Monday, July 25, 2016

Mean Girls (Informal Leader)


Summary
                Raised in the African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron thinks she knows all about the "survival of the fittest". But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 16-year old enters public high school for the first time. Trying to find her place between jocks, mathletes, and other subcultures, Cady crosses paths with the meanest species of all - the Queen Bee, aka the cool and calculating Regina George, leader of the school's most fashionable clique, the Plastics. When Cady falls for Regina's ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels, though, the Queen Bee is stung - and she schemes to destroy Cady's social future. Cady's own claws soon come out as she leaps into a hilarious "Girl World" war that has the whole school running for cover.
(Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/plotsummary)

Application of OB Concept: Informal Leaders
                An informal group develops on the basis of common interests, proximity and friendships. The Plastics is an informal group bound together mainly by its members’ popularity status in school. Also, the Plastics share the same interests in fashion, boys, gossip and drama. Regina George is undeniably the leader of this informal group, with her being the Queen Bee. As an “informal leader,” Regina does several tasks such as invite new people to the group (when she invited Cady to join them), modelling norms (“on Wednesdays we wear pink”), and building group cohesiveness by creating competitions against other groups (Burn Book).

Reflection

                Being a leader, formal or informal, may create a huge impact on the members of the group. The leader is the most influential in terms of the behavior of the group. In the movie, Regina uses her leader status only to bully people (including her friends) into doing what she wants. She is actually very effective in encouraging certain actions from the people around her, but over time, they realized that Regina is not treating them right. For me, being a leader means you cannot only think of yourself. It means that you should value the wellbeing of everyone in your group.

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