Introduction
The movie Apollo 13 is based on the true account of the unfortunate Apollo mission of NASA. The movie opens with Astronaut Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) who is enjoying a party to celebrate the success of Apollo 11 lunar mission. The story subsequently revolves to tell the tale of the third mission of landing in the moon which would be led by Astronaut Jim Lovell, Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) lunar module driver and Kevin Bacon as Jack Swivert, who is the command module pilot. The mission is smooth until the crew is threatened due to the explosion of an oxygen tank that leads to possible eradication of power supplies and oxygen supplies. The movie excellent details several decisions which finally helped in saving the lives of the personnel on board the spacecraft.
The film highlights several organizational behaviour issues including team work and group dynamics, motivation and leadership under crisis. The manner in which Gene Kranz, leader of the mission control, played by Ed Harris in this film takes decisions to bring the astronauts safely back to Earth is the crux of the story (IMDb.com, 2014).
The Apollo 13 lunar mission has been rightly named as the successful failure. This is because, although the spacecraft failed to reach the moon, the lives of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft were saved. The film, Apollo 13, excellently depicts excellent motivation, decision making, team work, bravery and crisis management. The excellent leadership of Gene Kranz has portrayed organizational behaviour issues of teamwork, risk management, motivation and innovation as pivotal for successfully overcoming problems.
Group dynamics and team work in Apollo 13
Teams are responsible for dominant work structuring applications that takes place in most organization. Effective team work helps to expedite decision making, stimulate innovation, encourage motivation and garner information. The film, Apollo 13 describes a situation in which the astronauts are faced with an immediate crisis which threatens their life. Such crisis may be described as a sudden crisis in which the organization has no control over the fault. In this situation, teams learn to work under high pressure environment, and the organizational culture is one which supports team work in order to resolve issues and facilitate a smooth adaption to external environment (Waller, Sohrab & Ma, 2013). Apollo 13 sets an example of excellent leadership abilities displayed by Gene Kranz by developing a performance culture which helps to adapt to a sudden crisis and resolve issues. The phrase “failure is not an option” aptly describes the optimistic culture in the organization. Kranz motivated the entire team to emphasize on the problem itself and resolve the issues. Norms like trust, high dependency, team work and camaraderie has been infused in the organizational culture and Kranz further reinforced the significance of every team member to be aware of their work during the sudden crisis they faced. The culture of high reliability has been depicted in Apollo 13 which is extremely essential for organizations. This is mainly because firms need to focus to safeguard their stakeholders by taking reliable decisions. Highly reliable teams are focussed on functioning in fast passed and high pressure organizational environment as they are stimulated to learn and effectively manage challenging situations.
The film vividly portrays manners in which one may be able to identify emerging behaviour of the group on an urgent and live pattern. This is one of the most critical skills to develop other than the discussion emphasized or reflective skills. The film Apollo 13 depicts the manner in which innovation and creativity have been used in which team members had to think deeply in order to take the proper course of action and apt decisions required in order to handle a crisis.
There are several instances that depict group behaviour in Apollo 13. However, some instances depicted may in practice differ by means of the experience of individuals in practical life situations. Despite this, cinema viewers aspire to watch the conduct of human beings in films that are probably realistic (Hall & Bracken, 2011). At a particular point in the movie, the communication exchange between the astronauts on board the craft may be perceived to depict absolute mistrust and blame. Their authentic conduct was solely based on previous accounts, and accordingly the emotions and conduct portrayed may not probably match the situation that took place in reality. Despite this, the portrayal of suicidal tendencies in Apollo 13 has been connected with suicide attempts that took place in reality (Jamieson & Romer, 2011).
A critical aspect of failure in an organization may be related to that of conflict in work groups or teams. A significant characteristic of conflict in the workplace may be displayed by a shift in the organizational climate from assiduously performing employees to those who fails to conform to certain aspirations and ideals of the employer. Excellent decision making helps in resolving conflicts effectively. In the movie, Apollo 13, a conflict situation arose, but was quickly resolved by the lead astronaut, Jim Lovell. The needs of the organization may be diverse depending on the competing demands of several parties, and it is essential that all group members abide by the decision taken. At the same time, it is essential that the decision made is unbiased (Jehn et al. 2008). In this movie, the decision not to take a colleague who was indisposed and failed the medical certification was unbiased.
Another aspect of organizational behaviour portrayed in this film is the manner in which improvisation has been used in order to resolve issues. The fuel line explosion triggered a crisis due to shortage of time and threat to human life. The issue needed to be resolved within the shortest possible time and required swift diagnosis and remedial measures. The film further highlights that all routine tasks like data collection and research were asked to be stalled for a short time as Kranz wanted his team to concentrate only in getting the astronauts safely back to Earth. This led to rapid problem diagnosis by the ground support team as well as the crew and accordingly a strategy was formulated in order to resolve the issue. In this case, the organizational structure was flexible and hence the transition from high risk and high structure firm from a high risk and low structure organization was smoothly attained (Stein, 2011). This can be viewed as a change in the organizational structure in which Kranz rapidly reconfigured the team by bringing in staff from other teams having relevant and particular knowledge, expertise and skills required to resolve the crisis. The film depicts the manner in which Kranz took out the flight control team by asking them to stall their routine duties and concentrate on the problem. This may be further described as an incidence in which the team was successfully steered to display creative and innovative strategies in order to resolve crisis (Amabile, Hadley & Kramer, 2002). The manner in which quick decisions were taken and the successful establishment of a flexible organizational structure as well as a culture which supported the teamwork, motivation, innovation, creativity and improvisation was one of the pivotal reasons for the “successful failure” of the lunar mission Apollo 13.
In perfect contrast to what has been shown in this movie, some organizations have employees displaying behaviours that violate the organizational norms and culture. Scholars maintain such practices as workplace deviance, antisocial conduct or counterproductive conduct. The situation posed in this film could have easily led to a depressing culture, but effective leadership tactics helped in saving the lives of the people on board the spacecraft. However, the movie did depict favourable deviant conduct in which the mission to land on the moon was immediately stalled, and the entire organization put their energies and efficiencies to bring back the astronauts on board. In this case, favourable deviant conduct led to creativity and innovation and the quick formation of a team in which relevant individuals were selected (Applebaum, Iaconi & Matousek, 2007).
Problem solving in Apollo 13
For attaining organizational success, it is essential that critical factors like resolving complicated issues, developing knowledge and applying creativity and innovation are applied by organization. Resolving unstructured issues bring to the forefront the experience and knowledge as well as a thorough understanding of the context and the problem area. The film Apollo 13 demonstrates the critical functions of tacit knowledge sharing and a thorough understanding of context.
The mission was smoothly functioning until the distressing message “Okay, Houston, we’ve got a problem here” was relayed. In this case, the requirement to solve the critical issue arose due to an explosion that took place on the spacecraft. Despite efforts, the ground staff could not devise a solution to the issue within the available resources on earth. The main challenge was to devise a solution with the help of limited resources and limited time. Hence, the ground staff had to improvise and develop related knowledge in order to resolve the ongoing crisis. This required adequate knowledge sharing and collaborative solving of the issue so as to come up with the best course of action. In order to resolve the issue within a set time, it was essential that personnel remained motivated and emphasized solely on the issue. One of the critical aspects of organizational behaviour is that of tacit knowledge sharing. This is required in order to resolve complicated unstructured issues pertaining to the maintenance and emergence of context having diverse connections. This is required mainly because those involved in resolving an issue shares common segments of space and time with respect to the issue that requires tacit knowledge sharing and management (Augier, Shariq & Vandelo, 2001). In the case of Apollo 13, the ground staffs as well as those in the spacecraft have effectively employed knowledge management and knowledge sharing to resolve the critical issue. This in turn displays the sound organizational structure and culture which facilitates critical aspects like innovation, improvisation and knowledge sharing and management.
Motivation
One of the main focuses that the film had depicted is the importance of motivation as well as team work in order to resolve critical issues. For successful interaction between individuals, it is required that they have the capability to identify and accordingly classify the conduct of other individuals. Several processes like modelling, stereotyping and attribution help in emphasizing on the perceptions of conduct, traits and qualities of individuals and accordingly the course of action may be devised and implemented depending on these perceptions (Waller, Sohrab & Ma, 2013).
The organizational culture has been made formulated in order to encourage motivation, employee engagement and teamwork. The manner in which Eugene Kranz motivated personnel by maintaining “failure is not an option” portrays the efforts made in order to function as a team in order to resolve critical issues. One of the main aspects of attaining excellent performance of employees depends on motivation as well as skills and capabilities. This is one of the reasons as to why Kranz formed a new team containing individuals having relevant skills and abilities and those who may be able to improvise and innovate excellently in order to devise a solution to the problem (Devadass, 2011).
Aptly managing personnel in the place of work is one of the most critical components of organizational behaviour. The behavioural approach to motivation at work is organizational behavioural motivation. This is based on the behaviouristic approach and emphasizes on applying reinforcement as a means to encourage certain behaviours which are beneficial to the organization as well as discourage others which may harm the organization (Alimohammadi & Neyshabor, 2013).
The movie Apollo 13 depicts several aspects of motivation. One such incidence of depicting effective leadership skills and infusing inspirational motivation in employees was the manner in which work was prioritized and effective communication mechanisms were used. When NASA came to know about the oxygen tank explosion, the first step taken was to terminate the goal of landing in the moon. The next course of action was to save the crew and bring them back to Earth.
The organization had experienced personnel and focussed on training and running exercises on simulations so that both crew, as well as ground staff, were habituated to facing risks that may threaten the live of human beings. Simulations were run to depict incidents that may not be experienced in the normal routine life. Some examples are those of fire, accidents, fuel tank explosion and the like. Accordingly personnel were trained to overcome such critical hazards. The film also depicted that NASA was thorough in its duties as it had promptly identified risk factors. This, in a way helped the ground staff to improvise and devise a solution to bring the astronauts back to Earth (Loftus, 2013).
Another motivational quote was used by Jim Lovell when he motivated his team members by maintaining that they would all like to go back to Earth. This was spoken after the explosion occurred, and the crew members had displayed emotions as blame and mistrust. Astronaut Jim Lovell, being the leader aboard, consistently motivated his staff in the critical situation which threatened their very existence.
The film also depicts an instance of teamwork, trust, encouragement and motivation. Excellent leadership as well as an example of inspirational motivation had been provided by Eugene Kranz when he maintained “trust your team to find the answer”. He displayed full faith in the ground staff who had been selected by him to devise a solution to this insurmountable challenge that they faced. His confidence to bring back the crewmembers to Earth motivated all personnel involved in trying to save the astronauts. The movie displays that motivation is one of the critical aspects responsible for effective problem solving and coming out of challenging situations that are mostly faced by organizations.
In reality, organizations are faced with de-motivation in the workplace due to several reasons as alteration in the patterns of employment, strategies for restructuring firms, lack of team work, the tendency to put the blame on other colleagues and strategies for layoffs and downsizing. The movie depicts an encounter with the astronauts that hints a lack of trust. In this case, however, excellent efforts were taken by the lead astronaut as well as the module commander in resolving the problem. Prior studies on de-motivation have revealed that there may be several emotions that de-motivated people experience. These may include experience of alienation and stress, declined common recognition, lesser appreciation of efforts both externally as well as internally, lack of trust in team workers and colleagues, and augmented job insecurity emotions (Kupers, 2005). According to Kupers (2005), de-motivation may be identified by means of several signs that may be present in the manner in which employees communicate. This is especially with respect to the manner in which they communication among themselves as well as on the telephone with guests and other dignitaries. The organizational culture present may be one which is cold, having indifference, apathy and social isolation. The manner in which non-verbal communication is conducted in the firm is also a symptom of de-motivation. If the non-verbal communication is has a lack of fun or displays signs of indifference and coldness, then it suggests that individuals are de-motivated. The manner in which colleagues communicate with third parties, low performance and morale, workplace bullying and the attitude to resist change suggests de-motivation in firms.
Conclusion
Organizations should display certain qualities that help in overall progress and enhancement. It is essential that individuals are thorough in their work and assiduously perform them in order to reach the desired workplace objectives. Decision making is an important aspect and effective decision making help in resolving issues. The film has portrayed excellent decision making and leadership skills. They have focussed and displayed that their main objective is to save the lives of individuals. The entire team was focussed and charged in order to save the lives of their colleagues. The movie, Apollo 13, has subtly displayed several instances of teamwork. The movie also depicts the manner in which the team worked under conditions of pressure, resource and time crunch. The film displays incidents which portray effective leadership and power in order to alter the high performing team of astronauts into a group in that they were consistently coordinating with the ground crew to attain the best possible solution. Critical associations have been made in the manner in which group members communicated and interacted in order to resolve the ongoing crisis. To conclude, the movie excellently depicts incidents which may be imbibed by organizations to effectively handle issues and function successfully.
References
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