12 Angry Men: Organizational Behavior

12 Angry Men is a film that plays on the psychological mind, and highlights many features of Organizational Behavior. As the jury of 12 men convene in a locked room to decide the future, or lack thereof, of a young boy accused of murdering his father, they illustrate movement through the four stages of Bruce Tuckman’s Group Development Model of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Along with this model, the movie portrays the difficulties and cohesiveness that 12 different men experience as they must come together to make one single unanimous decision. In an attempt to make this decision, several examples of influential behavior are highlighted throughout the film, as the members of the Jury experience using reason, assertiveness, coalition building, higher values and bargaining tools.

During the first stage of Tuckman’s Model, teams go through what is called “Forming.” Although I would not consider the group of Juror’s a team by definition, they are a group that must work together to accomplish a common goal. There is a process of initial orientation during Forming, where groups essentially test each other to establish relationships with leaders, other group members and standards. In the film as the Jurors settled into the deliberation room, Juror #1 was previously randomly selected as Foreman, who essentially led the group in order and process. Taking on the role of task orientation which takes the initiative to help a group perform a task, he would be the one to organize the voting processes and seating arrangements though to maintain a sense of order. In terms of physicality, he also sat at the head of the table, as would a leader. Most of the other group members immediately accepted his position without question. In the beginning scenes inside the Jury room, Juror #8 would also emerge as a leader of this group, which was increasingly evident as the movie progressed. Being the sole member with a ‘not guilty’ ballot during the first voting