Popular Culture - Movie Review Example

Topic: Popular Culture Introduction: We could find that organization and management theories have been applied in many mediums. Aptly to say printand visual media have gained more from these and they have been studied widely. I have chosen “Thirteen Days” movie released on December 25th 2000, directed by Roger Donaldson starring Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood and Stephen Culp to explain the theories of organization and management. This movie is based on the “Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962” under the US leadership. The original idea was taken from the book “The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow”. The theme is interesting as we will be able to see the management applications of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling along with the organization theories of scientific, bureaucratic and administrative theory approaches. These theories are well assimilated to understand the management of an organization in the media. In the context of the movie the organization could be the movie itself and the management could be how the subject was chosen, writing of the script, played by whom and why, technical aspects of production and how a collage of various talents put into one big entertainment. Why is 13 days movie good for management? Thirteen days movie is about interpersonal influence and decision making. It can also be reflected on narrative theory, organization, contextualized sequences of events which can be seen in case studies, classroom discussions of any management topics. This movie makes us to think about how decisions are made in organizations, where, and why. It involves strategy, critical reasoning and decisiveness to conclude on a holistic perspective. Strategic decisions are not event based in this movie but more on political views. The movie plot has uncertainties, intense pressures and unfolding of disastrous events which can happen in any management. When Kennedy is making decisions we can relate to the senior managements decision making policy which are mostly politicized than general reasoning. Contextual, temporal and processual factors play a key role in influencing decisions which mostly takes place in all organizations. There are key influencers who make the decisions and impose on the management. Movie Source: http://www2.zmovie.tv/movies/view/thirteen-days Plot of the movie: Details of the movie summary are taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146309/plotsummary. In October 1962, U-2 surveillance photos reveal that the Soviet Union is in the process of placing missiles carrying nuclear weapons in Cuba. These weapons have the capability of wiping out most of the Eastern and Southern United States in minutes if they become operational. President John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and his advisers must come up with a plan of action to prevent their activation. Kennedy is determined to show that the United States will not allow a missile threat in its virtual back yard. The Joint Chiefs of Staff advice immediate U.S. military strikes against the missile sites followed by an invasion of Cuba. However, Kennedy is reluctant to attack and invade because it would very likely cause the Soviets to invade Berlin. Kennedy sees an analogy to the events that started World War I, only this time nuclear weapons are involved. War appears to be almost inevitable. The Kennedy administration tries to find a solution that will remove the missiles but avoid an act of war. They settle on a step less than a blockade, which is formally regarded as an act of war. They settle on what they publicly describe as quarantine. They announce that the U.S. Naval forces will stop all ships entering Cuban waters and inspect them to verify they are not carrying weapons destined for Cuba. The Soviet Union sends mixed messages in response. John A. Scali, a reporter with ABC News, is contacted by Soviet "emissary" Aleksandr Fomin (Boris Lee Krutonog), and through this back-channel communication method the Soviets offer to remove the missiles in exchange for public assurances from the U.S. that it will never invade Cuba. A long message in the same tone as the informal communication from Fomin, apparently written personally by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, is received. This is followed by a second, more hard line cable in which the Soviets offer a deal involving U.S removal of its Jupiter missiles from Turkey. The Kennedy administration interprets the second as a response from the Politburo, and in a risky act, decides to ignore it and respond to the first message, assumed to be from Khrushchev. There are several mis-steps during the crisis: the defense readiness level of Strategic Air Command (SAC) is raised to DEFCON 2 (one step shy of maximum readiness for imminent war), without informing the President; and a routine test launch of a U.S. offensive missile is also carried out without the Presidents knowledge. After much deliberation with the Executive Committee of the National Security Council, Kennedy secretly agrees to remove all Jupiter missiles from southern Italy and in Turkey, the latter on the border of the Soviet Union, in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missiles in Cuba. Off the shores of Cuba, the Soviet ships turn back from the quarantine lines. Secretary of State Dean Rusk (Henry Strozier) says, "Were eyeball to eyeball and I think the other fellow just blinked." Methodology: As we see the principles of management and organization is studied from this movie. Analysis of all the theories shows that how media could be effective in gaining the practical understanding of the concepts. Thirteen Days is movie for learning the management and organization theories. Literature: Analysis of the movie was done according to the following theories. In management the following principles were considered: Planning: In the movie The President John F Kennedy (played by Bruce) takes steps to see how the Cuban missile crises can be evaded without causing any damage to human lives or property. He wants peace between the countries and their people. He makes sure that he calls in all his staff to seek their opinions and views in lieu with attacking or quarantine of the situation. He doesn’t plan all the moves by himself. He calls his aides Kenneth and Rob to brainstorm and look at different perspectives of the situation. Organizing: President is organizing his team to find out all possible outcomes of war and peace when they know of the missiles placed in Cuba. Kenneth sees that the President is continuing his schedules and not disclosing the disturbing situation to the public. Rob helps to get the votes from all staff of the senate to go with the President. This calls in attention of details and going with a plan. The unity among the Kennedy brothers is seen while running the office. Staffing: President appoints appropriate staffs with skills to deal with the situation. The secretary of state, army, air force and home affairs are called in together to see how they could be of help and advice in a critical situation like this. There is a situation in the movie where we see Kenneth standing in the operator’s room and asking a particular lady to help. He sees that the voice and commanding tone of the lady could be used by him to call the air plane skipper immediately to talk to him. Leading: The President do take the lead of the situation by using words like “under my explicit orders” or “I am the authority” or “the power of leading” during crucial discussions. This also makes us understand that by leading the President did show the rationale of decisions made, orders obeyed and smooth running of affairs. In management taking the power or authority in proper way and leading in obtaining the positive outcome is important. Misuse of power or authority can bring down oneself and the organization. Good positive leadership was shown by the President in this movie. Controlling: As we see the movie, we can see who controls the situation. At times we may falter to think that the judicial system was taking charge over the President. But during the critical moments when decisions were tough and had to be practical President did control his staff well and made them known who is under authority. When the quarantine takes place, the soviet ships were giving wrong messages. The situation where the President takes control is well worth mentioning. In the perspective of organization theories: Systematic Approach: In the movie we could see the use of Taylor’s(1917) four principles, they are Science, not rule of thumb ( how the missiles were placed in the virtual backyard of US territory) Scientific selection of worker (the people who were the close aides of the President- rational decision makers, critical thinkers and people with skills for this operation) Management and labor cooperation rather than conflict (seeking the principles of war and blockade, reasons to proceed or not, willingness to be united) Scientific training of workers (the people who coordinated for the operation, oversaw the practical running of the mission, technical knowledge of how the attack can be evaded, strategic application of thoughts and theories) The above is based on concept of planning of work which helps to achieve efficiency, standardization and simplification. Taylor’s theory was based on how productive the workers are. The same principle can be seen in the approach taken by the President during the thirteen days of crucial Cuban war missiles program. Bureaucratic Approach: This approach was given by Weber (1947). According to this the understanding is organization is considered as broader society. This may include Structure ( the plot of the movie, the characters placed well, the enactment of characters, the picturesque, scenes and originality, the depth of dialogues, the intricacy of situation) Specialization (the application of management and organization principles for a crisis driven situation) Predictability and stability (the cause of the problem, solution with reasons, handling of the situation, conceding of emotions, acceptance of situation) Rationality (why was the missile placed, the intention, the unity of finding a solution, causes and benefits of a problem) Democracy (how a mission is accomplished with unity, standing together in criticism and finding a solution) Administrative theory: Henry Fayol (1900) is the founder of this approach. His principles are listed below and cited along with the movie’s perspective Division of work (Specialization) – the categorization of work allotted by the President to find the missiles, where they were, how they could cause harm to the US, who is responsible etc were given to specific people who could handle this type of work Authority and responsibility – each heads of the unit were responsible for the mission to be successful but the President had the final word or say in the decision. He was responsible for the life and death of his people and the work that was going on. Another instance is where the UN general is given the sole responsibility to voice the opinion of US in the gathering. He shows authority and responsibility while he points that the Cuban leader failed in saying the truth about the ammunitions hidden in his country. Discipline – any action taken should follow discipline. President didn’t go throwing things to people but showed discipline in getting things done and also seeking consent from everyone. The navy and the captain of the ship show discipline in obeying the commands of the President while the blockade was done. Unity of Command – If the President gave an order it was made to follow. We can see throughout the movie Kenneth and Rob do their best to maintain the President’s orders and keeping them together by following up with each units. Unity of Direction – President gave orders and all of them followed. There was no discrepancy in following the lead. Though at times we see differences in opinion do arise. Subordination of individual interest- lot of times we could see that President’s interests and likes were nothing when he compared to that of tasks and responsibilities he had towards his people and government. Remuneration of personnel- When the skipper who was asked to fly low to get the pictures of the Cuban missiles, he was instructed by Kenneth to keep himself safe. He was told how much trouble it would cost the President to issue orders of negative influence if the skipper got injured or any other mishaps. As he kept silent of his attacks , he remunerated for his work by the President. Centralization – taking decisions, making them into practical applications and following orders as seen in the movie Scalar Chain – this is the chain of people from top management to the lower level. We can see that for this operation all the personnel were involved. Highest authority to the person who was taking the barrels of the gun powder. Order – there was order in thinking, order in doing things, order in getting their opinions understood, order in making each one responsible, order for getting a common solution Equity – all opinions were respected, all discussions were thought and though decisions were made by single person equity in standing together for that was seen Stability of tenure for personnel – each commanding officer’s knew whether they would be there in this mission or taken away. Initiative – the navy chief and air force took initiative to go ahead with war when they saw that the Soviet ships were not retaliating. But this was a negative aspect in this situation as the President was still thinking of the consequences. The concept of line and staff – how parallel the authority flowed could be seen when Kenneth was giving orders to the journalist. Vertical flow of authority was how the President gave in orders to the judicial system to obey his commands. Management of an organization or the principles of management and organization is wide subject which cannot be entailed with some points to the benefit of getting an outcome. It’s how the concept is applied and what is expected of it details the learning of management and organization. Peter Drucker (1954) says “Management is doing things right; Leadership is doing the right things”. Thirteen days shows us how this underlying principle of management and leadership is done effectively. Conclusion: The film draws most of the principles of management and organization. The news of the missiles in Cuba is brought out well to the attention of the President. When we see this portion, we can see how the daily events take place in White House. The news which is been shared among the three friends and colleagues at work is depicted well with theories of management. Jack, Kenneth and Rob share their moments from the college days and how things happening after 15 years. The organization of events is said well with lots of references of their past and present events. I have identified the below from the movie which takes most of the discussed principles. Leadership: To lead others is a difficult task. When one is placed in this situation, unknowingly they tend to be authoritative and not abiding with rules of services. In this movie we see how the President is looking helpless at situations where his leadership is questioned. Still throughout the movie, he shows power, authority and command to lead people through difficult times. When we apply this in our organization in a positive way we can see good results. We could be critical thinkers at times reasoning the purpose of our deeds. Experience is our teacher in leading others. The president shows that very well but he also makes it important for participation of views. In an organization it’s important to have formal and informal leadership so that management can do things effectively. Administrative theory: This explains what a person or organization should have in order to have the management run smoothly. When all the principles are followed with understanding there will be no conflicts of interests. In the movie we see that Rob sides the President in getting unanimous votes for blockade. Though his opinion is not accepted fully by Kenneth, he still gives confidence to Rob. There is lot of group thinking, unanimous decisions, following orders seen in the movie which can be done in practical life too. Any organization should take in staff according to what they contribute and not their face value. Management should identify the job roles of each contributing member. This helps in easing work when situation arises of emergency or trouble. The formation of organization’s policy should be on the basis of vision, mission, objectives, policy and strategies. References: 1. Thirteen day movie watched in May 2, 2011 http://www2.zmovie.tv/movies/view/thirteen-days 2. Thirteen Days movie summary, imd website viewed on May 2, 2011 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0146309/plotsummary 3. Thirteen days film critic viewed on May 2, 2011. http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/2000/thirteen-days/ 4. Dininni, Jeanne. Guide to Management theory of Elton Mayo. Viewed on 3 May 2011. http://www.business.com/guides/management-theory-of-elton-mayo-9444/ 5. Leadership and management viewed on 3 May 2011. http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/leadership-basics.html 6. Management of agricultural research: A training manual. Module 3: Organization principles and design viewed on May 3, 2011 http://www.fao.org/docrep/W7503E/W7503E00.htm 7. McNamara, Carter. Brief overview of Contemporary theories of Management. Viewed on 3 May 2011. http://managementhelp.org/mgmnt/cntmpory.htm 8. Organization theory viewed on 3 May 2011. http://www.scribd.com/doc/4880211/Organization-Theory 9. Organization theory viewed on 3 May 2011. http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199260218/hatch_ch01.pdf 10. 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Poole, Marshall Scott and Van de Ven, Andrew H. Using paradox to build management and organization theories. The Academy of Management Review Vol 14, No.4(Oct., 1989), pp.562-578 17. Simon, Herbert A. Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations, 4th ed. 1997, The Free Press 18. Selznick, Philip. Foundations of theory of Organization. American Sociological review. Volume 13, Issue 1(Feb., 1948) pp 25-35 19. Salanick, Gerald R. Wanted: A Good network theory of Organization. Reviewed work(s): Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. By Ronald S Burt. Administrative Science Quarterly Vol.40, No.2(Jun., 1995), pp.345-349 20. Snell, Scott A. Control Theory in Strategic Human Resource Management: The Mediating Effect of Administrative Information. The Academy of Management Journal Vol.35, No.2(Jun.,1992), pp.292-327 Read More