Mgmt 680 Organizational Behavior Paper

SCH-MGMT 680 - Organizational Behavior Individual Paper “INVICTUS” July 3, 2012

The movie Invictus tells the inspiring true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's rugby team to help unite their country. Newly elected President Mandela knows his nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing he can bring his people together through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship match A leader’s behavior is acceptable to subordinates when viewed as a source of satisfaction and motivational
when need satisfaction is contingent on performance and the leader facilitates, coaches and rewards effective performance. The original Path- Goal theory identifies achievement-oriented, directive, participative, and supportive leader behaviors The directive path-goal clarifying leader behavior refers to situations where the leader let’s followers know what is expected of them and tells them how to perform their tasks. In the movie, Mandela Challenges the process beautifully in several scenes. He consistently challenges his staff to think differently about issues and policies. For example he challenges his black head of security to ensure his black staff works collaboratively with their more experienced white colleagues. How they learn to work together as a single team, both cheering for the Springboks, provides one of several great sub-texts to the story. On another occasion Mandela challenges Francois Pienaar ( White Captain of Springboks) to think positively and creatively about the possibility of a win even though the odds are stacked against them. His challenge, his personal commitment, his quiet leadership enable Pienaar to begin to see the long shot as a possibility, thus Enabling him to Act to lead his team to train harder than ever. The achievement-oriented leader behavior refers to situations where the leader sets challenging goals for followers, expects them to perform at their highest level, and shows confidence in their ability to meet this expectation. One of Mandela’s words of wisdom -“We need inspirations to aspire because in order to build our nation, we must all exceed to our expectations.” One iconic scene features Mandela in his first meeting with Francois Pienaar and the Springboks captain. Pienaar is invited to meet the President and arrives at Government House uncertain of the reason for the meeting. Mandela’s personal style, his warmth, the way he treats everyone around him with great respect and appreciation completely charms Pienaar who leaves with the realization that something very significant has just happened to him.
During their brief but meaningful time together Mandela has skillfully inspired a Shared Vision about the importance and meaning of a Springboks win to South Africa. A leader's job is to get followers to believe they are capable of doing more than they think possible. Encouraging people to believe in themselves so that the organization can achieve. The participative leader behavior involves leaders consulting with followers and asking for their suggestions before making a decision. Mandela arrives at the National Sports Council meeting to let the members know of his plan/decision and get their buy in .Mandela wanted to restore the Springboks and restore their name, emblem and color. That was an extremely difficult decision to make and even more difficult to get the Sports Council members to accept that. As the President, he didn’t really need the member’s permission but he beautifully justified the cause for his decision. Although the member’s didn’t accept the decision in their minds, they could not argue back to the President. Few key points that Mandela mentioned were that they accept Springboks as they
were partners in democracy. He also urged them to surprise the Springboks with generosity. The supportive leader behavior is directed towards the satisfaction of subordinates needs and preferences . Mandela is always interested in each of his staff members as individuals; he knows everyone by name, asks about their families and appreciates everything they do for him. In one of the scenes Pienaar watches him with admiration as he introduces and speaks with a woman who brought in the tea. In another memorable scene, Mandela quietly memorizes the names of each of the Springboks players and he personal greets all of them. He also knows the names and family details of his security men. Once, while he goes for his morning walk, he enquires about the white security man’s family Expectancy Theory proposes that a person will decide to behave or act in certain way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be. In essence, the motivation of the behavior selection is determined by the desirability of the outcome The theory focuses on three relationships – 1. Effort-performance relationship – The probability perceived by the individual that exerting a given amount of effort will lead to performance. In the movie, the Springboks team were not confident that they would win the world cup even if they put in their best efforts. One of the reasons was the change in government. It had caused an ambiguous situation as to whether they would be allowed to play or not. But Mandela’s decision to keep the Springboks was one of the biggest surprises for them. He even put faith in them and insisted that they play and bring home the world cup. That was the best motivation the team could ever get. 2. Performance - reward relationship - The degree to which the individual believes performing at a particular level will lead to the attainment of a desired outcome. The big question was if the Springboks put in their best performance, will it help them win the Rugby world cup? The main factor associated with the individual's instrumentality for outcomes is trust. If individuals trust their superiors, they are more likely to follow their orders. When there is a lack of trust on leadership, people often attempt to control the reward system. In the movie, the team quickly established trust in Mandela as he decided to keep the team and motivated them to win the tournament. The captain Pienaar played a key role in passing on Mandela’s motivation to his team. The team had good faith in Pienaar which really helped the situation

3. Rewards-personal goals relationship - The degree to which organizational rewards satisfy an individual’s personal goals/needs and the attractiveness of those potential rewards for the individual. With the change of government, although the Springboks didn’t see themselves getting too much rewarded for their game, things started to change as they realized Mandela’s support for them. They even realized that even the nation supported them. With this, they got more and more motivated in winning as they played each game in the tournament. The President cancelled all his appointments to see their game against Australia. Their win against Australia was celebrated by the entire nation. The team got a mild taste of the reward and success as Rugby Champions. The goal of every player was to become a champion. Thus, it helped them focus on winning the world cup. They realized that their win was not just for the team, but for the entire nation of South Africa.