This report is an analysis of the movie Wall Street (1987), directed by Oliver Stone. This report explored the concept of leadership and how it is depicted in the movie. The reports explain a leader’s use of power and influence tactics. As the report proceeds it shows leader’s attributes and style and how it influences on movie character’s action and the environment in which they operate. In the end, it gives an analysis of the effectiveness of the leader. This report justifies an analysis based on existing theory, research evidence and empirically grounded data. Major Characters in movie are Bud Fox, played by Charlie Sheen, who is a young, smart and very motivated stock broker, Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas the millionaire, …show more content…
As the relation between the two develops and Bud achieve what he always wants, we see drastic change in his character. He then becomes aware of corruptness of the industry he works. Gordon Gekko appears as a charismatic leader, his power to reward and by being an expert as Wall Street investor. He uses his leadership negatively for personal gain. He is embodiment of the popular idea of “A player or nothing”. Throughout the movie greed captures the essence of evolutionary spirit. He has everything wife, son, priceless art items but his desire to have more is clearly seen throughout the movie, money is all a game to him. At a board meeting of Teldar paper, he said “The point is ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works”. One of the basic theories of early research leadership was the “Trait Approach”. This theory can be looked from the point of view of both successful and unsuccessful leaders. The early research on traits attempted to identify skills like physiological (appearance, height, and weight), demographic (age, education and socioeconomic background), personality, self-confidence, and aggressiveness, intellective (intelligence, judgment, and knowledge), task-related (achievement, initiative, and persistence), and social characteristics (sociability and cooperativeness) with leader emergence and leader
Heroes and leaders have long had a popular following in literature and in our own imaginations. From Odysseus in ancient Grecian times to May Parker in Spider-man Two, who states, “We need a hero, courageous sacrificing people, setting examples for all of us. I believe there’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble” (Raimi, 2004). Organizations need heroes, too. We call them organizational leaders. The study of organizational leadership, then, is really the study of what makes a person a successful hero. Or, what processes, constructs, traits, and dynamics embody the image of a successful leader.
Most people think that being a leader is all about prestige, loyalty, or fame. While being a leader certainly is a great confidence and social status booster, there is more to being a leader than these. Being a leader requires passion, dedication, time, effort, and most importantly hard work. I would like to make myself believe that leaders are made and not born and that hard work can spell the difference between an immature and a holistically effective leader. The objective of this paper is to discuss by knowledge, belief system, and perception of leadership in relation to Bleachers by John Grisham which outlines the leadership story of Coach Eddie Rake and how he handled his team through thick and thin and through the greatest leadership challenges, towards success; to outline which character in the story I see myself in; and to characterize what type of leader I want me to be not in the future, but as early as now.
Enron was a Houston based energy, commodities and services company. When people hear the name Enron they automatically associate their name with one of the biggest accounting and ethical scandals known to date. The documentary, “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,” provides an in depth examination of Enron and the Enron scandal. The film does a wonderful job of depicting the downfall of Enron and how the corporate culture and ethics were key to Enron’s fall. As the movie suggests, Enron is “not a story about numbers, it is a story about people.”
Once planted in the minds of individuals, ideas have a remarkable ability to grow with the strength and speed of the most powerful pathogens – possessing equal communicability as they spread to proximal centers of consciousness. How can this characteristic of ideas be utilized to benefit society? In the film Twelve Angry Men, we see a situation where Juror Eight – equipped with all the autonomy and wisdom of an ideal leader – appeals to logos in an attempt to promote the consideration of an idea, which he has planted in the minds of an otherwise unanimous jury; this idea being the mere possibility of innocence in the conviction of a boy charged with patricide. Ideally, leaders will possess an ability to transcend the allure of groupthink so prevalent in collective decision-making. However, when not coupled by the proper corresponding actions, such transcendental thoughts never become bigger than the brain-cells that they occupy. As Juror Eight leads his associates to consider the uncertainty of the case, we see an important skill in leadership: the ability to recognize disparity in individual cognition. Juror Eight appeals to this variance in thought patterns by guiding his peers through a journey of personal evaluation – allowing them to reach conclusions on their own, rather than explicitly dropping their minds into the terminal of his own logic.
Mlls, D. Q. (2005). Leadership How to Lead, How to Live. Boston: Harvad Business School Press.
The emphasis on leaders being not just executives and managers, and that not all executives and managers are leaders, is extremely vital. Anyone can strive to be a leader in whatever organization in which they are involved. Bennis and Nanus claim that leadership is about character, setting the example for how team members treat one other (and in a corporate setting, their clients as well), being truthful and sustaining organizational trust, and encouraging themselves and others to learn. On one hand, it can be easy to see how many people in leadership positions do no match up to these standards of leadership. On the other, it seems a bit like common sense to be truthful to others and to effectively communicate with people who work together everyday. Leaders is an effective tool for summarizing and inspiring leadership not in that it teaches tough strategies and manipulations, but that when looking at an overview of its content, Bennis and Nanus are essentially teaching human relations and human decency. All in all, this book highlights strategies for us all to be better in our lives and our everyday
Leadership at times can be a complex topic to delve into and may appear to be a simple and graspable concept for a certain few. Leadership skills are not simply acquired through position, seniority, pay scale, or the amount of titles an individual holds but is a characteristic acquired or is an innate trait for the fortunate few who possess it. Leadership can be misconstrued with management; a manager “manages” the daily operations of a company’s work while a leader envisions, influences, and empowers the individuals around them.
Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns many different companies, is one of the most successful business leaders of our time. According to Howard (2014), he is the second richest American, coming in at a net worth of over $70 billion. Besides his personal net worth, Berkshire Hathaway is the fifth-most valuable public company in the United States at $350 billion (Howard, 2014). While he is clearly a very wise investor, Warren Buffett is also a successful leader. As stated by Spindler (2010), leadership is a crucial part of any successful business, and good leadership is what Mr. Buffett portrays. The analysis given in this paper will show Warren Buffett’s values and leadership qualities, his leadership style, as well as looking into his influence he has on his followers.
The Traits theory, otherwise known as the Great Man theory, is the origination of leadership theories. This theory believes that there is a unique set of qualities for a leader, mainly: his intelligence and ability to judge, his knowledge power, self-confidence and dependabil...
The Wolf of Wall Street produced and directed by Martin Scorsese tells a story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker living a luxurious life on Wall Street. Due to greed and corruption, Jordan falls into a life of crime and abusive activities. Belfort made millions of dollars by selling customers “penny stocks” and manipulating the market through his company, Stratton Oakmont, before being convicted of any criminal activity (Solomon, 2013). Jordan reveals behaviours and impulses all humans have, however, on an extreme level. This movie illustrates “why ethics is another tool whose importance cannot be overstated” (Delaney, 2014). Without ethics and morality, individuals can never truly live an honest and happy life.
This report will analyse the leadership style of two main characters, Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko. This movie shows corporate America and the ethical behaviour in the workplace at the Wall Street. Bud Fox a smart, yound and very motivated stock broker has the desier to become the highes salesperson in his company. His main target is centered on big share trading account like Gordon Gekko. He says, “Just once I would like to be on that side” he dreaming of the day when he will be big corporate shot controlling the flow of millions of dollars like his hero Gordon.
Northouse, P. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
1. The movie “Invictus” shows great examples of the trait leadership theory that Mandela portrayed as the President of South Africa. Mandela was able to influence the people of South Africa through his traits of being an extravert leader and having great integrity. According to the text, extraverts are sociable, assertive, and energetic people. Mandela displayed traits of an extravert leader. Whenever he would greet people he always had a genuine smile and good intentions towards everyone he met. Even the people who worked for him, especially his security, were expected and required to always have a smile to portray a welcoming atmosphere. Mandela was a very sociable person, he made sure to go to all the rugby tournaments and had a very magnetic personality that he portrayed to everyone he spoke with. At every rugby tournament Mandela went to shake the players’ hands, wished them good luck, and went into the stands to greet fans that attended the game. Mandela also led his country with great integrity. The text describes integrity as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Mandela had strong believes and values which is one reason why he won the Presidency election of South Africa. Through his strong integrity he was able to unite his country. There were many hardships along the way of people not agreeing with his views or values, but that did not stop him from leading his people. Mandela even lost his family because unfortunately they did not agree with his belief or accepted what he was trying to accomplish. This shows that no matter who disagreed with Mandela’s viewpoint he did not let it affect who he was or the integrity of his goal to benefit the country of South Africa.
Trait theories are theories that consider personal qualities and characteristics that differentiate leaders from nonleaders." Early results aimed at confirming this theory were inconclusive. Many research studies were conducted and each identified key traits supposed to differentiate leaders from nonleaders. The problem is that they didn't get the same results, thus failing to discover common traits, which should have shown in each research study. When applying the Big Five Personality framework (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience) to the study and research of leadership traits, results were more encouraging. They showed that the most important trait for leaders was extraversion. Still, this founding sh...
The movie, “Gladiator” is based on the life of a war hero in the Roman era. Maximus was the main character in the movie who led the northern army against the Germanic tribes near Vindobona. Maximus had to make major decisions throughout the storyline to survive and become as great as he was. He went from a war hero, to an enslaved gladiator who had to constantly fight for freedom to regain his respect. He wanted to become free again, so he put his heart into his actions. These concepts that we have learned through our organizational behavior course has shown throughout the characters. The main concepts of leadership styles, expectancy theory,team dynamics, and communication are prevalent in the movie.