12 Angry Men

I saw a lot of different peer pressure in the movie 12 Angry Men. Modaff describes how
powerful peer pressure can be stating that “by violating team norms or exhibiting
elements of dis-identification a team member risks punishment by the team” (p. 245
Modaff) One individual was able to avoid group think. One way this individual was able
to get the group to quit this practice of group think was to keep communicating
communication also known as “metacommunication” (p. 235 Modaff)

Another individual was a facilitator or moderator who kept structure with the group after
establishing “norms (informal rules that teams establish to govern their activities and
behaviors)”. Modaff talks about how “teams need to agree on how they will operate.” (p.
241 Modaff)

Is there an unspoken understanding that changing your mind is bad or says something
negative about you? This is shown in the movie because every time someone changed
their mind, it took more energy to get this out than from someone that didn’t change
their mind.

Emotions are a big part of the decisions that people made. People are emotional and
this is used to help communicate to other people. Emotions, if not controlled, can alter
our ability to think rationally. Another thing that will cause people from thinking rationally
is prejudice. It will blind people from seeing the truth.

Other things that must be considered is conflicts of interest or motives. Some of these
that I noticed from the movie was the man with the son issues, the baseball tickets, the
heat.

One thing about the movie that I thought was a big positive was the diversity of the
group. This added a different perspective (along with associated conflict). The movie
showed the value of each of the individual’s different backgrounds and how they added
value to the group discussion.

Reference:

Modaff, Daniel P. , DeWine, Sue., Butler, A.J. (2008). Organizational Communications:

Foundations, Challenges, and Misunderstandings. Boston: Pearson Education.

Modaff asks the question that Rick alludes to. This question that Rick brought up should
make anyone step back and think before they talk to people of another generation.
Modaff asks if there are generational differences in values. (Modaff p. 169) Zemke
breaks the timeline down to four different generations from 1922 to now. These
generations were broke down according to the major events that were going on during
their lives. “Prophet generations were born after a crisis.” “Nomad generations were
born during a cultural renewal.” “Hero generations are born after a spiritual awakening”
and “Artist generations are born during a great war or other crisis”. (Modaff p. 169)
Since each of these generations have different backgrounds and therefore values that
they hold true to, there is usually moments when the people from different generations
disagree. It is through this generational differences that different perspectives can be
brought up. We can actually become better communicators if we can know (big picture
at least) what type of values that they hold dear.

It is interesting that as a society we have become very concerned about people

speaking their minds and being politically correct but if these gentlemen in the movie
didn’t speak their mind then they wouldn’t have come to the conclusion that they did. If
people are not allowed to communicate then this hinders their ability to brainstorm or
come to a conclusion as a group.

Reference:

Hughes, Richard L., Robert C. Ginnett, and Gordon J. Curphy. (2009). Leadership -
Enhancing the Lessons of Experience. (6th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwins.

The conditions of the environment can be altered to promote the best environment for
the decision making process. An example of how my dentist uses the environment to
send a message to me. When I come into the dentist office, I am greeted by a
receptionist that knows my name and asks how I am doing. I go to sit down in a
comfortable chair and I can barely hear the soft and soothing instrumental music
because of the indoor fountain. Everything I described above is done purposefully to
relax the patient.

The heat and the humidity of the room obviously played a part in the decision making
process. It made the gentlemen uncomfortable and possibly distracted them from what
they should have been focusing on. Smoking is part of the environment that probably
would not be tolerated in today’s society yet it was accepted as the norm years ago.
Another distracter might have been the view from the room. The person with the
baseball tickets kept looking outside. He might have been less distracted if there were
no windows in the office. Even the seating arrangements communicate a message. The
foreman made everyone sit in assigned seats while he sat at the end of the table. A
circular table or even removing the table might be a better way of promoting discussion
among everyone.

Ron Wilkins illustrates that a decision should not be made when one is violating HALT
(Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired). He described Elijah violating HALT when he fled from
Jezebel after slaughtering 850 idol worshipers in a dramatic fashion that only God could
provide on Mount Carmel.

The last environment that I want to bring up is how they isolated the team from the
outside. “The informing strategy involves concentration on internal team process until
the team was ready to inform outsiders of its intentions” (p. 344 Gladstein) What
message did you feel as if the gentlemen in the movie received when they locked the
door behind them?
References:

Gladstein, Acona, D. (1990). Outward bound: Strategies for Team Survival in an

Organization. Academy of Management Journal, 33(2).

Holy Bible, 1 Kings 18

Wilkins, Ron. (2006). Removing Emotional Pain. SFT Awareness.

One of the most appealing characteristics that I noticed from Davis was his ability to
apply emotional regulation and emotional labor. Emotional regulation is just as it
sounds, the regulation of one’s own emotions such as surface acting which “deals more
with the external state of emotions; it is the public display of emotions.” “The appropriate
emotions are displayed for others to see, but they are not actually felt by the individual.”
(Modaff p. 170) Davis used the ability of amplification and suppression to lead the other
jurors to discussion. “Amplification involves initiating or enhancing public displays of
emotion, whereas suppression consists of reducing or eliminating public displays of
emotion.” (Modaff p. 170)

I must use these quite frequently at BAE although most would not use the academic
terms but Cote’s research states that most businesses used the terms professional or
unprofessional “to define appropriate and inappropriate control of emotions without
providing specific explanation” (Cote p. 75). Similar but different from emotion regulation
was Davis’ use of emotional labor to prove a point. “Emotional labor is the management
of one’s emotions in order to induce a desired reaction in another individual.” (Modaff p.
171) Davis was able to antagonize another juror to show how the society uses terms
such as “I’ll kill you” loosely without the intentions to actually harm the other person. The
other juror out of frustration with Davis actually contradicted himself and said the exact
phrase that he said proved that the boy had intentions to kill his father.

Reference:

Modaff, Daniel P. , DeWine, Sue., Butler, A.J. (2008). Organizational Communications:

Foundations, Challenges, and Misunderstandings. Boston: Pearson Education.

Cote, S. (2005). A Social Interaction Model of the Effects of Emotion Regulation on

Work Strain. Academy of Management Review, 30(3).