Post on 24-Oct-2014
INTRODUCTION
The Godfather: Part 2 shot in 1974 and the only sequel with an academy award. The movie is
about not only how the organized crime family “Corleone” started by Vito Corleone but also
after Vito’s death, the management of Michael Corleone.
The movie includes organizational behavior topics but I will only discuss about groups,
teams, communication, leadership and power&politics.
I. GROUPS AND GROUPBEHAVIOR
Groups come in many forms, shapes, and sizes. Most managers belong to several different
groups at the same time, some at work, some at community, some formally organized, and
some informal and social in nature.
The organization’s managers to accomplish goals and serve the needs of the organization
deliberately create formal groups. The major purpose of formal groups is to perform specific
tasks and achieve specific objectives defined by the organization. The most common type of
formal work group consists of individuals cooperating under the direction of a leader.
Examples of formal groups are departments, divisions, taskforce, project groups, quality
circles, committees, and boards of directors.
Formal groups are created by the organization and are intentionally designed to direct
members toward some important organizational goal. One type of formal group is referred to
as a command group. Formal organizational group also may be formed around some specific
task. Such a group is referred to as a task group. Unlike command groups, a task group may
be composed of individuals with some special interest or expertise in a specific area
regardless of their positions in the organizational hierarchy.
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Informal groups in organizations are not formed or planned by the organization’s
managers. Rather, they are self-created and evolve out of the formal organization for a variety
of reasons, such as proximity, common interests, or needs of individuals. It would be difficult
for organization to prohibit informal working relationships from developing.
Informal groups develop naturally among an organization’s personnel without any direction
from management. One key factor in the emergence of informal groups is a common interest
shared by its members.
Of course, sometimes the interests that bind individuals together are far more diffuse. Groups
may develop out of a common interest in participating in sports, or going to the movies, or
just getting together to talk. These kinds of informal groups are known as friendship groups.
We can show the committee that investigates Michael is an example of formal and task group.
For the informal group, we can show lots of examples. Fredo taking people to strip club in
Cuba is an example for informal group.
Why do we join groups? There is no single answer to this question. Because most people
belong to a number of groups, it’s obvious that different groups provide different benefits to
members. First major reason is security. By joining a group, individual can reduce the
insecurity of standing alone. That is why Vito started to steal with a man he never knows later
he will be Vito’s partner. Gaining a status and recognition is another reason. Although Vito
has a regular and lawful life, he sees Black Hand and his status is neighborhood. He wanted
status. Every body needs the feeling of self-worth. Vito’s self worth shows itself in the scene
where Black Hand wants money and his partners. Affiliation is fulfilling of social needs by
the group. After got fired from his job Vito is seen to be alone with his wife. He needed a
friend and started stealing with his friend Clemenza. And Vito needs power against the
villains and Black Hand. Vito’s goal is vital; to earn money. To achieve his goal he knows he
should do something and he chooses to steal.
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When we talk about groups we should also talk about roles, norms, status, size and
cohesiveness. Role is a set of expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a
given position in a social unit. Michael Corleone has several roles in the movie; a father, a
mafia leader, a business man, a family care taker and more. Role perception is an individual’s
view of how the individual is supposed to act in a given situation. His father is role model for
Michael, he asks her mother about his father about losing the family. He gets role perception
from his father. Connie wants money and blessing about her marriage shows that Connie’s
expectation from Michael is to be the Godfather as Don Vito was; this is a clear example for
role expectation which is other’s expectations about an individual should act. To the end of
movie, Michael and Kay have an argument about their marriage that’s because the role
conflict of Michael. Michael thinks her wife as his side boys in the mafia and does not act like
a husband but like a villain.
A norm is a team shared concept and exists as a behavior expectation that the members of a
team have regarding the other team members. A norm is created as a reflection of the need for
security manifested through a sense of predictability and regularity in a work environment.
Kissing the hand of Dons is a norm in the movie. Also seeing Michael in fancy suits is an
example appearance norm. And another example for the social arrangement form is even from
his family everybody waits in queue to see Michael. The lawyer Tom Hagen is responsible for
the jobs when Michael is away for business; where we should show this as an example for
allocation of resources norm.
Conformity is adjusting one’s behavior to align with the norms of the group. Here the
Corleone Family is a reference group for Frank Pentangeli and he does not want to lose his
place in family so he accepts to do nothing to Hyman Roth when Michael tells him that he is
in business with Roth. Another example can be showed as Don Vito’s resistance to his friends
about paying rake-off to Black Hand but in this situation Don Vito resist to conformity of his
friends.
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Status is a position or rank given to groups or group members by others. According to status
characteristics theory, differences in status characteristics create hierarchies within groups.
Moreover, status tends to be derived from one of three sources; the power a person wields
over others; a person’s ability to contribute to a group’s goals; and an individual’s personal
characteristics. Michael’s characteristic beyond his brothers make Don Vito to give the
decision for Michael to be the next Don. After Vito’s death Michael status is far more away
from Fredo’s although Fredo is the older.
Size of the group is also important. Every kind of group is better at their areas with the
enough sizes. For example the smaller groups are faster at completing tasks where problem
solving groups are better in large sizes. James Surowiecki tells the problems of getting larger
in the mafia part of Corleone Family in his book “The Wisdom of Crowds”: “And these
problems increase as the business gets bigger, because it becomes harder to stay on top of
everything. Most important, the top-down nature of organization means that Michael becomes
more and more isolated from points of view other than his own.” We can see that illness at the
end of the movie while Michael was sitting alone by the lake.
Not all the members but many members are attracted to each other in the movie. We can talk
about cohesiveness here. Michael and Tom have big attraction to each other. Also they are
step brothers Michael has more respect and sympathy to Tom.
Making decisions and giving orders are at the hand of Michael that makes things go faster and
effective. Although with deep thinking Michael also gives efficient decisions however groups
are better in efficiency while decision making.
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II. TEAMS
From the foregoing, it follows that teamwork is a process whereby a small number of people
with complementary skills become committed to a common purpose and reach agreement on
specific performance targets and indicators, a working approach, and mutual accountability.
There are three major types of teams: problem solving, self-managed, and virtual. Problem
solving teams were just beginning to grow in popularity and most those teams took similar
form. It is composed by the employees from same department who met for a few hours each
week to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work environment. Self
managed teams are group of employees who perform highly related or interdependent jobs
and take on many of the responsibilities of their former supervisors. And a virtual team use
computer technology to tie together physically dispersed members in order to achieve a
common goal. They allow people collaborate online whether they’re only a room away or
continents apart. Actually in Godfather: Part 2, I was not able to see any kind of teams.
However if the further operations held by people in the meeting in Cuba was observed, they
could form a cross-functional team where cross-functional team is a team made of individuals
from same hierarchy level but from diverse areas to complete a task.
III. COMMUNICATION
Communication, in general, may be defined as the process by which information is exchanged
between individuals using written messages, spoken words, or gestures. It is a dynamic,
interpersonal process in which an individual modifies his response on the basis of the
behavior of the recipient of the message. In the movie we can observe lots of communication
types but not too many of written communication. But to show an example of written
communication the present from Anthony to Michael which is a painting of a car is
acceptable. He asks in the painting if Michael liked it.
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Managers need timely and appropriate information to make sound decisions. Therefore,
communication is essential for the effective functioning of organizations. In the two-way
communication process, a sender or speaker transmits a message to a receiver through a
proper medium and gets feedback from him. Downward communication is the primary means
of organizational communication and is directive in nature. Upward communication is less
frequent and non-directive in nature. Lateral communication or cross-communication involves
communication across the chain of command. Interactive communication helps employees
coordinate their work to achieve overall organizational objectives. The crime organization of
Corleone Family is made of upward-downward communication. The orders from Michael are
example of downward communication and feedbacks are for upward communication. Michael
giving order to Al kill Hyman Roth is downward communication and when Michael is back
from Cuba, Tom’s explanations about what he did when Michael is away and what he bought
for Anthony Vito is upward communication.
Communication need not always involve the exchange of words. Nonverbal communication
refers to the use of nonverbal human responses like facial expressions and gestures and the
perceived characteristics of the environment through which the human verbal and nonverbal
messages are transmitted. Lots of examples of nonverbal communication are hidden in movie.
First is the, at the beginning of movie senators turn cannonball statue to Michael as a threat.
And another example is when Michael gives hug to Fredo, he give a glimpse to Rocco
meaning that “Don’t think that I forgive him. Soon he will be dead.”
There may be a number of interruptions in the communication process that act as barriers to
communication. These barriers may totally prevent communication, filter a part of it, or
convey the wrong meaning. Filtering, selective perception, defensiveness and linguistic
differences are some of the barriers to effective communication. At the first scene of the
movie while Frank talking with Fredo about the difficulty in seeing Mike he use filtering: “I
mean, what do I hafta do, get a letter of introduction to get a sit-down?” Selective perception
is seen when Michael and Kay have an argument after the court scene. Although Michael
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listens Kay, he does not give any reaction about the love ended by Kay. He only reacts about
the children. When Michael talks about his decision to Fredo that ordering him to leave the
family there is an example of defensiveness by Fredo: “Taken care of me. You're my kid
brother and you take care of me. Did you ever think about that -- did you ever once think
about that. Send FREDO off to do this -- send FREDO off to do that! Let FREDO to take care
of some Mickey Mouse night club somewhere! Send FREDO to pick somebody up at the
airport! I'm your older brother Mike and I was stepped over!” Linguistic difference as the last
one is the Vito’s change of surname. In the borders his surname is written as Corleone where
it should be Andolini. Communication apprehension is another major barrier to effective
communication. People who suffer from it experience undue tension and anxiety in oral
communication, written communication, or both. Anthony is a good example, he does not talk
too much and he also does not speak with his mom when Kay comes home to see them
secretly. Giving a painting, with a question, to Michael shows his anxiety about talking.
A network refers to a group of people who develop and maintain contact with others to
exchange information of common interest in an informal manner. The grapevine is an
informal network in which information moves freely in all directions, goes beyond the chain
of authority and satisfies the social needs of organizational members. At the mom’s funeral
Connie talks to Michael to forgive Fredo which leads us that a grapevine exists between
Connie and Fredo.
In a formal group the network between members occurs in three common ways. In chain
model, the information flows from person to person where in a wheel model the information
flows from a leader to downward. All-channel model is generally practiced in self managed
teams, in which all members are free to contribute and no one takes a leadership role. In the
movie the leader is Michael in Corleone Family. And in the early stages of Don Vito’s small
theft team, all-channel model is present.
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In the movie, face-to-face conversations are everywhere. That provides high channel richness
and in a scene while Fredo and his wife is sleeping, Johnny Ola reaches him by the telephone.
The time movie was shot gave these channel opportunities. I am sure if the movie was shot by
our time there will be lots of instant messaging telling that “ Job is done, boss! “ .
Cultures tend to differ in the importance to which context influences the meaning that
individuals take from what is actually said or written in the light of who the other person is.
High context culture, rely heavily on nonverbal and subtle situational cues when
communicating with others. What is not said may be more significant than what is said. Low
context culture, rely on words to convey meaning. Body titles or formal titles are secondary to
spoken and written words. At the beginning of movie while senator and Michael are talking
about the casinos that Michael wants to control a low context culture speech is made by the
senator: “Because I intend to squeeze you. I don't like your kind of people. I don't like to see
you come out to this clean country in your oily hair -- dressed up in those silk suits - and try to
pass yourselves off as decent Americans. I'll do business with you, but the fact is, I despise
your masquerade -- the dishonest way you pose yourself. Yourself, and your whole f***
family.” After the death of the girl that senator slept with Tom – a man of Corleone Family-
talks with senator: “This girl has no family -- nobody knows that she worked here. It'll be as if
she never existed. All that's left is our friendship.” In this sentence “all that’s left is our
friendship” means “senator you are in our hands now, you will help us with the licenses and
you will get nothing”.
IV. LEADERSHIP
Leadership has a range of definitions, but at its simplest it is concerned with the ability to
influence others to achieve goals. We can show Michael as a leader in the movie.
Implementing trait theories of leadership to the movie, not also Vito but also Michael is born
leader. They are both conscientious that means they are disciplined and keep commitments
they make.
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We can call Michael as an initiating leader because his men are assigned to specific tasks by
himself and also he expects %100 success from them.
Fiedler contingency model assumes that group performance depends on, leadership style,
described in terms of task motivation and relationship motivation. After deciding the leader is
task or relationship oriented, situational favorableness should be considered that is determined
by three situations; leader-member relations, task structure and position power. Here Michael
is task oriented and the biggest task is to earn money and be the most powerful. He is
accepted and supported by his men but he uses his all power and his punishment is death if he
sees any problem in his family, both his own and mafia. He is a “category I” leader according
to Fiedler model.
Charismatic leadership can be found at several levels of an organization, but usually at the
top. These leaders, as the name suggests, are very charismatic. Rudyard Kupling said,” Words
are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” And these leaders know it well.
They know the power of words, either in writing or in speech, to electrify the atmosphere and
to move the hearts of men. They have attractive personalities. They are people with high
relationship intelligence. They know how to approach another person and win them over to
his cause. They are generally physically good looking people. Hence they are able to attract
their followers on all levels; body, soul and spirit. Not all of them have the qualities like being
good-looking and having an attractive personality, but they can win people over nonetheless
with a beautifully painted picture of what their future could be. Michael has lots of leadership
styles and charismatic leadership is one of them. The description fits Michael almost exactly.
He is good looking, he knows how to use words for example he use the phrase “Keep your
friends close, your enemies closer.” and he deceives Frank. Another major leadership style we
can observe that Michael shows is autocratic style. Autocratic leaders tell their subordinates
what to do, how exactly to do it and what is expected of them and specifying conditions for
good performance and deadlines. An autocratic leadership style is somewhat like a directive
leadership style; but autocratic leaders are generally more task oriented. They expect their
task to be done and they do not consider their follower’s feelings in their decision-making. 9
Michael gives orders by himself and do not involve his friends in decision making however he
listens Tom’s ideas but still his decisions are the final decisions.
If we analyze Michael’s leader actions towards his goals, he listens and observes. He is silent
and allows time to identify, define and assess the personnel working with him. He is also
patient. His mental discipline is very high, he is calm and observant while waiting for the
right time. He is a good strategic manager and option explorer. By these analyses Michael is
also a transformational leader.
When we talk about leadership, trust is an important issue in organizations. Trust is a positive
expectation that another will not act opportunistically. There are five dimensions of trust;
integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty and openness. Integrity refers to honesty and
truthfulness. Although Tom hides the proposal from Las Vegas, we can show his integrity as
an example. Competence encompasses an individual’s technical and interpersonal knowledge
and skills. Again Tom as a lawyer has enough skills that he deals with every bureaucracy of
the family. Don Vito also trusted him and so Michael. Consistency is particularly relevant
with managers. It relates to an individual’s reliability, predictability and good judgment in
handling operations. Although Michael’s decisions are mostly villain but he handles all
situations also bringing Frank’s brother to court is an example. Loyalty is the willingness to
protect and save face for another person. Tom, unnamed body guard, Rocco and Al are loyal
to Michael in the movie. Openness is the final dimension of trust. Tom was open to Michael
till he hid the proposal from Las Vegas. In mafia part deterrence-based trust is dominant.
Deterrence-based trust is based on consistency of behavior, meaning that people will follow
through on what they promise they are going to do. Such behavioral consistency is sustained
by threats or promises of consequences that will result if consistency and promises are not
maintained. We can understand that from the murder of Fredo.
V. POWER & POLITICS
Power is said to pervade all facets of negotiation. Indeed, the very idea of negotiation
intuitively conjures images of power contests and tough bargaining. However, a more
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comprehensive understanding of power reveals how it actually influences negotiation,
decision-making and people. There are two major bases of power; formal and personal and
Michael has all this powers.
Formal power has three types of power. Firstly, legitimate power comes from the ability to
influence because of position. People at higher levels have power over the people below.
However, each person with legitimate power applies their own individual style. It represents
the formal authority to control and use organizational resources. Secondly, reward power can
be gained from one's capacity to reward compliance. Reward power is used to support
legitimate power. When someone is rewarded or might receive a potential reward such as
through recognition, a good job assignment, a pay rise, or additional resources to complete a
job, the employee may respond in kind by carrying through with orders, requests and
directions. And lastly, coercive power is the opposite of reward power. It is the ability of the
power holder to remove something from a person or to punish them for not conforming with a
request. It rests on the application, or the threat of application, of physical sanctions such as
the infliction of pain, the generation of frustration through restriction of movement, or the
controlling by force of basic physiological or safety need, and usually death in the movie.
Because he is going to be the new Don and his father’s trust for him, Michael has an
incredible legitimate power. As we can see at the beginning at the movie people kiss
Michael’s hand and in Godfather: Part 3 he becomes a Don. Of course the punishment of
Michael is very hush; death. This is the coercive power of Michael.
The first type of personal power is expert power. Any individual person who has an expertise
that is highly valued possesses expert power. Experts have power even though their status
might be regarded as being low. A person may have expert knowledge about technical,
administrative, or personal matters. The harder it becomes to replace an expert; the higher
becomes the degree of expert power that they possess. Expert power is occasionally called
information power and is frequently a personal trait of the individual. The second one is
referent power. People are influenced and tend to identify with a person because of their
personality or behavior. The magnetic appeal of this individual forms the basis of referent
power. A person with an appealing personality is admired because of their personality. The
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power of an individual's appeal is an indication of their referent power. Michael was expected
to be a senator even the president of United States of America. He was in the college until he
joined army. In army and in the college he had several experiences and also his father Vito
was a big role model for his as I early stated. Here we can see Vito’s referent power as
Michael wants to be like him. And expert power of Michael makes him the top of mafia
family but also Tom can be shown as another example of expertise.
Dependence is created when one person has more power than another. In particular control of
knowledge and access to rare resources can lead to a queue of people lined up outside your
door. Michael wants no threat to his family like his father did and Corleone Family to
continue their illegal job as number one all over the country. He eliminates nearly most of his
rivals. When there is a little amount of mafia leaders, Michael will be the Don and they will
be dependent to him. This leads us to importance and scarcity which increase dependency. He
wants to control whole mafia, that he will be perceived Don and important. And having
control of scarce sources everybody will have to take permission from him again.
VI. CONCLUSION
We all need interaction with other people to satisfy our daily needs. We come together for
specific goals or we perform teams in our organizational works. Every second is an example
for individuals’ and organizations’ behaviors. The movie is about a leader’s deals with his
own family and his crime organization. I observed lots of examples about behaviors this time
because watching the movie in a manner of catching organization structure. Although we
don’t recognize or have the aspects, behaviors are the basic things in our moments.
Sustainability of the Godfather management is neither possible nor desirable. Leadership is
not dictatorship and Godfather management can easily become the latter. The danger in
Godfather management, as with any use of power, is that it may become institutionalized.
Godfather management is merely a short duration transitory tool designed to foster stability in
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a chaotic situation. For some leaders the taste of power may be overwhelming and power
itself becomes an addictive motivator. However being a powerful leader is important unless
you can use your power in a good manner or you will be left alone as Michael Corleone, the
new Don.
REFERENCES:
1. http://www.pathways.cu.edu.eg/subpages/training_courses/teams/chapter2.htm
2. Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A., “Organizational Behavior (12th Edition)” pp.298-477
3. http://www.organizationalbehaviorleadership.com/team-norms/
4. http://www.adb.org/Documents/Information/Knowledge-Solutions/working-in-teams.pdf
5. http://www.icmrindia.org/courseware/organizational%20behavior/OB-DS5.htm
6. http://www.jgeoff.com/godfather/gf2/transcript/gf2transcript.html
7.http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FPHN
%2FPHN12_08%2FS1368980009990395a.pdf&code=7751616c0e81febd3592b187924f0996
8. http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/MENG/ME96/Documents/Styles/conti.html
9. http://www.leadership-with-you.com
10. Dr. Deborah Goodwin “International Diplomacy” the MSc in Global Governance and
Diplomacy 2008-09 program at the University of Oxford
11. http://www.negotiationtraining.com.au/articles/referral-expertise/
12. http://changingminds.org/principles/dependence.htm
13. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Str-Ti/Teams-and-Teamwork.html#b
14. James T. Scarnati, The Godfather Theory of Management: an exercise in power and
control, Management Decision 40/9 (2002) pp. 834-841
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