Leadership Group Project: Video Case Analysis: Saving Private Ryan

Leadership Group Project – Video Case Analysis
BADM 4340 – Section 05 – GROUP NUMBER
Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Arora, Yoganshi (0759457)
Mauro, GianCarlo (0760291) Saving Private Ryan takes place during World War II (specifically, June 6th, 1944 and onwards) where a Captain named Cpt. Miller and what is left of his squad is tasked to find, secure, and extract a Private James Ryan. The reason behind their mission is to alleviate Mrs. Ryan’s grief as the war has already been the cause of death for three of her sons, Pvt. Ryan being the only one remaining. Discussing war and the topic of leadership go hand-in-hand as leadership plays an integral part in any army and thus war, specifically however, the concepts/theories of teamwork,
Teamwork, as proven by history, is an essential part of any properly functioning group whom are working towards a goal. Effective teamwork can be broken down into five different categories being the overall sense of purpose, competency, cooperative spirit, abiding by rules, and accountability (Joseph C, 2016). Having a sense of purpose allows the members to have a clear understanding of what they are to achieve and the importance of completion. Competency is necessary as every member needs to be contributing towards the end goal or else the team will suffer and risk failure. Every member also needs to have a cooperative spirit as working together is the fundament backbone of teamwork. Teamwork however requires certain “rules” that must be abided by in order to achieve success in an efficient manner as they will keep the group on-track. Lastly, to coincide with the
Conflict can be defined as being a competitive or opposing action of incompatibles: antagonistic state or action (as of divergent ideas, interests, or persons) (Merriam-Webster, 2016). The resolution of a conflict has an equal probability of turning out positive or negative, however, it is important to understand the value that the conflict offers as a true leader would. This is critical as it allows the leader to value both sides of the argument which in turn allows the leader to strengthen their own cogent argument and possibly come to an even better, more appropriate resolution. With that said however, conflicts have the ability to cause much animosity, outrage, and even resentment which is why the leader must truly value both sides of the argument. An example of this can be found within Saving Private Ryan when Cpt. Miller and his platoon found and captured a German soldier (whom was later nicknamed “Steamboat Willie”) who had recently ambushed and killed two American Airborne Paratrooper soldiers. Conflict arose when the entirety of Cpt. Miller’s platoon wanted to kill Steamboat Willie for his actions, however, Cpt. Miller had other plans and chose to let the soldier live. One of the soldiers in the platoon had the audacity and courage to attempt to disobey the