A Study on Responsible Leadership: Analyzing the Sully Film

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the film 'Sully,' focusing on the application of responsible leadership theories. The essay begins with a brief overview of the movie's plot, highlighting the key incident of US Airways Flight 1549's emergency landing on the Hudson River. It then delves into the character of Captain Chesley Sullenberger (Sully), analyzing his leadership style, which is identified as a combination of Laissez-Faire and Transactional leadership. The core of the analysis revolves around the application of the Responsible Leadership for Performance theory, examining the leader's decision-making process and its impact on followers and the overall outcome. The essay also considers the contextual factors of the film, such as the simulation exercises and investigations. It concludes by evaluating the effectiveness of the chosen leadership theory and offering critical perspectives on the film's portrayal of leadership, including the performance of the actors, the story, and the direction. The essay also emphasizes the importance of prompt and efficient decisions by a leader in a crisis situation, as exemplified by Sully's actions.

Responsible Leadership
A Study on Sully Film
Student Details

RESPONSIBLE LEADERSHIP
Sully the Responsible Leader
(Part 1): Responsible leadership is concerned with making the decision for organizational
sustainability and growth as well as being responsible for the same. In this type of leadership,
the leader stays responsible for its activities towards the various stakeholders of a company.
In this, responsible leadership is going to be analyzed with the help of a movie named Sully,
which was released in 2016. Sully was a movie that can be termed as biographical drama. It
was based on the autobiography named as Highest Duty, which was written by Chesley
Sullenberger and Jeffery Zaslow. In the movie, the crucial incident of US Airways was
shown (Suhir 2013). The movie showed emergency landing made by Sullenberger on January
2009 of US Airways Flight number 1549 on Hudson River. In that emergency landing, all
155 passengers and crewmembers survived, however, there were some minor injuries. The
movie also shows the subsequent publicity after the incident and focus on the crucial
investigation. Clint Eastwood directed it, on the other hand, Todd Komarnicki wrote the
script for this movie. Tom Hanks played the main role of pilot Sullenberger (Sully). There
were some supporting roles. In this essay, the critical decision made by sully is analyzed with
the help of the theory of responsible leadership for performance. In the silly movie, the whole
incident was revolving around only one person that is the pilot of that flight named as
Sullenberger or Sully. He is the main character of the movie as well as acted as a responsible
leader. With the help of the Sully movie, it can be seen that Pilot Sullenberger was a very
influential and charismatic leader. He has the ability to quickly decide about the solutions of a
prevailing issue. He also has the ability to defend himself, as in the movie various official
institutions claimed Sully’s decision of emergency landing was wrong, however, he was
continuously trying to prove his decision was correct. They also performed some simulation
exercises to interpret the situation and urge of that decision.
(Part 2): After analyzing the decision that was made by Sully, it can be seen clearly that he
has the capacity of making good decisions. He also sounded a committed and passionate
person, as he was completely committed towards its work of taking all passengers to one
place to another place safely and soundly. He also has the character of accountability, as after
the incident he never refused or lied about his emergency landing decision. It also shows his
honesty and Integrity. In this way, it can be considered that the leader in the movie followed
two types of leadership styles in order to govern his behavior during and after the respective
situation. The leadership style sully followed was Laissez- Faire Leadership style and
Transactional leadership. His leadership style is considered as Laissez-Faire as in this
leadership style the leaders have full or partial autonomy, to make decisions and react in a
situation according to their best understanding. In the current situation, Sully also reacted
according to his understanding and with acceptable autonomy; he landed the airplane in the
Hudson River, in order to save the life of many people (Doh & Quigley 2014). The leadership
style of Sully was also considered to be transactional, as these types of leaders when get
assigned to a particular task then they consider it their responsibility to accomplish that task
as soon as possible and with their utmost efficiency. Similarly, in this situation, the Sully was
assigned to take people from one place to another safely. This is the reason in order to
accomplish his duty effectively; the pilot landed the plan in the river to save his passengers.
In Sully (2016) movie, the leadership characteristics of the lead characters of the movie are
shown in a very explainable and effective way. It is the role of a leader to show the correct
path to its followers and take efficient decision promptly when needed. They should know the
difference between the necessary things and unnecessary things among the task they have
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assigned for. The movie is the perfect example of prompt and efficient decisions that should
be taken by a leader.
(Part 3): This movie can be analyzed with the help of two types of responsible leadership
theories that are Responsible Leadership Relations and Responsible Leadership Performance
(C.Ginnett 2019). In this project, the leadership role played by the lead character of the movie
and the behaviour of its followers is analyzed with the help of Responsible Leadership
Performance Theory. On the other hand, analysis of the contextual factors in the movie is
also done with the help of Performance theory of Responsible Leadership. This theory is
chosen as the whole situation of the movie or real life is based on the responsibility of the
leading performance of a lead character that is Sully, of the movie. This theory is more
influential as compared to relations theory of responsible leadership as it takes about the
performance of the characters in a difficult situation (Suhir 2013). Responsible leadership
performance theory talks about the effectiveness of performance done by a leader. According
to an article that is written by S. Lyneham and T. Chermack in 2006, Responsible leadership
for performance theory is the theory that focuses on addressing the challenges and nature of
the individual’s leadership, that helps the leader in increasing and maintain the performance
of himself and others through responsible leadership (Carter & Greer 2013). The theory talks
about the process of the input process and output. Through which the desired performance of
the individual as well as an organization can be achieved. In input, section the theory talks
about constituency consideration, which can be achieved through authority level and its
impact on others. In the process stage, the theory reviews the framework that can be used for
responsible leadership by the leader. The performance of employees of the organization is
asses in the whole process.
(Part 4 a): In the given situation of a silly movie, the leadership style followed by the leaders
and the followers is based on the theory of responsible leadership for performance. According
to the theory, the leader should responsibly lead its followers with the motive of yielding of
efficient performance. In the movie the decisions took by Sully can be treated as a
responsible leading decision, as many lives are depending on that decision. The performance
of sullying can influence the decision taken by him earlier of landing the airplane in the river.
On the other hand, the followers of the Sully as a leader are his crewmembers as well as the
passengers of that airplane. They have trust in their leader, this makes them confident in that
situation and with the help of this courage, and they showed the interest in the decision made
by the Sully. This all became possible due to the performance of the Sully (Tripathi, Yagnick
& Mohindra 2018). It was based on a well-defined process of Input, Process, and Output.
Initially, the pilot took the conditions as its input of the situation, and then in the process
stage, it showed its performance efficiency. After that in the output stage, it can be easily
clear that the performance of Sully was worthy, as he landed the aircraft safely on the river
and saved all of his people.
(Part 4 b): When the contextual situational analysis of the movie is done, it can be identified
that there was some failure in the airplane that the Sully was flying. When he comes to know
about the failure, he has to land the plan as soon as possible in order to save the lives of its
passengers and crewmembers. This situational analysis also indicates the performance of the
leader in the given situations of the movie (Jamie A.Gruman & Alan M.Saks 2011). From the
situational analysis and the effective performance of the Sully, it can be seen that the theory,
which is used in this project to analyze, is appropriate. This theory talks about the outcome of
the influential performance of the leader, as in the movie the outstanding performance of
Sully saved the lives of many people. In this case, the other theory of responsible leadership
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that is based on relations can be more appropriate then performance theory, as the movie is
based on the performance of Sully, not the relations it has made with its crewmember s or
passengers. This explains the appropriateness of responsible leadership for performance
theory in the given situation (Herman Aguinis, Ryan K.Gottfredson & HarryJoo 2012).
(Sub-Part 4): Among the selected responsible leadership theory, it can be considered that
performance theory is more effective then relations theory of leadership. it is important as the
whole movie and actual situation was based on the marvellous performance of the pilot Sully.
With his extraordinary performance, he made a safe landing on the Hudson River without any
loss of life. In this way, this situation cannot be related to relational theory, as there is no in-
depth bonding of relations is shown, however by analyzing the whole situation one can
promptly appraise the performance of Sully (Frank 2013).
(Sub-Part 4): When one looks at the whole movie from the point of view of critics it can be
seen that the actors have done there marvellous job, however, the written story is not that
strong. It was not that engaging. On the other hand, the direction was also lacking some
crucial point. Apart from them, the movie was very good. Moreover, it is advised to others
that they should surely watch this extraordinary happing of the pas in which the real calibre
of a pilot has been shown effectively. The characters in the Sully movie are mainly the pilot
of the airplane that was landed on Hudson River. The name of the pilot was Sully. There
were some other characters also; however, they have given their support in favour of the main
character of the movie. All the characters have worked according to the responsibility of
performance they have to render in order to get outstanding outputs. This can be seen by
analyzing the aftermath of the situation (Cameron 2011). The movie is all about the decisions
taken by the lead character that is Sully. He was the pilot and was assigned to fly a plan on a
certain day; however, there was some misshaping with the plan.
(Part 5): The board, which was deciding the scenario, believed that the pilot made the wrong
decision at that situation. The decision of the board can end the sully’s career (Doh &
Quigley 2014). The media and officials have doubted the sully for the decision he has taken
regarding emergency landing. This is the reason Sully claims and arranges to have a
simulation exercise. This exercise is set in a similar situation to testify all the condition and
decisions that can be more beneficial than the decision taken by sully at that time. The plan
was not showing desirable conditions. If any action was not taken immediately, then this
could lead to loss of many lives, may be of Sully also. However, the decision of emergency
landing by Sully was a smart move as with this he saved the lives of all his people. After the
situation of an emergency landing, many blames were put on Sully for making bad and
irresponsible decision (Frank 2013). At the first time in a simulation exercise, the decision
made by sully was proved wrong, however, in every next simulation exercise, the decision
made by sully was proved right repeatedly. With the efficient and effective performance of
handling that situation and airplane, the Sully was successful in landing his airplane in the
river, without the loss of life of any of his passengers (OsnatBouskila-Yam & Avraham
N.Kluger 2011). It can also be concluded that the other role of leader can be fixed by the
problem. If the leader has played the role of consoling his fellow passengers then he can
maintain good relation with them. It can severely harm the passengers and can cause the loss
of many lives.
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