Leadership In The Movies “Wall Street”
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This film deals with corporate America and the ethical behavior in the workplace. Bud Fox, as a young account executive, has the desire to become the highest salesperson in his company, and also the desire to become very rich. His focus is centered on getting a big account, mainly Gordon Gekkos.
Gordon Gekko appears as a leader because of his charisma and his power to reward and by being an expert in his field as an investor. Gekko uses his power as a leader for personal gain. He uses his leadership negatively. He uses persuasion with reward Ð-making Bud a “very rich” manЖto get him to get inside trading information. This knowledge is against the law. By forcing Bud to make a quick decision to be on “his team”, Bud spies on Laurence Wildman. That information secures Anacott Steel.
This is similar to Monfrienz persuasion over the crewmembers in Courage Under Fire. Their actions were guilty of courts-martial. He used fear of death while Gordon uses fear of loss of his account with Bud.
Gordon is similar to Jack in Lord of the Flies in persuading followers to pick sides. Gordon persuades stockholders of the paper company to vote for selling instead of liquidating some of their assets. He bragged about his abilities to make the stockholders money like Jack bragged about being a hunter. Gordon is an autocratic leader. His high-rolling life style and need to become richer is a driving force. He admits to being greedy to Bud. He wants everyone that is a part of “his team” to follow his directives. In order to remain a team member, all members will do as he says. He gave no thought to his actions and their effect upon others.
Gordon easily influences Bud Fox. Gordon is everything that Bud wants to be. When Gordon wants information that no one else knows, Bud is confronted with making the decision to provide the inside information. Since Gordon is aggressive unlike Buds father or Lou Manheim, Gordon is the influence. This is very similar to Courage Under Fire. Gordon influences him as Monfrienz influenced the crew.
Bud uses Laurence Wildman, an investor and Gordons rival, to get back at Gordon for using him to take over Bluestar Airlines. This is similar to Apollo 13 when Gene Krantz used Ken Mattingly, an expert and also an astronaut, to find a way to get the crew back to earth. Like Gene Krantz and the team members worked together to return the spacecraft, Bud uses union representatives and Laurence to develop a plan of action for forcing Gordon to sell his stock in Bluestar Airline. Everything that Gordon had taught Bud in acquiring Anacott Steel, Bud uses to acquire Bluestar stock. Laurence, the expert and with the power to but the stock, acquires the stock. Bud, like Todd in Dead Poets Society, arises as a leader instead of a follower when he realizes that he has been used, failed his father, and Bluestar Airlines. He gets followers, the union representatives and Laurence, to do the right thing because they were hard working people like his father and whom he respected. While Todd stood on his desk in salute to Mr. Keating, Bud stood up to Gordon by