This document is based upon an analysis of the movie 'Gandhi' to infer the underlying leadership theories. This document will elaborate upon the reason of having selected the movie 'Gandhi' for this purpose and proceed to explore the leadership attributes of the 'Leaders' in the movie and try to co-relate them with the leadership theories.
It shall also focus on the aspects of followers as well as the evolution of the leaders through the various stages of the movie. It shall attempt to point out the circumstances and environmental changes which might have contributed to such an action.
The choice of 'Gandhi' as a movie to analyse leadership is solely based on the basis that it portrays an array of different leaders and as such different leadership styles. As the movie revolves around the formation of a nation, it has the highest degree of representation of different leaders and their styles.
The movie Gandhi brings out the multi-faceted and multi-dimensional aspects of Gandhi's leadership. All his actions considering even his routine day-to-day activities can be viewed in a similar context. His style of leadership was a confluence of many types of leadership theories with elements such as participative, transformational, charismatic, spiritual etc being part of it. The movie is also able to show his transition from a common person to the effective leader that he later became in his life.
The movie is also effective in another aspect that it portrays not only Gandhi but even few other senior leaders like General Smuts, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Jinnah, Sardar Vallabhai Patel. As such, it gives us a more fertile ground to assess the theories with multiple personalities and also analyse how various leaders reacted under various circumstances. Even though the movie describes basically the life and nature of Gandhi, the people surrounding him are themselves leaders in their own right and hence it would also be very beneficial to gain insights in analyzing their leadership style in light of the existing theories.
One of the points which should be taken note of is that the setting of this movie is a social cause with a nationalistic agenda and at times a religious agenda. So, it is also necessary to view the leaders and their actions in the light of such an environment and circumstances and be able to derive the rationality with the leadership theories.
The movie 'Gandhi' is clearly a movie which is based on leaders and how they had evolved. It showcases lives of multiple leaders and their evolution in general and Gandhi in particular.
Leader's Power and influence tactics
The movie starts off with Gandhi's life in South Africa, where, in an incident he is thrown off a first class train compartment for being 'coloured'. This starts his journey towards fighting injustice which later on metamorphoses into a fight for the independence of India. In the initial stages of the movie, Gandhi is shown as not such an effective speaker when he tries to organize the burning of the passes of 'Indian migrants'. As the movie progresses, it is evident that he has managed to improve his oratorical skills and influencing abilities.
The movie 'Gandhi' is clearly a movie which is based on leaders and how they had evolved. It showcases lives of multiple leaders and their evolution in general and Gandhi in particular. Gandhi's leadership was without any doubt a confluence of many leadership skills and his actions can be viewed in the light of following theories as follows.
Participative Leadership
After the success in South Africa, when he returns to India,he learns about the people and their lifestyle and in his maiden speech talks of the need for all sections of the Indian society to stand together. He proposes inclusiveness for the millions of masses which generally other leaders at that time did not offer. He dressed like them and lived in a place which symbolizes what a typical, normal Indian household would look like and also forsaked any positions of power or authority.
Though this might typically represent a participative leadership, a deeper analysis shall yield that it is not totally a participative leadership. Gandhi was trying to emulate and bring together large masses of people and by dressing and living like them; he was demonstrating solidarity with them. Though Gandhi was an Attorney, he sacrificed a comfortable life and adopted the lifestyle of common people and this sacrifice would have itself made him deeply popular with the masses. This does not necessarily turn him to a participative leader, as nowhere can it be noticed that he made the wider people a part of his decision making process which is one of the most important cornerstones of participative leadership traits.
Anit Somech 2002
The above figure displays the different forms of participative decision making processes which are normally used and it can be very clearly inferred from the movie that Gandhi never used any participative form of decisions. Though, there was a degree of discussions with other leaders but it can be quite easily inferred from the movie that he made decisions and generally held discussions and many a times he went ahead with the decisions though there was opposition or indifference to it.
Charismatic Leadership
Notwithstanding the fact that a part of his leadership was ethically based, he can be upto a large extent, be rightly attributed to be a charismatic leader. Charismatic leadership calls for the leader to present a vision which can be achieved and to attain it, the path resorted to must be an unconventional one. Gandhi demonstrates this ability not only to the wider masses but in his inner sanctum of close leaders. He seems to hold sway over the other leaders by proposing a very radically different path of non-violence and non-cooperation. He is also able to win over arguments by rationally explaining the short comings of other approaches.
Though as pointed out earlier, it is very difficult to attribute a single or few leadership theories to Gandhi's style of leading. Nevertheless, it can be said that a major chunk of the abilities which Gandhi demonstrated conformed to the charismatic leadership style. He was able to present the vision of an independent India, as when he joined the Indian National Congress, it was only seeking 'Home Rule'. He was also able to pave a clear path for attaining it by activities like winning over all sections of the society irrespective of caste and religious differences present in the Indian society at that time. His very different approach of using 'Non-violence' as a weapon was at odds with the approach of other leaders at that time. This new approach was also dramatic in a sense that it left his adversaries from the British Empire clueless on how to resolve the issues he caused.
Gandhi's leadership can also be explained as per the 3 stages and further subscales as proposed by Conger and Kanungo. Analysing it as a step by step method, in the stage 1, considering the subscales of 'sensitivity to the environment and member needs'. Gandhi's actions of embarking on a national tour to know more about India and its people can be attributed to this stage. His attempt to bring about a grand alliance of all sects of people so as to work for the single aim of India's independence can also be looked into the similar context.
(Rowold J & Laukamp L, 2009)
The part of stage 2 is linked with the subscales of 'Strategic vision and articulation' and also 'Personal risk'. Both of these subscales formed a very important part of his style. He was the main architect of many of the movements and it was his vision which was responsible in bringing all the sections of society into the mainstream of the movement. A very good example of this would be his precedence in all things that the 'Indian National Congress' undertook. The fact that he was the only leader to attend the 'Round Table Conference' is proof enough that even the British government regarded him to be the leader of the nation.
As far as matters of personal risk are concerned, at every stage of his involvement in the Independence movement, he put his life and credibility at risk. There were numerous fasts which he undertook for the sole purpose of attaining the objectives.
The stage 3 consists of the subscale 'Unconventional behavior.' His successful attempt at mobilising millions of people into a non violent movement was and maybe still is one of the most unconventional ways of protest ever undertaken. He stuck with his principle of non-violence and did not hesitate in taking action when somebody deviated from the same.
Transactional Leadership
'Transactional Leadership motivates followers by appealing to their self-interest and exchanging benefits.' (Yukl, 2010) Gandhi, at times demonstrated Transactional leadership as well where all other possibilities were no longer of any use. His attempts to win over Jinnah by offering him Prime Minister's post of an undivided India was a clear indication of his transactional leadership abilities. This attempt must have been a desperate attempt to avoid something which he greatly disliked, as never at any other point in the movie; he uses such tactics to get across his interests.
Servant Leadership
As per Farling et al (2009) Greenleaf defines natural servants as persons who are servants first and as such they are more likely to define and strive to meet the needs of others than a person who is leaders first and who later serves out of the prompting of conscience or in conformity with normative expectations.
If we fairly evaluate the sequence of events from the movie, it might be difficult to reach the conclusion that Gandhi demonstrated Servant Leadership. Though Gandhi displayed compassion for poor and attempted to alleviate the problem of poor like in the example of Champaran movement, it might not be correct to say that he wanted to serve the people. I think it might be right to say that he wanted to guide them rather than serve them.
Farling et al, 1999
Farling et al, 1999
Congruent Leadership
There were also many points which marked a congruent style of leadership. Congruent leadership is charcterised by leaders acting on a strong sense of values and beliefs. 'Congruent leadership can be seen when the activities,
actions and deeds of the leader are matched by and
driven by a leaders values and beliefs' (Stanley, 2008).There are many such points in the movie where Gandhi resolutely sticks to actions on his beliefs and values. At one specific point, he is the only leader who is against continuing a movement started just because it broke the principle of non-violence as a mob, in a frenzy of emotions attacks a police station. He does not care if it means pacifying a whole population of 350 million people and starts a hunger strike to stop the people from continuing the movement.
Congruent leadership is not power neutral and the power of congruent leadership comes from unifying groups and individuals around common values and beliefs (Stanley, 2008). Gandhi attempts to unify all strata of society can be seen all through the movie. Even after Indian gains independence and religious riots break out all over the country, he stays at a Muslim house and fasts so that people stop the riots.
ANALYSIS OF THE FOLLOWERS
Gandhi was followed by a very bright set of leaders who as has been discussed in previous sections were leaders in their own right. Hence, it is quite logical that their leadership styles and attributes be analysed too and it might be most coherent to view their leadership from the view of Servant Leadership.
