The Movie Gladiator Leadership Style

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The movie, “Gladiator” is based on the life of a war hero in the Roman era. Maximus was the main character in the movie who led the northern army against the Germanic tribes near Vindobona. Maximus had to make major decisions throughout the storyline to survive and become as great as he was. He went from a war hero, to an enslaved gladiator who had to constantly fight for freedom to regain his respect. He wanted to become free again, so he put his heart into his actions. These concepts that we have learned through our organizational behavior course has shown throughout the characters. The main concepts of leadership styles, expectancy theory,team dynamics, and communication are prevalent in the movie. A critical incident that occurred …show more content…

Two primary leadership roles were between Maximus and Commodus, who demonstrated two completely different leadership styles. Maximus thrived based on his task-oriented, and people-oriented leadership style. For example, in the beginning of the movie Maximus painted a clear image of what the outcome of the war would be for his men. He had claimed that they would be victorious, some men would die, and that he planned on returning home to his family. He also made it clear of some errors some of the men would make, and how to prevent them. Maximus primarily looked towards what the people wanted, and how they could …show more content…

The expectancy theory proposes an individual will behave or act in a certain way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be. In essence, the motivation of the behavior selection is determined by how much one desires the outcome to be. This is shown when Maximus is initially recognized as a supreme gladiator by his owner Proximo, the man who taught him how to fight as a gladiator. Proximo took great interest in Maximus’ abilities and encourages him to go to the Roman Coliseum to fight for his freedom. Proximo advises him that if he is able to “win the crowd”, he will earn their respect and eventually his freedom. Performance to Outcome poses the question on whether success will lead to reward. The reward in this case would be after successfully winning battles, and the crowds’ favor, Maximus would gain his freedom and seize his opportunity to kill Commodus. Maximus’ strong desire of vengeance for the murder of his family drives him to win every battle he comes up against. Infuriated by Maximus’ success, Commodus sets up a fixed fight between Maximus and Tigris of Gaul, the undefeated gladiator. Maximus prevails in the battle and against Commodus’ orders, spares Tigris’ life. Maximus’ defiance of the emperor and mercy to Tigris made him more popular to the crowd than even Commodus

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