The 2006 Movie Take the Lead - Essay Example

TAKE THE LEAD Social cultural issues The 2006 movie ‘Take the lead’ takes the feature of musical drama and exposes numerous social cultural features and although filming takes place within Toronto, the scenes are based in New York City. Among the many social cultural themes that are depicted in the film are leadership, peer influence, race, violence, modernity, hyper-masculinity as well as mannerism versus rudeness. However, as the title depicts, there is more to leading others as depicted in class stratification of the school by having the principle, the dance tutor as well as the students who represent the subordinates. Although the film features such many social cultural issues, this paper intends to have an in-depth analysis of two of the social cultural issues highlighted in the plot of the film. In particular, this paper covers leadership and drugs and substance abuse through peer influence as are most outstanding in the entire film. For instance, as alluded to, the movie depicts the ‘power’ or ‘authority’ structure in which the principle is seen as the master while the dance instructor comes below the principle but above the students. In another approach, the climax of the movie as is characterized by the competition shows the main teaching of the dance as alluded to in having to develop the student into responsible and mature citizens in the society. This is depicted by the dance styles, which a man learns to uphold respect while teaching a woman, as well as learn to earn the trust of woman through proving that he too honors her. The woman therefore learns to trust and follow man’s leading as is shown while performing. Although the dancing is characterized majorly by sobriety, some scenes depict much violence as results of drugs and substance abuse and hence the need to evaluate the theme as a social cultural issue. Review Leadership: Leadership is the art of imparting influence to people and making them willingly cooperate towards realizing a particular purpose. A leader mobilizes the efforts of persons through ‘leadership’ towards achieving a common goal. There are numerous models and theories that have been used to describe leadership among which are transcendent theorem as well as strategic leadership theorem. Strategic leadership entails the capability of a leader to shape an team’s decisions, deliver high value over time through not only his/her own efforts but by inspiring and guiding other people in the team too (Wong et al., 2003). Strategic leadership described by Lynch has basic elements through which it is defined. These are ‘defining and delivering to stakeholders’, ‘sustaining competitive advantage over time’, ‘developing and communicating the team’s purpose’, ‘setting ethical standards’ and ‘managing team’s resources and team decisions’ (Hitt et al, n.d). On the other hand, transcendent leadership is the form of leadership that we would say, that it comes from ‘self’ as it gets to ‘others’. The leader is then seen to lead him/her self first, leads the team and then leads a society. This explains ‘transcendent leadership’, which is the one that has influence emanating from self to other people (in team) and ultimately influences the entire society (Crossan, Vera & Nanjad 2008). Effectiveness in team performance may not be having a direct definition although a variety of aspects would be considered while understanding the term. The general understanding of the concept would stem from understanding of success in management of persons and in this case the team members (Flores, 1992). The practice of team leadership entails various aspects of deliberate and intentional practices that are carried out in the purpose to either guide or influencing a team of persons towards a common goal in matters of resource use and outcome (Rose, 2007). Strategic leadership especially by the managers is prerequisite towards general success and effectiveness in team performance. Modernity defines managers as assumed ‘strategic leaders’ in their own position because they are responsible for managing teams of workforce and other production resources for the common goal of effectiveness in production of goods and services (Olum, 2004). The theory ‘X’ of leadership has been commented on greatly in the scholarly field in that it assumes that human beings are inherently lazy by default and as such does not like working (Stewart, 2010). The resultant of this in the real world is the devising of control mechanisms and supervisory tools to be used within any set-up by leaders. The reasoning of the theory is that people work because of coercion or by enticement through material gains without which the persons are determined to avoid working; therefore, the ambition of team members to engage in productive activities is boosted or controlled by enticements. This implies that team leadership within this theory’s framework have to use coercion and threat in order to get work done or have general compliance by the workers. However, ‘Y’ theorem reverses the reasoning of the ‘X’ theorem and purports that individuals derive intrinsic influence while ascribing and following a team’s operations and not coercion. It is thus equally an explanatory theory on the nature of interpersonal relationships between leadership persons and the individual team members. Individuals are self-motivated, exercise self-restraints in matters of working, and as such do not require any external influence in their productivity and delivery (Olum, 2004). It is therefore, more likely that theory ‘Y’ team leaders would develop trust in their employees and subordinates due to the high level of responsibility that is exhibited by the employees as postulated by the theory. Drugs and substance use: Dependence on chemical influence has been in the rise with efforts to curb the menace in the society raising costs of living. Addiction to chemical and substance abuse in social set-ups have been pointed to raises levels of unemployment and in effect poor standards of living. The resources committed to management of these vices by the authorities have detrimental effects to the economy and the outcome is retarded growth to the economy and failure to offer basic services to the citizens. In cities for instance, the chemical substance and drug business is highly concealed and thus hard to curtail. In order to avoid the regulation and possible taxation of such substances, they are packed and sold under misleading names and other deceiving labels by well organized gangs. Reports indicate that at least 21% of youths in cities within US attest to have used the ‘synthetic lethal intoxicating drugs’ at least once in many of the occasions of leisure and parties in the town (Jerry, Collins & streem, 2012). Drug and substance abuse in the society has been notably high with effects spilling over to merely all sectors of the economy and social life. Poverty and the availability of such chemicals have greatly contributed to the increase in dependence on them by majorly the youths. Escalating unemployment rates among the youths, which is blamed on low levels of education increases the opportunities of the youth in the city to indulge in the drugs and other chemical abuse. However, a cycle would be pointed out in the low level of education leading to increased chances of unemployment where the unemployment equally leads to high risks of indulgence in chemicals and drug abuse. Addiction to drug and substance use is a vice towards economic development in that resources channeled towards management of the conditions resultant from such addiction would be otherwise used for the common good. The addiction has also some link into social vices like increase in crime and social disorder. Finally, the dependence of chemical substances is increasingly being appreciated as a global issue as against an issue in particular geographical region. Weakness in regulatory mechanisms would be highly blamed where such chemicals as the SLIDs get into circulation and thus people get easy access to them. Critical analysis: According to the plot of the film, leadership takes a center stage as the film starts with the student fraternity preparing for a dance competition. The film unfolds and shows the entrance of Rock who is barred from entering Principle James as well as Mr Temple. After leaving the hall, Rock meets a gang of thugs who ‘lead’ him into vandalism. This therefore marks an initial scene where the effects of leadership are much pronounced with the principle and lead teacher-exercising command while the gang leading leads Rock to commit the offense against the principle by destroying her car. In another scene, Pierre takes charge of leading the detention kids through teaching them dancing. One feature that is openly exhibited within the entire cast of the film is the need for teamwork as the students and the teacher leading them. Pierre leads through passion and through devotion, which institutes trust in the students. Pierre manages to instill passion into the game for the students by paying for entrance fee that is needed for the competitions. The efforts of the team leader, Pierre bears fruit as is seen through the teamwork spirit and respect for each other as is seen through Rock’s cooperation. Besides, dignity is a major focus that Pierre as the team leader strives to instill into the students and this is shown when he is called to convince the parents on the importance of the dance for the detained students. Effectiveness in leadership is realized after the school triumphantly emerges as winners in the competition and this makes the principle to embrace the dance in the institution. The analysis of this plot of the film concurs with the general definition of leadership in that it shows the process through which a person coordinates the efforts of a team of persons towards realization of a goal. The mission of the detention students participating in the dance computation was together with embracing team spirit and winning in such competitions as happened. Effective leadership by Pierre who served as the leader to the team was pointed out as the main reason that the dance was embraced by the principle in the school. Pierre adopts strategic leadership, as he puts own efforts to inspire and lead the student team towards learning the dance. Besides, traits of transcendent leadership are evident as Pierre lets leadership from self towards others in the team. However, against the much regarded ‘X’ theory of leadership, the style of leadership exhibited through the plot of the film fails to conquer with the position that people must be coerced in order to cooperate as the student team did not show such attributes. On the centrally, the film appears to be ascribing to theory ‘Y’ which holds that persons are intrinsically motivated and hence requires no such coercion in order to cooperate towards a set mission. However, it must be acknowledged that effectiveness in leadership takes a center stage in the society as both vices and good behaviors are learn under some kind of leadership and hence every society should strive towards embracing such positive leadership. Drug and substance use have equally been a social vice that the film exhibits and the vices that are associated with the drug use such as violence and operating in rowdy gangs. For instance, the plot shows the death of two kids as violent gangs fight, the actors indulge in beer as well as smoking cigars, which are illustrations of indulgence into drugs. Indirectly, the movie depicts the operations of well organized gangs which are based on drug trafficking and which turn to be a threat to the livelihood of the persons within the locality. In such an instance, we first encounter Rock being used to smash the vehicle belonging to the principle after being cornered by such a gang. Just about the end, the film shows Rock refusing to cooperate with the gang and instead of acting to shoot and kill any person in vicinity, he decides to abort the mission of the gang through the gun they gave him. In this analysis, the rise of crime rates as have been associated with drug and substance use has been on the rise within many societies. The use of drug among the youths has been shown to characterize much of social disorders and vices such as violence and robbery. The majority of the actors are depicted as drunkards and smokers and this confirms the increase in reliance on drugs by many young persons. Besides, drug use has been associated with criminal acts as seen through the eyes of Rock who is used by such gangs even without an own consent. The main challenge presented in this is that the use of drugs and especially through such organized groups is much concealed. This has a challenge in any effort towards curbing the menace as the persons involved hardly pose as such dangerous. The setting of the movie in an urban set-up supports the theoretical analysis above that shows that drugs and substance abuse have dominance within urban set-ups. This is much attributable to high unemployment and higher standards of living, which make the majority of youths, indulge into drugs through peer pressure. However, it is to be noted that the use of drugs may not be justifiable through unemployment and geographical location. This is because even rural areas are experiencing the rise in drug use as well as such associated vices as violence and robbery. However, a major feature that is sure is that drug and substance use are vices to economic development in any region and country as many resources are channeled towards purchasing the drugs as well as management of health issues that result from the use of such drugs. The use and indulgence into drugs and chemical substances leads to massive losses within a society in that crime rate rises, economic instability results as well as many resources would be employed in treatment and management of the conditions resultant (Bogie & Triolo, 2003; Grinstead, 2002). However, the system of classifying drugs as prohibited and or legalized vary across the globe as shown with the increasing legalization of cannabis in many states within US while it remains illegal within many other parts of the world. References Bogie K. M. & Triolo R. J., (2003). Effects of regular use of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on tissue health. Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 40(6):469–476 Crossan M, Vera D. & Nanjad L. (2008).Transcendent leadership: strategic leadership in dynamic environments.Leadership Quarterly, 19(5).pp.569-581 Flores, F. P. (1992). Team building and leadership. Supervisory Management, 37(4), 8. Grinstead, S.F. (2002). 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