Team Work at Remember the Titans - Movie Review Example

Titan 200 and Individual Assessment Name: Date: Affiliation: Titan 200 and Individual Assessment Emma 2008 asserts that the film provides a potential means of connecting theory with lived experience in a way that seeks to 'tell it as it is' even if...the status of these representations is complex and ambiguous. Emma asserted that movies are the avenues that people express what happening to the society in a better and elaborate way is. For instance in the movie TITANS, it is highlighting the era of racial discrimination action and bigotry which used to happen in 1970s.Much discriminations was taking place in the organizations and it was impossible to achieve the goals. The movie titan highlights the condition under which racial discrimination was happening and the consequences that it brought on the organization (Bumpus, 2005, p.793). The movie highlights the segregation happening in T.C Williams High School when Coach Herman Boone commonly known as Washington gets a post as a coach to lead the football team in the school. Boone takes over from the previous coach by the name Bill Yoast who is a white man and the school nominated him to be the school hall of fame as a way of showing respect. Bonne‘s kindness and boldness make him offer a position to Yoast as an assistant coach, but he rejects the offer at first but finally takes the offer. The students wanted to boycott the team after learning that Yoast wanted to leave but finally he resolves to stay and takes the job as an assistant coach. The black and white team members often clash now and then and they end up fighting but all this is attributed to bigotry. However, after forceful, rigorous, coaxing and athletic training carried out by Boone the ends up achieving harmony and they succeed. However, some members still underestimate Boone and one member told him” You must be fired if you happen to lose at least one game “However, that should not happen any cost. This affirms that despite his efforts, still some characters believe that he is not capable of becoming the best. Fortunately, Titans goes through season time undefeated though it was grappling with prejudice and hatred (Yakin, 2002). Before the state semi finals, Yoast finds a board member who tells him that they are planning to induct into the Hall of fame if only he allows Titans to lose at least one game. He learns that this means firing of Boone from the position and declines the offer. He realizes that the referees are using bias against the team just to make sure it loses. He resolves to go to the press and report the issue. Upon realizing the assertions, the referees provide a fair game and ultimately Boone wins. Accidentally, after semi-finals, Bertier gets injury after driving through intersection and that meant he never played the finals, but the team ends up winning. Finally, the team reunites at Berter;s burial. He dies immediately after winning Gold in the Paralympics. The team unites again and they ended up having a good time knowing that they are all equal and one day they will die just as their friend had died (Yakin, 2002). It is evident Boone had a way of uniting the Titan to an extent that they ended up becoming the best. Despite the racial differences and challenges, Titan ended up becoming the best team under the leadership of Yoast and Boone. In an effort to achieve the objectives and goals ultimately, they must have employed some theories that are helpful in the course of building a team. For example, Tuckman’s theory is one of the best theories which explain the process of building a good team in each and every group. Tuckman theory has stages of development and the stages are pivotal in building a very successful team. The theory describes working with a team which works with social psychologist on behalf of the United States navy. The team studied a small group of people and their behavior from various perspectives. After doing that, Tuckman reviewed some 50 articles which were talking about group development and he realized that there were two common features which were common in the two groups and they included group structure and the task activity. From the evaluation, he realized that groups evolved to become teams if only it had the right mind and followed the four steps followed (Champoux, 1999, p.210). First orientation testing phase is very crucial since it is the testing phase and it usually involves several cases of violence such as the one that were experienced in Titan after Boone became the coach. Later on the conflict resolves itself and it lead to a more socially cohesive society. Ultimately, the group settled to the functional phase which focused on role-relatedness. In an effort to summarize the four stages, Tuckman coined the following terms; storming, norming and finally performing. The Tuckman theory illustrates well on a graph and it shows the progress of groups in terms of relationships. However, the ideas of Tuckman clearly indicates that it takes much time reach the performing stage and normally these teams usually go up and down in the process of developing effective relationship(Huczynski 2004,p.717). The following diagram shows the steps that an organization follows prior getting found. The first level is usually referred to as forming and it is the initial stage of team development. At this stage, the members have not known each other and they are still having problems here and there. They even fight amongst themselves and more especially the members of titan. They value and divide themselves along tribal lines and mostly they will fall under the limits of race and tribe.For example, the students do not accept the new coach only because he is a black man. The administration and the board members are not comfortable having him around and they wait for any slight loophole so that they can punish him and take him out of the team. They even go a mile ahead and coarse the assistant coach to allow the team to lose so that Boone can lose his job. However, that does not happen to take into account that Yoast and Boone have a good relationship and they can overcome the race differences. At this stage people have not yet recognized the need to be together and they treat each other as strangers. At this stage, it is where team building techniques become important since it is the foundation of a successful team or that which will fail terribly. Taking the titans, Boone realized that it was important for him to take the challenge and tries to unite at first since that was the only way they could overcome related to personal. He tells them their skin color has nothing to do with the team; if they must succeed then they must overcome the personal differences and come up with better strategies. The effort and assertion were successful and the team started integrating and eventually it became one strong team (Smith 2009, p.470). The second stage is storming and at this point people have started seeing themselves as part of the group and team. At this stage, they tend to challenge each other and also the team leaders are part of the criticism. The general issues here are the activities of the team and the team leader is highly challenged at this particular stage. This is the stage where various teams fail since people are moving against the boundaries that were found in the forming stage. At this stage, you might realize that it is where many teams fail. Storming mainly starts due to conflicts that are attributed to working styles. For example, in the movie titans, you find that the two captains are conflicting and all this was due to lack of mutual understanding. They feel that whatever they are doing it is the best thing, but in the real sense it is not the best. The captains are fighting some going for Boone while others are against his ideas. They think that only because he is black, he does not have the necessary knowledge to steer the business ahead. The difference in mode of organizing and playing brings a pandemonium and that is what is observed by many organizations. Once, an organization has been started, it feels that it can achieve more than the other group and in the process a lot is lost in the long run. It is possible to find very qualified people such as doctors and other specialists working in a team, but there are few problems attributed to the mode of working. Some doctors may feel that something should be done differently while others feeelthat it should be done in another way. All these work towards enhancing team work but storming is the most critical stage (Aswathappa 2010, p.44). Storming may also be evident in other situations especially when the team members challenge the authority of the manager or the existing leader. Moreover, if the roles are not clearly one may find that the team members are complaining now and then and this continues to create issues within the team. Borrowing still from the titan movie, it is apparent that storming was the common occurrence especially at the initial stages where the team members felt that Boone was giving them too much and yet they felt they were champions. Moreover, the team members who stick with the job at hand usually experience stress and especially, if they lack support of the established process or strong relationship with the established processes (Weyn & Baker 2002, p.98). Norming falls third in team development according to Tuckman. At this stage people, start resolving the internal differences and also they start appreciating the strengths of their colleagues and the same time accepting the authority of their leader. At this stage, the team members know one another in a better way; they help each other and also provide some constructive feedback. Additionally, people at this stage have developed strong desire and commitment to the team and the main objective is to achieveing the goals of the team. Harmony and cooperation are evident in the stage and many good things are experienced. In the case of Titans, the team has started embracing each other under the leadership of Boone. They know that, without his leadership, it is impossible to achieve the goals as a team and, therefore, they start respecting him voluntarily. Moreover, the cases of bigotry, the team realized that the races have nothing to do with the team and they started working as a unified team. The captains understand that their skin color has nothing to do with their ability to win or play football and they embrace each other for the sake of the team (Weyn & Baker 2002, p.56). Performing stage is the fourth stage of team building where by all the teams members have accepted that they are there for the team and every effort should be directed to the team. The goals are elaborate and also each and every individual acknowledges that all efforts should are for the good of the team. At this stage friction is minimal if there may be one in any case and the structures set by the manager or the reader helps the company to achieve the goals efficiently. Moreover, at this stage the leader can delegate much of the work and concentrate on issues that help in building the team. In the case of Titan, the team has managed to grow and they play and win games efficiently. They have set aside their differences and they can easily concentrate on the team and work efficiently. Boone and Yoast can easily delegate duties’ to the team members and the members can easily carry them out. The two continue focusing on strategies of building the team and finally they succeed. Any attempt to disdain the team makes the matters worse to the extent that even Yoast threatens the referees who are unfair to the team. They think that it is not possible to betray each other for the sake of personal differences. Yoast shuns the opportunity to join the hall of fame so that he could retain the job of his fellow coach Boone. He knows that any chance of giving in to the demands of the board means betraying the team and all they have built for all that time. The team had managed to overcome the bigotry aspect and, therefore, it was not possible for him to destroy that for selfish gains (Aswathappa 2010, p.57).Adjournment is the last stage of team or any organization.The team part ways and some members may think that it is not good to leave especially those who think that their life is uncertain. In the case of Titan, it separates for ten years but it unites again to bury their friend who dies after winning gold in the Paralympics. They all mourn for their friend and understand that whatever, they formed was more than a team and it was impossible to break (Weyn & Baker 2002, p.67). In view of Titan, it is apparent that businesses are some of the best groups one can make in life. They ensure that everything is achievable as a team. For instance, in the case of Titan, the team managed to conquer the dynasty of xenophobia and both black and whites work as brothers to achieve the same goal. It was a heavy task to build such a team, but everybody played his role and the team stood on its feet. Tuckman’s theory was fundamental in building the team and each and every stage of the team illustrates heavy application of business behavior theories and practice. Therefore, for any company to stand it is paramount for organizational theories to be applied and ultimately the business will stand. References Aswathappa, K. (2010). Organisational behaviour (Rev. ed.). Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House. Bumpus, M.A. (2005) Using Motion Pictures to Teach Management: Refocusing the Camera Lens Through the Infusion Approach to Diversity, Journal of Management Education, Vol. 29 No. 6 792-815 Champoux, J.E. (1999) Film as a Teaching Resource, Journal of Management Enquiry, Vol. 8 No. 2, 206-217 Huczynski, A. and Buchanan, D. (2004) Theory from Fiction: A Narrative Process Perspective on The Pedagogical Use of Feature Film, Journal of Management Education, Vol. 28 No. 6 707-726 Smith, G.W. (2009) Using Feature Films as the Primary Instructional Medium to Teach Organizational Behavior, Journal of Management Education, Vol. 23 No. 4 462-489 Weyn, S., & Baker, D. (2002). Team work. New York, NY: Golden Books Pub. Co.. Yakin, B. (Director). (2002). Rember the titans [Motion picture]. USA: Buena Vista Home Entertainment. . Read More