The African Queen - Movie Analysis

Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey developed and studied situational leadership. The term Situational leadership is used to describe a concept in which leaders or managers need to adjust their style of leading/managing in order to better fit the group he or she is overseeing. The concept of situational leadership is exemplified in the film, The African Queen. Throughout the film, Rose used two different styles in order to assess the effectiveness on Mr. Alnut. The main two types of situational leadership, Rose focused on were s2, High Task focus and high relationship focus as well as s4 which is referred to Low task force or low relationship focus. When dealing Mr. Alnut she used mostly an S2 style, which focused mostly on guidance. The following video clip is an example of how effective the use of guidance proved to be in the relationship between Rose and Mr. Alnut. Mr. Alnut was essentially more motivated to complete his tasks.

Insert video of when the propeller was broken and Rose was saying well if you do this cant we do this..etc. (30 seconds.)

As you can see, Mr. Alnut seemed to pretty much give up on fixing the propeller. He wasn’t even motivated to try, but with Rose’s guidance, he was able to stay focused on fixing it. Also, it wasn’t until Rose decided to get into the water and help him, that the propeller was up and running again. This is just one of the many examples of Rose using this style to lead Mr. Alnut. Another example of this was the scene where Rose motivated and guided him through the white water rapids. Without Roses’ guidance, Mr. Alnut would have never attempted to get into the rapids, because of the danger it posed. Rose recognized how well Mr. Walnut steered the boat and had confidence in him which in turned invoked the confidence he had in himself. Ultimately, Rose’s style of leadership is what proved to be effective in motivating Mr. Alnut to do the things he didn’t have the confidence to do originally.