Leadership Styles Leadership Perceptions From

Leadership Styles

Leadership Perceptions from "The Bridge on the River Kwai"

Leadership

Defining and understanding the different types of leadership is necessary for this article. Leadership could be defined as the art of making a person do something that needed to be done by you, because he has the ability and urge to do it. There are many leadership styles including the following; authoritarian leadership also known as autocratic, is a style where the leader makes the decisions and the group under him has no authority making the leader dictatorial. The next style is the democratic one, where a leader is ready to listen to the team and involve them in the making of decisions. The leader is always ready to take opinions from the team members, and then later instruct them on the best alternatives.

Laissez-faire style occurs when the leader hardly rules the team, but in the contrary, leaves the group to make decisions, and the leader's decisions are not directly influencing the group's affairs. Decisions are, therefore, coming from the group and not the leader as is the case in the other leadership styles. Transformational style is a model where both the subordinates and leader lead their way to motivation and moral maturity.

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai, is one of the best films in the 1950's, and obviously the best in 1957, when it won seven awards after numerous nominations. When the film begins, there are symbolically done images of a lone hawk that soars in the air, representing joyous moments of freedom, then followed with shots of graveyards all covered with crosses that are crudely placed, to indicate the outcomes and consequences of war. Guinness, who was acting as Colonel Nicholson, together with his subordinates comprising of soldiers of British origin, march towards a camp whistling Colonel Boggie March in uniform. As they move ahead, William Holden who plays the part of Shears, the American Commander of the Navy, together with another man are digging graves and rearing that the incoming prisoners might be frightened by the site of graves. Just from this, a conclusion may be made, after Colonel Nicholson shows attributes of an authoritarian leader, who likes his orders followed.

Shears, who is just a commander, displays leadership features of minding about his subordinates and their feelings. However, it is still too early to judge Shears as per his leadership attributes. As he reads the honest eulogy of the dead soldier, Shears shows the power he has, of saying the truth about his people regardless of the company he is.

Because of the brutality faced by the prisoners, shears approaches Nicholson asking for any chance of hopeful escape from the camp. Shears believed in democratic means of live, that are not characterized by violations they experienced every day. Nicholson has a contradicting opinion however, when he views escape to be against the law, displaying his way of leading that is dictatorial to an extent. He says that without law, there is no civilization, and that the issue of escape should not even be given a chance. Regardless of the situation which places Nicholson to be a slave of war, the Colonel still sees himself as a conqueror, and better than his opponents intellectually and morally. This is a weakness in leadership, as he is not serving the people, but prioritizing his interests. Shears replies to his in a negative way, as he sees himself as a slave and not a soldier, showing a weakness he already owned.

Nicholson, even after getting orders from above (in this case above refers to Saito), maintains his position of not allowing the officers to work in the manual labor of building the bridge. This attribute shows Nicholson's ability of decision making, and keeping firm when protecting his subordinates. This showed Nicholson's democratic vices that are recommended as the best way of leadership. Saito, on the other hand, gets mad and smacks the colonel's face with a booklet, after which he goes ahead to through the book on the ground, demanding with an authoritative mood, that the officers need to work. This symbolized an autocratic leader, who hardly needs any confirmations or opinions from his subordinates on the way to make decisions.

After giving orders to no avail, asking the officers to do manual labor, Saito goes to the extent of threatening to kill Nicholson and most of his officers due to their defiance. However, due to the presence of many witnesses, Saito, who is evidently a dictator, relents to his own intentions, and decides not to harm the officers under Nicholson. Saito has the guts to place Colonel Nicholson in the sweat box under the glaring sun, as he sends Nicholson's officers to the punishments huts. This shows Saito as a leader that is merciless, making him loose his honor when the prisoners roar and upload when Saito releases their leader, Nicholson. Once again, Nicholson shows his leadership ability which involves gaining support from his people.

Saito lacks the courage to deal with matters, making his less of a leader. When Nicholson's troop build a better bridge as compared to the troops of Saito, Saito gets so mad that he contemplates murder. This is not a trait linked to leaders, because leaders that are democratic and effective are expected to accept certain outcomes and work towards making the situation better. Nicholson's success makes Saito mad because he cannot believe there is anyone better than him but he is openly mistaken, as Nicholson's troop continues to work better.