12 Angry Men Essay

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The 1957 film, “12 Angry Men, is centered around an ethnically diverse group of male jurors brought together to decide the fate of a Hispanic teenaged defendant who is accused of murdering his father. This film is an excellent depiction of not only the inter-workings of a group, but also how leadership styles, group developmental stages, social influence tactics and outcomes and the basis of social power are intertwined. The definition of a group work, according to the ASGW (1991, 2004), is A broad professional practice involving the application of knowledge and skill in group facilitation to assist an interdependent collection of people to reach their mutual goals, which may be intrapersonal, interpersonal, or work related. The goals…show more content…
Roles are specialized functions that serve to manage emotions and complete the work task (Rutan, Stone, & Shay, 2007). The roles that each member will play throughout the movie is evident early on in the movie. As the movie progresses, some members who may have been passive in the beginning, become more vocal and assertive to a certain degree. Some of the roles taken on by the jurors in the film include information-seeker, tension-releaser, feeling-expressor, socializer/extrovert, intellectualizer, superior and aggressor (McRae & Short, 2010). The jury foreman starts out as the leader as he attempts to organize the process of voting to decide guild. However, as the movie progresses, juror 8, played by Henry Fonda, and who could also be considered the dissenter, by his lone vote of ‘not guilty’, steps into the leadership position. Fonda secures the position of leader by remaining calm with his matter-of-fact approach and devotion to the task at hand. Although, Fonda emerges as the leader, it is important to note that this is more of a role rather than a permanent position, as many temporary leaders emerge throughout the film (Rutan, Stone & Shay,

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