erin brockovich Essay

Submitted By PrimitiveTOR
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Pages: 5

Erin Brockovich Leadership Questions
Leadership Characteristics
Erin Brockovich is a very determined assistant in a law firm. She obtains a lot of positive leadership characteristics which include drive, self-confidence, cognitive ability and flexibility. Throughout the movie, Erin’s drive is displayed, she is not afraid to speak her mind and show her strong emotions about things that she feels strongly about; the wellbeing of Hinkley residents. She isn’t afraid to tell the enemy or people who she’s working with how she feels, because she knows what she wants and how she wants to get there. Erin partially shows self confidence in the moves she makes, by making moves that are risky and could ruin the case also she makes promises to various Hinkley crisis victims that she will bring justice to them, in which she does. Cognitive ability is present in Erin’s mindset because it is obvious that Erin knows all the legal information about law and how cases work. However, it is also evident that Erin knows a lot about the victims that she is fighting for, she was able to interpret a load of information and was able to read off hundreds of phone numbers, following up impressively with their back stories. Lastly, Erin exhibits flexibility in various occasions but shown best when her boyfriend leaves and she has to bring the kids to work, making sure their safety but also to carry on with the Hinkley case!
Erin’s Leadership Style
I believe if I could put it the best way I could, I would say Erin Brockovich is a ‘autocratic leader in the making.’ I say this because technically it’s Ed who is in the leadership role and higher position. Although, only an assistant, Erin is the one doing all the research, getting to know her plaintiffs on personal levels and getting the information they need to win the case. Not to mention, whenever there is a serious meeting that Ed does not tell her about she gets very emotional and angry, it shows she cares. When Ed is set on a decision, it always seems that Erin has her input and usually changes the decision that Ed was going to make, very persuasive. The only reason why the case went the way it did was because of Erin’s decisions, she took the case into her own hands even if she had to bend the rules or her decision making was unorthodox.

Erin on the Blake-McCanse Leadership Grid
Easily, Erin would be placed on the Blake-McCanse leadership grid as ‘Country-club management’ which means; peoples standards high and production low. Although they weren’t “producing” material in the given situation, there is no doubt that Erin Brockovich was for the people of Hinkley and not for the money that would’ve been given if production happened to be high in a different situation. Yes, Erin did in fact want a 10% raise, but that isn’t greedy because she is a single mother of three who works long hard hours in the office missing out on a lot of her time with her children. She managed to sue PG&E 300+ million dollars for the contamination in the water and she didn’t get one penny of that money, she only got the satisfaction of justice being brought to her clients.

Strengths and Weaknesses in:
Positional Power – In a business sense, Erin does not have positional power, in fact she is one of the lower titled people in the case, most importantly she is under her boss Ed. However, she does obtain positional power because of her gender. Because of her gender and maybe how men are attracted to her and its easier for her to get things of them, Erin was able to get her hands on PG&E documents that lead them to an easy victory in the law suit.
Task Structure – I don’t believe that Erin had the best ‘task structure’ but with saying that it doesn’t mean that good things did not come of how she went about doing her tasks. Firstly, because the case and her client meant a lot to her she spent a lot of time working on it, leaving no room for her partner and her children. I don’t believe that, that was the best move because its