Leadership based on a video 12 angry men - Essay Example

At one instance where he got agitated he offered his own position to another jury member which shows his weakness. He did not portrayed any of the attributes that a leader might have practiced. He was not the most intelligent in the room neither was he extrovert or conscientious. He was bound by the rules and norms followed by a jury foreman and he kept on reminding jury members of them although he never used his influence to strictly enforce them. His pause when the architect did not favor the guilty verdict in the beginning shows that he was hesitant and was only a follower of popular opinion.

Furthermore there were no inherent leadership qualities that would separate him from other jury members as a result his idea of conducted a secret ballot in the beginning was shot down and he was referred to as a “kid” by Juror # 10. After seeing the movie it is felt that there was a very insignificant role played by the jury foreman as he relinquished his responsibility to lead the group and losses his composure. After losing his composure he was only fulfilling the demands of the Jurors, for example taking a vote or asking the guard for exhibits (12 Angry Men, 1997). Q2. How was the behavioral leadership theory depicted in the movie?

Provide at least three examples from the movie to support your argument. The movie has substantial content that supports behavioral leadership theory, leadership can be learned and is not a born trait (Carpenter et al., 2010). It is observed in the movie that during the course of time most jurors show courage and learn to accept both fact based information and humanistic elements (Carpenter et al., 2010). Initially most of the Juror’s appeared convinced of guilty verdict and to a certain extent biased but as the discussions progressed they change themselves and learned to stand up for what they believed and distanced themselves from biasness.

The foremost example is Juror # 9, the nice old man who agrees with the majority initially but later on his confidence, courage and ability to understand and present both fact and human based elements convinces other jury members, something presented in the behavioral theories as Laissez-faire style of leadership. His keen observation related to wearing the glasses proved sufficient to convince Juror 4 who was till then adamantly supporting the guilty verdict. Similarly the African American Juror, who grew up in slums was very shy as he abstains from commenting and stayed silent in the beginning although later on he stands up for who he was and using his experience he brought forward his arguments about the murder weapon (knife) and how they are usually applied.

The third example was Juror # 7, the sports fan who had no interest what so ever in the case as he wanted to get over with it so he can go to the baseball match. Later on as facts are revealed to him he shows interest and changes his behavior as a sarcastic member of the group to an accepting member who supported the truth by removing his perceptual bias towards the accused teenager. It is a fact that all the men in that room learned and grew that day, fighting their personal prejudices, bias, indifference, anger, cultural difference, fears and bad experiences to reach a fair judgment but all due to Juror