Remember The Titans: Alexandria High School Football Team

Based on a true story in 1971, Remember the Titans is about a high school that integrates black people into their all white school. The story is based around their high school football team where Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) an African American, is asked to replace Coach Yoast (Will Patton), who is white and well respected in the community. Coach Yoast steps down to assistant and together they form a football team that comprises of both races. Throughout the football season there are struggles with racial issues between the team members, coaches and the entire community. By the end of the movie the issues of race become irrelevant and the team goes on to a perfect season.

The concepts and theories of organizational behaviour appear in Remember the Titans frequently. In this case our organization is the Alexandria High school football team which is a team that plays a big role and has a lot of influence in the community of Alexandria. The leaders of our organization are Coach Boone and Yoast as well as a few players the team. One being Gary who is the white team captain who holds a lot of power over the white group of people on the team. The other is Julian who is black and holds the same kind of power for the black group of people.

I would

first like to talk about my observations on each of the leaders. Starting with Coach Boone I observed that he has a very proactive and conscientiousness personality. He identifies his opportunities and takes action on them. He possess a lot of initiative and perseveres to completion. He has a transformational style of leadership in which he inspires the team to transcend their self-interests for the good of the team. His influence on the team comes from his authority, expertise and assertiveness. According to McClelland’s Theory of Needs we would say he has a need for achievement. He wants to achieve a perfect season and to integrate white and black people on the football team.

Coach Yoast has an agreeable personality. He understands the players, accepts their differences and knows how to talk to them. This is why the players feel that they can talk to coach Yoast about their problems. As we see in a scene where one of the players is frustrated that all coach Boone does is yell at them and he voices this displeasure with Yoast. Yoast has a need for achievement and affiliation. Julius is an introvert but at the same time very conscientious. He is a social charismatic leader in which he conveys values that are centred on others and not himself. He also has the need for achievement. Gary on the other hand is an extravert who is also conscientious. He is an authentic leader who knows who he is, knows what he believes in and values and acts on those values and beliefs openly. For example we see him openly become great friends with Julius even though the community frowned upon it.
From analyzing the different characters it seems as though people who make good leaders are conscientious and have a need for achievement.

They act in their own self-interest in a way that benefits the organization. They have a goal that they need to achieve so they will do what it takes to get everyone on board to achieve that goal. Good leaders are what make a successful team. Other factors that added to the success of the team would be the other players who played different roles in reducing the frequent tension on the team. Being a highly competitive sports team with young males who have high testosterone, tension reducing is very important. The team had a mix of friendly helpers, tough battlers, and logical

thinkers.
One of the concepts that really stood out to me was the concept of group development. The forming stage begins when Coach Boone is appointed new head coach of the football team. This is an entire new group as there is new leadership and new members. The first interactions among both the players and coaching staff happen when Boone calls a team meeting. Yoast and his players interrupt the first interactions of Boone to the players by coming to the meeting late. Yoast and Boone get into a confrontational discussion on each of their roles and responsibilities as a coach. Throughout the meeting Coach Boone expresses what the team is about and its purpose.
This leads us to the storming stage. During this stage there is a lot of conflict. Boone tries to pursue his goal in having an integrated team with blacks and whites. Boone does this by making them room with each other and learn more about one another with the threat of having practice 3 times a day . During this stage there is a lot of fighting between both races. Both races are sgragated and stick to one another. Gary and Julian have a confrontation about each other's leadership abilities and what is happening on the field. During a practice Gary yells at one of his white teammates when he does not block for Julian, which leads to the bonding of Julian and Gary and to their chant "Strong Side, Left Side." This was a direct positive response to their confrontation earlier.
The chant is what leads to the norming phase because the other players look up both Julian and Gary. After this scene we see multiple clips of the team working together and getting along on and off the field. The bonds of the team begin to be tested when we see Gary's mom and girlfriend not accepting Julian and when one of the white players insists that they go celebrate their win in a bar that does not accept blacks. With this the new conflict starts arising a few of the team members call a meeting to sort out the problems. This shows their ability to problem solve as a team and shows how they have progressed into becoming an integrated team. This leads to them becoming even closer and leads into the performance stage where the team is not only focusing on winning but also uniting against the dividing forces of segregation.
The Titans enter the performing stage when they develop a new warm up that incorporates both races culture of dance and song. Julian reinforces and motivates the team at halftime with a speech about remaining perfect. Gary is injured in a car crash and we see the uttermost support for Gary by the team. We see the neigborhood applaud Boone after their win to make it to the finals. This shows that unity is even spreading outside of the football team. Gary’s former girlfriend even makes an effort to get to know Julius. During the final game Gary's mom receives a standing ovation by the community to show their support for Gary. On the field, Allen gives up his position to Petey, knowing he is the best player to get the job done on the day. In the final seconds of the championship game, Rev, the injured quarterback, comes in for the final play and runs the ball for a touchdown. The game, including Julian’s halftime speech, is the culminating moment of the performing stage.
The adjourning stage comes when Gary sadly passes away. The team all mourns for Gary and attends his funeral to show their support and say goodbye to their teammate and friend.
Another concept that I found to play a significant role in the movie was conflict. We could see the different conflicts that were happening throughout the movie and the different handling modes used. When the team first comes together there is a lot of dysfunctional conflict in the sense that the white players do not want to play with the black players and vice versa. This is unhealthy for the team as it does not help them progress. This hinders the teams ability to play together which in turn prevents them from being successful on the field. Eventually with the help of Coach Boone's great leadership and management the team is able to turn their conflict into functional conflict that helps them become an even stronger team and create stronger bonds. Lets now look at the five conflict handling modes developed by Kenneth W. Thomas and how they are used throughout the movie by various characters. First to explain briefly the conflict handling modes we have two dimensions that describe peoples behaviour in conflict situations. The first being assertiveness, which is the extent the person attempts to satisfy his own concerns. The second is cooperativeness, the extent to which the person attempts to satisfy the other person's concerns. These two basic dimensions of behavior define five different modes for responding to conflict situations. The five modes are competition, collaboration, compromise, avoidance and accommodation which are shown how they relate to the two dimensions in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1 Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument

We see competing in few different scenarios. We have the obvious competition of the football team winning their games to advance to the finals. Then we have Coach Boone who is dependent on those wins because if he loses a game he will be fired. We see Coach Boones assertiveness in his overall coaching of the team. How he motivates, leads and breaks racial tension among the team to push them towards the common goal of winning games and to do this by not worrying about the racial barriers or disruptions in the community. Competition is power-oriented and it means standing up for your rights. This is shown as Coach Boone has done and succeeded in both coaching a perfect season and breaking the tensions among blacks and whites in the town of Alexandria.
Collaborating is evident in a few scenarios in the movie. When Julian and Gary get in an argument at the start of the movie about the white people not working as a team with the black people and vice versa, they are both asserting what they have a problem with. Although not immediately, both Julian and Gary decide that it is in their best interest to help each other out. Thich in turn reflects on the entire team as a whole and brings the team closer together. Another scenario of collaboration happens when Coach Boone asks Coach Yoast to be assistant coach. At first he denies but then decides that being assistant would do the team more good and the combined efforts of both Boone and Yoast made for an even more skilled team. However with this collaboration came a compromise. Yoast would only coach if his old assistant could join the coaching staff as well. This was not for the greater good of the team as the old assistant was a racist but Boone found it necessary for the collaboration of him and Yoast for it could be very beneficial.
A good example of avoiding conflict in the movie is when Gary gets angry at one of the white players for not helping out the Julian. Both Boone and Yoast avoid dealing with the argument between Gary and the other player because they see the situation as setting an example for the rest of the team in the sense that regardless of their skin color they need to act as a team and help each other out. An example of accommodating is when Gary’s mom rejects to meet or accept Julian because he is black. We eventually see her meet Julian to show support for her son, despite her beliefs.
Overall Remember the Titans was a very good example of an improving organization that included many of the factors, concepts and theories we have learned about in the course material. I would recommend this movie for anyone wanting an example of how an organization can be created and improved on.