EOC: WEEK 3: Nine to Five 25th Movie Anniversary

• The film was developed from just a concept "Secretaries want to kill their bosses". What market research techniques were used to develop the screenplay? What specific processes that are in the book or discussed in class were used?
• What ethical issues were parts of the plot line of the actual film? Although we did not watch the actual film, there were many ethical dilemmas referenced. What were they? How were they resolved?

Market research techniques that were used to develop the screenplay for "9 to 5" were exploratory, descriptive, and causal research.

• 1. Exploratory: Conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover ideas that may be potential business opportunities.     
• 2. Descriptive: Describes characteristics of objects, people, groups, organizations, or environments; tries to “paint a picture” of a given situation.
• 3. Causal: Allows causal inferences to be made; seeks to identify cause-and-effect relationships.

The use of exploratory research was to find out why women hated going to work, and even more specific, why women hated their bosses. Utilizing interviews allowed for screenwriters to understand women's opinion on working conditions and how they were treated back then. "Researchers usually undertake exploratory research with the full expectation that more research will be needed to provide more conclusive evidence. Using exploratory research can sometimes also make the difference in determining the relevance of follow-up research." Descriptive research was used to describe the vision of the movie. Movie scenes, which actresses played which roles, the decision to make the movie a comedy, plot lines, and everything that was need to produce the movie had to be described and finalized in order to receive any funding for production. "Marketing managers frequently need to determine who purchases a product, portray the size of the market, identify competitors' actions, and so on. Descriptive research addresses who, what, when, where, why, and how questions." Causal research seeks cause and effect relationships, therefore, the effect of the movie's debut could have brought about a negative or a positive response from their target audience. This type of research is done by the researcher who has the better understanding of what is being studied. All events and movie releases had to be sequenced and finalized by certain deadlines. "Causal research attempts to establish that when we do one thing, another thing will follow."

Ethical issues highlighted in "9 to 5" and their resolutions in the movie:

• Exploitation: The antagonist boss Mr. Hart (Dabney Coleman), is known for pursuing subordinates for information and taking it as his own. He refused to promote Violet (Lily Tomlin), with the assumption that clients prefer to do business with men.
• Sexual Harassment: Mr. Hart tries to begin an affair with his secretary Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton) in the workplace. Even after she refuses, because she is happily married, he spreads rumors about them, resulting in isolation from everyone else in the office for Doralee.
• Sexism: Mr. Hart strongly believes that men are superior to women, especially in the work force.
• Favoritism: Mr. Hart finds those who will do anything for him to stay ahead, like his assistant Roz Keith (Elizabeth Wilson) who eavesdrop on everything and everyone in the office.

The biggest solution to all these ethical issues is the movie "9 to 5" itself because it encourages awareness. In the 80's, women were fighting to become apart of the workforce as equals to men and many other issues were addressed in this movie to also spark some societal changes. The more humorous approach to solving these issues were happily demonstrated in the movie; kidnapping the boss, spiking the boss's coffee, threats to shoot him, and blackmail.