Per the syllabus, your assignment next week is Bad Leadership and the
Movies! The specifics of the assignment
are as follows:
By NOON on Wed, April 15: post a
250 word blog entry on this site summarizing why you selected your clip
and how it represents bad leadership. Be
as specific as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dP7gkKXTs8
ReplyDeleteMy clip, entitled “Ground Rules,” hails from the animated movie Despicable Me. Generally, the primary audiences of these seemingly innocuous cartoon movies are not conceptualizing the impact of such films, but there are many lessons to be learned. In this particular scene we follow three orphaned girls, Agnes, Edith, and Margo, as they enter the house of their new dad, Gru. At the top of the scene, little Agnes asks Gru to hold her hand, but he refuses. In doing so, Gru affirms his incapacity to be a receptive leader because he fails to meet his follower where she is or help her be the best she can be by failing to cater to her needs. Then, when Gru’s dog scares them in the living room he is hesitant to fight the dog until he realizes that he must, but once his weapon is gone (resource) he is quick to hide behind his followers and let them fall. Since his dog is clearly not a real dog, Margo asks about the breed while Edith ventures into a spiked armoire. In this instance, Gru cannot answer basic questions concerning the life of the girls, provide an appropriate environment, or keep track of his followers, displaying his incompetence as the leader of the house and lack of mindfulness. Furthermore, he gives the girls dog bowls for plates and a newspaper for a bathroom, which is not only incompetent, but unknowledgeable. In the next part of the scene, we see for a brief second an example of good leadership when Edith is a bad follower and fails to take responsibility for her action. Gru is quick to take control and assert his power, but it gets to his head and he assumes a dominating and overbearing role that is not appropriate for his followers. Luckily, throughout the clip, the followers feel comfortable speaking up in front of their leader, showing that followers mustn't always be compliant sheep. Although it is a children’s film and Gru’s incompetent leadership is not extremely detrimental, in a real life situation his failures might have caused very serious and negative consequences for the girls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5vGjuByj-g
ReplyDeleteMy clip is from the TV show Parks and Recreation. One of the characters attempts to coach a team of young basketball players, and does so by glorifying himself and his beliefs. He describes all of the personal qualities that he finds valuable, and instructs the boys that if they have all of these qualities they will reach maximum personal achievement. He gives them silly rules, like to only fish for sport, since "a fish is almost a vegetable", and that they should only have one to three friends. His rules contradict each other, such as when he claims that selfishness and teamwork are equally important. He states that America is the only important place in the world, and that anywhere else can be properly experienced through a ham radio. He glorifies himself in this clip, and could probably start a cult with these young boys if he continues to teach them only his values. He even causes them to go through a bit of an indoctrination, as he shaves off their hair and forces them to promise him that they will never drink skim milk. As this is a TV show, we can laugh at his foolishness and not take it seriously. However, should this have been a real situation, these boys would basically negatively impacted. Children are impressionable, and having a strong figure tell them exactly what they should be could change the way that they progress.
https://youtu.be/bfWtHehegAg?t=1m15s
ReplyDeleteThis clip, from the iconic movie “Hoosiers”, depicts one of the many leadership mistakes Dale makes throughout the movie. Dale is a basketball coach who leads this small town high school team from losing games to winning the Indiana state championship. While he is good at giving speeches and inspiring his team members to play their hearts out, he has a strong tendency to throw temper tantrums when things do not go his way, and he hires the town drunk to assistant coach. As this clip shows, he is obsessed with fundamentals, and only fundamentals, and belligerently makes a poor choice for the team in order to “teach them a lesson.” A basketball team cannot win with only four players competing against five. He willingly sough to throw away the game in favor of picking on one of the players he had conflict with, preventing him from playing at the cost of the entire team (and in extension, town). This is one of the stunts that result in the town voting him out of his position as head coach (his fate only saved when the star player vouches for him). Dale does not listen to others – the town, other coaches, or his team – and stresses only one way to make it to the championships – his way. The team’s championship win can be mostly attributed to the work of the star player, not Dale. This story may have a happy ending, but the manner in which the happy ending was found is not a prime example of strong leadership.
My clip is from the movie “Gangs of New York”. I chose this clip because of the multiple aspects of bad leadership it contains. Bill, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, is exhibiting his control over the police chief. Bill is the leader of a gang that controls New York City and in general shows a lack of empathy for his followers. He leads through fear and money. The chief of police, on the other hand, holds a traditional position of power, but he is both bullied and paid off by the gang. There seem to be two paths to garnering followership as a leader: fear and respect. In this particular scene, Bill is beginning to realize that the lack of respect his followers have for him is actually tearing down his empire. The police officer charges Bill with a crime, but quickly rescinds the charge as Bill excerpts his power. The moment is significant in the movie because up until this point Bill has seemed invincible. In the movie, Bill’s gang is entirely undermined by a single man who is brave enough to stand up against him. The scene as a whole shows the longevity that leading though respect provides vs. leading through fear.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39mBogAVAQc
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+godfather+opening+scene+english+subtitles
ReplyDeleteIn the opening scene of the movie “The Godfather”, a man comes to Don Corleone asking for justice because some people attacked his daughter. He asks for Don Corleone to use his influence as the leader of the Italian mob to enlist someone to murder the two attackers. Don refuses because of the fact that the guy never was friendly to him. He then forces the guy to beg to make it happen. After agreeing to do it, Don insists that one day he will be asking this man for some kind of favor. Moving past the moral and ethical issues of committing murder, Don Corleone exhibited characteristics that are terrible for leadership. He first asserts himself as someone far superior to this other man and flaunts it in his face. This egotistical attitude significantly separates himself from his followers. Then Don Corleone mixes his personal life into his business in such a way that one deeply affects the others. He holds grudges for very small and irrelevant things and enjoys holding them over the other man’s head. Furthermore, Don Corleone then has the man beg for him to perform this so called justice. This other man is pressured to kiss the godfather’s hand. Throughout the opening scene, Don Corleone’s narcissistic tendencies are in full display for everyone to see because he is holding the cards and wants to make sure that everyone knows it.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/nGa8kyMMiqU?t=2m17s
My clip is from a recent episode of The Walking Dead. The core cast of characters has recently joined a safe haven in Alexandria and are in the process of assuming leadership roles. Rick Grimes, the series’ main character, was named sheriff. One of his first non-zombie related crimes is the fact that Pete beats his wife. His first act of bad leadership is the way in which he approached the situation. Rick clearly has a crush on Pete’s wife, Jessie, and is at their house at suspicious times. Rick asks Jessie for permission to do something about Pete and a fight between he and Pete ensues. Within seconds, both are bloody and brawling in the street. Rick eventually subdues Pete and proceeds to give the speech shown in the clip. Rather than wait for the established leader to do something about the situation, Rick took the duties of cop, judge, jury and executioner into his own hands. In many ways, this is an example of both bad followership and bad leadership as Rick should have deferred to the authority of the town mayor. However, it is interesting to note that Rick was right in his previous statement that if Pete was allowed to remain in the town more people would get hurt. The mayor’s husband ends up being killed by Pete. While Rick was right in his judgement, he could have conducted his actions in a less polarizing and aggressive manner. The fact that one of his closest companions felt she had to knock him out is the perfect affirmation of this.
-Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWe6f9uR7qk
ReplyDeleteThe clip that I chose is a song (Be Prepared)/scene in Lion King in which Scar is trying to form an alliance with the Hyenas so that they help him kill Musafa and Simba. In his song, Scar first insults the Hyenas and calls them “thick” and “idiots”. After that, he convinces them to help him kill Musafa and Simba and says that if they “stick with [him]” they “will never go hungry again”. In the end he also says that without him, the hyenas will never be able to enjoy the prosperity that the future has in store for them. Scar also concedes that he is very ambitious.
I chose this clip because I think it shows an example of both bad leadership and followership. Scar is a bad leader because he tries to manipulate the hyenas. His leadership style is largely transactional as he has no interest in the hyenas as individuals. He sees them simply as a means of getting more power. He realizes how gullible they are and then tries to influence them. It is clear that he is very ambitious and desires ultimate power, kingship. And in order to achieve his goals, he manipulates and almost brainwashes his followers. The hyenas are no better in this situation because they blindly follow Scar without questioning his motives. Instead of being outraged or confused or disgusted by Scar’s plan to kill his brother and nephew, their first reaction is to rejoice in the fact that there will no longer be a king. And when Scar tells them that there will be a “quid pro quo” and that they will receive food in return for their services, they immediately support Scar and hail him as king. It shows that they too don’t look for morals in their leader – they simply want material benefits. Therefore, this scene from Lion King is evidence of bad leadership and followership.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imwXuPQuXQ0
In this clip from The Office, a mockumentary television series detailing the bizarre workdays of colorful office workers, Michael and Dwight attempt to frame their harmless coworker, Toby. As the company’s Regional Manager, Michael ceaselessly abuses his power by wasting time and making crude jokes at the expense of his employees for the purpose of personal pleasure. Dwight serves as the “Assistant to the Regional Manager”, a job title created by Michael that is ultimately synonymous to Michael’s Minion, for Michael enlists Dwight to carry out tasks he believes would make him look like a terrible boss. An aloof Michael rarely realizes most of his managerial actions constitute bad leadership.
Michael targets Toby with nasty nicknames and unwarranted punishments throughout the series for ambiguous reasons. Viewers with prior knowledge of the series understand that Michael is inherently a bad leader and that this prank is a result of his egotistical and inappropriate leadership style. Dwight exhibits bad followership when agreeing to Michael’s plan to call the police to report a drug dealer stashing illegal substances from Central America operating in the company’s office. After the police arrive and invade Toby’s desk, Dwight pleads the police to interrogate Toby while Michael tries to take the blame for his coworker before everyone realizes the “drug” is actually Michael’s spinach salad. Instead of apologizing to Toby for the apparent framing, Michael protects his reputation, dismissing Toby’s point that Michael wasted the police’s valuable time. Dwight follows Michael’s example of unnecessary rudeness by pressuring the police to further investigate. While The Office incorporates obvious humor in its characters’ interactions, subtler similarities to Michael’s bad leadership and Dwight’s bad followership are largely present in the everyday workplace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQaFjvUQIng (0:00 – 2:11)
ReplyDeleteIn this scene from "Remember the Titans", Coach Boone is meeting his team for the very first time. However, instead of creating a good first impression with the team he decides the first thing he wants to do is zone in and pick on a particular person and so quickly shuts down an excited and energetic Petey Jones in front of all his teammates. He wants the team to know that he is going to be leader by fear this season and that he will take no nonsense from any of his players. However, this only leads to lowered morale and perhaps even a resentment of their leader from the players starting from day one. A good leader should not have to resort to fear and should encourage energy and enthusiasm from their followers. But Coach Boone decides he wants none of that and even verbally says that “this is not a democracy, it is a dictatorship”. A good leader should also be able to take criticism and advice from their followers, but Coach Boone seems to make it clear that he believes he is/will/and always shall be right about everything. He also verbally assaults the team by calling them “raggedy” and “ridiculous” and comparing them to bums. Like I said before, a good leader should be encouraging as well as firm, but Coach Boone this morning decides that he wants to break down his team and not build them back up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yspvrcjA_HA
ReplyDeleteThis clip, from the movie Horrible Bosses, features many things that can go wrong in a leader-follower relationship. Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) had been hinting to Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) that Nick had a high chance of filling the new Senior Vice President position. This motivates Nick, making him more likely to make sacrifices for the sake of his job. Dave ultimately absorbs the position of Senior Vice President and this is Nick’s confrontation with him after the announcement.
I chose this clip because Dave’s blatant disregard for his employees is surprising and is an excellent example of a wrong leader-follower relationship. First, he lied to his employees in order to get them to work harder and to make larger sacrifices. He also denies lying and calls it “motivating” his employees. This is an example of bad leadership because it violates the trust between leader and follower. When Nick appeals to Dave’s humanity by telling him the story of missing the death of his grandma, Dave laughs and mocks Nick. It is clear that Dave has no regard for the needs of his employees. He justifies this by saying that he “owns” his employees and that they do not have free will. Dave is so far removed from the lives of his employees that he has forgotten how it was like to be a subordinate himself. Further, he abuses the power that his position offers him to create an oppressive atmosphere. We learned that this kind of atmosphere leads to the stifling of opinions especially when in opposition of superiors.
Michael Chang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6t79Zkbonk
ReplyDeleteThe clip I chose is from the movie “The Breakfast Club”. In this scene Principal Vernon take Bender into a supply closet after he disrespects him in front of the other detention attendees. Principal Vernon is the head of the school and runs every Saturday detention which makes him a very visible leader with a lot of influence in what happens in the school. When Bender and Principal Vernon first enter the closet Principal Vernon tells Bender that that is last time he will let him make a fool of him in front of anyone else. This shows that the leader follower relationship that they have lacks respect for one another and that Principal Vernon is concerned more with the image that he portrays than his relationship with his followers or students. Principal Vernon then proceeds to insult Bender telling him he has no future and how pathetic his life will be, this from anyone would be a terrible thing to say but because Principal Vernon is this powerful figure in the school that is supposed to be responsible for empowering the students it makes it even worse. Principal Vernon then tries to encourage a physical fight between him and Bender by telling Bender to hit him and then saying if Bender told anyone that they wouldn’t believe him because he was a criminal. This shows that the leadership position of Principal Vernon was built on appearances and acts and words of hostility which demonstrate a horrible example of leadership in any context but in a school is even more so.
Charity Coleman
My clip is from the HBO TV series Band of Brothers. A little background on this clip is that Captain Soble (the superior office) is jealous of Lieutenant Winters and his success. In this clip you see Captain Soble bulling the lieutenant into taking a punishment for a crime that’s bases is a little suspect. It is assumed that Captain Soble fabricated this accusation to keep himself above Winters. This highlights Captain Soble insecurities which promotes Soble incompetence as a leader. Theses insecurities make Soble more prone to make bad decisions and adversely affect his men. A secure leader is confident in himself and Soble is obviously lacking this confidence. This lack of confidence then leads Captain Soble in making the unethical decision of wrongly punishing Lieutenant Winters. It is not right for Lieutenant Winters to get punished for something he did not do. Now the company is distracted by a court martial that will divide between Soble and Winters. Throughout our studies, we have seen how one bad leadership quality could lead to many bad decisions. Through the clip we see how bad decisions continually build on each other and everything spirals out of controls.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Melendez
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMoFlaEcKoM
I chose a clip from a recently released television show, so it's best to view it on its host site, Yahoo. Episode 4, season 6 of Community is full of bad leadership moments, but none so striking as the clip starting at 13:39.
ReplyDeleteBen Chang, once a megalomaniac, is now a self-conscious, lonely man, and has recently been accepted as Mr. Miagi of Karate Kid in a stage production of the movie. While training for this role, Chang is berated and harassed mercilessly by his director, a hairy, angry man of about 35 who seems to think that the best way to get Chang to change is to dropkick a toolbox off stage (“I got distracted because the tools were doing a better job than you,” he snarls), pours coffee over his head (“I’m not gonna hit you, and it’s not because it’s illegal. See, we only hit things that affect us, and I’m not hitting you. You’re the worst actor I’ve ever directed”), and generally make him feel worthless as a human being. This is clearly terrible leadership. Motivation doesn’t and cannot stem from aggression like this; we slowly see Chang fall into deep dejection and sadness, and we are struck by just how negative of an impact the director has had.
But it gets worse. The director doesn’t sincerely think that rage and ranting will make improvements happen – that would be excusable. It’s easy to imagine someone so ignorant that they don’t understand the ineffectiveness of these tactics, and that invokes more pity for me than anger. But the director is not uneducated. He pursues these tactics for a fundamentally more vile reason: he seeks to drive Chang deep into depression, to evoke the depression of the character he plays. This is completely self-serving, and makes me nauseous. Exactly the opposite of listening and caring, this is blatant manipulation, removing any sort of compassion from the equation. However, he does express the goal of “bringing out the best in people,” so while his methods are completely and inexcusably off-base he may still have some redeeming aspects. Then again, the director’s parting line – “from now on, she’s dead to us,” referring to a friend of Chang, makes me question even that. All in all, he’s a jerk in a position of power, living out his bullying childhood days on a much grander stage.
Drew Brost
Gladiator (2000) Barbarian Horde Battle Scene Part 1 1080p [Blu-Ray]
ReplyDeleteI selected a clip from the gladiator because the movie itself is one of my all-time favorites. It is about a group of gladiators led by Maximus forced to fight vicious opponents in the hopes of regaining their status as free men. In order to accomplish their goals, however, they must fight together and follow Maximus who was a general in the roman army before being betrayed and sold into slavery. In the clip I have selected, the gladiators are set up to fight the Barbarian Horde. The clip shows a good example of poor followership. When the attack begins, Maximus shouts to his men to rally together and work as a team. But, a few did not follow the sensible suggestion of working as a team to conquer a large obstacle and decided instead to fight on their own. Not only did they fail and die, but the outliers were good examples of poor followership. A good follower should know what would be most beneficial not only for himself/herself, but also for the group. Those who went off to fight by themselves decreased the chances of the entire group’s survival. In addition, questioned a plan that is sound. So, they lacked the ability to think for themselves, to assess the situations and detect the most beneficial option. Although there were bad followers, the group still survived because there were enough good followers who knew and followed through on what needed to be done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT4ySwoh27Q
ReplyDeleteThis opening clip from the Disney movie The Emperor’s New Groove is a blunt, comical example of bad leadership. One of the first things I though of when I pondered bad leaders in cinema was Kuzco, despite his eventual turn for the better. Another important reason I chose this clip has to do with the real-life application of all Disney films which tends to comment on a key social conflict. Kuzco represents invasive and selfish leaders around the world who would care less about their followers. In the clip, Kuzco is seen commanding people to carry him up an insane stair case, build his ridiculous throne structure on command, and pamper him so that he doesn’t have to lift a finger. This is contrary to good leadership qualities in that a good leader should work just as hard, if not harder, than his/her followers, sharing the burden of the task at hand evenly. Furthermore, not only should a good leader share the burden, but they should also share the wealth with their followers. On the contrary, Emperor Kuzco brags in this song about his riches while his citizens live meager lives, struggling to get by. Finally, throughout the clip you see and hear Kuzco being overly egocentric, something that indicates the most frustrating kind of leader because, not only does he take all of the riches and do none of the work, but he also takes all of the credit and refuses to share any of the spotlight. Go Disney for showing what a bad leader looks like and transforming him into a considerate and helpful leader in the end!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPeCAVvTNqc ; 2:52-3:50 and 4:30-5:00
ReplyDeleteMy clip is from Episode 6 of the new Netflix show "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," titled "Kimmy Goes to School!" I chose this clip because this show is one of my absolute favorites, and because the first thing I thought of when I thought of the term “bad leadership” was the teacher in Kimmy’s GED class. He is supposed to be the leader of the class, to inspire these people who have not yet graduated high school to improve their love for learning and to achieve their goals. However, he not only falls short of achieving such a basic goal; he also completely fails at it. He approaches the class with complete and utter apathy, and his lack of interest in the class and in the goals of his pupils changes the climate of the room. The teacher sleeps during his own “lesson,” which, as simply a movie with no contextual information,, was a result of negligence and laziness in terms of preparation. At this point, the teacher shows several traits of bad leadership: apathy, selfishness, laziness, and unpreparedness. However, it doesn’t end here. When Kimmy meets with him after class to ask questions, he all but ignores her and treats her very rudely. In fact, he doesn’t even answer her question and simply walks away as though he had better things to do than his own job. In short, I find this clip to be the epitome of bad leadership, and, though it is slightly exaggerated as an example, there are actually leaders in the world who do display such traits.