Leadership Style in the Movie Gladiator
GROUP PAPER/LEADERSHIP GLADIATOR, by Ridley Scott (2004)
1. INTRODUCTION
Acting as observers in this case, we are reviewing the leadership from the perspective of the son of Caesar, Commodus. A man, with love lost. A man, without the desired virtues set by his Father. A man, without morals, as stated by his Father. A man, who competes for favor, trust, honor and value with an authentic leader like Maximus, someone whom has also had the love of Commodus Father and fails to connect with his followers.
1.1 Within and under the guardianship of his father, Commodus struggles to attain any of the qualities connected to an ethical type of leadership that was set up by his Father, namely wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance, and with the gap seemingly too wide he is instead trying to create something that stands apart from that very thing. (Ridley Scott, 2004) His other virtues, according to himself- ambition, resourcefulness, courage and devotion- fell short of making the desired impression. He moves further into vices quite opposite of what Romes was built on. It is very interesting from the point of virtues being “characteristics of a person that are not inborn but acquired and developed through learning, instruction and continuous practice” as per Lampous arguments (2002:8) Supported in the movie by Caesar the former, Marcus Aurelius, in his statement: “Your faults as my son is my failures as a father” (Ridley Scott, 2004) To further describe Commodus, we have to turn to the defintions of pseudotransformational leadership, which refers to “leaders that are self-consumed, exploitive and power oriented, with warped moral values” (Northouse, 2013:187) and as such a personalized leadership, focused on self-interest rather than the interest of others and the common good.(Northouse, 2013:187) In contrast to a transformational leader he struggled with concepts of trust, social architecture, vision and self-image, something that affected his power of influence
1. INTRODUCTION
Acting as observers in this case, we are reviewing the leadership from the perspective of the son of Caesar, Commodus. A man, with love lost. A man, without the desired virtues set by his Father. A man, without morals, as stated by his Father. A man, who competes for favor, trust, honor and value with an authentic leader like Maximus, someone whom has also had the love of Commodus Father and fails to connect with his followers.
1.1 Within and under the guardianship of his father, Commodus struggles to attain any of the qualities connected to an ethical type of leadership that was set up by his Father, namely wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance, and with the gap seemingly too wide he is instead trying to create something that stands apart from that very thing. (Ridley Scott, 2004) His other virtues, according to himself- ambition, resourcefulness, courage and devotion- fell short of making the desired impression. He moves further into vices quite opposite of what Romes was built on. It is very interesting from the point of virtues being “characteristics of a person that are not inborn but acquired and developed through learning, instruction and continuous practice” as per Lampous arguments (2002:8) Supported in the movie by Caesar the former, Marcus Aurelius, in his statement: “Your faults as my son is my failures as a father” (Ridley Scott, 2004) To further describe Commodus, we have to turn to the defintions of pseudotransformational leadership, which refers to “leaders that are self-consumed, exploitive and power oriented, with warped moral values” (Northouse, 2013:187) and as such a personalized leadership, focused on self-interest rather than the interest of others and the common good.(Northouse, 2013:187) In contrast to a transformational leader he struggled with concepts of trust, social architecture, vision and self-image, something that affected his power of influence
References: Eisenbeiss, S.A., (2012), “Re-thinking Ethical Leadership: An Interdisciplinary Integrative Approach”, Leadership Quartely, 23 (5), 791-808 Howell, Jane, M Lampou, Konstantin (2002) “Traits and Skills for Managerial Leadership: A virtue Theory Approach”, Occasional paper 2002/03, Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, www.fek.uu.se Forskning/Publikationer Northouse, P.G Ridley Scott, (2004) The Gladiator Sharma, A