ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE & CHANGE AGENTS

IN

THE OFFICE, S04E02, DUNDER MIFFLIN INFINITY

Show Summary
NBC ordered a full fourth season of 30 half-hour episodes, but ended with only 19 due to a halt in production caused by the 20072008 Writers Guild of America strike. The season consisted of 9 half-hour episodes, and 5 hour-long episodes to comprise the 19 total episodes of material created. Karen has left the Scranton branch after her breakup with Jim, and becomes regional manager at the Utica branch. Pam and Jim date happily. An unemployed Jan moves in with Michael, until the dissolution of their relationship midway through the season. After Dwight's crude (though well-intentioned) method of euthanasia of Angela's ailing cat without her permission, she leaves him for Andy, leading Dwight into depression. Ryan, in his new corporate life in New York City, attempts to modernize Dunder Mifflin with a new website for online sales; he also learns that his boss, David Wallace, favors Jim, and thus Ryan attempts to sabotage Jim's career. He is soon arrested and fired for committing fraud related to the website's sales numbers. Meanwhile, Kelly moves on from her relationship with Ryan and briefly starts dating Darryl. Toby, embarrassed after accidentally revealing an affection for Pam, announces he is moving to Costa Rica, and is replaced by Holly Flax, who quickly shows fondness towards Michael. Pam decides to follow her artistic interests and attend a three-month graphic design course at the Pratt Institute in New York City, while Jim plans to propose. In the season finale Andy proposes to Angela, who reluctantly agrees, ruining Jim's proposal plans and leaving Pam disappointed. Phyllis then catches Dwight and Angela having sex in the office.i

Cast of Characters
Michael Scott, regional manager of the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, feels he is everyone's best friend in the office; his employees feel otherwise. His former co-manager, sales representative Jim Halpert, is newly married to the former receptionist turned sales representative, Pam Halpert (ne Beesly). Their relationship comes after three seasons of friendship laced with romantic tension.Dwight Schrute, the assistant to the regional manager, is an award-winning salesman and former Lackawanna County volunteer reserve deputy sheriff known for his authoritarian personality and science fiction fandom. There is an ongoing rivalry between Jim and Dwight, whose differing personalities often cause them to be at odds with each other. In one episode, Jim dressed up like Dwight and mocked him in which Dwight called this
1 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

"identity theft." Jim, however, showed considerable kindness to Dwight after he lost his girlfriend, Angela Martin. Ryan Howard, who started out as a temporary worker in the Scranton office, was later promoted to Dunder Mifflin's Vice President for Regional Sales, which would make him Michael's boss, until his treachery was exposed for corporate fraud and he was fired, ending up again as the temporary worker at the Scranton branch. Ryan was later rehired as a salesman by Dunder Mifflin in season five as part of the buyout of the Michael Scott Paper Company. However, he was demoted back to temp as there was only room for one new salesperson and Michael chose Pam for the position. The accounting department features Angela Martin, an admitted uptight Christian who wishes to keep things orderly and make sure situations remain as serious as possible; Kevin Malone, a clueless, overweight man who revels in juvenile humor and frequently indulges himself with gambling and M&Ms; and the patient Oscar Martinez, whose homosexuality and Mexican American heritage make him a favorite target for Michael's off-color comments. Rounding out the office are the stern salesman Stanley Hudson, who barely stands for Michael's constant references to his Black-American heritage (he also doesn't like to take part in Michael's time wasting meetings and sometimes sleeps in them or works on one of his crossword puzzles); Cornell alumnus, anger-management grad and Angela's former fianc Andy Bernard, formerly of theStamford, Connecticut branch office; eccentric quality assurance representative Creed Bratton; the kind and caring saleswoman Phyllis Lapin-Vance, who marries Bob Vance from Vance Refrigeration across the hall from the office; the bubbly and talkative customer service representative Kelly Kapoor; the depressed, alcoholic single mother supply relations representative Meredith Palmer; and frequent target of Michael's abuse, human resources representative Toby Flenderson.

Episode Recap
Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) returns to the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin for the first time since his promotion to the corporate headquarters. Although he sports a much more urbane look and attitude, he garners little respect from his former peers. Ryan introduces "Dunder Mifflin Infinity," his initiative to revitalize the company with new technology. Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is initially excited about the prospect of getting a BlackBerry, but is warned by Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton) that the program is a ploy to get rid of older workers. Creed dyes his hair black with printer ink in an attempt to convince everyone that he's much younger. Michael holds a conference room meeting on the subject of ageism. To show that personal interaction is more effective than new technology, Michael and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) decide to go out and win back the clients they lost in the past year with gift baskets. Each manager they encounter refuses to consider returning to Dunder Mifflin unless the company improves its technology. While driving back to the office, Michael misinterprets his rental car's GPS map system's directions and ends up driving into Lake Scranton. He takes this as further proof that new technology is useless because it "tried to kill him". After the lake incident, he and Dwight walk back to one of the former clients to awkwardly get back their gift basket, causing a scene. Meanwhile, Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) are exposed as a couple when Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) circulates a memo about public displays of affection. Jim secretly informs Pam that Dwight and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) are dating, only to discover that she already knew. Meanwhile, Dwight attempts to make amends for the death of Angela's cat Sprinkles by giving her a stray cat he found in his barn, named Garbage. Angela rejects the gift. Kelly Kapoor (Mindy
2 Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu

Kaling) tries to restart her relationship with Ryan, an effort he ignores until she tells him she's pregnant. After going out to dinner, Ryan learns that Kelly's pregnancy claim was a lie that Kelly used in attempt to get them back together. Back at the office, Ryan asks Pam to create a logo for Dunder Mifflin Infinity. Pam is excited about the opportunity to use her art background, but Ryan uses the logo as an excuse to ask her out, which he does in front of Jim. Pam responds that she's dating Jim, which leaves the new boss thoroughly embarrassed.ii

Discussion Questions
1. Who is the change agent (CA) in this episode? Is (s)he an internal or external agent? 2. Why do Michael and Dwight resist change? What about Stanley and Phyllis? 3. Which of the methods of reducing resistance to change are tried? 4. Does the change agent properly diagnose the problem? 5. Which of the three change techniques does the CA most strongly emphasize?

Solutions
Write to starling@qatar.cmu.edu for to obtain a copy of the solution to this case.
i ii

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Office_(U.S._TV_series)#Season_four http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunder_Mifflin_Infinity#Plot

Starling D. Hunter III 2012 | starling@qatar.cmu.edu| Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar | http://qatar.cmu.edu