Analysis of the depiction of 'organisational culture' in the show Modern Family

Show: Modern family

Character: Claire Dunphy

Modern Family revolves around three different types of families (nuclear, step- and same-sex) living in the Los Angeles area, who are interrelated through Jay Pritchett and his children, daughter Claire and son Mitchell. The show has 11 seasons airing between September 23, 2009, to April 8th 2020 and is the longest-running comedy series on ABC. It revolves around themes like “family sticks together”, “an adaption of technology”, “Parenting and lifestyle”.

Jay's daughter Claire was a homemaker but has returned to the business world. She is now the chief executive of her father's business, Pritchett's Closets and Blinds. She is married to Phil Dunphy, a realtor and a self-professed "cool dad". They have three children: Haley, a stereotypically ditzy teenage girl Alex, an intelligent but nerdy middle child] and Luke, the offbeat only son.

Claire was a stay-at-home mom until the fifth season when she started to work for her father at Pritchett's Closets & Blinds. The company later merges with a newer one later on the series prompting Claire to get a job as Senior VP at Organize ‘Em.

The organisational culture that defines work at Prichett’s closets and blinds is that of the first one in our brief:

Motivation, personality, self-efficacy, organizational commitment, need for achievement and self-leadership.

If we view Claire as an employee in Prichett’s closets and blinds, we would find all the above organisational culture qualities in the company. When Claire joins the job at his father’s company “Prichett’s Closets and Blinds”, she is hesitant and does not want to be seen as the boss’s daughter. She tries to show her peers that they can share information with her and don’t need to be scared of her. She is always motivated and works on weekends endlessly even if it’s her father’s company for the betterment of the company. Once her project idea is rejected because it has been already made in the past by the creative team, she then goes on to read the entire history of closets and blinds, so that she is aware of the industry and older designs.

Apart front her self-motivation that she has to prove her worth to her father, her father Jay also motivates her for working in a hard but rational way as he does with other employees. Later, when Claire takes the post of CEO and when her father resigns, Claire does everything to keep the employees motivated so that the company gets profits. She even installs a dance machine for employees for relaxation. When the company goes in losses, Claire also sticks to budget cuts as the other employees.

Claire tries to maintain the legacy and terms of her father, but later, she has to decide whether she wants her company merged with a new tech-oriented closet start-up. She explains to her father how their company needs to adapt to technology or else they will fall behind and hence merges her company with the new startup and becomes an employee there. Even when she loses her position as CEO, she still does what she thinks is the best for the company and her employees.

Prichett’s Closets and Blinds is a perfect example of self-leadership, as the company was started by Jay to fulfil his objective of making people’s lives more comfortable. He kept innovating and finding ways through which lifestyle can be made easier which is later continued by Claire with equal enthusiasm.