Leadership Management: Analysis of Invictus Movie and Leadership

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of leadership in the film Invictus, focusing on the leadership styles of Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaar. The discussion begins with an introduction to the film and its context, highlighting the historical significance of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. The analysis delves into various leadership theories, including servant leadership, transformational leadership, implicit leadership, and relational leadership, providing concrete examples from the movie to support each theory. The report explores how Mandela's servant leadership helped to unite a divided nation, while also examining Pienaar's transformational approach in leading the Springboks. The report also discusses the concepts of implicit followership and the role of ethical leadership in achieving a common goal. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of leadership in overcoming racial divides and fostering unity. The report utilizes references to support the analysis.

Running head: LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT
Leadership Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Invictus is a film that was directed by Clint Eastwood in the year 2009 that was based on
biographical sports game in South Africa in which Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon played
a very significant role as Nelson Mandela and Francois Pienaar respectively. The film was
based on a book written by John Carlin naming “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the
Game That Made a Nation” and it was mainly based on events that took place in South Africa
that surrounds the idea of World Cup on Rugby Game in a particular year 1995 and this game
helped to change the living standards of people in South Africa. The current discussion
revolves round the film where various leadership skills of Nelson Mandela and rugby team
captain have been discussed in detail. This helps to draw clear aspects and helps to get into a
deep insight into the political situations that had been undergoing in South Africa and the
prejudices African people have been undergoing through.
Discussion
1. Servant leadership talks about a set of philosophies as well as practices that helps to
enrich lives of other individuals, helps to build better organizations and create a world full
of care, justice as well as compassion as suggested by Robert Greenleaf.
Nelson Mandela after being released from prison in the year 1990 exhibited best part of
his leadership skill in the form of serving his country when new constitution was framed
in South Africa in 1996 that vehemently protested apartheid situation prevailing over
there. He displayed his skills being a servant leader by looking after unprivileged sections
of society so that they do not face deprivation from their basic rights further. He tried to
bring entire nation together so that they raise voices against discrimination as well as
prejudices they have been undergoing, through universal language of sport and therefore
he supported rugby team of White Springbok in a particular year 1995 (Brown,

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2016).Since he was the president of South Africa therefore by the process of holding
games he tried to show an act of forgiveness towards individuals who have been carrying
out practices on apartheid. This would have been a display of his servant leadership in the
form of understanding, healing characteristics as well an act of pardoning them
(GuramatunhuCooper & Lyons, 2017). Therefore his actions justifies statements against
servant leadership as suggested by Greenleaf.
However certain critics like Deborah Eicher-Catt suggests that servant leadership is
mostly overrated as well does discrimination on gender basis and it is not a proof to be
exercised in any kind of situation and this statement cannot be supported through role of
Nelson Mandela in film Invictus. From the perspective of the film, Nelson Mandela tried
to acquire trust and confidence of people and that helped these people to work hard to
achieve their democratic rights and freedom.
2. South-Africa that had been the subject of apartheid issues for a long period of time was
led by two important persons Morgan Freeman who acted as Nelson Mandela and Matt
Damon who acted as Francois Pienaar after year 1990 in film Invictus. Morgan Freeman
and Damon were president of the country and captain of rugby team respectively who
worked hard together to build the nation up on concrete of reconciliation among existing
races and cultures as well as redemption (Samuel, 2014). Mandela was the first person
who took an active part in explaining Pienaar that role of a leader is first of all to guide
his followers towards thinking that they are capable to perform much better than
something they usually think about themselves. Mandela also gave the idea of
transformational leadership to Pienaar that a leader’s point of vision is to think over
horizon that is tangible and lead people towards it to achieve good quality success.
Pienaar apart from being guided by his example had many ideas in his mind to develop
his rugby team and have maintained a very decent accent in the film.

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However the situation was not so easy and there were hard times during the matches
when only white skinned used to cheer for rugby players and dark-skinned members used
to cheer for opposition party as entire team contained only one black-skinned plan and all
others were white-skinned. According to Pienaar successful leadership refers to taking
certain actions for the welfare-being of individuals however it might not be supported by
all people in the world. This should not let the leader dragged down from reaching a
particular goal and criticism always helps the leader to rectify his actions and set a
specific goal (Luhrs, 2017). He was ultimately able to complete his mission and therefore
he can termed to be a successful leader.
3. Implicit is a certain type of leadership that includes a cognitive theory based on
interpretations made by Robert Lord as well as colleagues. This surrounds around the idea
that every individual develop cognitive representations regarding various aspects of world
and utilize preconceived notions in order to determine the surroundings and also have a
control on individual behaviour. Leadership usually involve establishment of dyadic
relationship in between leader and his followers. Thoughts of followers play a significant
role as it forms the framework of relationship between leader and the followers. Romance
of Leadership (ROL) is an extent to which people believe that development of leadership
is basically a premiere force that would help to control events in an organization as well
their occurrences (Pezzotti, 2016). Relational leadership usually demonstrates an
aspirational role model that helps in proposing development and supports healthy as well
as ethical group that constitutes a framework combining five different key elements that
acts as a good response to leadership ability. This type of leader is required to be
inclusive, ethical, empowering, and Purposeful as well as maintains a process. Nelson
Mandela won to become the president of South Africa after 27 years of imprisonment and
through partnership with Francois he took an initiative to unite black and white people

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through organizing rugby game. He helped Springboks, South African rugby team from
losing matches and helped them to get out of concepts on apartheid. Through establishing
true relationship with country people being an excellent leader he was able to inspire
Springboks and also eradicate apartheid practices from the country (Gritton et al., 2016).
4. Through the film Invictus it was possible to identify various leaders as well as followers
and their leadership as well as followership skills. These have helped to achieve victory in
erasing racialism from the country South Africa. Theories on Implicit Followership are
basically cognitive structures as well as schemes that represent characteristic traits as well
as behaviours of followers (Jenlink, 2015). These theories emphasize on exercising
practical form of followership skills that usually display cognitive structure of thinking of
employees as well as their abilities that would assist a leader in receiving motivation from
the followers and work towards fulfilling a goal or an objective. Through the process of
inspirational leadership it was possible to invoke a sense of emotion among the followers
who got guided by Mandela as well as Pienaar’s motivational dialogues. When it says
“His people needed a leader, He gave them a champion” in film Invictus people who got
sole disciples of Nelson Mandela were in deliberate need of a person who would show
them respect, provide them positive knowledge and help them to know the beautiful
world and this was made possible through wonderful leadership skills of Nelson Mandela
and Francois Pienaar. Followers consist of people of South Africa, members constituting
Springboks team playing rugby and people who volunteered to work with Mandela to
unify white and black people. They wanted to serve “One team. One Country” and they
could ultimately achieve it under guidance and support of these iconic leaders.
5. According to words of Roosevelt in the year 1945, it has been stated that “Great power
generally combine with greater responsibility” and this was greatly displayed through
leadership skills of Nelson Mandela. He was a man who possessed very legitimate power,

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coercive power, power due to being an expert as well as referential power and he was
driven the soul goal to achieve something for the country and he performed his duties as
well as responsibilities being a president of South Africa. This usually involves ethical
practices as well as contingency approach on his part where he wanted to serve the nation
and establish a positive thought among people. He also displayed behavioural form of
leadership as suggested by Hersey as well as Blanchard who predicted that leaders take
their decisions based on change in situations. Ethical approach in behaviour helped
Mandela to stand out as supreme in pace with superior powers of white people. Through
film Invictus there was no one who could be identified as less ethical leader as everyone
had been working towards achieving a particular mission or objective that is in favour of
declining racialism.
Conclusion
From the above discussions it can be concluded that practices against apartheid are required
to be stopped as it demotivates people, increase distance among human beings on the basis of
race, caste or colour. Tactics based on influencing people usually includes behaviour of a
person that would help to change attitude, religious beliefs and approach as well as values of
another person. Through film Invictus it has been possible to identify how Mandela utilized
his practical as well as logical arguments in order to convince others and persuade them so
that they can work together to achieve their respective goals.

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References
GuramatunhuCooper, N. M., & Lyons, L. M. (2017). Moving from Competing to
Complementary: Understanding the Influence of Personal Narratives when Designing
Leadership Studies Curriculum. Journal of Leadership Education, 16(4), 94-110.
Gritton, J., Stewart, J., Jeavons, C., Mehmet, N., & La Placa, V. (2016). Movies in the
classroom: lessons for curriculum design. Compass: Journal of Learning and
Teaching, 8(12).
Jenlink, P. M. (2015). Understanding Leadership through Poetics of Leadership: Searching
for Personal Meaning and Authentic Understanding. Education Leadership Review of
Doctoral Research, 2(2), 1-34.
Samuel, M. (2014). Educational leadership: The audience creates the text. International
Journal of Educational Development in Africa, 1(1), 31-45.
Brown, J. (2016). The Invictus Wellbeing Program: Cultural Architecture and Human
Flourishing. TEACH Journal of Christian Education, 10(2), 2.
Luhrs, R. (2017). INTERGROUP CONTACT THEORY AND CHOIR: MODELING
CONDUCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS. The Choral Journal, 57(7), 30.

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Pezzotti, B. (2016). The Giallo and Terrorism: The Years of Lead and the Conspiracy
Theory. In Investigating Italy's Past through Historical Crime Fiction, Films, and TV
Series (pp. 169-235). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.