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The Mary Tyler Moore Show
During my early growing years, my late nights with my mom and sister at times would be spent watching reruns of some of the old popular shows from the 60s, 70s, and 80s which would repeatedly air on the channel Nickelodeon. In the evenings, Nickelodeon would pull away from their daytime routine of broadcasting kid-friendly and related television shows and instead become "Nick at Nite" and have an adult-based theme schedule.
This schedule included shows like the Dick Van Dyke Show, Lucy, Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show, Samford & Son, The Wonder Years, and so many countless others. However, my personal favorite show to watch during this timeframe was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, starring Mary Tyler Moore. While watching the show, I always grew fond of the characters in the show, and really enjoyed the humor that the show would bring to light revolving around a newsroom cast. Little did I know about the impact that the show had back in the 70s, and actually how much the show would teach me about certain aspects of life itself.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show first originally aired back in 1970 and ran until 1977. This show came out at a time when America was in the middle of the women's rights movement. The show is widely viewed as TV's first truly female-dominated sitcom, entailing the life of a single working woman in the 70s trying to make it in a field and industry dominated by men.
In the 40 or so years since the show was airing, so much has changed in terms of how women are viewed and how they operate in today's society. Looking back on it now, it is amazing to see all of the underlying tones which surround the show based simply on the concept of who Mary was in the show - a single working independent woman. But for all of the barriers that the show and the main character helped break through in terms of mainstream America during those times, there was definitely many references throughout the show in which organizational politics took on an underlying tone.
Key Organizational Political Characters Within the Show
Mary Tyler Moore portrayed the character of Mary Richard in the show. Mary Richards' character centered around being a single woman who has recently ended a relationship with a man she helped financially support through medical school, only to then find him still not ready to get married (Napikoski, 2017). After relocating and adjusting to her new surroundings, she finds herself working in a newsroom with a series of male characters' range from being her boss to her coworkers.
The characters ‘Mr. Lou Grant' was played by actor Ed Asner, ‘Murray Slaughter' played by actor Gavin MacLeod, and ‘Ted Baxter' by actor Ted Knight. Mr. Grant served as Mary's boss, Murray was a news writer, and Ted was the Anchorman of the newsroom. Mary served as the Associate Producer of the newsroom. There were many other characters within show, yet I will only speak on the newsroom characters due to the references in relation to organizational politics.
Throughout the show, Mary was much maligned by her boss who - at times - hated her determination, motivation, and spirited guile within the newsroom. And although Mary was the Associate Producer, she often seemed to work for every one of the characters in the newsroom, and was at times viewed as not being equal in terms of her gender and what she represented.
This was never portrayed more evidently than during the opening episode of the third season of the show when she finds out "that the man who previously held her job earned a higher salary. She does stand up for herself, and eventually receives a raise" (Butler, 2017). Throughout the series, Mary's character actually displayed two individual factors in terms of her political behavior: high self-monitor and internal locus of control.
Individual Factors
Mary was viewed as an employee who showcased high self-monitor tendencies by being more sensitive to social cues and was skilled in political behavior (Organizational politics, 2014). In addition, Mary also displayed an aptitude for internal locus of control as she was "more prone to taking proactive stances within her work and lifestyle and attempted to manipulate situations in her life to favor her (Organizational politics, 2014). Mary did a wonderful job portraying these individual factors within her personal and work life throughout the series.
Unlike Mary, her boss Mr. Grant was quite the opposite in the show. Mr. Grant displayed more of a Machiavellian personality in which he was comfortable using politics as a means to further his self-interest (Organizational politics, 2014). However, he did also display the same aptitude for internal locus of control in the workplace, but this was different than how Mary would display hers as his displays came from the view-point and mentality of him being the boss.
Power, Authority, and Influence
Mr. Grant was the ultimate antagonist to Marys' spunkiness. Because of his position as the boss and his general views towards Mary as an individual, Mr. Grant routinely exercised his power and authority over Mary so as to show her who was the boss.
His power motives were defined in needing to manipulate Mary and show his superiority over her (Luthans, F., Luthans, K.W., and Luthans B.C., 2015, p. 281). While Mr. Grant did this to the other employees within the workplace every now and then, he would make it a point to ensure it was done to Mary, and in a more public manner in terms of exercising that power over her in front of everyone else.
In doing so, he also would display his authority over Mary in terms of manipulating her or trying to change her ways within the workplace (Luthans et al., 2015). Throughout the show, this would have a bearing effect on Mary in terms of how she was being influenced. And while Luthans et al., (2015) states that influence is usually conceived of as being broader in scope than power and it involves the ability to alter other people in general ways like changing their satisfaction and performance (p. 282), Mr. Grants' influence over Mary was directly related to how he routinely exercised that power and authority over her.
This type of behavior translated into Mr. Grant showing his power in the form of coercive power. This source of power thrives off of the use of fear; with the person wielding it having the ability to inflict punishment or aversive consequences on another person or, at least, making threats that the other person believes will result in punishment or undesirable outcomes (Luthans et al., 2015, p. 283).
This is exactly the type of mentality that Mr. Grant would try to manipulate on Mary; more so than any of the other characters. Again, the show was around during the age where women's rights was one of the main centerpieces in America's political landscape, and the character of Mr. Grant was showcasing the typical, male egocentric attitude of inferiority over woman from those times.
To Mary's credit, she did her very best to combat the mentality of Mr. Grant throughout the series of the show, and her mentality was more geared towards legitimate power. Although Mary did not have much power in the office, she at times stood up for what she believed; which in this case meant standing up to her boss and even going toe-to-toe with him on some very key issues within the workplace. Yet when she would act in this manner, she would display legitimate power within her internalized values where she felt she had the legitimate right to influence her boss (Luthans et al., 2015, p. 283).
To hold legitimate power means to be able to possess a position where one can reward and punish (Luthans et al., 2015, p. 284). However, Mary was not in a position to do this. Instead, her way of rewarding herself was more through the means of how she would continuously stand-up to her boss for what she felt was right - all while proving him wrong. In addition, she would punish herself when things didn't go her way whether it occurring in her professional or personal lifestyle.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show at a Glance
Over the years, The Mary Tyler Moore Show tackled various issues dealing with equal pay, divorce, "career vs. family," sexuality and a woman's reputation. The real strength of the show was that it realistically portrayed a variety of characters, including women, who were fully defined individuals apart from their encounters with topical issues of the 1970s. Part of what made Mary such a unique character was that she was normal by anyone's standards.
She was social in terms of her interactions with co-workers and friends, she dating and didn't shy away from her personal feelings towards the opposite sex, she encountered troubles in life from a professional and personal standpoint, and she was likable and easygoing. However, viewing the show with organizational political point of view, it is intriguing to see just how these political behaviors clashed with the beliefs and norms from such a different time in America.