Introduction
The film, “The Replacements” depicts the dedication and devotion of the Washington Sentinels football players to succeed. It starts with a strike by the team’s professional players, technical bench and even the cheerleaders at a critical point of the season forcing the team’s owner, Edward O’Neil, to hire a retired coach, Jimmy McGinty, who hurriedly assembles a new team.
The players of the new team happen to be former players with diverse interests making it hard for them to cooperate. Despite the perceived incompatible individual interests, motivation allows the team to succeed. The players include Shane Falco, a former player for Ohio State football team, a player from Wales, gangster rapper brothers and a deaf player. Despite weak teamwork spirit at the beginning and opposition from former players, the team manages to reach the final playoffs.
The team learns to cooperate and with support from cheerleaders headed by Annabelle Farrell, who is romantically involved with Shane, the team is able to advance into the final playoffs. In the finals, mistreatment of other players by the quarterback, Eddie Martell, causes the team to play poorly almost losing the game; however, help from a motivated Shaun, who returns in the second half, enables the team to win the finals.
Motivation and Determination
Motivation is important in organizations as “it builds willingness by the players or staff to work in order for the organization to achieve its goals (Goldratt and Cox 77). It bridges the gap between the ability or competence possessed by an employee and the willingness to work.
Motivation also helps in building friendly interpersonal relationships amongst workers. The management should strive to keep the staff informed regarding the events of an organization. In addition, motivation boosts the spirit of teamwork and morale making the workers to perform more effectively.
Motivation also creates a sense of belonging to an organization, which helps to build teamwork spirit and morale. Teamwork encourages “team members to strive hard to achieve common goals adding to the success of the organization” (Kotter 112).
Additionally, motivation helps to improve individual performance of the workers leading to improved organizational performance as each individual strives to give his or her best. Furthermore, motivation allows the subordinates to develop self-confidence in what they do, which encourages them also to do their best on top of encouraging them to develop a sense of responsibility, which leads to employee developing initiatives to better their performance and develop cooperation towards team activities.
Motivation is an important factor in enhancing employee satisfaction. Motivation through incentives provides a good working relationship between employees and the management as the employee unrest and industrial disputes reduce. Additionally, motivated employees would be less resistant to organizational changes that improve productivity of the organization. Improved productivity is the main goal of most organizations.
Determination and dedication are other important elements that contribute success. Determination facilitates the achievement of organizational goals because it encourages Cooperation and coordination of the work force. Employee’s determination and dedication contributes to the stability of the work force.
Good management that emphasizes on motivating its employees helps to increase the employee loyalty and determination in their work that in turn promotes retention of skilled and efficient employees who help curve a good public image of the enterprise.
The Replacements
In the movie, ‘The Replacements”, lack of motivation among the players is most evident. When the newly appointed coach, Jimmy McGinty, visits Shane with a requisition to join the team, he is reluctant to accept the offer. He at first lacks the motivation to play, the reason being, he had suffered a major defeat as a player in the Sugar Bowl some years earlier and suffered ridicule later on. The coach advises him to ‘chase his dreams or take the red bill’. He however accepts the request and joins the team.
Lack of dedication to the team made the pro football team to go on strike demanding a pay hike from five million dollars a year to seven million. They make a line in the stadium singing “solidarity forever” and refusing to participate in matches, which in turn forces the Sentinel’s owner to recruit the retired coach.
The former pros lack of dedication makes them to resort to industrial action to resolve the dispute. However, new replacements are hired to complete the season, an act that angers the pros who try to disrupt the first game involving the new players.
The script is not clear whether the cheerleaders strike is to support the striking Sentinel players; nevertheless, one thing is evident; they end up replacing the cheerleaders with strippers from a local club, which shows the lack of professionalism in the replacement team. In addition, the conduct of the striking team is wanting. They throw eggs at the bus of the replacement team and even overturn Shane’s truck.
In the makeup team, the players are losers and predictably, the team is not expected to perform. However, the team proves critics wrong when it emerges winners at the end of the film, an unexpected result as the team players do not like each other on top of disagreeing openly in the field.
Additionally, there is lack of teamwork and cooperation as John Favreau, a replacement player who is a trained SWAT member tackles his own teammate, Shaun, rendering him ineffective throughout the remainder of the first game. In the build up to the final game, the owner of the Washington Sentinels team instructs the coach to play Eddie Martel despite having promised to give full autonomy to the coach.
The team’s owner instructs the coach to field Eddie Martel in the final game and this tall order frustrates the coach who tells his favorite quarterback, Falco, of the decision. Consequently, the two (the coach and the player) are left unmotivated and even Falco takes Anabelle, the captain cheerleader on a date as a way of dealing with his depression.
Approaches to Motivation
The theory of motivation explains how motivation takes place in individuals and how it helps them to achieve their goals. The expectancy theory explains, “The desire to achieve a certain goal and the chances of success gives rise to motivation” (Miner 48). This theory gives the necessary conditions in achieving motivation; that is, the effort-to-performance expectancy and the performance-to-outcome expectancy should be more than zero.
In the film, to achieve high motivation among the players, the coach should have determined the outcomes that each player wanted before making sure that the desired performances were met. Motivation is derived from satisfaction of the outcomes of a performance. To achieve satisfaction, change of perception regarding the assigned task is necessary. The replacement players’ perceptions regarding their own inadequacies deterred them from achieving greater success.
The other theory that explains how team motivation can be achieved is the equity theory. According to this theory developed by Stacy Adams, the individual evaluates whether a treatment is fair compared to the treatment given to others before choosing to participate in a given task. If the individual feels not rewarded equitably, he or she strives to reduce the inequity. In the film, scenes such as the owner’s insistence that the coach allows Eddie Martel to play instead of Falco, makes Falco feel under rewarded for his efforts.
In addition, towards the end of the film, the coach tells the audience that even after winning their last game that allowed them to advance into the final playoffs, the players left the game with no endorsement deals or cheers from fans. The players, having achieved great success, which many did not expect, deserved to be cheered to motivate them and enhance their morale.
Attribution theory describes the importance of attributing one’s successes or failures to internal or external factors. Attributions “determine an individual’s motivational drive” (Beck 98). Self-serving attributions entails blaming others for a misfortune. The pros of Washington Sentinels attributed their team’s failure to the management resulting to a strike.
Additionally, replacement players had odd characters and the opportunity to play for the Sentinels was a welcome chance to escape from aspects of their personal characters that they did not like. The players sought to escape uncomfortable realities about their lives and this constitutes escape theory.
Conclusion
Motivation is important in achieving employee satisfaction and determination in an organization. It also enhances improved performance of the employees, which contributes greatly to the increase in productivity of an organization. Motivation also promotes the willingness of the workers to strive for improved performance.
In the film, ‘The Replacements’, the professional players were not motivated and showed this by staging a successful strike that led to the creation of makeup team to complete the season, which also lacked motivation. No common goals were set for the replacement players and as a result, they could not endeavor to be successful. Motivational theories describe the motivational drive in individuals that allows them to achieve higher performance.
Works Cited
Beck, Robert. “Motivation: Theories and Principles.” New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 2000.
Goldratt, Eliyahau, and Cox, Jeff. Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality
And Development; (Essays in Social Psychology). Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 2000.
Kotter, John. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.
Miner, John. Role Motivation Theories: People and Organizations. New York: Routledge, 1993.