Film Analysis Of Erin Brockovich, By Erin Brockovich

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Recommended: Importance of ethics in leadership

Introduction
Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) was a three time divorcee struggling with three young kids. She was involved in a hit and run accident and was badly injured thus hired a lawyer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney) to assist her in this case. Unfortunately, Ed Masry loses the case and he offered Erin a job as a file clerk in his small legal firm. She came across a file regarding Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and the people of Hinkley, which caught her attention and went on her investigation. After much investigation, she found out that the people in Hinkley are suffering from contaminated and poisonous water that is causing health threats and illness to the people, young and old. She found out that the plant PG&E had in Hinkley is the cause …show more content…

Erin feels that such actions by PG&E is unethical and thus help the people of Hinkley to fight for what they deserve which Erin feels that it is right to do so.
Honesty toward others – Erin is transparent to the people of Hinkley. She explains and gives only the truth to the people of Hinkley.
Building community with others – Erin is able to influence and convince the people of Hinkley to achieve a common goal which is to sue PG&E. Erin is able to unite and bring the whole town people together to fight for this case and get justice.
Thus with the evidences mentioned from the movie, we can see that Erin fulfill the five ethical leadership principles.
The LPC Contingency Model
Fiedler’s least preferred co-worker (LPC) theory is to determine the leader’s effectiveness through the leader’s personal characteristics. Leaders with high LPC have a good relationship with their followers and these leaders prioritize relationship before work while on the other hand leaders with low LPC prioritize work before relationships (Michaelsen , 1973). There are three elements identified in this model and they are Leader-member relations, Task structure and Position power (Fiedler, …show more content…

Firstly, Erin has a good leader member relations in terms of her relationship with her group of followers which is the people in Hinkley. The people in Hinkley trusted her and believe that she will be able to fight together with them and win this case for them.
Next, Erin is clear of her goals and aims, and understand clearly each of the situation of every members of the family in Hinkley and her goals was to win this case for the people of Hinkley.
Lastly, Erin has got a weak position power as she was only a clerk then and she has no authority or position power to make important decisions but she has the personal powe, the leadership power to make things work.
Other than those metioned above, in the movie we can see that Erin focuses on her task and prioritze her task before any other things which includes her relationships with her family and partner and therefore she falls under Low LPC.
Challenges –

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