Peter Senge once said, “The neglected leadership role is the designer of the ship” (Senge 1998). I interpreted this quote to mean that the leader of any organization possesses the ability to pave the pathway for the subordinates of an organization. This idea can be viewed with two perspectives. An honest and determined leader can be a motivating aspect of an organization, while a deceptive leader can open doors to a negative environment, possibly tearing the organization apart. We are a civilization surrounded by hierarchies and roles. Our families are the first hierarchy we learn. An understanding of the levels of respect is gained with the roles everyone plays in the house. We carry this understanding of hierarchy into our adulthood and without it, we may find ourselves conflicting with society.
For this paper, we will be analyzing the hit Netflix comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black. The main character, Piper Chapman, was sentenced to 15 months in a women’s federal prison (run by the Federal Department of Corrections) for a crime she committed 10 years prior to turning herself in (after being named by her ex-girlfriend). Piper’s ex-girlfriend, Alex Vause, was an international drug smuggler and persuaded Piper to deliver a suitcase filled with drug money across the world. Alex was arrested and promised less time if she named anyone who helped her with the crime. Leaving a job, fiancé, and her calm home in New York, Piper was forced to readjust and change her mindset to survive the prison culture. In the following text, we will examine the power of hierarchy in regards to the authority in the prison and the subculture of the felons and how it relates to organizational concepts.
In Orange Is the New Black, there are many correctional officers and authoritative figures. We will focus on the prominent characters of the series. Natalie “Fig” Figueroa is the head of the department. Her main goal is to keep the reputation of the federal prison clean, even if it means sweeping the truth under the rug. Next, is Chief Officer Sam Healy, who is head of the correction officers and deals with the issues of the prison mates. Officer “Pornstache” Mendez and Officer Bennett, along with other officers, are in charge of monitoring the inmates on a daily basis.
Being head of the prison, Natalie Figueroa’s sole focus is to keep the reputation of the prison clean. This is not for the benefit of the employees or the inmates, but for her own benefit. She uses the funding for the prison for personal use. When a serious issue arises in the prison, Natalie teaches the officers to lie and cover up in order to save their jobs. Seeing her dirty work, the officers have no regards to consequences of their actions, knowing that Natalie wouldn’t expose the wrong doings of the officers.
Officer Sam Healy is portrayed as being a kind man whose best interest is towards bettering the inmates. When Piper enters prison, Officer Healy begins to give her advice and allows her to do things that other inmates could not do. He has high expectations for Piper because she is from a white, upper-class family. Officer Healy began obsessing with Piper. His issues with his marriage were projected onto Piper. He would control who she spent her time with in the prison and punish her illegally by putting her in solitary confinement when he sensed she was interested in her ex-girlfriend, Alex. Officer Healy clearly struggled with identity and identification. He brought his personal beliefs and issues into the work field and imposed them on the inmates, particularly Piper.
Officer Mendez gained his nickname “Pornstache” because he was a pervert with a mustache. He knew very well how the prison was run and had no fear to break the law. He smuggled all kinds of drugs into the prison and would serve the inmates in return for sexual intercourse. In Season 1 Episode 11 he gave an inmate so much drugs that she overdosed and died in a closet in the prison (Kohan 2013). He placed an extension cord around her neck and hung her, making it appear as if she committed suicide. When Natalie got to the scene of the crime, it was brought to her attention that the girl may have overdosed and the situation was fishy. Instead of digging deeper into the inmate’s death, she stuck to the story of suicide in order that it not to be investigated.
Officer John Bennett is a young man who just started his career at the prison. He possessed great work ethics and always did the right thing. He was perceived as a weaker person amongst his co-workers because of his honest ways in a dysfunctional setting where everyone has a scheme of some sort. Also, he has a physical disability, a missing leg. Little do they know he is just more adept at hiding his unsavory business at the prison, as he had gotten Daya, an inmate, pregnant. Bennett and Daya’s relationship requires considerable secrecy and as do their communications, and they come up with various ways to send messages to each other without exposing their relationship (Kohan 2013).
While the officers of the prison are the supposed authorities, there is considerably more going on in terms of communications, hierarchy and power struggle. Informal horizontal communication occurs across the inmates, and it is they who determine who has the power in the organization by showing them respect and obedience- or not.
Galina ‘Red’ Reznikov once had incredible power within the organization as the head of the kitchen, but also as the head of smuggling into the prison. She is also the main form of communication between Officer Healy and his Russian wife, as seen in Season 1 Episode 12 (Kohan 2013). She was therefore important to both authorities and to the inmates. She was able to carry out various schemes with her kitchen staff and Red’s girls. She was also the de facto leader of the white inmate population while running the kitchen. She was able to exert her power by withholding food, but also because this population would do as she said, even ostracizing an inmate, like Alex, who came into her disfavor in the first episode of the series (Kohan 2013). After losing her position of power to Gloria and the Hispanic girls, Red goes into a sort of lonely exile, her power and control lost.
Alex Vause was leader of organized smuggling ring, and she once controlled and determined a transnational heroin empire. She has little power within the prison, although she is not seen as weak either. Unlike many of the others in the prison, she is a model prisoner, and rarely breaks the rules, but for the occasional tryst with a fellow inmate. When she is seen by Healy dancing suggestively with Piper, it is only Piper who gets into trouble. Vause is able to avoid problems, for the most part. After being released Piper has her best friend on the outside, who is now with her ex-fiance, make a single phone call which results in Alex’s return to prison. In this case Piper had the power, unlike their previous relationship.
Tiffany “Pennsatucky” Doggett holds power as the leader of the right wing Christian “meth heads” of the laundry. She uses rhetoric and wields power, in part because she had become a poster child for the Christian right when she killed an abortion clinic worker. She is able to use this power to hurt Piper, despite Healy watching her carry out her violent intentions in the final episode of Season 1 (Kohan 2013).
Sister Jane Ingalls, a nun who was imprisoned for her political protests has power. She, however, was excommunicated for her insolence and communicating her own views of faith and morality that were not aligned with those of the church. She is able to convince her former nun colleagues to protest in order to send a message to the prison authorities, thereby embarrassing Fig and other executives such as her husband the Governor in Season 2 Episode 13 (Kohan 2013).
Communication and withholding communications are used to reinforce and assert power. Underlying this is that abuse of authority and corruption is rampant in the prison, from the top down. Another communication from power comes from their role as a model to others, and it is this corruption which makes it possible for each level of authority as well as the inmates, to justify how they use their power to their own ends.
