Leadership in the Movie "12 Angry Men"

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1. I have to write all my papers in APA format and I am a bit rusty on the format. I am enrolled in a Masters Leadership course.

I attached an excellent APA guide to follow for your final copy. However, I also referenced the material below using APA style.

2. I would like to know to what extent do the portrayals of leadership in the movie "12 Angry Men resonate with Aristotle's prescription regarding the importance of rhetoric in how a leader should lead.

Have you watched the movie "12 angry Men" yet? That ould be a good starting place. One other place to look for summaries and plots of the movie is on-line.

Overview of the movie:

Briefly, in "12 Angry Men," the defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case of murder soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other. Based on the play, all of the action takes place on the stage of the jury room (Trial and error: 12 Angry Men).

The movie illustrates some essential qualities of leadership that are relevant to contemporary organizations that are also diverse in terms of beliefs, prejudices, and preconceptions of what it is to be a good employee and or leader. Specifically, "12 Angry Men" focuses on a jury's deliberations in a capital murder case. A 12-man jury is sent to begin deliberations in the first-degree murder trial of an 18-year-old Latino accused in the stabbing death of his father, where a guilty verdict means an automatic death sentence. Similarly, leaders in the business world are responsible for serious business decisions that could make or break the company (Plot summary for 12 Angry Men (1957)).

In the movie, the case appears to be open-and-shut like many business decisions: The defendant has a weak alibi; a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the murder scene; and several witnesses either heard screaming, saw the killing or the boy fleeing the scene. Eleven of the jurors immediately vote guilty; only Juror No. 8 (Mr. Davis) casts a not guilty vote. At first Mr. Davis' bases his vote more so for the sake of discussion. After all, the jurors must believe beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty. In business, a "devil's advocate' is also essential to further explore all angles of the problem to make sure that all essential information is taken into account in the decision-making process. Diversity often leads to better decision-making in contemporary organizations, when managed effectively through effective leadership, like Juror #8 in the movie (Plot summary for 12 Angry Men (1957)).

As the deliberations unfold, the story quickly becomes a study of the jurors' complex personalities (which range from wise, bright and empathetic to arrogant, prejudiced and merciless), preconceptions, backgrounds and interactions. That provides the backdrop to Mr. Davis' leadership role and attempts to convince the other jurors that a "not guilty" verdict might be appropriate (Plot summary for 12 Angry Men (1957)).

Application of Aristotle's View to the Jury Room

According to Aristotle, having established that the leader (a ...