12 Angry Men Essay Research Paper MID

12 Angry Men Essay, Research Paper MID TERM 1. How was leadership defined? How did it change during the course of the group?s interaction? Leader-follower relationships, in any setting, are complex and often hard to understand. In groups, large or small, the identity and make up of who becomes the leader and who becomes the follower is difficult to explain. In the case of the movie ? Twelve Angry Men? a jury of twelve men serve as the small group. There is the underlying assumption the jury will judge their fellow man fairly and without any personal bias. However the imperfections of man make this process less than perfect. It is here, when emotions and logical are injected into the thought process, that conflict, doubt and questioning of motives start to occur. Only when the

leader takes charge do we see his influence and power over the other members of the group start to take place and eventually shift between two individuals. In the movie, we begin with an appointed leader, the Jury Forman taking charge. When the Forman and jurors left the courtroom they each gave a last glance to the defendant. Once in the jury room they settled into their seats and the conversation would lead one to believe there will be a unanimous vote for conviction. What we saw happen was a shift in leadership from the Forman to one of the members, an architect, in the group. Each of these two men, the Forman and the architect, exhibited different leadership styles. The Forman relied on his legitimate position to exercise his influence for conviction of the defendant. The

architect, who was the dissenting vote for conviction, was assumed by the others to be confused. He exhibited a Laissez-faire leadership style, not attempting to dominate the group but rather allowing the jury members to rely on each other for direction. They pressed him to change his vote and asked him to ? tell us what you?re thinking and we?ll tell you where you?re mixed up?. He merely responds by saying he ?wants to talk?. He was able to get each of the other jurors to set aside their personal emotion and biases and to let the facts of the case prevail in their decision making process. During this entire process of group interaction we were able to see that civility encouraged the others to keep listening and that getting to the answer of a complex issue takes time and

effort. 2. What functional and dysfunctional behaviors did you see? Use specific Examples. The functional behaviors of the group came from the two steadfast members of group; the jury foreman, and the architect. The jury foreman?s behaviors were apparent from the beginning of the film. He understood the enormous responsibility of being the foreman and ensuring this group accomplished the goal of obtaining a verdict. The foreman stayed focused and kept the discussion going and wanted all voting procedures to be fair. The architect seem rational and used logic, rational thinking and wanted the others to discuss their way to a unanimous decision. He wanted the jury panel to understand the significance of their actions and to realize their verdict was more important than a baseball

game or getting their job done within the hour. This group had its dysfunctional side as well. The major character displaying dysfunctional behavior was the angry father. His attitude toward the entire was based upon his failed relationship with his own son. It was as if he was deciding the fate of his own son, who he wanted to punish for hurting him. As tension mounted and the vote began to swing towards acquittal the anger. One point became so volatile when the elderly man was holding the switchblade knife in his hand, pointed at the architects heart, and it appeared he could have easily stabbed the architect. 3. What evidence was there of cohesion, and lack of cohesion? Cohesion is evident in the first scene of the movie, when the jurors cast their first vote. The foreman had