Introduction
The paper attempts to provide a brief critique of the movie “the imitation game” in light of the leadership theories. Ahead of it, the RLP and RLR theories are also explained, and both have been related to the movie. The main character of the movie is Alan Turing, who leads a group under the supervision of the United Kingdom’s government. In addition to it, Alan Turing also exhibits some strange attributes which are entirely related to his personal life.
Critique of the Movie
The movie is totally based on the biography of the Alan Turing, who is a gay man by nature. He is also portrayed as the man having incredible computer skills. He was working as the code breaker against the NAZI government while working with the United Kingdom’s government. As a matter of fact, he was a genius mathematician hired by the English government to crack the German codes by applying math rules. How surprising is the fact that the Alan Turing was involved in the homosexual activity. This unusual activity was outlawed at that time in England (The Imitation Game, 2014, p. 10). However, he was convicted twice but could not get along due to his activities in the past. It is important to note that Alan Turing has committed suicide in his past life, but the filmmaker could not include the full suicide scene rather board casting it a little. There is a totally different view in the move “the imitation game’ which describes that the main character Alan Turing was allocated a guy. The guy who was scripted to be the junior of the Alan Turing, the name was Arnold Murray (Metacritic, n.d, p. 8).
Distraction of the Leader
The former managed to have developed sexual relations with 19 years old junior. As a matter of fact, the Alan Turing was subjected to chemical castration by his conviction. Later he had eaten an apple with the glaring elements of cyanide. How surprising is the fact that the apple was not tested that it had cyanide elements actually or not. So it can be said that it could likely be cyanide in the apple he ate before committing suicide. After many time, people started to learn about the name Alan Turing, who was convicted of being embroiled in the homosexual activities with his 19 years junior Arnold Murray. In addition to it, people also came to know about the fact that he entailed in the suicide. It is important to note that the world later came to know that he outsmarted the NAZI’s in the World War 2. The Alan Turing the main character met Christopher Morcom in a school located in the area of England called Dorset, The name of the school was Sherborne School. As a matter of fact, it was specially made for the boys. Both become a close friend and started to share their interests. They had a keen interest in chemistry and mathematics. As a matter of fact, Alan Turing was one year younger than the Christopher. The latter died of bovine tuberculosis. The school headmaster decided not to tell the Alan Turing about the death of his close friend until he passed away. It is widely believed that Alan Turing was solely responsible for developing that code breaking machine, but this idea is an entirely nullified in real life. In fact, he was assisted by some person who was also considered to be experts at these things (Metacritic, n.d, p.21).
Effectiveness in Leadership
There is also an interesting part of the story. The main character of the movie Alan Turing did an incredible thing for a purpose. He developed an exclusive IP address and uploaded a puzzle on it and left it for access for every person. The one who managed to complete this puzzle was eligible to be hired to work with Alan Turing in his mission of code breaking. In all of them, there was Joan Clarke, who was the only female who managed to have completed the puzzle problem. At the first place, she was recruited to the clerical staff. As a matter of fact, the lady was also credited at the Cambridge University for her talent related to mathematics. The lady was already working at the Bletchley Park as a cleric. Later she was promoted to work with a group named as HuT 8. The group was run the main character, Alan Turing. The movie “the imitation game” also exposed the fact that a Soviet spy was also working with the Alan Turing while he was working on his project of code breaking. The name of the Soviet spy was Cain cross. The said spy was also working at the Bletchley Park (The Imitation Game, 2014, p.6).
Personality Dominance over Work
In the movie, Joan Clarke was also offered with the wedding proposal by the Alan Turing. The latter never wanted the former to leave the Bletchley Park. On the other hand, the parents of the Joan Clarke wanted their daughter to move on with his career and find a husband. The Alan Turing did not want to tell the Joan Clarke about his inclination towards men. However, Cairn crosses the Soviet spy at Bletchley Park, threatened Alan Turing to tell his homosexual secret to Joan Clarke. By some views, it became known that Alan Truing and the Jan Clarke had an intimate relation with each other (Dion, 2008, p.8). They went on dates. They did spend their time together. Alan Turing changed his shifts to work with the Joan Clarke. They also went on tastes but barely made a physical contact with each other. They might have just kissed. It was a time when making a physical contact with the partner was deemed to be quite weird before marriage. Clarke knew the fact that the Alan Turing is gay and involved in homosexual activities. Despite knowing, she finds this attribute to be permanent. Nevertheless, they went ahead by ignoring all these facts (Hamilton & Bean, 2005, p. 337). Relating to the coding problem, the cracked messages of the Germans were subjected to be preserved critically. They halted to mull over the issue for a while. They established that if they had told all the decoded messages to their superiors, they might have been leaked to the Germans, and they could change their security systems in response. Therefore, Alan Turing went to the Stewart Menzies to discuss the cracked and decoded information (Lynham & Chermack, 2006, p. 87).
Leader as Unsung Hero
The movie is not focused on his suicidal attempts but rather his accomplishments and his extraordinary mathematical skills in his field of study. While he was in the prison, he was exposed to the chemical castration or injecting estrogen into his body. Moreover, his death may be caused by the inhalation of the cyanide fume from and instrument. Some people remark that it is seemingly an accident but according to the court verdict, it is clearly a suicide when the room service found him lying on his bed with half apple beside him (Bishop, 2010, p. 3).
Illustration of Leadership Theories
Defining Leadership
There are some theories that help to tell the nature or leadership being exercised by the character in the movie. RLP is an acronym for responsible leadership for performance. As a matter of fact, the theories of leadership do not help to describe some certain relationship, but they are aimed at describing the results and performance at the end. Before defining the theories, one must explain the very concept of leadership to refer it in the right manner. Leadership involves the process of transforming inputs into some outputs with the interference of some individuals and groups. It seems imperative to mention that a leadership is always exercised to accomplish some goals and objectives. An effective leader is to formulate some strategies to achieve them in the long run of the short run. There is no denying the fact that leadership is coupled with some responsibilities which are to be shouldered by some individuals. The responsible leaders have some specific characteristics to accomplish those goals. He needs to have effective decision-making power, endurance at the time of distress and agony, characterized by the ethics (Retallick & Fink, 2002, p. 100).
Leadership and Performance
The RLP theory is highly concerned with the performance of the leadership qualities. It also describes the challenges of the leadership styles while performing the duty. It is important to note that responsible leadership for performance is not merely concentrated on the attributes of the leader, but it also encompasses the environmental conditions (Gempes et al, 2011, p.6). These circumstances take into account the internal and external factors which also affects the certain relationship. While describing the theories, one thing must be kept in mind that the performance highly matters for a leader. When we see the definition of a leader, it states that a leader is the one who help to transform the inputs into the outputs by keeping in view all the risks of the world around. A leader without favorable outcome and magnificent performance are not a leader at all. He is freaking with the led (Chao et al, 2011, p. 235).
Association of Theories to the Movie
Bay relating the theories with the movie character, the main character Alan Turing is exercising the leadership activities. As a matter of fact, he is running a group named as HUT 8 which is tasked to develop a machine which can help decoding the German codes. In the movie, the main character Alan Turing was performing many duties which are related to the leadership (Spillane, 2012, p. 19).
Responsibility, To Its Zenith
Apart from his personal life, the whole movie is focused on his ability to run his companions around. Many people are related to the personality of the Alan Turing. He was running the whole crew. He witnessed a supreme excellence in his field when he developed the machine which helps to decode the German codes in the World War 2. As a matter of fact, the Brits established their decoding mechanism at the Bletchley Park located in the western England. In which the Alan Turing worked with his whole team. They developed a big machine which deciphered information being transferred by Germans to their allies and their forces. Alan Turing was tasked with the one of the most important tasks in the world. As a matter of fact, single wrongly decoded information might cause a great disaster to the United Kingdom (Cartwright, Gillet & Van Vugt, 2013, p. 2040).
Environmental Influence on the Personality
The theory also assumes about the environmental conditions of the time. Alan Turing was also considerably affected by the environmental conditions around him. He was homosexual which bore very negative turns in his life. He was twice convicted of being involved in such kind of activities which eventually diminished his performance in his field. By the theories, a leader must be responsible enough to discharge his duties in the workplace (Chambers, Drysdale & Hughes, 2010, p. 268). Alan Turing was responsible for his work. It means that he was truly serious at his decoding business. He became very successful in outmaneuvering the German forces in the World War 2. The world was later started to watch his performance in the war (Fiedler, 1995, p. 22). Unless he was publicly proclaimed as the main character of the genius decoder, he was an unsung hero.
Performance Yielding Tactics of the Leader
So far, he still lived his partial life in mystery. Moreover, Alan Turing is the leader who has exercised his best skills to yield the best performance in his business. He also exercises his leadership skills while recruiting the persons for his mission. As a matter of fact, a leader is to make effective strategies to produce favorable outcomes. He also ensures the implementation of those strategies to achieve the goals and objectives (Hitt, 2003, p. 16). There is no denying the fact that the main character Alan Turing, who acted as the leader in the movie “the imitation game,” developed the best strategy to hire people for his mission. He made an open IP address for the local people by doing a puzzle. Whoever completes the puzzle is eligible to work with the group of Alan Turing, which is destined to decipher the information by intercepting the German cyberspace. Resultantly, many people tried to solve the puzzle out but only as described earlier the Joan Clarke the only female who could be able to solve the puzzle out and got a chance to work with the Alan Turing (Moxness & Van der Heijden, 2003, p. 778).
Conclusion
The whole story revolves around with the fact that the dramatically developed personality traits cast considerable influence on the overall personality of the Alan Turing. His involvement in the homosexual activities served to diminish his performance a great deal. Nevertheless, he did a remarkable job at his workplace and he will be remembered in the history with positive remarks.
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