Study of

Organizational Behaviour
from the movie
Movie in Summary
The Pursuit of Happyness follows Chris Gardner as he struggles to achieve
his dream.

Chris has everything going against him. His wife left him and he's raising
his 5-year-old son alone, without any real income.

Determined to provide for his son Christopher no matter what, Chris

enters an unpaid internship program at a brokerage firm in hopes of landing
the one paid position available at the end of the training program.

Finally Chris succeeds in his dream to become a stock broker.

What is it about and why is it Important?

 The Pursuit of Happyness, the whole story rotates around

Chris Gardner, his struggles to reach top and finding that
success and how he acted during his various encounters
with various types of people.

 Several scenes in the movie exhibit few theories viz.,

MBTI theory, Self Efficacy and Goal-Setting theory, Maslow's
hierarchy of needs, Self Motivation, Determination,
Perception.
 The main character of the movie, Chris Gardner, is not hesitant to
talk to the superiors of the brokerage company, and is very assertive
in doing so.

He is sociable with all of the colleagues and businessmen he

meets during his internship at the company

 According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI), He is an

individual who is extraverted, outgoing, sociable, and assertive
behaviour.
Self Efficacy and Goal Setting:

 The specificity of Chris Gardner's goal to become stock broker

itself seems act as an internal stimulus.

 The goal set by him is not so easy, it is difficult to reach the

position what he is dreaming.

 When goals are difficult, people persist in trying to attain them.

Chris did the same and his high self efficacy motivated him a lot.

 Self Efficacy and Goal Setting don't compete with one another;
rather, they complement each other.
Equity Theory & Visualization:
Equity Theory
Chris to Employee of Dean Witter:
Man, I got two questions for you:
What do you do? And how do you do it?

Employee : I'm a stockbroker.

Chris : Stockbroker. Oh, goodness.

Chris compares himself with an of employee of Dean Witter.

 Based on equity theory who perceive inequality will make one of six choices
and Chris made a choice to quit the work of selling bone density scanners and
chosen to become stock broker.

 Chris enjoyed the idea of becoming a stock broker, and knew that becoming
one would make him happy.
Visualization:

 In the book Gardner talks about a life-changing encounter: In a parking

lot he met a well-heeled gentleman who was driving a red Ferrari.

 He had to know what this person did and how he did it. Turns out the
gentleman was in the financial services industry, making a great living by
mostly talking to people on the phone.

 At the time they met, Chris was selling medical supplies, driving all over
town and barely getting by. He thought, “Hey — I can talk to people from
a desk in a nice office, avoid parking tickets and get the car of my
dreams … that’s what I want to do!”

 And from that point on, no matter how difficult things became, Chris
held on to his vision of what he wanted. What pictures are we holding in
our mind on a daily basis.
Self Motivation and Determination:
Humans are driven to achieve the maximum point of goal at some
point of their lives regardless of any obstacles and hindrances.

His wife Linda decided to exit her relationship with him and moved to
New York. She left because she was not happy with the current situation,
and went to seek it elsewhere, away from Chris .

At one point of time, he is homeless and couldn't get a place to stay
and sleeps in metro station toilet along with his son Christopher.

Besides all these problems he finally achieved his goal with his self
motivation.

Chris Gardner was determined throughout to succeed, even when

various challenges were thrown his way he was determined in his Pursuit
of Happiness
The Interview:
 Perception:
 To be more particular, Stereotyping plays a major role before interview

 Before interview, perception about Chris was different among interview

panel which got entirely changed after the interview.

Below conversation explains their perception about Chris

Interviewer: What would you say if a man walked in here with no shirt , and
I hired him ?
Chris Gardner: He must have had on some really nice pants.

 Before interview, entire panel's perception about Chris was stereotyping.

It was due to the way he dressed and the way he entered the room.

 But after the interview it was completely changed thanks to his

explanation and the way he projected himself in front of the panel
 This showed that perception is based on Halo effect – a
tendency to draw a general impression about an individual on
the basis of a single characteristic (wise, intelligence, sociability)

 In Chris Gardner’s case, it was his explanation

“I'm the type of person that if you ask me a question and I don't
know the answer, I'm gonna tell you that I don't know. But I bet
you what, I know how to find the answer and I will find the
answer.”

 These words created an positive impression about Chris and his

attitude which made them to select him for the internship
program.
Hierarchy of Needs Theory:
 Physiological:

Chris became nomad and needs a shelter very badly. Once physical
needs are fulfilled other needs arise.

 Safety:

The safety needs, when he had paid taxes of amount $600, and left
with $21 he meets Wayne, to get his $14 from him but fails, then he
finds his scanner and successfully sells it the Doctor to make some
money.

 Social:

Chris is a social animal from the beginning which helped him more
during internship program to sign 31 accounts for Dean Witter.
You want something, Go get it
 Self-Esteem:
Chris decreases his son’s expectancy by telling him that he probably won’t be
able to play basketball well, no matter how hard you try.

But after a moment, Chris tells his son that he can accomplish anything, the
situation completely turns around. Chris’s son believes in himself again and his
self-esteem becomes higher.

 Self –Actualisation:

The words, “You want Something. Go get it. Period,” is a moment of realization
for both Chris and his son.

We can see his self-actualization9 to do well for himself and his son is to drive &
achieve the goal that he established. He seems to be a person that doesn’t give
up.
In Short......

 Motivation

 Pursuit
 Determination

 Journey
The significance of Y in the title:

 The spelling of happiness in the title of this movie is wrong. But it's wrong on
purpose, the reality is Chris Gardner saw happiness misspelled on a wall of
graffiti of his child’s playschool and it had an impact on his turnaround.

 The "y" makes us look twice at the word, and consider what is wrong. The
misspelling causes us not to take happiness for granted.

 Also the Y in the book and Movie title is deliberately kept that way to denote
“You” and “Your Happiness” i.e. What makes you Happy.

 Every has different definition of Happiness, so its all about you and your
happiness, not in a negative way or disrespectful way but What makes you
fulfilled what brings you Joy
Chris finds his “Happ-’y’-ness”
Thank You