Twelve O'Clock High Movie ; Eadership Style
Course: HRMG 6200 – Organization in New Economy
Week 5th Assignment: Twelve O’clock High Movie
Student: Kim Dinh
Twelve O’clock High movie of director Henry King, was filmed in 1949, is an unentertaining movie, especially for girls. However, it is full of engaging in leadership tools and revealing insights into different approaches to leadership for behavior change implementation in an organization. It based on a true story of an American bomber group 918th, a “daylight precision bombing” group, that was suffering from heavy casualties, ineffective performance, and low morale during the early days of World War II. This paper is going to identify and contrast the different leadership styles of two characters, the group’s relieved leader, Colonel Davenport, and the group new leader General Savage. This paper will also find the assessments, why General Savage was successful in leading the group in achieving missions that requires a high level of performance but Mr. Davenport was not.
In the beginning of the movie, the group 918th is commanded by general Davenport. It is clearly that this leader’s main concern was the well-being of the group’s members. The air exec, Ben Gately, once told General Savage that “Dave is one of the best men I ever know”. Davenport obviously had developed close interpersonal relationships with his men. Hence, they were completely devoted towards him, followed and trusted any decision that he would make. He used trust, open communication, collaboration and participation as his leadership tools to build member commitment to him and so that to the group’s missions. Although this leadership style builds loyalty among members to the leader, they suffer significant losses on missions. This affection comes to interfere with his ability to lead the group. They had become pessimistic about their abilities to win the bombing combats, assumed that their mission is impossible. Soldiers became lack of morale. Davenport’s leading interventions
Week 5th Assignment: Twelve O’clock High Movie
Student: Kim Dinh
Twelve O’clock High movie of director Henry King, was filmed in 1949, is an unentertaining movie, especially for girls. However, it is full of engaging in leadership tools and revealing insights into different approaches to leadership for behavior change implementation in an organization. It based on a true story of an American bomber group 918th, a “daylight precision bombing” group, that was suffering from heavy casualties, ineffective performance, and low morale during the early days of World War II. This paper is going to identify and contrast the different leadership styles of two characters, the group’s relieved leader, Colonel Davenport, and the group new leader General Savage. This paper will also find the assessments, why General Savage was successful in leading the group in achieving missions that requires a high level of performance but Mr. Davenport was not.
In the beginning of the movie, the group 918th is commanded by general Davenport. It is clearly that this leader’s main concern was the well-being of the group’s members. The air exec, Ben Gately, once told General Savage that “Dave is one of the best men I ever know”. Davenport obviously had developed close interpersonal relationships with his men. Hence, they were completely devoted towards him, followed and trusted any decision that he would make. He used trust, open communication, collaboration and participation as his leadership tools to build member commitment to him and so that to the group’s missions. Although this leadership style builds loyalty among members to the leader, they suffer significant losses on missions. This affection comes to interfere with his ability to lead the group. They had become pessimistic about their abilities to win the bombing combats, assumed that their mission is impossible. Soldiers became lack of morale. Davenport’s leading interventions
References: King, H. (1949). Twelve O’clock High Movie Spector, B. (2009). Implementing Organizational Change: Theory and Practice 1st edition. Ch.1& Ch.2 – page 25 and Ch.8 – page 172 Bonjar, M. (20010). Tales from Twelve O 'Clock High: Leadership Lessons for the 21st Century Retrieved Dec 2011 –http://www.strategosinc.com/_downloads/twelve_oclock_high.pdf