The Theme of Motivation in the Film 'Boiler Room'

The film Boiler Room (2001), directed by Ben Younger, a crime drama thriller is a fictional account of Seth Davis' (Giovanni Ribisi) involvement in a corrupt brokerage firm named JT Marlin, which builds the trust of their clients, by showing them gains on non-existent companies before manipulating that trust by enticing investors to stake larger investments, which will ultimately fail, as the demand for such investments is artificial. Such firms in the film are referred to as 'chop shops'.

Before employment at JT Marlin, Seth was a college dropout of Queens College, who ran an illegal casino from his home, which catered for a small number of trusted clients, which his father, Marty(Ron Rifkin) ,an established judge in the community, resented. Through the casino, Seth was introduced to Greg (Nicky Katt), who offered him a job working as a trainee for JT Marlin, where he was promised him a more lucrative and stable career.

In pursuit of greater wealth and his father's approval, he accepted Greg's offer by becoming a trainee at the firm, which would eventually allow him to become a licensed broker. During his employment at JT Marlin, Seth became increasingly inquisitive of the firm's conduct and repeatedly questioned how his colleagues were able to obtain such high commissions from each trade, before finding out the true nature of the firm's activities. This occurs when Seth visited the offices of Med Patent Technologies where he realises that the so-called offices are more or less non-existent. This brings Seth to the conclusion that his employer is violating major NASD and SCC regulations. Seth later discoveres that his involvement in the firm is being strictly monitored by the FBI to whom he later makes a plea bargain by deciding to act as a whistleblower.

In this research paper, the author intends to assess the concept of motivation from several perspectives, mainly from the perspective of the main character, Seth. In this paper, the author will assess the degree to which Seth was motivated and the factors that contributed to this type of motivation. The author will also assess how Seth became motivated to perform unethical acts and equally what forced Seth to become disengaged in his tasks.

                                    Inside JT Marlin 

JT Marlin, as previously explained was a New York based 'chop shop' located over "a good hour away from Wall Street". The firm is identical to the stereotypical Wall Street firm that has a powerful masculine culture in which its member displayed high levels of self-confidence, arrogance and narcissism, which reinforced a utilitarian mindset. This pervasive culture is evident by the constant activity and aggressive sale pitches for "the next big thing".  All of the employees adopt Seth's initial attitude that "the honour is in the dollar" and strive to achieve higher commissions each month.

Seth's first impressions of the organization are heavily influenced by a group interview hosted by JT Marlin's head recruiter, Jim Young (Ben Affleck). In his speech, Young's transactional style leadership motivates the "money hungry" interviewees by clearly outlining the rewards that can be attained at the firm.

"Become an employee of this firm, you will make your first million within three years. I'm gonna repeat that. You will make one million dollars within three years of your first day of employment at JT Marlin. There is no question as to whether or not you will become a millionaire working here, the only question is how many times over."

Using Vroom's expectancy theory of motivation , the audience witnesses Jim increasing the valence of each "money hungry" trainee by outlining the admiration and money that can be accomplished by achieving one's goals. From a Maslovian stance, not only does Jim appeal to the trainees lower-order needs, but he also appeals to their higher-order needs by emphasising that the opportunities at the firm are limitless. He also McClelland's Theory of Needs, the need for achievement, power and affiliation, to motivate trainees. In Seth's case, these needs include becoming a successful broker (nAch), becoming rich (nPow) and building a closer relationship with his father (nAff). ( Robbins and Judge, 2013)          

                                  Typical JT Marlin Employee

As mentioned during the group interview, the employees of JT Marlin are all comprised of young people. At this age, people like Seth are typically more 'money hungry' and don't care how they get it as long they get it. Using Kohlberg's stages of moral development which analyses its subjects from a cognitive development perspective, the author believes that Seth can be found to be at a conventional level of moral reasoning that is conformity driven. By taking employment at JT Marlin, Seth is trying to abide by social norms, motivated mainly in pursuit of his father's approval and a sustainable long-term profession. This, the author believes is an ideal candidate for such a firm as the organisation will be able to shape their behaviour into a self-interested, results driven entity explaining why the firm only trains new brokers and why, on reflection, Seth refers to Jim's speech as being similar to a 'Hitler Youth Rally', as opposed to a group interview. (Munsey, 1980)

Upon realising the unethical conduct that the firm undertakes, Seth's implicit ethical attitudes which are "introspectively unidentified (or inaccurately identified) traces of past experience that mediate favourable or unfavourable feeling, though or action towards social objects" (Greenwald and Banaji, 1995) regarding such behaviour at the firm differ from that of the current employees which more than likely derives from his father's profession (strong legalistic position), who would have been obliged to severely punish the white-collar crime that was being carried out at the firm. As a result of his orientation, Seth, especially from dealing with Harry (Taylor Nichols), feels increasingly morally responsible for "destroying people's lives" whereas characters such as Chris (Vin Diesel) and Greg over time seem to have embraced an egotistical orientation in which their Machavellianistic orientation characterises a pre-conventional level. As a defence, they may believe that the loyal agent argument, i.e. that they were "just following orders", would suffice should the federal authorities ever become aware of their unscrupulous acts adopting a stance that Anand et al. (2004) refer to as a 'Denial of Responsibility'.

Interestingly, in Chris and Greg's case, their portrayed self-interested, loose moral behaviour and ignorance of a societal perspective can be related to the experiences of Geraint Anderson who, in his highly acclaimed book Cityboy: Beer And Loathing In The Square Mile (2008), refers to non-fictional versions of Chris and Greg as having a "boys" mentality despite being fully grown adults that amass vast sums of money each year. Geraint, in a follow-up documentary (2011), also asserts that individuals that had reaped the rewards of such corrupt capitalistic enterprises, now find that their commissions have been substantially reduced, and as such implies that their roles no longer identifies with their self-concepts in the absence of an instrumental value, which contradicts Jim's assumption that money can buy happiness and reinforces Hertzberg's view as pay as a hygiene factor. 

                        Motivational Orientation : Extrinsic Motivation

JT Marlin is an organisation that supports those that have an extrinsic orientation in that tasks such as cold calling is, in many respects, a simple, predictable and straightforward task. ( Pittman, Emery and Boggiano, 1982) There are not selling to clients because they value the work as inherently interesting, but because it leads to a separable outcome, which in this case is financial gain, which is used to facilitate esteem and status needs as they will be able to purchase materialistic goods that would have eluded them otherwise. As suggested by Deci and Ryan (1985) in order for intrinsic motivation to be either facilitated or enhanced, employees must possess a perceived level of competence as well as autonomy in their tasks. Some may even go further to suggest that JT Marlin undermine intrinsic motivation of its employees by placing a tangible reward i.e. money on the performance. Seth is extrinsically motivated because he, like everyone else at JT Marlin is working there for the instrumental value of becoming rich and to gain the necessary competencies and experiences that will ultimately gain his father's approval.

The Organismic Integration Theory developed by Ryan and Deci (1985) above helps us to clarify the different levels of extrinsic motivation present amongst the employees at JT Marlin. With employees like Chris and Greg, within this framework, it would appear that they would both fall into the category of introjected regulation an "... internal regulation that is still quite controlling because people perform such actions with the feeling of pressure in order to avoid guilt or anxiety or to attain ego-enhancements or pride" (Ryan & Deci, 2000: 62) Throughout the film, it is evident that brokers are attempting to close the most number of sales, and as a result, the goal of who can achieve the highest number of closures and receive the highest levels of commission each month acts as a source of motivation amongst employees which can consequentially enhance the employees self-esteem and self-efficacy. Nonetheless, such was the enthusiasm of Jim in the group interview and Chris talking to Dr. Jacobs (Peter Maloney), one may suggest that their perceived locus of causality may be of a more internal orientation, the author believes that the win-lose culture and drive for external rewards are the most dominant orientations suggesting an external/somewhat external perceived locus. Such a "carrot and stick" approach appears to have been effective for most of the film as the high performers were motivated by the tangible rewards, status and freedom that could be derived as a result, indicating that such workers are driven by "self interest". Given the narrow and simplistic nature, however as Dan Pink (2009) notes that such reward systems promotes thinking on a short-term basis, which in JT Marlin's case was profit at all cost "by focusing on ends, rather than the means."( Ordonez et al., 2009: 12) Perhaps, such an approach to performance management was the downfall of the organisation as had the firm focused more so on facilitating intrinsic motivation, the employees may have realised that such practices could not be sustained over a prolonged period or even could put in place more efficient mechanisms to avoid getting caught. Instead of prominent figures such as Greg and Chris asking questions, they conform in order to avoid termination, creating a sense of learned helplessness within the organisations confines.

Such actions as noted by Ryan & Deci (2000) are not experienced as part of the self and have an EPLOC, as such behaviours are not inherently part of an individual's make-up.  Although Seth may display signs of introjected regulation e.g. pressure to close 40 accounts to impress his co-workers. he appears to show a "somewhat internalistic" locus of causality. His behaviour appears more self-determined, this form of extrinsic motivation Seth displays for the most part is regulation through identification. Seth accepts the action as being personally important. His realises the value of his activity as he believes that it will assist him in his career. Two sources that this form of motivation derives from is evident in the movie a) from Seth's father, who appears to have lived a fulfilled career, and as a result, when Seth commences his employment at JT Marlin, he recognises that such behaviour should be valued and b) when Greg asks Seth whether he would like to be 'trading chips' in an unstable environment when he is 35.

                                 Motivated to Perform Unethically

In Boiler Room, the audience witnesses unethical behaviour conducted at JT Marlin, a firm which voices the message "Always Be Closing" and "act as if you are the president of this firm".  Galperin et al (2011) note that higher status members in organizations are much more likely to behave unethically. In Boiler Room, employees were issued huge commissions for each 'close', commissions far greater than average, compared to those in similar roles on Wall Street. As a result, the author proposes that Boiler Room employees acquired a high status differentiation from those at other firms and got a sense of entitlement to continue their behaviour, in which they were more interested in the members of the group than broader societal needs. Moreover, the author asserts that the location of JT Marlin was a huge contributing factor for explaining the compliance of its members. Although the JT Marlin offices are based off Wall Street primarily in order to avoid the attention of federal authorities, drawing from the work of Galperin et al. (2011) the fact that its members were socially isolated from Wall Street increased the salience amongst employess, which ultimately assited them to justifying their behaviour.  Such was the behaviour of its members, that there was a high status group identity evident which motivated the employees in a way that concerns the organization (and the self) and thus, became morally insensitive and disengaged to the needs of others outside the group. (Galparin et al., 2011)   

In Seth's case, Anand et al. (2004) allow the author to gain an insight in how he might be have become motivated for participating in unethical behaviour. They propose that "rationalizations are often accompanied by socialisation tactics through which newcomers entering corrupt units are induced to accept and practice the ongoing unethical acts and their associated rationalizations". They draw on the work of Ashford and Anand (2003) who identify three ways in which individuals are induced into performing unethical behaviour - co-optation, incrementalism and compromise. Anand et al. (2004) note that these can occur simultaneously and this appears to be the case in this movie as both co-optation and incrementalism appear the work alongside each other. Co-optation is the process in which rewards entice an individual to change his or her attitudes towards unethical behaviour which is illustrated by the high commissions that can be achieved by closing 40 accounts, while incrementalism is when an individual is gradually introduced to perform unethical acts, which is seen through Greg, who acts as a mentor to Seth and introduces him to 'the way we do things around here'. Through these socialisation processes, Seth, in some respects, initially rationalises his behaviour by using the Denial of Responsibility  tactic, mentioned by Anand et al. (2004), albeit to a substantially lesser degree than his co-workers. Seth's strong resistance to accepting responsibility is evident when he asks Abbie (Nia Long) "How does this involve me?" before being questioned by federal authorities.

                            Motivation and The Psychological Contract

The lack of motivation from Seth in latter stages of the film, the author believes can be explained using the psychological contract. In Seth's case, both his social and personal identity were in conflict. From a social perspective, Seth aspired to be rich, while on a personal level, he wanted to gain his father's pride. On joining JT Marlin, mutual assimilation existed as both Seth's social and personal identities were being fulfilled, however this changed upon finding out about JT Marlin's unethical conduct. (Erikson.1968)   

The psychogical contract is an individual-level construct that has been defined by Guest (2004) as "the perceptions of both parties to the employment relationship, organization and individual, of the reciprocal promises and obligations implied in that relationship".

From analysing Rousseau's work on the psychological contract as been primarily based on the individual's perception of other parties observable behaviour, we start to realise that Seth seen major NASD and SCC regulations were been violated and the trust, which as Robinson (1996) argued is "at the heart" of the employee- employer relationship, was broken. As a result, Guest and Conway (1997), shows that a lack of motivation as well a number of other consequences will arise as illustrated below.

In context this may also present the case of a "new" psychological contract in that Seth is not so much interested in job security, but rather security of his profession, which is to become a respected stock broker. (Gaspersz & Ott, 1996) Seth believed that by becoming a key performer at JT Marlin that there was a reciprocal obligation on behalf of the firm to help him achieve that goal.

"Supervisory leaders may be more or less influential depending on characteristics of their work group such as size and type of work" (Trevino and Brown, 2004: 81)

Furthermore, in relation to the psychological contract, one aspect the author found particularly interesting in relation to this film was the "Agency Theory", presented by (Freese & Schalk,2008) which asks with whom did Seth have a psychological contract with? From the movie, it appears that Greg was acting on behalf of the employer towards Seth during his time as trainee. Therefore, it appears that there is a clash of obligations in regards to the psychological contract. Seth assumes that he should have been informed by his senior colleagues as to how they are able to make so much money within a short period of time, whereas his colleagues such as Chris, in particular, may believe that slowly coming to terms with the unethical conduct is simply part of the socialisation process, as there are numberous cues to suggest questionable acts are been carried out within the firm, which ultimately led to Seth's inquisitive nature. On discovering the seriousness of these violations, Seth feels that the contract has been violated and no longer feels committed to JT Marlin.

Trainees at the firm receive training at the firm that can facilitate their long-term development and at first, Seth feels that there is a strong socio-emotional relationship existing between him and JT Marlin. The perceived affective commitment of co-workers may have motivated Seth, allowing him to form a relational contract with JT Marlin, giving him an idea that this is a firm that will give him significant marketability should he pursue employment at one of the larger brokerage firms such as JP Morgan, when in fact the reality was that these workers knew they were working at a 'chop' shop and as a direct result have probably significantly lessened their chances of employability at such firms . Therefore, one starts to realise that characters such as Chris and Greg among others are in fact more reliant on the organisation, as the opposed to the organisation valuing them for their skills and expertise.

Although the terms contract breach and violation are often used interchangeably in psychological contract literature, the unethical behaviour carried out by JT Marlin from a spectators point of view can almost certainly be considered as a psychological contract violation as the organisational representatives of JT Marlin were obliged to report to Seth that by taking employment at the firm, he will violating SCC regulations and thereby risked prosecution. Turning a blind eye to the code of ethics was an organisational norm and perhaps JT Marlin taught that by offering its employees such insurmountable commissions that it may act of as substitute when finding out that rules were violated. (George, 2009)

                                                    Overview

From reviewing this film, the author believes that the topic of motivation is a key theme and that the film successfully illustrates the importance of the subject in today's workplace. In particular, the author believes that this film shows how transactional rewards can reinforce unethical behaviour in which the 'narrow' goal setting tactics in Boiler Room agree with Ordonez et al(2009) that "aggressive goal setting within an organisation will climate ripe for unethical behaviour" in which Anand et al.(2004) notes makes it easier for the trainees to justify their unethical behaviour. From analysing this film, the author agrees that the constant focus on the instrumental value derived from the task, in which tactics Kohn (1993) termed as 'skinnerian' are flawed as they prevent an employees from performing his or his tasks for its inherent worth and that that " lies at the root of many real world disasters" (Ordonez, 2009:15)

                                                  References

Anand,V., Ashforth, B.E. and Joshi, M.(2004) Business as Usual: The acceptance and perpetuation of corruption in organisations. Academy of Management Executive, 18(2), p 39-53 

Ashforth, B.E and Anand, V.(2003) The Normalization of Corruption in Organizations. In R.M. Kramer & B.M Straw. Research in Organizational Behaviour, 2, p1-52

Anderson, G. (2008) Cityboy: Beer and Loathing in the Square Mile. London. Headline

Boiler Room (2000) Directed by Ben Younger. USA: New Line Cinema

Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (2000) The 'what' and 'why' of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behaviour, Psychological Inquiry, 11, p. 227-268

Deci, E.L. and Ryan, R.M. (1985) Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York. Plenum

Erikson, E.H.(1968) Identity: Youth and crisis. New York. Norton

Freese, C. and Schalk, R. (2008) How to measure the psychological contract? A critical criteria-based review of measures. South African Journal of Psychology. 38(2). p269-286

Galperin, B.L. Bennett, R.J., Aquino, K.(2011) Status Differentiation and the Protean Self: A Social-Cognitive Model of Unethical Behaviour in Organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 98, p.407-424

Gaspersz, Jeff; Ott, Marlies. 1996. Management van Employability: Nieuwe Kansen in Arbeidsrelaties. Assen, Van Gorcum

George, C. (2009) The Psychological Contract: Managing and developing professional groups (Work and Organizational Psychology). Berkshire. Open University Press

Greenwald, A.G. & Banaji, M.R. (1995) Implicit social cognition: Attitude, Self-esteem and Stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102, p. 4-27

Guest, D. and Conway, N. (1997) Employee Motivation and the Psychological Contract. London. CIPD

Guest (2004) The Psychology of the employment relationship: an analysis based on the psychological contract. Applied Psychology, 53, p 541-555

Kohn, A. (1993) Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work. [pdf] Available at: https://www.fbe.hku.hk/Programme/Undergraduate/doc/courses/2011-2012/BUSI0029A/R7-Why%20Incentive%20Plans%20Cannot%20Work.pdf Last Accessed: 02-November-2013

metrak (2011) Cityboy-Secrets of Investment Bankers exposed (Geraint Anderson) [youtube] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjIdmNBBVA Last accessed: 02-November-2013

Munsey, B. (1980) Moral Development, Moral Education and Kohlberg: basic issues in philosophy, psychology, religion and education. Religious Education Press

Ordonez, L.D., Schweitzer, M.E., Galinsky, A.D., Bazerman, M.H.(2009) Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting. Academy of Management Perspectives. 23 (1)

Pink, D.H.(2009) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Really Motivates Us. New York. Riverhead Books

Pittman, T.S., Emery, J. and Boggiano, A.K. (1982) Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational orientations: Reward-induced changes in preference for complexity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 789-797.

Robinson, S.L.(1996) Trust and Breach of the psychological contract. Alternative Science Quarterly, 41, p.574-599

Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T.A. (2013) Organizational Behavior. 15th ed. Essex. Pearson Education Limited

Trevino, L.K. and Brown, M.E.(2004) The Role of Leaders in Influencing Unethical Behavior in the Workplace.[online] Available at: https://www.corwin.com/upm-data/4910_Kidwell_Chapter_3.pdf Last accessed: 03-November-2013