Movies depicting historical events and leadership conflicts

¶ … Leadership

In the 1992 adaptation of The Last of the Mohicans, Hawkeye, played by Daniel Day-Lewis is forced to become a leader as he attempts to provide safe passage for Alice and Cora Munro and the daughters of Colonel Edmund Munro, a British officer during the Seven Years' War, and Major Duncan Heyward, who was originally tasked with escorting the sisters to safety.

Two of the theories that can be applied to Hawkeye's leadership and managerial style are the Path-Goal Theory and the Leader-Member Exchange Theory. Moreover, aspects of French and Raven's Five Bases of Power can also be attributed to Hawkeye's successes and failures as a leader. The Path-Goal Theory maintains that followers' satisfaction, motivation, and performance is dependent on a leader's behavior. As such, the leader is forced to adapt to his or her followers' needs with such adaptations and behavioral modifications made with the purpose of fulfilling the team's goal. In the film, Hawkeye must adapt himself to the needs of his English escorts. Because of contrasting backgrounds, colonials and Native Americans vs. The English, Hawkeye must adapt to their needs of reaching safety and must give up his desires of going West and avoiding involvement in a conflict between parties -- the French and Indians against the British -- in which he really has no interest. Hawkeye's willingness to adapt to the Munro sisters needs helps in the fulfillment of the sisters' and Major Heyward's goal: getting to Ft. William Henry alive.

In addition to the Path-Goal Theory, Hawkeye also employs the Leader-Member Exchange Theory. Under the Leader-Member Exchange Theory, the leader will behave differently with different followers and play to their strengths and/or weaknesses as individuals. During the course of individual analysis, followers may subsequently be categorized into two distinct groups: the in-crowd, where individuals have demonstrated high levels of competence and trust, and the out-crowd, wherein individuals do not share traits or skills that are as highly prized by the leader. In the film, in addition to Chingachgook and Uncas -- whom Hawkeye trusts with his life, Cora Munro demonstrates traits such as trust and loyalty -- after defending them to her father -- that bring her into Hawkeye's in-crowd. On the other hand, Major Heyward's constant passive-aggressive attitude towards Hawkeye's leadership place him in the out-crowd where his experience in combat, and his continued mission to lead the Munro sisters to safety, are some of the only things that ally him to Hawkeye's cause.

Finally, Hawkeye is able to employ two of French and Raven's Five Bases for Social Power in the attainment of his goal, specifically through the use of referent and expert powers. Referent power maintains that people are rewarded psychologically and/or emotionally for the work that they do. In the case of Hawkeye, because he is not an official military leader, he does not have the authority to coerce, flex legitimate power, or reward his followers with physical awards, therefore, any success that is achieved will benefit him and his followers psychologically, physically, and/or emotionally. Also, Hawkeye employs expert power to lead; Hawkeye's expertise traversing the wilderness and interacting with Native Americans and the English is based upon his background as a colonial raised by a Native American, which provides him insight into both European and native cultures.