Queen and The "Warriors"

The Queen


The Queen is the leader of all the ants in her colony, however throughout the film she is trying to train and prepare her eldest daughter Princess Atta to take her place as Queen. The Queen in her leadership style, although having the power to make the final decisions, often takes a back seat to more predominant leadership roles in her colony such as Princess Atta and Flik. Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers appears to be the only other character to override the leadership of the Queen who fears him, however the Queen accepts this and obeys the orders set by Hopper.

 "It’s the same every year, they come, they eat, they leave; that’s our lot in life. It’s not a lot, but it’s our life."

The Queen tends to take a more laissez-faire approach to her daughter Princess Atta, although she does worry about the youngest daughter Dot. The Queen is viewed as the most precious ant in the colony consequently it is her life that is under threat of the grass hoppers.

Adairs model of leadership (see Thomas 2004) can be applied to the Queen in that she sets out the culture for the ants in the beginning, they do as they have always done and complete the task of collecting food for the grass hoppers. She believes that without completing the task there would be no ant colony as the grasshoppers would destroy them. She is also aware of herself and her weakening health and seen throughout the film to be training up Princess Atta to allow her colony to have a Queen more fit and active.

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The "Warriors"

Overview of Character’s Role

The ‘Warriors’ otherwise known as the ‘P.T. Flea's circus troupe’ are a team like no other.  Filled with charisma, talent and tricks collectively they contribute a quirky one of a kind group to plot. The crazy circus act are mistaken and discovered by Flik for a courageous group of warriors, perfect for the task of defeating the evil grasshopper’s clan to prove himself a worthy and dignified ant!

The bunch presents a different style of ‘teamwork’ within the movie, one very different to the focused, structured and purpose driven type that the ant colony perform in the movie. The Warriors are a collaborative of dynamic characters which amusingly complement each other and produce an effective force of individuals, even though they are not as composed as the ant colony.  The warriors demonstrate how important motivation is needed within any type of teamwork, especially to be effective and persevere through trials and challenges, even when the odds are against.

Leadership Style

TeamWork

‘Teamwork – When a group of people work well together’ (Cambridge, 2012)

Teamwork can be shown, portrayed and motivated in a number of different ways, this is based on the types of characters the team holds.  Teams can be placed together for a purpose or at random; and depending on the skills, abilities, strengths and weaknesses each individual has will create the level of success the collective will accomplish (Mullins, 2010). 

Belbin (1981) explores the concept of individual roles within teams, she argues that this is a major factor in acheieving any groups maximum potential and success. Belbin discusses on how the mixture of roles complement one another, on the bases of individuals compensating for other team members weaknesses and vice versa by compensating for strengths. She also highlights that individuals can play a number of these roles at different point and times.

Here are the potential roles that Belbin distinguished in her research:

• The Co-ordinator: An individual who controls and co-ordinates the activities of the group.
• The Shaper: Shapes the thinking and decisions of the group.
• The Plant: Provides the creative thinking of the group, the good ideas.
• The Monitor/Evaluator: Analyses issues and puts forward options.
• The Implementer: Translates general ideas into practice.
• The Team Worker: Provides cohesiveness and support for individuals.
• The Resource Investigator: Looks for ideas and resources outside of the team to support team effort.
• The Completer: Provides the impetus to complete tasks on time and to the required standard.

Here are some of the positions applied to the characters in terms of Belbin’s key role theory;

• ·         Slim the ‘Walking Stick’ – Could be seen as The Monitor/Evaluator/ The Translator;
• ·         Manny the ‘Praying Mantis’ – Could be seen as The Co-ordinator/The Complete;
• ·         Rosie the ‘Black Widow Spider’ – Could be seen as The Team Worker.

The Warriors originally being part of the flea circus, allows the audience to see their wacky talents in an entertaining fashion; the purpose of this interest is to entertain so their skills and abilities are used towards achieving this. However, when the pressure appears and the team needs to rise to the challenge of defeating  Hopper and his gang, their wacky abilities primarily seen as useless changes and adopts its valuable nature.  

Here we see an example of Bruce Wayne Tuckman’s (1938) theory of ‘developmental sequence in small groups’; this explains the process of which a group goes through four stages to achieve any goal;


Forming (Trust) – identity orientation and commencing of communication;
Storming (Conflicts)– resistance due to interpersonal characteristics and conflicts;
Norming (Commitment) – cohesion starts as challenges have been worked through, and
Performing (Accountability and Results) – flexibility of positions, support and motivation is established.

Motivational Skills

Just as the story demonstrates motivation can derive at any point.  According to Robbins (2001) ‘Motivation’ is defined as ‘the process that accounts for and individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort towards attaining a goal’; the audience could see this as the circus bug’s not wanting to disappoint Flik and the colony by staying to help fight against the grasshoppers, even though they feel inadequate and insignificant.

Loxley (1997, see Payne 2000) classifies a type of collaboration theory titled ‘general systems theory’, which views groups as a ‘whole made up of interlocking subsystems’ that can influence other parts of the system; the audience see this at that crucial moment of if the ‘warrior’s ‘ will stay to fight or leave Flik in his distress.

The flea circus display motivation in different ways throughout the movie, they display this individually and collectively in multiples scenes and scenarios, for example ‘Lady Bug deciding to stick around to help and teach the little ants’;  this could also be interpreted through ‘achievement motivation theory’ (Atkinson and Feather, 1966) through self-empowerment an achievement of Maslow’s pyramid. 

Hopper

Overview of Character's Role 
Hopper is a mean and selfish leader of the grasshoppers. They torment the ants each year to collect enough food for them to last throughout the winter. However, this time round Flik decides to create a new harvesting machine to help gather the food. Unfortunately, the machine malfunctions and knocks over all the food causing it to fall into a nearby stream. The ants become worried as they had been collecting the food all autumn and did not have enough time to replace the food before the grasshoppers came. When Hopper and his grasshoppers turned up to the ant colony they failed to receive their food. As a result Hopper demands the ants to collect twice the amount. 

Leadership Style 
In the clip, Hopper is angry that Flik stood up to him. Initially, Hopper and the grasshoppers hold different views about going back to the ant island to terrorise the ants. Hopper wants to return to the ant colony to take the food from the ants. He thinks of an analogy to demonstrate his point to the other grasshoppers. This is done to reduce his fears of the ants forming revolution and overthrow his power. This shows that Hopper is aware of his power and is willing to fight for his position. He has identified himself as an influential figure to the grasshoppers and uses his intelligence to manipulate the grasshoppers. Gardener, (1989), defines leadership in relation to personal traits and characteristics. In particular, Hopper displays the following characteristics which includes intelligence, physical vitality, assertiveness, self-confidence, ability to motive others and decisiveness. Additionally, Gardener proposes that leaders should have an understanding of their followers needs. Hopper fails to take into account the feelings his followers (ants and grasshoppers) which ultimately lead to his demise.

Furthermore, Hopper’s relationship with his followers can also be likened to a transformational leadership style. This refers to the social relationship between leader and follower. Bass (1985) proposes that transformational leaders have the ability to influence, inspire and intellectually stimulate their followers. Hopper displays these traits in his abilities to influence the grasshoppers to return back to ant island. His personality type can be identified from the big five framework; extraversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness, (Bono & Judge, 2004). In the clip he becomes extraverted in his ability to use assertive language to generate confidence amongst the grasshoppers. He instils this confidence into the grasshoppers by displaying a strong sense of direction. This would help to create trust between grasshoppers and Hopper. However, Hopper also becomes quite neurotic in his behaviour, in the sense that he anticipates negative outcomes and becomes fearful and angry of the ants. Bono & Judge, (2004), suggested that these traits would mean that the individual would avoid leadership responsibilities. However, this example shows that Hopper was able to embody a combination of traits. 


Teamwork and Motivation 

Mullins (2002, p. 465) describes teamwork as something that can ‘improve productivity.’ Looking at the character Hopper, this is demonstrated when he finds a way to motivate the team by saying...

‘you let one bug stand up to us, then they all might stand up.  Those puny little ants outnumber us a hundred to one and if they ever figure that out there goes our way of life.’

The speech that he gave to his team motivates them to go and make sure they do not lose their lifestyle.  Here, Hopper also took a risk by getting his team to go ahead and ensure that they took all the food they claimed to be theirs. Handy (1999, p.154) says that ‘Groups often take riskier decisions than individuals would independently.’ This shows that Hopper created an element of confidence and trust among the grasshoppers. Therefore, Handy, (1999), would suggest that Hopper felt more confident in his risk taking when he had the support of the group. This can also be related to the grasshoppers as Hopper informed them about the possibility of the ants outnumbering the grasshoppers. Nonetheless, they still took the risk to go back to the ant farm and challenge the ants again.

Therefore, using key roles by Belbin (1981), Hopper would be considered to be ‘the co-ordinator and the shape,’ mainly because he controls and co-ordinates everything that the group of grasshoppers do.    

Princess Atta

Overview of Character's Role:
Atta is introduced as the colony’s princess and is second to leading the ant colony after her mother- the Queen of Ants. She also is a sister to Princess Dot. She is portrayed in the film as an leader, trying to gain approval by her mother and the rest of the colony while trying to please Hopper and the other grasshoppers by providing them with food. Throughout the film she appears stressed but is proving that she has every situation under control for example not telling the colony that the new friends are circus bugs. She demonstrates effective leadership styles, for example appointing Flik to help her with stopping the grasshoppers and also persuade the colony to get involved. Towards the end of the film, she finally gains authority by being appointed the queen of the colony.

Leadership Style

In relation to the film, Princess Atta is a leader of a colony. Atta is driven to improve her colony by keeping them alive and constantly under pressure by her mother and Hopper.

The following video shows Hopper providing Atta with the main principles of leadership

Hopper says “first rule of leadership... everything is your fault”

This clip shows that as an individual leader Princess Atta is quite nervous and appears to have little confidence in herself. She allows Hopper to intimidate her and is happy for the colony to assume their roles while she supervises even if she has little input herself. Although Princess Atta is seen as the leader, she is happy for others to make decisions while she just has a final word. This is seen in the beginning of the film when the colony’s council decides to allow Flik to leave to embark upon his plan. This is an example of Princess Atta having self-awareness in knowing that her own ideas might not always be as strong as others and therefore is happy to allow decisions to be made for her.


There is much speculation around the debate that do men and women lead differently? In the film, Princess Atta is a woman leader of the colony and also her mother and sister (who is next in reign). Women are expected to focus more on the relational aspects of leadership for example in the film, Princess Atta was concerned about the relationship between her and Hopper rather than trying to stop him. Rosener explained that women are trying to make people feel part of the organisation by setting goals whereas men are focused on the end results. Princess Atta showed this by setting up a routine whereby everyone collected food by certain time and pace so that they kept the grasshoppers happy. Therefore, Princess Atta is is able to build productive relationships with the other members of the colony. She is also able to develop high performing teams and is able to build a mutual trust with the colony as they all adhere to her suggestions and plans. This can be demonstrated with Belbin's model of teamwork, he discussed the idea of a team roles and the ability to manage people’s behavioral strength and weaknesses in the workplace. If carried out effectively this information can be used to; build productive relationships, develop high performing teams, raise self-awareness, build mutual trust and aid recruitment process. 

Belbin also looked into team roles which help Accenture a leader’s strength and identify their weaknesses. Princess Atta was identified as being a shaper. Shapers provide the drive to ensure the team stay motivated. Shapers must also be aware of the risk of becoming aggressive and bad-humoured in their attempts to get things done; in the beginning of the film Princess Atta displays these traits and vents her frustrations out on her little sister Dot, and she is extremely bad-humoured towards Flik upon finding out about his deception. 

Princess Atta might show little confidence in herself but she finds herself able to influence the other ants in the colony. Kort (2008) suggested that a leader must be able to have the ability to influence its followers to achieve a mutual goal and this is demonstrated in the film when Princess Atta is able to gain support and convince the colony of Flik’s decision to build the fake bird in order to scare of Hopper and his gang.

When Flik reveals that the warrior bugs he found were really circus bugs; Princess Atta is able to represent the other ants interests in banishing Flik from the colony and when she stands up for Flik in front of Hopper all ants agree with her decision to fight back. Klann and Cartwright (2004) recognised this important trait of a leader and suggested that effective leaders have the ability to influence others to make a decision that affects them all. 

 In addition, the film did have three female leaders which could show that women can also be leaders and breaking the glass ceiling effect. Nohria and Khurana (2010) claims there has been an succession of female leaders for example Hilary Clinton. This is because people are most likely to appoint female leaders because of their attitude to be demanding and straight forward. The moral of the story was to stand up to bullies, no matter how daunting they may seem and in the film it showed that even though you are a woman, you should not give into sexist remarks.

Stewart (1982) explained that there are three main ways of scrutinizing the job which are demands, constraints and choices. Demands related to Atta are not high as she is leader and whatever policies and rules she makes, it goes without any objection. Constraints are put on Atta because she has to please Hopper by finding food for them and in one scene Flik messes up the food pile and they have no back up due to limited sources of food.  Choices were made for Atta as she did choose to go ahead with Flicks idea on defeating the grasshoppers. This choice was only realised when Flick approached Atta about it, if that did not happen then Atta would have kept to her old ways and not stand up for her colony. 

Towards the end of the film, Flik and Atta did gain similar understanding of leading the colony as Flik became the emergent leader as everyone respected him at the end. Knauft, Berger and Gray (1991) explained that leadership and management has to be done effectively, but not always by the same person (in Pine and Healy 2007)

Flik

Overview of Character Role 

We first meet Flik as the inventor much un liked by the others, or the plant, according to the team roles of (Belbin 1981)cited in (Select Knowledge 2000). We see Flik devise idea after idea, often with his “own orthodox” (Select Knowledge 2000, 32). He often gets things very wrong, knocking over Princess Atta. In the Film he says “This is my new idea for harvesting grain”- as he knocks into Atta making her fall over. It was Dot who first believed in his ideas, as he quoted to Dot “Really well you’re the first to like my inventions”. He sees potential in Dot as a young member of the team, he uses the analogy “Everything that made this giant tree is already in that little seed” to help Dot understand that one day she will be as big and powerful as her sister Atta. Flik no longer wants the grasshoppers to take all the food, so decides it is time that the ants stop giving food to them. Flik goes off to find other insects to help the Ants stand up to the grasshoppers, he finds a circus act. He tricks them into thinking they are being hired for a circus, and when they find out, they leave. Flik then comes up with a new idea and builds a bird made out of leaves to scare away the grass hoppers, which frightens Hopper who flies away, only to be eaten by a real bird.

Leadership Discussion

Flik, although often making foolish decisions, can be seen as quite a motivational leader. McClelland’s (1961) managerial needs theory best describes the actions of Flik. The theory argues that “managers possess three basic motivational needs- achievement, affiliation and power”. (Cooper 2008, 390). Management has, according to McClelland a need for achievement, and enjoy “personal responsibility, positively enjoy competition , let to set strive for and achieve difficult goals, like to take calculated risks, like immediate short term feedback on their performance and work hard until they attain excellence” (Cooper 2008, 391). Flik enjoys the personal responsibility of finding other bugs to help with the harvest, he also enjoys taking on the grasshoppers as he sees them as a threat to their survival and therefore competition in the insect world. He takes calculated risks by inventing a harvester, which doesn’t end up working, but this doesn’t deter Flik from trying again. He feels upset when no one apart from Dot gives him short term feedback, but  when his idea seems to gain approval of others he strives to achieve excellence.  The needs for affiliation or the “close relationship with others... “ and “having care and concern for the feelings of others” (cooper 2008:391) is shown by Flik in that he wants to have a close relationship with the Princess Atta. He clearly shows concerns for Dot’s feelings, when he teaches her that one day her wings will be as strong as Attas. Flik wanted to be in control and lead the proceess of making and launching the artificial bird. He showed how his need for power was illustrated by McClelland’s (1961) cited in (cooper 2008),who argued that managers had the need to be in “ power than the need to achieve or need to be liked”. (cooper 2008:392)