12 Angry Men is a film that plays on show many features of Organizational Behavior. The jurors of 12 men are locked in a room to deciding the future boy who is being accused of murdering his father; the movies show the four stages of Bruce Tuckman’s Group Development Model of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. With this model, the movie also show difficulties and cohesiveness that the 12 different men experience as they must come together to make a single decision. While attempting to make this decision, they show several examples of influential behavior being highlighted throughout the film, as each member of the Jury experience using reason, assertiveness, coalition building, higher values and bargaining tools. During the first stage of Tuckman’s Model, teams go through what is called “Forming.” Although I would not consider the group of Juror’s a team by definition, they are a group that must work together to accomplish a common goal. As asserted in the discussion on team roles, “the potential for teamwork lies in the fact that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts; the collective work of a group of people is more than its individuals could accomplish separately” (Levi, 2007). There is a process of initial orientation during Forming, where groups essentially test each other to establish relationships with leaders, other group members and standards. In the film as the Jurors settled into the deliberation room, Juror #1 was previously randomly selected as
The 1957 film version of 12 Angry Men depicts the nature of a small group setting. Within this film, we can see the group as a system, the development of group climate, and the different roles portrayed in a group. Eleven out of the twelve jurors voted the boy on trial guilty when they were initially asked their vote. Later throughout the movie, the group went into detail on the trail, thanks to Juror 8, and eventually changed their vote. If it weren't for the call for communication on the topic, the boy who was being tried would have been sentenced to death.
12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose is a twisting story where a son is accussed of stabbing his father to death. Twelve strangers are told to listen to this court case and are then stuck in a small, hot room where they are told to decide on a verdict, whether or not the kid lives or dies. The jury finally decides on the verdict of : Not Guilty. Three major facts that influence the juries agreement that the accussed is not guilty include doubts of the murder weapon, doubts of the old man’s testimony, and doubts of the lady across the street’s testimony.
The goal of the 12 jurors is to make a unanimous decision the defendant is either innocent or guilty. The jurors must make this decision based on whether the prosecutor’s evidence proved the defendant’s innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. Leadership played a large role in achieving this goal. Some of these three leadership forms were
It was interesting to see the large differences in each juror’s lives. Every jury is eclectic because it is made up of very different people with very different family lives. For example, Juror #3 seems to be a well educated and well off man as he was wearing suspenders and a dress shirt. However, Juror #7 was a young man who seemed fairly uneducated and fairly poor because he dressed in a sweatsuit and used improper language. It was very interesting to see these different personalities clash. In the beginning when the men are all on the same page that the defendant is guilty except one, the men generally more relaxed (except for Juror #3).However, as more of the men start to explain their reasonings for seeing reasonable doubt, tension is prevalent in the room. The men who vote guilty are rallying up against the people who voted not guilty. The feeling of the room switches again as most jurors decide the defendant is guilty. That being said, Juror #3 creates a lot of tension in the room throughout the film due to the the fact that he yells at anyone who disagrees with him because he is unwilling to hear their opinions. For example, while one man is explaining why he thinks there is reasonable doubt, juror #3 decides to start a game of tic tac toe. This is very interesting because he is ready to send the defendant to his deathbed
The film “Twelve Angry Men” directed by Sidney Lumet illustrates many social psychological principles. The tense, gripping storyline that takes place in the 1950s features a group of jurors who must decide unanimously whether a young man is guilty or innocent in the murder of his father. At the beginning, eleven of the twelve jurors voted guilty. Gradually, through some heated discussion, the jurors are swayed to a not-guilty verdict. Upon examination, the film highlights social psychology theories in areas of conformity and group influence.
In one scene, Juror # 10 assertively attempted to use coalition building, which is an attempt to seek alignment with others in a group, to gain support for his prejudiced views by standing over the table and yelling comments like, “people from the slums cannot be trusted…as they are little better than animals!” Personally offending Juror #5 who grew up in the ‘slums,’ his attempt backfired and had the complete opposite desired outcome, as all but one, Juror #4, banded together in getting up from the table and abandoning him.
In the 1957 classic 12 Angry Men, group dynamics are portrayed through a jury deliberation. Group dynamics is concerned with the structure and functioning of groups as well as the different types of roles each character plays. In the film, twelve men are brought together in a room to decide whether a boy is guilty of killing his father. The personality conflicts, the joint effort and the functioning of several minds together to search for the truth are just a few characteristics of group dynamics at work. The whole spectrum of humanity is represented in this movie, from the bigotry of Juror No.10 to the coldly analytical No.4. Whether they brought good or bad qualities to the jury room, they all affected the outcome.
Idealized Influence – defined by the values, morals, and ethical principles of a leader and is manifest through behaviours that supress self interest and focus on the good of the collective.
While watching the movie, 12 Angry Men, I saw many of the different things we have been discussing in class. The jurors all took different roles throughout the movie. These different roles contributed to the communication the group had, the stages of development, and how they came up with a consensus.
An individual's past experiences can have an incredible impact on the way they think and behave for years to come. So, the past have a significant impact on an individual. In my own life, I have had past experiences that have affected me to be the person I am today. One example is, whenever I walked through the downtown part of Edmonton and I noticed a lot of homeless people lying around on the streets. I felt so bad for those poor people that didn’t have a place to live. They appreciate anything and everything they get. This really effects me and teaches me to be more grateful in life. And appreciate everything I have. In the play the 12 Angry Men, jurors 3, 5, and 11 prove that their experiences has affected who they are. I believe that juror 3’s family issues such as his problems with his son has affected him to become an aggressive man. Additionally, juror 5 has had a background of living in a slum all his life. Therefore, he tries to prove that not all people living in slums are criminals. Lastly, juror 11 struggles with others judging him because he is a European Refugee. This affected him by making him feel unconfident about himself and feels that the others jurors don't take his opinion too seriously.
Twelve Angry Men is a courtroom drama that was brought to the big screens in 1957. The storyline follows twelve men selected for jury duty, who are trying to reach a verdict on a young man’s trial following the murder of his father. Throughout the debates and voting, the men all reveal their personalities and motives behind their opinions. Because of all the differences of the men, their communication skills lack in some ways and are excellent in others. The three small group communication variables that I found portrayed throughout the movie were prejudice, past experience and preoccupation.
In the beginning of the film, conflict between the jury members arise when the initial vote was taken and only one member of the jury voted that the verdict was not guilty (Juror 8). Because Juror 8 did not agree with the other jury members, Juror 12 suggested that the group should try and convince Juror 8, why they think defendant is indeed guilty. Conflict also increases when it was decided that each Juror should give a reason for why he initially voted that verdict is guilty or not guilty. In the process of discussing the reasoning behind each members vote, the preconceptions of some Jurors, namely Juror 10, lead to the conformity of other group members, namely Juror 5. During the film, miscommunication between the members leads to further misunderstanding which eventually resulted in role conflict. Simple conflict also took place when the jury members could not agree on a certain issue. Ego conflict occurred because of the group members personality disagreements.
The group membership roles (Engleberg & Wynn, 2017) depicted were task, maintenance, and self-centered roles. Juror No. 1 was a coordinator and gatekeeper, Juror No. 2 was a harmonizer, Juror No. 3 was a dominator and attacker, Juror No. 4 was an analyzer, Juror No. 5 was a questioner, Juror No. 6 was an analyzer, Juror No. 7 was an obstructionist, Juror No. 8 was an opinion provider, information provider, and motivator, Juror No. 9 was a clarifier supporter, Juror No. 10 was an obstructionist, Juror No. 11 was a questioner, and Juror No. 12 was an analyzer. Participation problems were faced such as initial communication apprehension by Juror No. 5, passiveness by Juror No. 2, and aggressiveness and
The movie Twelve Angry Men is about the twelve jurors that could adjust their influence in a decision-making process for conviction an eighteen years-old boy, whether the boy guilty or not guilty in murdering of his father. It represents a perfect example for applicable of a work group development framework. It also has examples of influence techniques among a group’s members. This paper is looking at those specific examples in the movie and focusing in analysis the reasons why Juror 8 is so much more effective than others in the meeting.
While these conflicts themselves might have held the jurors back, the competition approach to these sources of conflict moved the group in the right direction. For example, Juror #9, the old man, approached Juror #10’s insults and stereotyping in competitive fashion, claiming that people are not simply born liars. Later, Juror #10 calls the accused boy a “common ignorant slob [that] don’t even speak good English,” after which immigrant Juror #11 competitively corrects him. In the end, almost every juror takes a competitive approach to juror #10’s insulting in one of the film’s most powerful scenes as they, one by one, leave the table and turn their backs on him. The jurors unsympathizing intolerance of Juror #10’s bigoted views serve as a prime example of a competitive approach to conflict. The conflict and the approach to the conflict between the jurors and Juror #10 bring the group together as the votes slowly change from guilty to not guilty.