Coach Carter is a sports drama film with important leadership concepts. Throughout the film, Coach Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson) is on a mission to ensure that the players not only succeed in sports but also in academia and join college. Carter uses different tactics and portrays various leadership values. His transformative leadership style ultimately yields results, as the majority of the team members get good grades and proceed to college on top of being competitive basketball players. This paper addresses the leadership values that stand out in three different scenes of the movie.
Group Dynamics
Different aspects of group dynamics come out in the scene where Carter introduces himself to the team and asks members to sign a contract on terms of association and operation. The need for group effectiveness is clear in this scene where the coach introduces some ground rules on what is expected from the players. Some of the key characteristics of group effectiveness include having goals that should be achieved, maintaining a good working relationship among team members, and adapting to new circumstances and working as a group (Johnson & Johnson, 2013).
In this scene, Carter sets goals that each team member should work hard to achieve. First, the players must attend all of their classes, wear ties on game days, and maintain a 2.3 GPA (Thomas, 2005). Second, team members are required to maintain a good working relationship. This requirement means that each person should respect other people. Additionally, members of the team are expected to adapt to the new ground rules.
The recurring-phase theory of group development can be seen in this scene. This theory discusses issues that dominate how group members interact. Coach Carter clarifies that respect is paramount and anyone unwilling to comply with this requirement would be punished. Therefore, when Timo Cruz, a player in the team, misbehaves, he is instructed to get out of the gym. However, he becomes aggressive towards Carter, but the coach is unmoved.
He stands his ground, and when Cruz tries to punch him, he twists Cruz’s arm, pushes him against the wall, and escorts him out of the gym. In the scene where Cruz is allowed to rejoin the team on the condition that he does 2,500 push-ups and 1,000 suicides. By Friday, Cruz is short of the target by 80 suicides and 500 push-ups. Carter tells him that he cannot rejoin the team because he has not beaten his target. However, other players volunteer to do the remaining push-ups and suicides for him because they are a team and if any one of them fails, they all fail. In addition, a triumph for one member is a win for everyone. This aspect shows the concept of interdependence, which plays an important role in the success of a team.
Power
The concept of power and how it is used within the confines of leadership is a common theme throughout the movie. In the scene where the players are given contracts, coercive power is at play. The coach is clear that anyone who does not meet the requirements of the contract would be subjected to some form of punishment or suspended from the team. According to Cairns (2017), in coercive power, a manager ensures that employees follow orders through threats to be punished.
In the movie, Carter uses threats often to enforce discipline and compliance into the players. This explains why Cruz is punished to do 1000 suicides and 2,500 push-ups if he wants to rejoin the team after showing disrespect and failure to comply with the set rules. Coach Carter also uses reward power in the movie. For instance, players who work hard in class and adhere to all the set rules are rewarded by being allowed to remain in the team and participate in numerous games.
The concept of social exchange theory also stands out clearly in the movie. According to this theory, people weigh the benefits and costs associated with a certain relationship to determine whether they continue with it or break up (Cropanzano, Anthony, Daniels, & Hall, 2017). In the movie, when the players are handed the contracts, they have to decide whether to quit the team or stay and abide by the rules.
The benefits of remaining in the team outweigh the costs of obeying the rules, and thus all the team members stay. When Battle is expelled from the team, he weighs the benefits of being in the team against the price of doing 1,000 suicides and 1,000 push-ups, and he decides to carry out the punishment, which earns him readmission. Under all these circumstances, the decisions that the involved players make are based on the concept of the social exchange theory. If Cruz decided that the price of doing his punishment outweighed the benefits of being in the team, he would have quit. The same applies to the case of Battle.
Application in Modern Day Business Environment
The first example is that of Coach Carter setting the operating rules that each team member should follow. All companies have terms and regulations that every employee should follow. Even in cases where laissez-faire form of leadership is practiced, employees are expected to behave in a certain manner. Goal setting is another common characteristic in the modern business environment. In the contract handed to the players, each is required to attain certain goals in a bid to be guaranteed a place in the team. Similarly, companies have to operate towards achieving set targets and objectives for profitability and sustainability.
For instance, the marketing department in any company has specific sales goals that are evaluated from time to time. Comparable to the movie scene where Cruz and Battle are expelled from the team, employees risk being sacked if they do not meet the targets. Additionally, similar to Coach Carter’s reward power strategy, one of the ways that companies motivate employees is through rewards, which come in different forms. In other cases, based on the style of leadership being used, managers may use coercive power to compel employees to achieve the set targets. Workers also employ the social exchange theory to determine whether to remain in a certain job or quit.
Ethical Dilemma/Conclusion
One of the ethical dilemmas in the film presents when Stone’s girlfriend, Kyra, has to decide whether to abort or carry the pregnancy to term and raise the child. She knows that having the baby would affect Stone’s chances of going to college and advancing as a professional basketball player. Finally, she aborts the baby. At a personal level, three years ago a friend approached me for advice on whether to abort or not.
She was worried that she did not have the resources to bring up a child and provide all that is needed because the baby’s father was incarcerated. I encouraged her to keep the baby but she had to make a choice after weighing all the options. She aborted. In conclusion, throughout the film, Coach Carter demonstrates exceptional leadership values, and he ultimately succeeds by ensuring that the team members join college and become better players.
References
Cairns, T. D. (2017). Power, politics, and leadership in the workplace. Employment Relations, 43(4), 5-11.
Cropanzano, R., Anthony, E. L., Daniels, S. R., & Hall, A. V. (2017). Social exchange theory: A critical review with theoretical remedies. The Academy of Management Annals, 11(1), 479-516.
Johnson, D.W., & Johnson, F.P. (2013). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Thomas, T. (Director). (2005). Coach Carter. Web.