Apollo 13 Movie Essay

Apollo 13 experiences major malfunctions which end up changing the mission from landing on the moon to now just trying to return to earth with all of the crew still alive. This movie illustrates how the leaders can develop a new vision and values, and how the team can come together and collaborate under high stress situations. Their vision changes from landing the astronauts on the moon to just getting the astronauts back to earth safely when there is an unexpected explosion in the service module. Even under a ridiculous amount of pressure, the crew was able to communicate efficiently and use their decision making skills to help solve the problem effectively. Apollo 13 is all about how their team effort and leadership skills come together to overcome what they thought would be a horrifying ending.

Gene Kranz who was the flight director and in charge of the mission control team, developed a set of values; discipline, morale, toughness, competence, commitment, and team work to approach the situation. These set of values helped build the chemistry that kept them together during all of the different difficulties that had to face and helped the reach success in the end. For every seemingly impossible situation, Mr. Kranz gives new liveliness and vision to the team by his response always being “we need to find a way to make it work.” His leadership focuses on path goal theory. During his meetings when they were trying to develop a re-entry plan, he was only worried about making sure they were taking the right steps to bring the astronauts back safely. He explains to his colleagues what the proposals are, considers new thoughts, and is very supportive of everyone’s ideas. He clarifies the main goal and uses his relationship with everyon...

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... go well and end safely. Marilyn displays personal integrity when she demands to know what is going on with the mission after she sees the news report on TV. She shows self-confidence when she calls and demands to know what’s going on and is will not hang up until she gets answers. During the whole situation she holds herself together under all of the stress, showing her emotional maturity.

Gene Kranz and Jim Lovell are the main people who show how a leader is able to influence and lead the team when an unexpected situation occurs. When they’re having to face issues, conflicts, and achieving goals, making sure that your crew is focused is very important. No matter what pressure or conflict they were dealing with, they were able to make decisions fast and effectively. The leadership and team structure were the main reasons behind the ground team’s incredible work.