DYNAMICS OF

GROUP BEHAVIOUR

VIDEO ANALYSIS: APOLLO 13

Faculty: Dr. Saleena Khan

Submitted by: Group 4 | Section B

Adithya Ramkumar 2015072

Aman Malhotra
2015079
Chitrini Chalmela 2015091
Karan shah
2015095

Nikunj Agarwalla 2015103

Radhika Rathi
2015111
Srikant Hegde
2015118
Surbhi Kumari
20151

If you think you can, you can, If you think you cant, you are right!-Henry Ford
Introduction:
The case of Apollo 13 deals with the leadership traits that can serve at any
professionals disposal in an organization. It focuses on how lives are saved merely
based on few soft skills and strategic applications of working towards a common
goal. The video vividly encompasses aspects such as Vision, values, team-work,
accountability and also standing tall during crisis. It is a story of hope, commitment
and inspiration that holds true in an organization in particular and life in general.

Objective:
The following are the few key points of objective for analyzing this video:
To understand the qualities of a leader in an organizational context.
To decipher how to manage crisis in an organization by drawing significant
lessons from the video of Apollo 13.
Case Highlights
James Lovell and James Belasco spoke and discussed on Leadership
qualities and crisis management by taking excerpts from the Apollo 13
mission on a Leadership seminar.
The five qualities required in a leader is needed for a leader to emerge in an
organization:
1. VISION: A unifying vision acts as a prerequisite for the success of any
organization since it unites the members from diverse backgrounds to fulfill
a common objective. Vision is not solely about money neither it is a
cognitive process but about how a person puts their heart and soul in the
achievement of the vision. The member team of Apollo 13 had belief and
faith in whatever they did. The personal vision of James Lovell was to
become an astronaut and land on the moon and so we can say that he was
doing something that served his aspirations and interests.

2. VALUES: Values refer to fundamental beliefs that help in dealing with

people inside and outside organizations. If a person is not enjoying work or
business then he will always move away from goals set. According to James
Lovell a leader is someone who knows people working with him and has the
ability to motivate them in order to get closer to the mission.
3. TEAMWORK: Teamwork is built when a common task is assigned to a
group of people who work together to fulfill the objective. The video
suggests that in lieu of teamwork 95% of the work is mental. The issue of
teamwork can be successfully solved through interdependence and knowing
each other informally beyond organizational setting. These attributes shown
in the video should be also used in regular life. Training and role play also
play a significant role. Core leaders are those who are risk seekers and who
prepare, anticipate and understand what will happen based on their expertise.
4. ACCOUNTABILITY: Accountability is required in an organization for
efficient operations, effective development and forecasting unanticipated
crisis. Vision and teamwork hold no worth if a person does not step ahead to
take up a work it will not be successful. Initiative acts as an important
element for the completion of tasks. If a person is not performing to his/her
potential, the leader should drill down to the reason why he is not being able
to perform which maybe because several reasons such as dislike towards
job, lack of job satisfaction, unwillingness to work etc. Everyone has their
own unique strengths and weaknesses and it sets off each other. Individual
efforts does effect the team performance, if each thinks that the other will do
the work then this will result in free riding.
5. STANDING TALL DURING CRISIS: Crisis situation is the best judge of
a team and its performance. The most important thing in a crisis situation is
DONT PANIC. The team should be brought together and should be
focused, have faith in each member and believe in oneself and the entire
team. The team should be constantly reminded about their vision and goals
which will help them to bring them back to the mode in which they can best
operate. This would help them to be motivated and move out of the crisis
situation. It is said that crisis always comes to the best people so it should
always be taken as a learning challenge.
THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

These are the few concepts which we understand from the movie analysis.
Linking Personality and Values to work place
Person Job Fit - It is important for an organization to match
individuals to specific jobs so that job satisfaction is highest and
turnover lowest.
Person Organization Fit People are attracted to organizations that
match their values and leave organizations that are not compatible
with their personalities.
Transformational Leadership occurs when one or more persons engage
with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to
higher levels of motivation and morality.
Four main factors of transformational leadership
Idealized Influence provides vision and sense of mission, instils
pride, respect and trust.
Inspirational Motivation motivates team members to share and be
participative in members.
Intellectual Stimulation Fosters creativity, innovativeness and
problem solving.
Individualized Consideration Needs of the individuals are
addressed via participative leadership.
Gene Kranz Analysis - Organization for success There was a clear chain
of command throughout the organization. As flight director, he was
responsible for the safety and success of the flights and was able to integrate
all the information from every aspects of the flight.
Thus he was an effective leader as he was confident and was able to manage
difficult situations.
Thus the leadership style demonstrated by him was authoritative. He
excelled at initiating change in the organization.
James Lovells Leadership traits

 Authoritative
High Emotional Intelligence
Great deal of empathy, confidence and self-control
Adaptable to different situations
Effective team members have a common goal, minimal social loafing, know
how to manage conflicts and have a high level of commitment towards their
job.

MANAGERIAL LEARNINGS
From the video we can understand that, for successful completion of a task,
the composition of a team i.e comprising right men for right job and
cooperation among the team members is very essential. For example, how
NASA recruited its astronauts and how the technical ground crew supported
the astronauts during the Apollo 13 mission.
Team work is achieved by bringing members together and providing them
with regular training. A team put together at the last minute cannot be as
productive as expected.
Failure should be looked as an opportunity to learn and improve so that
future failures can be prevented.
One should be mentally strong during crisis situations and should be able to
motivate team members to accomplish the task at hand. During difficult
situations, a true leader emerges.