Leadership : Robins Framework

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Leadership in context

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Executive summary
The following report is based on the characteristics of an effective leader that is
helpful in achieving the stated goals or objectives. The report discussed the Robins
framework where various characteristics of the leader are discussed on which scenes are
being are represented. The robin’s framework has four elements that include leadership
characteristics and style, group characteristics, internal and external factors, and leader
behavior. The report discusses about the various elements and their resonance with the
various scenes in the movie.

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Contents
Main discussion and analysis.....................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................5
Appendix....................................................................................................................................6

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INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the most important tool that is helpful in achieving the set goals in the
efficient period of time. it gives an individual the power to rise against all odds and to reclaim
the stated objectives. In the movie “Mandela: long walk to freedom” the struggle of Nelson
Mandela is shown in helping to achieving the freedom for his people (Teravainen, 2018). The
movie is the biopic of Nelson Mandela life about how he has shown the leadership qualities
all through the struggle to bring the racism to an end. Mandela was South African lawyer,
politician, and philanthropist who with other comrades after Sharpeville Massacre was sent to
the life time imprisonment.
During the imprisonment, he showed relentless spirit in chasing the freedom for its
people. He remained undefeated and continuously strived for freedom with his comrades. The
following report will be discussing the leadership qualities portrayed by nelson Mandela
using the Robert framework.
Main discussion and analysis
Leadership is one of the most important qualities that is helpful in achieving the goals
of an individual through right means. According to the right skills set of leaderships can lead
to the change in the organization and society in an effective manner. In the movie, Idris Elba
portrayed the character of nelson Mandela where he acted as the leader of the African
National congress. During his time as the leader of the African National Congress, he showed
exemplary leadership skills in the situations by handling the toughest situation. When one of
the men stood up and criticized Mandela regarding his decision at that time Mandela without
losing his temper made people understand about the move.
According to Arditi, composure is one of the important traits of the leaders as it shows
their attitude of resilience towards the issues or the conflicting situation (Arditi, 2017). In the
movie, Mandela was shown as a great listener of the problems faced by his people. He was
the one who tried resolving their problems or issues faced by them.
According to Banfield & Kay, a leader is able to develop the good sense of
attachment with the people around just by listening to their issues (Banfield & Kay, 2012).
The protagonist who is Idris Elba was shown being attacked by his people around through

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negative words but instead he did nothing but listened to them peacefully with patience and
replied to them in the most humbled manner.
According to Couto, a leader is the one who keeps his personality same in all the
seasons whether he is in his gloomy times or in times of richness (Couto, 2015). The above-
mentioned quality was shown by the Idris Elba in the movie where after gaining the good
amount of power, he remains composed. The power that he acquired did not dilute his
mission of supporting people and achieving the leadership goals of getting things done.
Moreover, during the time of imprisonment he never lost his temper and extremely good to
the people around. His all the great leadership qualities that included effective listening skills,
problem solving, composure, and empathetic attitude was representative of the good
leadership attitude (Spencer & Johnson, 2017).
The above is the robin framework of leadership where various elements of the
framework are discussed. In the movie, all the elements of Robbins framework are presented
in an effective manner (Lingwood, 2015). The first element of the robin framework is leader
characteristics and traits. In the movie, Nelson Mandela was shown as one of the best leaders
in the history.
Many of the important qualities or traits that are shown in the leadership personality
of Nelson Mandela were listening, speaking, problem solving, empathetic skills, courage,
bravery, positive outlook, and resiliencies. Some of the examples of the leadership qualities
or traits from the movie are in one of the scenes where Nelson Mandela who was the leader
of African National congress was shown in the movie listening to the problems faced by one
the members empathetically (Schmiedel, 2019).
He tried solving his problem by giving him the courage to stand up for the issue
without any fear of disapproval from the people. The scene portrayed the leadership skills of
Nelson Mandela that included listening skills, problem solving skills. According to Cheffins,
problem solving is the most important traits of leadership (Mojibi, 2015). In another scene,
when nelson Mandela with his inmates was imprisoned in the jail after the Sharpeville
Massacre.
During his 27 years of imprisonment, he did not lose hope of one day freeing the
nation from the racism, in the movie he was seen sporadically motivating the inmates by

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guiding them and solving their problems. He was also seen giving courage and positivity
through positive dialogues. The positive attitude of Nelson Mandela as the prisoner is
reflective of the positive outlook as a leader. According to Couto, positive attitude is the most
important ingredient of leadership where the leaders are able to see challenges from the
positive spectrum (Rashid, 2015).
It is also reflective of the courageous attitude of the Nelson Mandela. In one of the
scenes, prior to going to jail, he was accused for seditious activity as a lawyer where he was
temporarily arrested. During that time period, one of the individuals in the ANC leadership in
a dangerous manner blackmailed him for further actions in the area of proclaiming the
leadership. He with extreme positivity or composure replied that he would never stop his
fight for the real freedom that is getting away from the apartheid system (Cheffins, 2018).
The second important element of the Robbin framework is leadership behavior and
style. The leadership style used by Nelson Mandela in the movie is transformative leadership
style (L.Hoffman & Chunta, 2015). He believes in bringing the right manner of revolution by
practicing the right set of conducts and principals. He guided his comrades towards the
beautiful vision of the future where there would be no system of racism where an individual
can freely express their opinions or perception without the fear of being persecuted. His high
level of positive outlook in bringing the right transformation in the society was depictive of
his positive transformational leadership style.
One of the scenes in the movie is depictive of his style where the inmates in the
prisoners got discouraged where he tried motivating them towards the better and positive
future where it is free from any kind of racism. In other scenes, he boldly acclaimed the
changes that are to brought with the team members of the society without fear. His positively
outrageous outlook towards life decisions and visions was representative of his
transformative leadership style (Schmiedel, 2019).
The third element of the Robbin framework is the group member characteristics that
are one of the foremost characteristics for practicing effective leadership (Schmiedel, 2019).
In the movie, the followers or the group members of the Nelson Mandela could be seen with
varied characteristics. Some of the group members were extremely supportive while some
were highly resistant of policies or approaches adopted by the Nelson Mandela (Vedel,
2016).

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There were people who were naysayers while some people were extremely lazy to do
any work. It could be said that the group comprised of various characteristics that sometimes
reenergized the visions while sometimes was responsible for non- achievement of the results
(Spencer & Johnson, 2017). One of the scenes in the movie that was when nelson Mandela
with the other comrades decided on the further plans to achieve the goals. During the
discussion for the plans, there were various people who simply did not follow it. They were
adamant in their way of achieving the things in the best possible manner. Mandela had to
work really hard to achieve the goals in the best possible manner where it had to bring the
collaborative thinking so that the visions can be achieved in an effective manner (Teravainen,
2018).
In another important episode, Mandela was seen depressed as he was finding it
difficult to move further with the vision of achieving the goals as many of the members
where are not ready to move with him with the set goals and targets. During that time one of
members from the team supported him in the best manner by helping him remember the
vision of the apartheid free society. It can be said that different nature of the group members
was helpful in maintaining the vision of the society (Vedel, 2016).
The last important element is the external and internal environment of the situation. In
the situation, there were various factors that affected the decision making and action taking
capabilities of the team members (Luo & Milne, 2013 ). Some of the factors included
political, legal. Economic, and technology. In the movie, When Nelson Mandela had to take
the decisions to getting things done in an effective manner, he had to consider various
political and legal laws so that the goals can be achieved in the right manner (Iljins, 2015).
Conclusion
The movie long walk to freedom was an inspiring one as showcased the real life of
one of the greatest leaders in history Nelson Mandela. It was the best movie reflective of
essential leadership qualities and traits in an individual. The essential traits of leadership were
reflected in an effective manner through the best scenes in the movie. These scenes in the
movie were helpful in depicts the right leadership qualities a leader should possess in the
organization. After applying robin framework to the scenario, things regarding application of
qualities become clearer. It has given great insights in the area of various leadership qualities
that are helpful in getting things done in an effective manner. The robin framework has been
of great utility in analyzing the character of Nelson Mandela in the movie

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Bibliography
Arditi, D. (2017). Effect of organizational culture on delay in construction. International
Journal of Project Management, 136-147.
Banfield, P., & Kay, R. (2012). Introduction to Human Resource Management (2nd Edition
ed.). Oxford University Press.
Cheffins, B. (2018). The Public Company Transformed: Introduction. The Public Company
Transformed , 60(3), 55-77.
Couto. (2015). Teamwork skills in actual, in situ, and in-center pediatric emergencies:
performance levels across settings and perceptions of comparative educational impact.
Simulation in Healthcare, 10(2), .76-84.
Iljins, J. (2015). Impact of organizational culture on organizational climate during the process
of change. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 944-950.
L.Hoffman, R., & Chunta, K. (2015). Workplace Incivility: Promoting Zero Tolerance in
Nursing. Journal of Radiology Nursing, 34(4), 222-227.
Lingwood, J. (2015). The development of wayfinding abilities in children: learning routes
with and without landmarks. Journal of environmental psychology, , , 74-80.
Luo, Y. (., & Milne, S. (2013 ). Current Human Resource Management Practices in the New
Zealand Hotel Sector. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism , 13(1),
81-100.
Mojibi, T. (2015). Organizational culture and its relationship with knowledge management
strategy: a case study. Knowledge Management Research & Practice,, 281-288.
Rashid, N. (2015). . Learning to read, reading to learn: The importance of siblings in the
language development of young bilingual children. One child, many worlds , 55-66.
Schmiedel, T. (2019). Topic modeling as a strategy of inquiry in organizational research: A
tutorial with an application example on organizational culture. Organizational
Research Methods, 941-968.
Setiawan, R. (2016). The Effect of Organizational Culture on Technology Transfers and
Company Performance. Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic, 32-37.

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Spencer, K., & Johnson, M. (2017). How do you manage the highly skilled, toxic nurse?
Journal of Excellence in Nursing Leadership, 48(5), 13-16.
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Personality and individual differences, 90(1), 1-10.

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Appendix
Robins framework table
Elements of robins’
framework
Characteristics observed Corresponding scene
• Leadership behavior,
characteristics and
style
The characteristics observed
was the style of leadership
depicted by Nelson Mandela
in the court room by
safeguarding the interest of
the African maid who was
accused of theft.
The scene continued for
1.09 minutes where Mandela
as lawyer-tired saving
African domestic servant
from the false accusation by
the white woman. He did it
by asking her the question
whether those items belong
to her.
Group member behavior The characteristics observed
in the scene was supportive
followers of nelson Mandela
where the followers
supported him by acting on
their command of their
leaders
In the scene, Nelson
Mandela addressed to the
group members regarding
their rights of freedom and
commanded them to occupy
the seats in the train which
were also reserved for white
section of the society. The
characteristics of the group
member observed was
obedient one.
Internal and external
environment
The internal and external
environment did not permit
the ANC leader to stand
with the black people.
We all are angry scene-
In the scene, Nelson
Mandela can be seen
negotiating with the ANC
leader to adhere to the
policies of ANC while
addressing to the public. On
that she says that she can not
betray the black people.

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From the conversation it
could be inferred that
various internal and external
environment could not help
her achieve the situation.