'A Few Good Men' In Relation With Organizational Behaviour

A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)

(Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore)

Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Section 1.0 Movie in Relation with Organizational Behaviour

1.1 Milgram Experiment 7

1.2 Principles of Delegation of Authority 9

1.3 Flaws of Leadership 11

Section 2.0 Movie Analysis

2.1 Character Analysis 14

2.1.1 Lt.Daniel Kaffee 14

2.1.2 Col. Nathan R. Jessep 15

2.1.3 Lt. Cdr. JoAnne Galloway 16

2.2 Dialogue Analysis 17

Section 3.0 Conclusion

3.1 Summary 19

3.2 Bibliography 20

Introduction

A Few Good Men, directed by Rob Reiner, was released worldwide on 11the December 1992. It is produced by David Brown and Andrew Scheinman. It's running time is 130 minutes and is rated R (for language)

The cast includes Tom Cruise (Lt. Daniel Kaffee), Jack Nicholson (Col. Nathan R. Jessep), Demi Moore (Lt. Cdr JoAnne Galloway) and Kevin Bacon (Capt. Jack Ross).

The story revolves around a murder case on the basis of Code Red, which was basically an order by Colonel to his two officers, Wolfgang Bodison (Cpl Harold W. Dawson) and James Marshall (Pfc Louden Downey). After the murder of Santiago they both are shifted to Washington DC and then, Tom Cruise along with Demi Moore and Kevin Pollak (a friend and research colleague) fights their case.

Section 1.0

Movie in relation with Organizational Behaviour

1.1 Milgram Experiment

A few good men is a very good example of Milgram's Experiment.

According to Milgram "ordinary decent, people, acting within an organizational hierarchy will unquestiongly perform appalling actions." and after watching this movie Milgram's statement seems to be quite true. In the movie the junior officers believed that it was their duty to obey the orders given to them by their senior officer, whatever the consequences may be. In the movie according to Col. Nathan R. Jessep "if you are a marine assigned to rifle security company wind ward GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA, and you are given an order, you follow it or you pack your bags". Col. jessep thought that the one who doesn't obey the order breaks the chain of command and should be given Code red (a type of extreme negative reinforcement) to those officers who, according to the unit members, have broken the chain of command and dared to disobey the orders given to them by their senior officers.

Pfc.T. Santiago was given code red because, according to Col. Nathan R. Jessep, he had broken the rules and the chain of command by threatening that he would report one of the alleged killers for illegally firing a gun. He also wrote letters to the head regarding his transfer from Cuba.

Pfc. Louden Downey and Lance Cpl Harold W. Dawson were given orders by Col. Jessep to give Santiago code red. They strongly felt that it was a part of their duty and were not at all guilty of what they were doing. They were not even given a chance of considering their inner feelings and conscience; instead they were made to follow Col Jessep's order blindly. Downey also said that for a Marine, or any other officer, there are only four most important things

"UNIT, CORPS, god and country".

They felt it was their utmost duty to follow the orders given to them or else they will have to pack their bags. These officers acted like robots by just acting on the instructions given to them. There conscience had died and they only worked for the authority. They believed that authority has the utmost power and that what ever the authoritative figure said, was always right. They were taught during their trainings that in their life Marine Corps Code: unit, should be the most important thing.

Although people like Lt.Col. Mathew Andrew Markinson wanted to help Lt Daniel Kaffee (The lawyer) but due to Col. Jessep, he was afraid to do so, as no one was allowed to argue on Col. Nathan R Jassep's decision. Col. Mathew ended up committing suicide towards the end of the movie. This shows that there was a lot of influence of the authority and people were even afraid of talking anything against them. Although people wish to do something different but they end up following the instruction given by authority figures.

1.2 Principles of Delegation Of Authority

According to Koontz et al "authority is delegated when decision -making power is vested in a superior by a subordinate."

Delegation of authority is not an option it is a necessity for an organizational hierarchy so that only one person is not responsible for handling all the things.

The principle of scalar chain:

There is a proper scalar chain between the