Llopis, 2015).
Many of the people who are connected to Olivia Pope are connected to her because they
had some type of encounter with her and her colleges in the past. These people become a part of
her organization in one way or another whether they are brought in to aid in the crisis resolution
or they can get information for the team (background check, access to top secret information, or

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answers to government issues). These people are brought in because of their expertise in a
subject of interest and the reassurance that they can bring accurate information to the table.
Olivia Pope and Associates are able to dig up information on people, whether they are clients or
future employees. Having the high skill and access to information, they are able to take trolling
to a new level. They can look past the simple Facebook profiles and other sites people may use,
but actually get background checks and dig up any information they can get their hands on
insuring that they arent getting any misrepresentation or that their client isnt leaving anything
out. This is part of the realistic recruitment process, where the employer attempts to anticipate
and address misunderstandings before they occur (Modaff, Butler, DeWine, 2012, pg. 144).
While watching the television show, Scandal, its easy to interpret and pick out
key factors that accurately portray the concepts in Organizational Communication
Foundations, Challenges and Miscommunications. When thinking about the show as an
organization its clear all the factors that are relevant and positively displayed. Being a crisis
management firm, its important for them to have positive relationships, know how to
communicate with associates and clients, and work as a team to get the crisis solved. The
communication concepts all relate which show the effective way of communicating and
functioning in the workplace.

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References
Heathfield, S. (n.d.). Tips for How to Build Successful Work Teams. Retrieved from http://
humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/twelve_tip_team_2.htm
Llopis. (2014). The Most Undervalued Leadership Traits Of Women. Retrieved from http://
www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/02/03/the-most-undervaluedleadership-traits-of-women/
Llopis. (2015). Six Characteristics Define 21st Century Leadership. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2015/04/01/six-characteristics-define-21stcentury-leadership/2/
Rampenthal. (2012). Is Workplace Dating Really Off Limits? Retrieved from http://
www.inc.com/chas-rampenthal/dating-in-the-office-is-it-legal.html
Modaff, D., Butler, J., DeWine, S. (2012). Organizational Communication Foundations,
Challenges and Miscommunications. Glennville, IL: Pearson Education.
Scandal Cast Members, Characters and Stars. (2015). Retrieved from http://abc.go.com/shows/
scandal/cast

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