All eyes might have been on the Superbowl this past Sunday evening but I anxiously awaited the premiere of Undercover Boss , a “formatted documentary” show that follows executives as they assume front line jobs in their own companies. The show takes the workforce reframe, “executives don’t know what really goes on around here,” and provides an opportunity for executives to experience the good, bad and ugly of the day-to day activities within their companies. The intent of the experience is to position the executive to see how things can be done better at the company. Indeed, the first episode featuring the COO of a waste management company resulted in a number of changes after his experience, including raises for those handling multiple jobs to ways to make the company more female-friendly (The Los Angeles Times, January 10, 2010.) more »
