Q1: The concept of emotional intelligence and the five specific abilities associated with emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to appraise and regulate one’s emotions and that of others’, and employ these to effectively motivate others to achieve goals. The five abilities include self-awareness (the ability to understand the impact of feelings, beliefs, and behaviors to self and to others), self-regulation (the control of one’s emotions and the management of their expression), motivation (is the ability to constantly seek to do things better), empathy (the ability to weigh thoughtfully the feelings of others before actions are taken), and social skill (the effective establishment of relationships with the achievement of goal in mind by motivating people). Two examples came off right away in the first scene of the movie. First, Zuckerberg failed to understand (self-awareness) the impact of his ‘lack of feelings’ (insensitivity) and behavior to Albright. Second, he failed to motivate (social skills) her to stay (not breakup) with him.
Q2: Transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership revolves around a reward-based contingent relationship between the leader and the followers, managed actively through a by-exception policy. That’s how Zuckerberg managed his early employees and the company interns. Transformational leadership, conversely, involves the motivation of followers to behave in such a way that will be consistent with a direction and the achievement of a common goal, placing it before their own interests. Zuckerberg used this leadership when he motivated Saverin and his circle of friends to initially help him with his website projects, including Facebook.
Q3: Upward, downward, and horizontal communications. Upward communication flows from the associates (bottom ranks) to the top managers (senior managers), through mid-level managers (supervisors and junior managers), often utilized as a feedback mechanism and in obtaining ideas and information from within the organization. Lawyer Delpy used this communication type when informing Zuckerberg on the Saverin settlement in the final scene. Downward communication follows an opposite direction, from the senior managers to junior managers and supervisors before reaching the associates, and is involved in policy distribution, in job details or modifications, and in performance feedback. After the shares dilution incident with Saverin, Parker used this communication type to order employees to resume work. Horizontal communication takes a side-to-side flow, involving people of roughly the same level within the company and is often used in inter-unit or inter-departmental coordinative exchanges. Zuckerberg used this type of communication when interacting with Saverin and later Parker.
Q4: Personal, substantive, and procedural conflicts. Personal conflict is the conflict that arises from the personal and relational incongruence between individuals. Substantive conflict revolves around work, such as scope, tasks, and objectives. Procedural conflict is largely a process-driven one, such as adherence to established and official procedures and policies. The personal conflict between Zuckerberg and Saverin, stemming from the dilution of the latter’s share in Facebook from 30% to 0.3% without him knowing it, remained an unresolved matter despite the eventual settlement. The conflict caused Zuckerberg two losses. First was the loss of his best friend and his most loyal and dependable ally since the beginning of Facebook. Second was his increased vulnerability to the machinations of Parker in putting a mask over his involvement with drugs, a subject for which Saverin was very careful about with the idea of associating with Parker, which eventually led to the cocaine possession incident and his attempt to place the blame of the police raid to Saverin.
