Glengarry Glen Ross is a film about a dysfunctional office space and how the communication issues within an office can ultimately lead to severe measures such as crime. However, the three class concepts that I found most prominent in the film was communication as practice, the group dynamics inside and outside of the office (professional versus civic), and communication as techne. How the different characters communicate, verbally in particular, is very interesting and shows the true dynamic of the workspace. The characters all have very different backgrounds and it all surfaces when you look at how they interact with one another. For example, when Shelley is arguing with Williamson about the new leads at the start of the movie, he goes through a few different communicative practices to try to get his way. For example when Shelley begins to try and reason with Williamson he plays the "friend" card. He invites Williamson out to eat and just talk as friends, not co-workers, however he quickly changes his tone. .
Shelley then plays the veteran card, stating that three years running, he was one of the most productive sellers at the branch and that he's just on a cold streak. Shelley then tries to argue that his age and experience in the business is more important than Williamson's title by calling him "kid" and "son". Finally, Shelley turns to the subordinate card and essentially begs and pleads Williamson for better leads by calling Williamson words such as "boss" and "sir." From the normative aspect, it is pretty clear that Shelley's choice of practices bad. The issue with Shelley's approach is that he is unsure which communicative practice he should use in this situation and he ended up bouncing around and appearing very flustered. Shelley should have figured the particular way in which he should approach Williamson if he truly expected to get what he wanted.
