Big Screens Big Failure - Case Study Example

Big Screen’s Big Failure Grade (April 2, Big Screen’s Big Failure Problem ment The problem in this case is that Conquistadors movie emerged as a failing project, even after a heavy investment worth $90 million had been done towards making the film a success. The investment had finally proven capable of producing a film that was worth its cost, but the major problem is that the promising product was longer than would normally be expected of a commercialized film product. While the longer version of the movie, which was five and a half hours long, was a fantastic product, it was however unsuitable for commercialization. Subsequently, a decision to edit the longer version of the movie was made in the interest of producing a shorter film that could be suitable for commercialization. This resulted in the film incurring greater losses. Analysis: Why did the problems occur? The major problem in the case is that there lacks proper teamwork. According to the teamwork effectiveness model, teamwork refers to a group of people who interact to influence each other, and are mutually accountable for the achievement of the common set goals and objectives (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). In this case, there was neither influencing of each other since the director worked on the film production singly nor was there common goals achievement, since the producer and the studio’s executives were working with objectives or realizing different goals. Despite the fact that most of all the financial requirements for producing the Conquistadors movie were effectively met, the final product was still not satisfactory. Teamwork was lacking throughout the whole process of filming the movie, such that the producer was left to make most of the decisions related to the film from the beginning to the end, including dictating the content of the final product. Teamwork requires consultations and negotiations at all stages of a project, to ensure that the interests of all parties are put into consideration (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). However, the Conquistadors majorly featured the interests of the film producer, Mark Frazier, while disregarding the interest of the Big Screen Studio. Consequently, the whole Conquistadors was produced and edited in the ideas and interests of the producer, with little or no studio contribution, resulting in its ultimate failure. Lack of proper communication is yet another problem in the case. Communication entails the process by which information is transmitted and understood by the parties (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). However, even though the producer and the executive’s of the Big Screen studio were communicating, they did not understand the needs of each other. The communication process model requires that the sender should look for evidence that the receiver of the message has completely understood the message (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). This therefore means that there lacked effective communication between the two parties, resulting in pursuing divergent objectives that resulted in the film project failure. Entrusting power in the wrong hands is yet another problem that caused the failure of the film production project. Power refers to the capacity of an individual to influence others into buying their ideas (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). The contingencies of power model provide that individuals wield more power when they are un-substitutable (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). The film director in the movie production project seemed un-substitutable. Thus, in the Conquistadors movie project production process, the producer wielded more power than the Big Screen executives, which in itself caused the influence of power to flow in the wrong direction. The big Screen executives were suitably placed to wield power, and thus direct the film production process towards the set organizational objectives. Incompatible goals, is yet another problem that affected the film production project, resulting in the ultimate failure of the project. According to the bargaining zone model of negotiations, arriving at compatible goals requires that all individual or parties to a conflict negotiate constructively, to create the super-ordinate goals that are acceptable to all parties, and later negotiate on the minor issues (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). In this respect, the Big Screen executives and the producer of the Conquistadors movie did not first set the super-ordinate goals such as the actual time limit for the final version of the movie. Additionally, they did not agree on the actual cost of the film, so that the production could be limited to the actual budget. The poor negotiations and lack of flexibility in determining the project outcome eventually resulted in the failure of the movie. Ineffective leadership is also a problem that faced the film production project, resulting in its ultimate failure. According to the path-goal leadership theory, the leader should clarify the goals, set the means to achieve the goals, and determine the appropriate measures for assessing the success of goal achievement (Mcshane & Steen, 2012). The vice president of Big Screen, who was sent to work alongside the production crew on the ground did not control the production schedule or the costs, but just reported the events back to the Big Screen president. This leadership failure caused the failure of the whole project. Alternatives: What options exist to fix the problem? The first alternative that could have fixed the problem is prior setting of common goals, to have all the parties agree to work on similar goals jointly, through the project. Therefore, the producer and the executives of the Big Screen Studio should have worked hand in hand throughout the process, to ensure the commonality of goals. Selecting a different project would also have been a better alternative, since the producer had made his intentions clear to control the whole project single-handedly. Therefore, rather than losing the project control, the Big Screen executives would have picked on an alternative project they would effectively manage, just like they did previously and achieved success. Conclusion The Big Screen’s Big Failure is a typical example of organization project failure caused by a multiplicity of factors. Lack of teamwork, poor communication, lack of suitable negotiation and conflict resolution strategies as well as lack of effective leadership resulted in the failure of the Conquistadors movie production project. Thus, adapting firm leadership strategies that controls the organization towards achieving its set objective is essential. Firm leadership enables the organizational leadership to set the organizational goals, determine the means to achieve them and set the measures to assess the project success. Reference Mcshane, S. L. &. Steen, S. (2012). Canadian Organizational Behaviour (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited Read More