MNGT leadership Management Essay Research Coursework

Leadership Lessons from “Apollo 13” Film
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Introduction
Do we become leaders after gaining experience or are we born leaders? Well, proponents of the Great Man Theory ascertain that leadership is inherent while Behavioral Theories indicate that individuals can become leaders through learning and development. However, the film “Apollo 13” implies that a combination of inherent and learned leadership skills is equally important when dealing with a crisis. The oxygen explosion in the film results in a crisis that forces the crew members and mission control to turn the Lunar Module into a lifeboat that supports the crew beyond its design limits. While this is an engineering masterpiece, the leadership qualities shown by Swigert, Lovell, and Kranz are significant in the management of employees. This paper aims to provide a summary of Apollo 13, identify the leadership qualities depicted by Swigert, Lovell, and Kranz in film, and describe the influence of their actions.
Movie summary
The film Apollo 13 is a tale of leadership and teamwork. In these difficult times of Covid-19, Apollo 13 shows how transparency, teamwork, and agility remain a source of survival. The film begins with a team of astronauts leaving earth and attempting to land on the moon. The early stages of the mission are smooth until an oxygen explosion that subjects the crew to high amounts of carbon dioxide occurs. At this point, the original mission became irrelevant while the mission control was trying to come up with possible solutions. However, any attempt to solve the oxygen explosion created another problem. Any attempt to prevent the crew’s death in space would only subject it to the hardships of re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.
Like in any haste situation, the crew panicked as they struggled to find a way to survive. Although the majority of the conversations among the crew were scripted, their emotions accurately reflected the situation at hand. Suddenly, the state of resilience and adaptability kicks in among the crew members. Collaboration between the crew and the mission control turns the main Command and Service Module into a lifeboat. Although the moon was lost, the unfolding event in Apollo 13 depicts how the crew re-enters into the atmosphere and lands safely.
1. Gene Kranz (Ed Harris)
1.1 Flexibility
Ed Harris, who acts as Gene Kranz, is the director of the mission in Apollo 13 film. A major trait about Kranz is his flexibility to adapt to different situations. Adaptable leaders can adjust their strategies to reflect the reality of the present situation. Leaders with this characteristic can work with a wide range of people while also maintaining productivity during chaos (Zarb et al., 2017). In Apollo 13, Kranz declares that “We have never lost an American in space and they sure as hell won’t lose one on my watch,” immediately he gets to know about the problems of the mission. Other than being flexible, this statement implies that Kranz is not just confident in his skills, but he knows how to inspire his team.
1.2 Teamwork and team briefings
Furthermore, Kranz knows the importance of teamwork because he frequently allowed his subordinates to voice their opinions. Once Kranz becomes aware of the problems in the mission, he holds a meeting with the flight controllers to establish a plan of rescuing the crew. He goes ahead to conduct many briefings with the flight controllers while also listening to their opinions. Team briefings establish an environment where every employee can be an active participant. Therefore, instead of waiting for annual team meetings, team briefings open continuous lines of communication within an organization (Dey and Ganesh, 2020). This is evident in Apollo 13 when the flight physician freely tells Kranz that the astronauts need sleep. Such openness from subordinates is achieved by frequent team briefings that Kranz established.
2. Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks)
2.1 Developing individual needs and delegating tasks
Like Kranz, Lovell practices transformation leadership when dealing with his subordinates. A leader cannot perform every task. However, even if the leader can do everything, he/she must delegate some tasks. Although all the other crew members were more experienced than Swigert, Lovell gave Swigert the responsibility of docking the Command Module to the Lunar Module. Of course, delegating responsibilities reduces the workload. However, to a leader, delegation does more than just reducing the workload. Delegation is a sign that the leader respects his subordinates and trusts in their abilities. Importantly, through delegation, the less experienced subordinates feel valued, which increases their commitment and productivity (Banerjee et al., 2016). This is evident during re-entry when Lovell gives the pilot seat to Swigert. In this scenario, Lovel...