The Impact of Leadership Styles on the Culture of an Organization

Released in 1949

The film Twelve O’Clock High tells a story about the Eighth Air Force crews from the United States who against Nazi Germany flew the daylight bombing missions and occupied France during the Second World War. On a general perspective, the film creates a scenario where control and command leadership gets bad press but all leadership styles are operative in different contexts (Lacy, 2016). During the course of the war, the unit experienced two types of leadership styles one from Colonel Keith Davenport and another from General Frank Savage had different cultures affecting the plans for the missions ordered by both men.

Colonel Davenport’s Democratic Culture

Colonel Davenport considered the culture of his unit as a democratic culture where decisions were made after a consultation with the unit. This culture also ensured that there is no bullying and that the unit leaders are willing to do anything to defend the rights of the soldiers. Colonel Davenport also believed in the closeness between the unit members and him upholding this culture by becoming close to his men made him a popular man and earned him respect among his men (Emamzadeh & Sabbar, 2017). Colonel Davenport’s culture affected the plan for the mission in a positive way by encouraging the unit to continue the war even after losing some of their colleagues in the battlefront.

General Savage’s Authoritarian Culture

Compared to Colonel Davenport, General Savage considers the culture of his unit to be an authoritarian culture where he expected his men to act in accordance with his wishes. He also cultivated the culture of disregard for life which is evident when he orders his pilots to fly at low altitudes so as to inflict havoc upon their enemies disregarding the fact that they might die in the process. This resulted in his men not liking him at all which affected the plan for the mission negatively. However, after getting accustomed to this culture, his men work together winning the war.

Nurse leaders

Nurse leaders are faced with competing values in the workplace among conflicting demands in caring for the organization, colleagues, themselves, and patients. Since organizational culture is created through the connection between behaviors and their consequences, nurse leaders can affect organizational culture by changing behaviors. Positive change in behavior might affect the culture of the organization in a positive was such as creating a good working environment while the negative change in behavior might result to conflicts in the organization negatively affecting the culture of the organization.

References

Emamzadeh, Z., & Sabbar, S. (2017). How Can Cinema Justify Wars-A Qualitative Study on          War Justification in American Cinema? J. Pol. & L., 10, 18.

Lacy, L. (2016). Command Decision: Leadership Lessons from the Strategic Air War Against           Germany. Journal of Military and Strategic Studies, 16(4).

Smyth, J. E. (2016). Rethinking feminist “frontiers” and the constraints of the archives. The      Routledge Companion to Cinema & Gender, 279.