Management Undercover Boss is a great show for illustrating core management concepts. A season five episode features the CEO of the Larry H. Miller Company, owner of the Utah Jazz along with eighty other concerns. This episode features issues related to occupational health and safety, customer service and marketing. In the episode about Modell's Sporting Goods, a family-owned business that has been around since 1889, issues related to logistics, wages, and social justice come to the fore. In the first season episode featuring the CEO and president of 7-11, issues related to management and corporate structure, customer service, and quality assurance are brought to light. These three episodes can all be used to better understand textbook concepts, from the particular skills managers need to succeed to ethics and social responsibility. Of these three episodes, the most engaging was the one about Modell's because of the way the owner came to realize his wage structure was unfair. This related to concepts in the textbook about organizational learning, corporate ethics, and responsibility. The episode that was least interesting was the one about the Utah Jazz, because the primary focus was on how to improve the brand rather than focusing on management issues.

In the Utah Jazz episode, the most interesting part was when the CEO joins the dunk team. The dunk team basically does performance art as a form of cheerleading, to engage the fans. Greg Miller,...

This was entertaining, even if it did not actually demonstrate core management concepts. However, the episode did address the following three management concepts. First, it addressed the essential skills and competencies of a manager that can be highly demanding and diverse. For example, Miller had to learn about the variety of ways to garner support for the team by bringing fans back and keeping them interested in the game even during losses. Second, it revealed the variety of technical, human, and conceptual skills the manager needs, especially during the segment related to the concession stand. Interacting with customers and with colleagues requires deft communications skills. Finally, this episode highlights contingency theory and quality management, to ensure that processes such as laying down the floor are improved for the future. As CEO, I would have reacted exactly the same way that Miller did with regards to improving the safety and logistics of laying down the floor, but championing the importance of fan activities like mascots and competitions.
In the 7-11 episode, CEO Joe DePinto wants to learn the "secret" of why one store sells a lot more coffee than other stores. He hypothesizes that it is the quality of the coffee itself, but it is actually the quality of customer service embodied by Dolores, who has been working there for…