The popular television series, The Office, aired an episode entitled “Conflict Resolution” which deals with a clash between two co-workers over a poster that one worker, Angela, has hung in the accounting desk area; the poster features babies playing musical instruments. Angela’s co-worker, Oscar, on the other hand, finds the poster offensive and disturbing and wants the poster taken down. (See the 2-min clip at the end of this blog post for highlights from the episode or visit: http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/clips/conflict-resolution/116196/)
This episode illustrates an example of a zero sum game as if the poster is taken down, Angela loses, and Oscar wins. Pam, the receptionist, suggests a solution to alleviating the conflict. Angela and Oscar can split the time with the poster, with the poster staying up half the week and taken down for the other half. This, however, is still considered zero-sum as Angela wins half the time and Oscar loses while the second half of the week Oscar wins and Angela loses for a total sum of “0”.
Michael, Angela and Oscar’s boss, attempts to solve the dilemma by converting it into a non-zero sum game, thus creating a “win-win” situation. Michael suggests that the poster be made into a t-shirt that Oscar will wear so that he can never see the design and Angela can always see it. This would entail creative cooperation between the two parties. However, both parties agree that this is a ridiculous suggestion and insist on returning to the original parameters of the game.
Not only does the episode demonstrate the difference in zero-sum games vs. non-zero sum games, but it also reveals the potential of a mediator to advance a game. While these two coworkers did not come to an agreement, Michael was able to look at the situation from a different perspective than the two players to provide alternative solutions that they might not be able to see.
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