I decide to write this reflection by combining the example of movie: Despicable me. With the analysis of the movie, you will have a better understanding of what I learned from this class. I will apply the knowledge I learned from BADM310 to the movie by firstly identifying the problem in the movie and secondly revealing five of the class concepts to address the problem. Each class concept is from different topics of BADM310 and describes different angles of the story. The five class concepts respectively are: 1) Ethnics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); 2) The Evolution of Management Thought; 3) Leadership; 4) Entrepreneurship and 5) Effective Groups and Teams.
Problem Identification
Gru, being a supervillain, always wants to be the evilest villain in the world. However, his pride has recently been hurt by an unknown supervillain named Vector. Vector is famous for stealing the Great Pyraid of Giza. Thus, his behavior has been considered as the foulest among all the criminals. With his high self-esteem to be the evilest villain, Gru decides to implement a plan to steal the Moon. Landing on the Moon is Gru’s dream since his childhood. Nevertheless, his dream never comes true because of his mom’s deride and mock. Gru from now on begins to implement this expensive plan with a doctor, his minions and three orphan girls: Margo, Edith and Agnes. During this journey, Gru will encounter lots of problems and challenges. However, we can easily find the ways to address those problems by using the concepts from BADM310.
The main problem of this movie is to achieve Gru’s goal to steal the Moon as a strategic plan. The reason why this problem takes place is the discouragement Gru gets from his mom during his early childhood. He used to dream to be an astronaut, landing the moon successfully and enabling his mom proud of him. However, Gru’s mum cruelly discourages Gru by mocking him and calling him as “monkey”. Gru never forgets that day and finally decides to make his dream come true. The story of Vector angers Gru and injures Gru’s pride, recalling Gru’s childhood memory. Vector irritates Gru and finally rages him to implement this evil action.
This issue is problematic. Although Gru’s plan is rational strategic for him, it is absolutely not an ethical decision for the public. For example, from the perspectives of three orphans, they are adopted by Gru simply because Gru wants to utilize them to enter Vector’s fortress. Gru’s decision only satisfies his own interests and personal vanity but not those of others.
Class concepts to address the problems
1. Ethnics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Although Gru’s plan seems to be strategic and rational, it is not ethical. According to the lecture of BADM310, ethical decisions are the decisions that companionable with existing ethical norms in companies, industries, and religions. Ethical decisions distribute benefits and harms among stakeholders in fair, equitable, or impartial manners. Apparently, Gru’s behavior does not match with the definition of ethical behavior. There are couples reasons below.
Firstly, “Stealing the Moon Plan” only satisfies Gru’s personal wishes and vanity to compete with his rival: Vector. He does not consider from others’ perspectives. Gru adopts the three orphans because they can enter the fortress of Vector by selling cookies. With their expectation to be adopted by a sweet family, the three orphans are largely hurt by Gru’s behavior and attitudes towards them at the beginning since he only pays attention to his personal plan but ignores the girls and utilizes them. When the girls need to go to dance class, Gru does not take care of them. Instead, he forces them to go to Vector’s fortress to revenge. In short, Gru is selfless and eagers quick success as well as instant benefits when he implements this unethical plan.
Moreover, Gru does not care about public’ benefits. He does not contemplate about what the whole world will be as the result of his unethical plan - the world will turn to be total dark in the night. His behavior will largely affect people’s lives and disturb the natural rule.
With the mind of following ethical rule, Gru should consider keeping on the moral rights rule which is an ethical decision that should maintain and protect the fundamental rights and privileges of people. He can also consider follow utilitarian rule-an ethical decision should produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. By thinking more from the perspectives of greatest number of people, Gru should do more services or volunteer activities that benefit the society instead of destroying the properties of public.
2. The Evolution of Management Thought
It is impossible for people to avoid any problems in the process of management. However, with the right way to improve each problem and correct the issue, it is not hard to see the amazing changes of evolution of management. The content of Theory X and Theory Y from this chapter can easily be applied in the movie of Despicable me.
The three orphans: Margo, Edith and Agnes do not like the leadership style of Gru at the beginning. With his rambunctiousness, Gru finds it is difficult to nurture the three girls. The three orphans do not appreciate Gru either because he shows no interests to the girls. Gradually, Theory X appears. Considering the three orphans as followers and Gru as the leader, it is not hard to tell that they work inefficient with conflict. Being lazy and dislike their “leader”, the three orphans hate what Gru tells them to do. They do not want to sell the cookies for Gru. They do not listen to what Gru says and disturb Gru’s secret lab. Moreover, they even play with weapons in Gru’s lab and vaporize Agnes’ unicorn toy.
Theory X as discussed in class is a negative assumption that the average employees are not hardworking, dislike work and will try to do as little as possible. In order to ensure that the orphans follow his instructions, Gru has to use impolite language and rude behaviors to closely supervise the girls. Gru also creates strict rules and implement a well-defined system of punishments to control the three girls. In short, all of them do not enjoy the time of Theory X period at the beginning.
Fortunately, things start to change as Gru adjusts his leadership behaviors and implements Theory Y in the second part of the movie. Instead of disliking Gru and disobeying everything he says, the girls start to follow his instructions. The girls begin to change the way they follow as Gru starts to treat the girls as family. As we can tell, Gru even starts to read the bed stories for girls in the end of the movie. He starts care about the girls and their feelings. On the other side, the girls are willing to accept the rule and follow directions when Gru becomes kinder and nicer.
Theory Y as we discussed in the class is a positive assumption between leaders and subordinates. The followers are not inherently lazy and start to seek some other extra works. The girls begin to consider themselves as the same team as Gru by contributing to the project and selling the cookies for him. Gru, on the other side, allows the girls to work in the lab with their interests by giving them freedom. He begins to respect their ballet class and the girls’ interests. Additionally, Gru also decentralizes the authority in the end by hearing back from the girls’ opinions.
3. Leadership
This movie shows the process of how Gru improves himself as from a leader who only pays attention of task to a great leader who also emphasizes the relationship between subordinates.
Gru used to emphasize more on the task consideration instead of on the relationship consideration. Initially, he is very job-oriented and only makes sure his plan get done. He does not pay any attention to other people’s feelings. For instance, he is really rude to the girls when he asks them to do him a favor by selling cookies to Vector. When the girls mention they need to go to ballet class, he even does not listen at all. He puts everything behind his own goal and ignores the feelings of others.
However, luckily Gru changes his leadership behavior gradually and in the end of the movie. He becomes a leader who emphasizes relationship consideration more than task consideration. Gru starts building tight relationships and connections with the girls and becomes an employee-center leader. He begins to trust the girls and shows respect to them by supporting their dance classes. In the end, he even gives up to steal the Moon but comes to see the girls’ show. Gru in the end readopts the girls and treats them as his own daughters. With respect, trust and honesty, he becomes a real servant leader by implementing democratic leadership styles instead of autocratic leadership style.
4. Entrepreneurship
Gru can be considered as an entrepreneur in the movie. He notices the opportunity to steal the Moon from his early childhood and takes the responsibility to implement this plan with the helps from doctor, the minions and the girls. During the whole story, he experiences many failures but does not give up easily. Gru has the spirits that entrepreneurs possess. Firstly, he is open to experience. No matter how many troubles he meets during the process, he is willing to try new things and methods. Furthermore, he has highly internal locus of control by finding his weaknesses and invents new things instead of complaining of his bad luck. Thirdly, he has high self-esteem. Instead of blaming his competitor Vector being too smart, Gru always thinks he has the same ability as Vector. He keeps trying new methods in order to beat Vector and save his pride and vanity. In the end he has high needs for achievement. By setting high goals to steal the Moon, he is not afraid of the difficulties of this project and enjoys working toward them.
Although Gru meets the difficulties in the process of stealing the Moon, he never gives up. When he is not able to follow his original plan, he keeps changing the plan and consults others’ suggestions from the girls and the minions. When the bank tells Gru that they have already lost confidence in him, he, as an entrepreneur, does not give up easily. In stead, his friends give him the strongest supports at the critical moment. The girls offer their piggy bank to fund the plan and the minions offer their own savings. Gru, as an entrepreneur, successfully continues his plan even though the hardship he experiences.
5. Effective Groups and Teams
Gru and the girls experience the whole stages of group development from Forming to Performing. It is the whole process that enables them to have such strong connections in the end.
In the beginning, they do not know each other. This forming stage is the stage that Gru and the girls get to know each other and reach common understandings. Gradually, they find out they do not have the same values and start the storming stage. They begin hate each other. The girls do not follow Gru’s instructions at all by disturbing the working process in the lab such as using vaporized gun to play around. Conversely, they start the norming stage with the time passing. They start to understand each other and try to coordinate with each other. Gru and the girls start to have connections. In the end, they step into performing stage by successfully finish the goal.
Conclusion:
By implementing the knowledge we learned from BADM310 to the movie: Despicable me, I have a better understanding of the class contents and concepts. In order to achieve the final goal and solve the problem, Gru and his friends experience hardships with supports and encouragements. The audients learn about the how to address this problem by reading the topics from Ethnics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); The Evolution of Management Thought; Leadership; Entrepreneurship; Effective Groups and Teams. All of the topics help to address the problem and enable the audients to understand how Gru overcomes the difficulties and reach the final goal.
Problem Identification
Gru, being a supervillain, always wants to be the evilest villain in the world. However, his pride has recently been hurt by an unknown supervillain named Vector. Vector is famous for stealing the Great Pyraid of Giza. Thus, his behavior has been considered as the foulest among all the criminals. With his high self-esteem to be the evilest villain, Gru decides to implement a plan to steal the Moon. Landing on the Moon is Gru’s dream since his childhood. Nevertheless, his dream never comes true because of his mom’s deride and mock. Gru from now on begins to implement this expensive plan with a doctor, his minions and three orphan girls: Margo, Edith and Agnes. During this journey, Gru will encounter lots of problems and challenges. However, we can easily find the ways to address those problems by using the concepts from BADM310.
The main problem of this movie is to achieve Gru’s goal to steal the Moon as a strategic plan. The reason why this problem takes place is the discouragement Gru gets from his mom during his early childhood. He used to dream to be an astronaut, landing the moon successfully and enabling his mom proud of him. However, Gru’s mum cruelly discourages Gru by mocking him and calling him as “monkey”. Gru never forgets that day and finally decides to make his dream come true. The story of Vector angers Gru and injures Gru’s pride, recalling Gru’s childhood memory. Vector irritates Gru and finally rages him to implement this evil action.
This issue is problematic. Although Gru’s plan is rational strategic for him, it is absolutely not an ethical decision for the public. For example, from the perspectives of three orphans, they are adopted by Gru simply because Gru wants to utilize them to enter Vector’s fortress. Gru’s decision only satisfies his own interests and personal vanity but not those of others.
Class concepts to address the problems
1. Ethnics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Although Gru’s plan seems to be strategic and rational, it is not ethical. According to the lecture of BADM310, ethical decisions are the decisions that companionable with existing ethical norms in companies, industries, and religions. Ethical decisions distribute benefits and harms among stakeholders in fair, equitable, or impartial manners. Apparently, Gru’s behavior does not match with the definition of ethical behavior. There are couples reasons below.
Firstly, “Stealing the Moon Plan” only satisfies Gru’s personal wishes and vanity to compete with his rival: Vector. He does not consider from others’ perspectives. Gru adopts the three orphans because they can enter the fortress of Vector by selling cookies. With their expectation to be adopted by a sweet family, the three orphans are largely hurt by Gru’s behavior and attitudes towards them at the beginning since he only pays attention to his personal plan but ignores the girls and utilizes them. When the girls need to go to dance class, Gru does not take care of them. Instead, he forces them to go to Vector’s fortress to revenge. In short, Gru is selfless and eagers quick success as well as instant benefits when he implements this unethical plan.
Moreover, Gru does not care about public’ benefits. He does not contemplate about what the whole world will be as the result of his unethical plan - the world will turn to be total dark in the night. His behavior will largely affect people’s lives and disturb the natural rule.
With the mind of following ethical rule, Gru should consider keeping on the moral rights rule which is an ethical decision that should maintain and protect the fundamental rights and privileges of people. He can also consider follow utilitarian rule-an ethical decision should produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. By thinking more from the perspectives of greatest number of people, Gru should do more services or volunteer activities that benefit the society instead of destroying the properties of public.
2. The Evolution of Management Thought
It is impossible for people to avoid any problems in the process of management. However, with the right way to improve each problem and correct the issue, it is not hard to see the amazing changes of evolution of management. The content of Theory X and Theory Y from this chapter can easily be applied in the movie of Despicable me.
The three orphans: Margo, Edith and Agnes do not like the leadership style of Gru at the beginning. With his rambunctiousness, Gru finds it is difficult to nurture the three girls. The three orphans do not appreciate Gru either because he shows no interests to the girls. Gradually, Theory X appears. Considering the three orphans as followers and Gru as the leader, it is not hard to tell that they work inefficient with conflict. Being lazy and dislike their “leader”, the three orphans hate what Gru tells them to do. They do not want to sell the cookies for Gru. They do not listen to what Gru says and disturb Gru’s secret lab. Moreover, they even play with weapons in Gru’s lab and vaporize Agnes’ unicorn toy.
Theory X as discussed in class is a negative assumption that the average employees are not hardworking, dislike work and will try to do as little as possible. In order to ensure that the orphans follow his instructions, Gru has to use impolite language and rude behaviors to closely supervise the girls. Gru also creates strict rules and implement a well-defined system of punishments to control the three girls. In short, all of them do not enjoy the time of Theory X period at the beginning.
Fortunately, things start to change as Gru adjusts his leadership behaviors and implements Theory Y in the second part of the movie. Instead of disliking Gru and disobeying everything he says, the girls start to follow his instructions. The girls begin to change the way they follow as Gru starts to treat the girls as family. As we can tell, Gru even starts to read the bed stories for girls in the end of the movie. He starts care about the girls and their feelings. On the other side, the girls are willing to accept the rule and follow directions when Gru becomes kinder and nicer.
Theory Y as we discussed in the class is a positive assumption between leaders and subordinates. The followers are not inherently lazy and start to seek some other extra works. The girls begin to consider themselves as the same team as Gru by contributing to the project and selling the cookies for him. Gru, on the other side, allows the girls to work in the lab with their interests by giving them freedom. He begins to respect their ballet class and the girls’ interests. Additionally, Gru also decentralizes the authority in the end by hearing back from the girls’ opinions.
3. Leadership
This movie shows the process of how Gru improves himself as from a leader who only pays attention of task to a great leader who also emphasizes the relationship between subordinates.
Gru used to emphasize more on the task consideration instead of on the relationship consideration. Initially, he is very job-oriented and only makes sure his plan get done. He does not pay any attention to other people’s feelings. For instance, he is really rude to the girls when he asks them to do him a favor by selling cookies to Vector. When the girls mention they need to go to ballet class, he even does not listen at all. He puts everything behind his own goal and ignores the feelings of others.
However, luckily Gru changes his leadership behavior gradually and in the end of the movie. He becomes a leader who emphasizes relationship consideration more than task consideration. Gru starts building tight relationships and connections with the girls and becomes an employee-center leader. He begins to trust the girls and shows respect to them by supporting their dance classes. In the end, he even gives up to steal the Moon but comes to see the girls’ show. Gru in the end readopts the girls and treats them as his own daughters. With respect, trust and honesty, he becomes a real servant leader by implementing democratic leadership styles instead of autocratic leadership style.
4. Entrepreneurship
Gru can be considered as an entrepreneur in the movie. He notices the opportunity to steal the Moon from his early childhood and takes the responsibility to implement this plan with the helps from doctor, the minions and the girls. During the whole story, he experiences many failures but does not give up easily. Gru has the spirits that entrepreneurs possess. Firstly, he is open to experience. No matter how many troubles he meets during the process, he is willing to try new things and methods. Furthermore, he has highly internal locus of control by finding his weaknesses and invents new things instead of complaining of his bad luck. Thirdly, he has high self-esteem. Instead of blaming his competitor Vector being too smart, Gru always thinks he has the same ability as Vector. He keeps trying new methods in order to beat Vector and save his pride and vanity. In the end he has high needs for achievement. By setting high goals to steal the Moon, he is not afraid of the difficulties of this project and enjoys working toward them.
Although Gru meets the difficulties in the process of stealing the Moon, he never gives up. When he is not able to follow his original plan, he keeps changing the plan and consults others’ suggestions from the girls and the minions. When the bank tells Gru that they have already lost confidence in him, he, as an entrepreneur, does not give up easily. In stead, his friends give him the strongest supports at the critical moment. The girls offer their piggy bank to fund the plan and the minions offer their own savings. Gru, as an entrepreneur, successfully continues his plan even though the hardship he experiences.
5. Effective Groups and Teams
Gru and the girls experience the whole stages of group development from Forming to Performing. It is the whole process that enables them to have such strong connections in the end.
In the beginning, they do not know each other. This forming stage is the stage that Gru and the girls get to know each other and reach common understandings. Gradually, they find out they do not have the same values and start the storming stage. They begin hate each other. The girls do not follow Gru’s instructions at all by disturbing the working process in the lab such as using vaporized gun to play around. Conversely, they start the norming stage with the time passing. They start to understand each other and try to coordinate with each other. Gru and the girls start to have connections. In the end, they step into performing stage by successfully finish the goal.
Conclusion:
By implementing the knowledge we learned from BADM310 to the movie: Despicable me, I have a better understanding of the class contents and concepts. In order to achieve the final goal and solve the problem, Gru and his friends experience hardships with supports and encouragements. The audients learn about the how to address this problem by reading the topics from Ethnics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); The Evolution of Management Thought; Leadership; Entrepreneurship; Effective Groups and Teams. All of the topics help to address the problem and enable the audients to understand how Gru overcomes the difficulties and reach the final goal.