Hack:
Combining Web Technology with Film Culture to Improve Organisational Communication

The first responsibility of a HR department is to develop an intranet social media site, specifically based around a film that best reflects the cultural ideology of the company. For the purposes of this Hack we shall call it the Jerry Maguire Intranet Site (JerMIS).

 HR must ensure that each employee has a profile. Unlike Facebook, the profile will be heavily weighted with business information. The profile will contain information about each employee’s past work experiences, their career goals and future aspirations, key skills they wish to develop and their own personal mission statement. More importantly, the profile page will give everyone in the organisation access to information about co-workers. Managers will be able to assess the skill level of their staff and develop stronger teams. In addition, Managers will have access to information that will help improve job satisfaction by aligning staff with roles that challenge and motivate them. 

The Intranet site will have a specific page called the ‘Company Mission Statement’, in which senior management share their vision of the company and its future goals and aspirations. Employees may recognise this from the film, Jerry Maguire. Ultimately, the page will consist of video messages and explicit knowledge through written wording uploaded and updated on a weekly basis. The company mission statement is one of the most important pages of the intranet site, as it is an opportunity for CEO’s to show their leadership qualities by communicating their vision for the company on a regular basis. 

The feedback section entitled, “The things we think and do not say: The future of our business” (Crowe, 1996), will empower employees to offer feedback and suggestions. It will be monitored by Human Resources and fed back to senior management, thus allowing, in turn, for a democracy of information top-down and bottom-up.

In the film Jerry Maguire, ‘Dicky Fox’ appears as Jerry Maguire’s old business mentor. The “Dicky Fox mentoring page offers weekly inspirational quotes and messages from the management team, which can be uploaded onto the site with key motivational tips and suggestions for employee development. The page will also list company training courses as well as the ability of staff to give feedback and suggestions where more training is required. This in turn, empowers employees to improve their skill base. 

Teamwork is essential in most organisations. The Intranet site would benefit from having a teamwork page that is specifically designed to enhance teamwork initiatives and provide activities that will enhance employee performance. In the JerMIS model, the teamwork page features Rod Tidwell. At the beginning of Jerry Maguire, Tidwell is not a team player, and does not achieve his goals because he is thinking about the ‘pay-check’, rather that the needs of his team, hence the saying ‘show me the money’ (Crowe, 1996). Only when he embraces a teamwork ethic does he begin to see results. The film offers a valuable insight into the importance of collaboration and teamwork which can be communicated to employees through the website.

The film Jerry Maguire’s was used for this particular model because the character, Jerry Maguire demonstrates his desire to move towards a more personalised service where passion and leadership is ultimately what drives him to success. It was less about the money and more about inspiration.