Group Dynamics

In the TV show, The Office, the firm realizes a conflict with a surplus in their budget. The accountant specifies that if they do not spend the surplus, then they will receive less money in their budget for the following year. Pam, a receptionist who spends all day sitting, hopes that the money is used to purchase new chairs for the office. Others are frustrated with the poop performance of the old copy machine and believe that the best allocation of the surplus is for a new copy machine. Michael, the branch manager, is put in a difficult situation because he needs to decide whether to purchase a new copy machine, new chairs, or perhaps report the surplus to corporate and receive a personal bonus for himself.

The latter of the three is the most selfish, and although he contemplates it he wouldn't jeopardize any of his relationships with his employees/friends over it. Essentially, Michael doesn't benefit from either purchase but he does need to make a decision. Some people didn't have an opinion and didn't care which was purchased. 

Eventually, everyone agrees on chairs because they would rather have something rather than nothing while Michael gets a bonus. This was the breaking point where all people realized that the firm would benefit from either purchase. After the purchase was made, the office was united and happy again. As for a post mortem situation I am not entirely sure if the problems could have been avoided. Both chairs and the copy machine are essential to the operating of the firm, but only some employees use the copy machine a lot and some employees sit more than others. Depending on the person, they would most likely rather have a new purchase that they would use the most. The only conflict of personal interest was that Pam, the receptionist, sits all day and also has to use the copy machine often. In this situation, I would probably go with what Pam decided because she would be making copies anyways.